Template:Wp-Rishon LeZion-History

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Ottoman period (1882-1900)

Rishon LeZion was founded on July 31, 1882, by ten Hovevei Zion pioneers from Kharkiv, Ukraine (then the Russian Empire) headed by Zalman David Levontin. Reuven Yudalevich was also a member of the group. The British vice consul in Jaffa Haim Amzaleg purchased of land southeast of present-day Tel Aviv, part of the townland of the Arab village of Ayun Kara (literally 'fountain of the crier') from Mustafa Abdallah ali Dajan. Amzaleg signed a declaration to the settlers stating that none of the structures on this land will ever be his own.

In addition to the problems posed by sandy soil and lack of water, the newcomers had no agricultural experience. Baron Rothschild brought in experts who drilled for water, finding the groundwater table uneven. Wells were built at a depth of 20–25 meters.^[1] After the Biluim arrived, the colony slowly began to develop. On 23 February 1883, the settlers found water in the wells. To mark this occasion, the village emblem was inscribed with a verse from the Torah: "We have found water." (Genesis 26:32) Fani Belkind, Israel Belkind, Shimshon Belkind, Yoel Drubin, Haim Hissin, and David Yudilovich were among the Biluim who arrived in Rishon Lezion at this time.

In 1883 Itzhak Leib Toporovski a blacksmith of the young village created the first iron plow in the land of Israel, and in 1885 the flag that would later become the flag of Israel was raised for the first time as part of the celebrations of the 3rd anniversary of the village.

When Baron Edmond James de Rothschild took over, sending in his administrators and agricultural guide Shaul Helzner of Mikve Israel, major progress was made in the spheres of agriculture, citrus and viticulture. In November 1883 the first rows were planted, led by ten Russian farmers who were further trained at Mikveh Israel agriculture school, also funded in part by Rothschild. The Great Synagogue, which became a major focus of life in Rishon LeZion, was built between 1885 and 1889. Under Rothschild's patronage, the Carmel-Mizrahi Winery was, established in 1886. The Baron Edmond James de Rothschild and his wife Adelheid von Rothschild came to visit the village a year later in 1887.

In 1886, as Rishon LeZion's population of around 300 included several dozen children who required proper education, the Haviv elementary school was established in Rishon LeZion as the first modern school to teach exclusively in Hebrew. Dov Lubman Haviv taught there and Mordechai Lubman Haviv was an educational inspector. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the leading figure in the revival of Hebrew, was a teacher in Rishon LeZion. In 1898 the first Hebrew kindergarten in the world was established by Esther (Shapira) Ginzburg a former student of the Haviv school.

Naphtali Herz Imber, the later famed Hebrew language poet, lived in Rishon LeZion for a few years in the late 1880s. He recited his poem, Tikvahtenu, to eager ears. In 1887, Shmuel Cohen, a young resident of Rishon with a musical background, observed the emotional response of the local Jewish farmers to Imber's poem. Using his musical skill, he put the poem to music. Cohen's musical composition was an adaptation of a Moldavian/Romanian folk-song, "Carcul cu Boi" (the Cart with Oxen). The catalyst of Cohen's musical adaptation facilitated the quick, enthusiastic spread of Imber's poem throughout all the Zionist communities of Palestine. Within a short few years, it spread globally to pro-Zionist communities and organizations becoming the unofficial Zionist National Anthem. In 1933, at the 18th Zionist Congress in Prague, the Imber/Cohen Zionist National Anthem, formally adopted, was renamed the Hatikvah (The Hope). In November 2004, the State of Israel formally adopted Shmuel Cohen's 1887 musical adaptation to a newly shortened, modified version of Imber's poem, creating the modern Israeli National Anthem, the Hatikvah.

In 1888, the medicine house, the baron's stables and the baron's clerks house were built. In 1889 the building in which the Carmel-Mizrahi Winery is located was built. A telephone was added to the winery in 1891 and in 1898 electricity was installed. In 1890, a palm boulevard was planted in the location of the future city park. The Rishon LeZion orchestra was established in 1895. In 1898, the year Theodor Herzl visited the settlement, the city park (then the village park) was established and a water tower was built next to the well.^[2]

A founder of Rishon LeZion was Joseph Feinberg the father of Dora Bloch.

At the year of its founding in 1882, Rishon LeZion had a population of 150. In 1890, Rishon LeZion had a population of 359. Five years later, the figure had risen to 380, and by 1900, to 526.

Village council and JCA administration (1900-1922)

In 1900 the management of the village was transferred from the baron's office to the village council and the Jewish Colonization Association. Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, worked in the winery for two months in the summer of 1907.

In 1910 the village bell was constructed next to the medicine house, and in 1912 the first car ("First chariot without horses") appeared in the village.^[2] In 1911, 4,000 dunams of land in Rishon LeZion were planted with grapes and 254 dunams with other fruit orchards. In 1913 the governor of Greater Syria Djemal Pasha annexed the sands around Rishon Lezion to their territory and in 1915 Rishon Lezion was expanded again and was given the territory between it and the Mediterranean Sea. In 1913 Nahlat Yehuda, another Jewish settlement, was established north of Rishon Lezion. In 1915 Rishon Lezion and the surrounding area experienced a Locust attack.^[2]

Ayun Kara was the scene of a bloody battle between Turkish and New Zealand troops on November 14, 1917. Local citizens carried the wounded to a medical facility in Rishon LeZion. A stone cenotaph was erected by the people of Rishon LeZion to the memory of the New Zealanders who fell that day, but it has since been destroyed. In the wake of the battle the New Zealanders set up camp at Rishon Lezion, which was described by one officer as a "pretty little hamlet surrounded by vineyards and orange groves." Relations between the troops and villagers were good, and the troops brought the villagers the news of the Balfour Declaration. In 1919 the women of Rishon Lezion were given voting rights and on the same year Nehama Pohatchevsky was elected chairman of the village council which marked the first time a woman was elected to the position.^[2]

British Mandate

In 1924 the British Army contracted the Jaffa Electric Company for wired electric power to the military installations in Sarafand. The contract allowed the Electric Company to extend the grid beyond the original geographical limits that had been projected by the concession it was given. The high-tension line that exceeded the limits of the original concession ran along some major towns and agricultural settlements, offering extended connections to the Jewish settlements of Rishon Le-Zion, Nes-Ziona and Rehovot (in spite of their proximity to the high-tension line, the Arab towns of Ramleh and Lydda remained unconnected). According to a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Rishon LeZion had a population of 1,396 inhabitants, consisting of 1,373 Jews and 23 Muslims, increasing in 1931 census to 2,525 inhabitants, in 648 houses.

State of Israel

Rishon LeZion was declared a city in 1950, by which time it had a population of around 18,000. By 1983 it had a population of 103,000. In 2006, 222,300 people were living in the city. By 2020, the population is expected to reach 253,600. In 2007, the Rishon LeZion Municipality was awarded the Ministry of Interior Prize for Proper Management.

In 2016, the Israeli government approved the expansion of Rishon LeZion onto sand dunes west of the city, upon which one of the largest commercial and residential construction projects in the Central District will be built on 1,000 dunams. Another industrial zone in the western part of the city is planned to be almost doubled in size.