Nahariya

Nahariya (Hebrew: נַהֲרִיָּה) is the northernmost coastal city in Israel, with an estimated population of 53,900.

Etymology

Nahariya takes its name from the stream of Ga'aton (river is nahar in Hebrew), which bisects it.

History

Late Bronze Age

A 3,400-year-old Bronze Age citadel was found in the coastal city of Nahariya near the beach on Balfour Street. The citadel was an administrative center serving the mariners who sailed along the Mediterranean coast. There are evidence of commercial and cultural relations with Cyprus and the rest of the Mediterranean region. The fortress was destroyed four times by conflagration and rebuilt each time.

Byzantine Period

A church from the Byzantine period, dedicated to St. Lazarus, was excavated in the 1970s. It was destroyed by fire, probably at the time of the Persian invasion in 614.

British Mandate of Palestine

In the years 1934/35 Nahariya was founded as an agricultural village by a company limited by shares and headed by the agronomist Dr. Selig Eugen Soskin (1873-1959), the civil engineer Joseph Loewy (1885-1949), the financial expert Heinrich Cohn (1895-1976) and the engineer Simon Reich (1883-1941). The company acquired an area of land by purchase from the Arab landowner family Toueini. After ameliorisation and parcelling the plots have been offered to new German Jewish immigrants who had escaped from Nazi persecution. The first two families permanently settled in Nahariya on February 10, 1935, which is now considered the official founding date of Nahariya. After an accumulation of economic, financial and climatic problems the residents soon realized that agriculture was impractical and chose to focus on tourism, taking advantage of the natural surroundings and beaches. During the British Mandate of Palestine, many British officers coming from Khartoum stopped in Nahariya.