First new Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisrael in the modern era.
Located several miles east of Tel Aviv, Petah Tikvah (also, Petah Tiqva) was founded in 1878 by a group of religious Jews from Jerusalem led by Rabbi Yoel Salomon, David Gutman, and Yehoshua Stampfer, who were active in the goal of redeeming land and liberating the Jewish community in Palestine from the yoke of the Halukka. Petah Tikvah was the first colony founded.
In its first decade, the community was beset with problems: malaria, insecurity, complicated disputes with Arabs living on adjacent lands, and financial shortages. Some of the settlers received financial aid from the Hibbat Zion movement and, eventually, substantial support from Baron Edmond de Rothschild.
When the State of Israel was founded in 1948, the population of Petah Tikvah was about 20,000. By 2000 its population had grown to more than 200,000. Especially because of the land shortage, the city has an increasing number of high-rise buildings.
Bibliography
Gvati, Chaim. A Hundred Years of Settlement: The Story of JewishSettlement in the Land of Israel. Jerusalem: Keter, 1985.
— CHAIM I. WAXMAN
