Beit Shemesh - Neighborhoods

Neighborhoods

With the large-scale immigration from the Soviet Union in the 1990s, new neighborhoods were built at an accelerated rate in the city as the population grew rapidly. One particular group who settled in Beit Shemesh was made up of Jews who had converted to Judaism in two villages two centuries prior, and kept the religion in secret under the Soviet regime. Also in the 1990s, a large number of Ethiopian Jews started arriving in Beit Shemesh together with affluent new immigrants from English speaking countries. Later, in 2002, a large congregation of Ethiopian Jews of the Falashmura reached Beit Shemesh. The new neighborhoods Nahala UMenucha and Ramat Beit Shemesh which were built in the 1990s are mostly Religious Zionist and Haredi (“ultra-Orthodox”) and doubled the size of the city. The main areas of the large English-speaking community are the "Anglo" settlements of the Dolev area of Ramat Beit Shemesh, Sheinfeld, Nofei Aviv, Migdal HaMayim and the Givat Sharet neighborhood.

Ramat Beit Shemesh ("Beit Shemesh Heights") lies directly adjacent to the main part of Beit Shemesh. It is located on a mountaintop above the original city. Ramat Beit Shemesh has a large Orthodox population embracing many different streams of religious practice. The neighborhood consists of Ramat Beit Shemesh Alef and Ramat Beit Shemesh Bet (Alef and Bet signifying 1 and 2, respectively). In Ramat Beit Shemesh Bet, families belonging to Eda Haredit constitute the majority. Religious conflicts have erupted between the Haredi and religious Zionist communities, and also amongst the Haredim themselves. In 2002, following tensions between the Haredi and non-religious population, plans were drawn up to build another secular neighborhood, HaShachar, as a separate city. Work began at the entrance to Ramat Beit Shemesh, but because of legal problems and a continued dispute over the population of this new city, the plan was abandoned. In 2009, a new neighborhood, Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimel, was planned as an entirely Haredi neighborhood.

Beit Shemesh also has an urban kibbutz affiliated with the Kibbutz Movement, Tamuz, founded in 1987.