Ramat Gan

Ramat Gan (Hebrew: רָמַת גַּן  (audio) ; Arabic: رمات غان‎) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of Tel Aviv. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges, many high-tech industries, and Israel's tallest building, the Moshe Aviv Tower.

Ramat Gan was established in 1921 as a moshava, a communal farming settlement. At the end of 2009, the population was 145,000. The mayor of Ramat Gan is Yisrael Zinger.

History

Ramat Gan was established by the Ir Ganim association in 1921 as a satellite town of Tel Aviv. The first plots of land were purchased between 1914–1918. The settlement was initially a moshava, a Zionist agricultural colony that grew wheat, barley and watermelons. The name of the settlement was changed to Ramat Gan (lit: Garden Height) in 1923. The settlement continued to operate as a moshava until 1933, although it achieved local council status in 1926. At this time it had 450 residents. In the 1940s, Ramat Gan became a battleground in the country's language war: A Yiddish language printing press in Ramat Gan was blown up by Hebrew-language extremists.