Yehudiya or Yehudiyye (Arabic: يهودية, "Jewish") is an abandoned village and archeological site in the center of the Golan Heights, about 5 kilometers south of Katzrin within the Yehudiya Forest Nature Reserve.
In the houses of the village, artifacts were found which attest to the existence of a settlement from the Roman–Byzantine period. According to multiple testimonies, there was a Jewish presence there after the Arab conquest.[1] The Jewish past of the settlement was known to the Arabs who settled there later, hence its name.
It is one of several possible identifications for Soganaea, a village fortified by Josephus in preparation for the First Jewish–Roman War.[2]
In the 19th century Arab peasants settled in the village houses. Near the village there is a large stone house that was used as a farm and employed many local villagers.[3] After the establishment of the State of Israel, the Syrians renamed the village "Arabiya" to blur its Jewish past.[4] The village was depopulated in 1967 with the occupation of the Golan Heights by the IDF during the Six-Day War.[5] The ruins of the village are now part of the Yehudiya Forest reserve, covering 66 square kilometers.