Shiloh is a living, thriving, growing Jewish community, aka small town, in the Biblical tribal Land of Efrayim, though in today’s Mateh Binyamin, Benjamin County. Well over three hundred families live here, Jews of all ages, backgrounds etc. At the recent Shiloh Conference #2, it was made clear that none of the archeology experts, even the most secular who do their best to find results to contradict the Bible, can deny that Shiloh was a very important city in ancient times.
At the tour of Tel Shiloh, we were told that when Joshua took over (there was no battle/opposition) the Canaanite city of Shiloh, the existing city walls were used as the base for new structures adding storage area etc. Today, families are adding to their homes.
Once children marry and have children of their own, the old house isn’t large enough to house them all for visits, Shabbat, holidays etc.
Younger families are also building homes.
The homes are different styles and different construction techniques as you most probably notice. There are few building regulations in Shiloh. We don’t demand red or tile roofs, nor is it required to use stone-facings.
There is such a market for homes here in Shiloh that there are even a couple of multifamily projects.
This is very convenient, because new instant neighborhoods can be built in convenient locations, and the prices per unit are less than private one-family homes. Even though housing in Shiloh is less per meter than in the cities and even some of the other yishuvim, it’s still a lot for some people. These apartments are a good housing solution. Besides the fact that not everyone wants to deal with gardens etc.
No matter what you think of Jewish building in Judea and Samaria, you must admit that our homes are much smaller and less ostentatious than the humongous mansions the Arabs are building.
Chodesh Menachem Av Tov!