Givatayim

Giv'atayim
Public Garden
District	Tel Aviv
Government	City (from 1959)
Hebrew	גִּבְעָתַיִם
(Translit.)	Givʻatáyim
Name meaning	Two hills
Also spelled	Givatayim (officially) Givataim (unofficially)
Population	49,600 (2007)
Area	3,211 dunams (3.211 km2; 1.240 sq mi)
Mayor	Reuven Ben-Shahar
Founded in	1922

Location of Giv'atayim in the Tel Aviv District

City hall plaza

Giv'atayim (Hebrew: גִּבְעָתַיִם‎, lit. "two hills") is a city in Israel east of Tel Aviv. It is part of the metropolitan area known as Gush Dan. Givatayim was established in 1922 by pioneers of the Second Aliyah. It has a population of 49,600.^[1]

The name of the city comes from the "two hills" on which it was established: Borochov Hill and Kozlovsky Hill. Kozlovsky is the highest hill in the Gush Dan region at 85 meters above sea level. The city expanded in the 1930's so that today it is actually situated on 3 hills, Borochov, Kozlovsky and Rambam Hill.

History

Archaeological ruins date settlement on the site of what is now Giv'atayim back to the Calcolithic period. The modern town was founded on April 2, 1922 by a group of 22 Second Aliyah pioneers led by David Schneiderman. The group purchased 300 dunams (75 acres) of land on the outskirts of Tel Aviv that became the Borochov neighborhood, the first workers' neighborhood in the country. It was named for Dov Ber Borochov, founder of the Poalei Zion workers' party. Later, another 70 families joined the group, receiving smaller plots. The land was purchased with their private savings, but was voluntarily transferred to the Jewish National Fund, which organized Jewish settlement at the time, in keeping with the pioneers' socialist beliefs.^[2]

Giv'atayim is credited for a number of breakthroughs in the early Jewish settlement movement, including establishing the first cooperative grocery store (Tzarkhaniya) ^[3] that still functioned in the same location into the 1980s.

Over time, more neighborhoods developed: Sheinkin (1936), Givat Rambam (1933), Kiryat Yosef (1934) and Arlozorov (1936). All these neighborhoods were merged to form a local council in August 1942. Giv'atayim was declared a city in 1959.

Geography

Giv'atayim is located east of Tel Aviv, and is bordered on the north and east by Ramat Gan.

Education

Giv'atayim has 9 kindergartens and 14 schools (9 elementary schools and 5 high schools). The city has Israel's highest rate of secondary school matriculation.^{[citation needed]}

Mayors

• Shimon Ben-Zvi (1941–1965)
• Kuba Kraizman (1965–1978)
• Yizhak Yaron (1978–1993)
• Efi (Ephraim) Schtenzler (1993–2006)
• Iris Avram, replaced the previous mayor due to his early resignation (November 9, 2006–January 16, 2007)
• Reuven Ben-Shahar (2007–)

Reuven Ben-Shahar (the current mayor) was the first candidate from Kadima that won a city election and the first mayor in Giv'atayim that wasn't from the Israeli Labor Party

Sister cities

• Sfantu Gheorghe, Romania
• Arad, Romania
• Chattanooga, Tennessee
• Harbin, China^[4]
• Vác, Hungary

See also

• al-Khayriyya

References

External links

• Official website

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Coordinates: 32°04′11″N 34°48′42″E / 32.06972°N 34.81167°E / 32.06972; 34.81167