Rehovot

Rehovot (Hebrew: רְחוֹבוֹת) is a city in the Center District of Israel, about 20 kilometers (12 mi) south of Tel Aviv. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), at the end of 2016 the city had a total population of 141,000.

Rehovot was established in 1890 by Polish Jewish immigrants on land purchased from a Christian Arab.

Etymology

Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu movement, proposed the name "Rehovot" (lit. 'wide expanses') based on Genesis 26:22: "And he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said: 'For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land'." The biblical town of Rehoboth is located in the Negev Desert.

History

Rehovot was established near a site called Khirbat Deiran, which now lies in the center of the built-up area of the city.

Excavations at Khirbat Deiran have revealed signs of habitation in the Hellenic and Roman periods and through the Byzantine period, with a major expansion to about 60 dunams during the early centuries of Islamic rule. Evidence of Jewish and possibly Samaritan occupants during the Roman and Byzantine periods has been found. In 1939, Khirbet Deiran was identified by Klein with Kerem Doron ("vineyard of Doron"), a place mentioned in Talmud Yerushalmi (Peah 7,4), but Fischer considers that there is "no special reason" for this identification, while Kalmin is unsure whether Doron was a place or a person.