This photograph from the late 1800s shows a street in the village of Rishon LeZion. The buildings in the picture are all made of stone, and the main road is not paved. The style of the homes shows the influence of European architecture, and most have only one floor. A close look shows that each home has a yard and a wooden outhouse. A larger two-storey building in the distance is the synagogue, built at the top of the hill in the centre of the moshava. The title of the photograph, written in German in the bottom right, is “Synagogue Street.” There are trees in between the buildings, and in the foreground there is a pile of large stones and an overturned barrel. Newly planted trees line the streets, and a few people can be seen on the road. There is a horse or donkey on the road in the distance.
Would You Like to Know More?
Rishon LeZion - Rishon LeZion, located south of Tel Aviv near the Mediterranean Sea, was founded in 1882 by Russian immigrants, most of who left Russia after a series of anti-Semitic riots. The name Rishon LeZion means “First in Zion,” although it was actually the second moshava (farm settlement), established after Petach Tikva. The founders faced many difficulties upon their arrival in Palestine due to their lack of resources, knowledge, and experience of the conditions in their new home. Baron Edmund de Rothschild, a philanthropist and strong believer in Zionism, supported the pioneers, established vineyards and wineries, and funded a project to provide water for citrus groves. These initiatives helped the Jews of Rishon LeZion establish the economic foundation for the new moshava. Work on the synagogue started in 1884, and it too was funded by the Baron de Rothschild. Despite obstacles imposed by the Turkish authorities, the building was finished five years later. The front of the synagogue has twelve openings, one for each of the twelve tribes of the Children of Israel and there is a chanukiya on the roof. In the early years of Rishon LeZion, the synagogue was used for social purposes, housing the moshava’s general meetings and celebrations, a boys’ school, the first Hebrew kindergarten in Israel, and the Maccabi youth movement. In 2013, the synagogue was renovated by the Rishon LeZion municipality but still retains the original nineteenth-century Ark.
Today, Rishon LeZion is Israel’s fourth largest city. The wine industry remains an important part of its economy alongside various high-tech companies.
