Nesher
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Template:Infobox Israel municipality
Nesher (Template:Lang-he-n) is a city in the Haifa District of Israel. In 2011, Nesher had a population of 23,000. The mayor of Nesher is Avi Binamo.
History
Nesher was founded in 1924 as a workers town for the Nesher Cement factory, established in September 1923 by Michael Pollack, a Jewish industrialist from Russia. The area was swampy and malaria-infested, but employees of the factory gradually moved there with their families, bringing the population to 1,500.[1] Nesher was floated as a public company in 1925.[2] In 1929, the Arabs of Balad al-Sheikh attacked the factory and burned down a farm.[3]
By the mid-1930s, Nesher Cement had 700 employees, both Jewish and Arab.[2]
In 1948, thousands of Jewish immigrants from Europe, Iraq and North Africa settled in Nesher. In 1952, a local council was formed comprising four neighborhoods – Nesher, Giv’at Nesher, Ben-Dor and Tel Hanan. The first mayor was Yehuda Shimroni.[4]
Demographics
CBS statistics for 2005 show Nesher's ethnic makeup as 99.5% Jewish and other non-Arabs. 30.7% of the population in 2005 were immigrants who came to Israel after 1990.[5]
Education
The city’s education system comprises 6 elementary schools, one comprehensive high school, two middle schools and 36 kindergartens and day care centers with an enrollment of 4,000 pupils. Over 70% of Nesher’s high school students take the Bagrut matriculation exams, with a pass rate of 98%, one of the highest rates in Israel. Nesher's high school won the Israeli Education Prize twice in the span of a decade.[4]
Twinning and cultural exchange
In 2005, the Broward County Jewish Federation established a partnership with Nesher in an effort to create a people-to-people cultural exchange program that includes high school and college student exchanges and video conferencing for events such as school celebrations and concerts.[6]
References
- ^ Nesher – At the heart of the region
- ^ a b Haifa: Transformation of an Arab Society 1918-1939, May Seikaly
- ^ Tzadok Eshel, The Cement and his Manufacturers, The Portland Cement Company "Nesher", 1976 p. 68
- ^ a b About Nesher
- ^ "Local Authorities in Israel 2005, Publication #1295 - Municipality Profiles - Nesher" (PDF) (in Hebrew). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
- ^ Sharansky supports Federation-Nesher partnership
External links
