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Bat Yam

[baht yahm]

Bat Yam is a city located on Israel's Mediterranean coast, on the central coastal strip, just south of Tel Aviv. Part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area, in the Tel Aviv District, the city is located on the Mediterranean Sea and is home to 130,000 people.

History

Early history

Bat Yam was established in 1926 as Bayit VaGan (House and Garden), and was geared toward Orthodox Jews. During the 1929 Palestine riots, Bayit VaGan came under attacks by Arab gangs from neighbouring Jaffa and was evacuated by British Authorities before being reestablished in 1930. In 1936 the town was given the status of local council, and in 1938, the name of the town was changed to Bat Yam.

Israeli Independence

Following the United Nations vote in favour of a partition plan on 29 November 1947 and the subsequent outbreak of violence, Bat Yam came under heavy attack from Jaffa, until Jaffa surrendered on 13 May 1948.

In the years following Israel's independence, Bat Yam grew dramatically due to mass immigration, gaining the status of a city in 1958. After this point, however, Bat Yam began to suffer from an Israeli version of "white flight". As more and more immigrants moved to the city, socio-economic problems began to appear. Relatively low real estate prices and a building boom during the 1970s and 1980s, saw even more migrants from lower socio-economic strata, mainly second- and third generation descendants of Jewish immigrants from Arab countries move into the city. As a result, middle-class veteran inhabitants of Bat Yam started to move out, primarily to the newer suburbs of Rishon LeZion, a boomtown south of Bat Yam.

The city gained a sizeable community of Jews from Turkey and has therefore hosted visits from the Turkish president, Süleyman Demirel, and prime minister, Tansu Ciller.

Recent history

Bat Yam once again experienced a period of rapid growth early 1990s with the mass-immigration from the former Soviet Union leading to many choosing Bat Yam as their new home due to its proximity to the industrial centres of the country, and relatively low real estate prices. The influx of Russians, however, did nothing to help the city's socio-economic crisis, and by the early 2000's, following financial scandals resulting from the declining local leadership, the city was placed at the brink of bankruptcy. Bat Yam became synonymous with urban decay, with a reputation for having waste left in streets, and poor sanitation.

In the 2003, a new mayor, Shlomo Lahiani, was elected and the city has slowly began to rejuvenate, with some areas having already been transformed. There remain to this day, however, some zones of the city which still suffer from the issues which plagued the whole of this city just a few years ago. A small Hasidic enclave of Bobover Hasidim, known as Kiryat Bobov, has also been established in Bat Yam.

While strolling on Bat Yam beach with her husband Alexander and two children, Margarita Lautin, 31 of Yehud was killed accidentally in a botched assassination attempt by the Abergil Crime Family.

Tourism

The location of Bat Yam on the Mediterranean makes it popular with beach-goers. Furthermore the city has several museums, including the Bat Yam City Museum "Ben Ari", the Museum "Ryback" with a collection of paintings of the painter, Issachar Ber Ryback. There is also a museum in the memory of the Yiddish writer Sholem Asch who lived his last years in Bat Yam, and a small Holocaust museum.

Politics and government

Type	Name	Years
Head of council	Mintz Ben Zion	1936-1937
Head of council	Yisrael Ben Zion	1937-1939
Head of council	Yisrael Rabinovich-Teomim	1939-1943
Head of council	Eliav Levai	1943-1950
Head of council	David Ben Ari	1950-1958
Mayor	David Ben Ari	1958-1963
Mayor	Menachem Rothschild	1963-1973
Mayor	Yitzhak Walker	1973-1977
Mayor	David Mesika	1977-1978
Mayor	Menachem Rothschild	1978-1983
Mayor	Ehud Kanmon	1983-1993
Mayor	Yehoshua Sagi	1993-2003
Mayor	Shlomo Lahyani	2003-date

Sport

The city's major football club, Maccabi Ironi Bat Yam, currently play in Liga Artzit, the third level of Israeli football. The club was formed by a 2004 merger of Hapoel Bat Yam (who had spent several seasons in the second division in the 1990s) and Maccabi Bat Yam.

Twin cities

Famous residents

Sholem Asch (1880-1957) Polish-born, Yiddish writer, has a museum of his work in the city.
Eli Cohen (1924-1965) Egyptian-born, Israeli spy who was executed in Damascus in 1965, has a main street in the city named after him.
Matt Haimovitz (1970 - ) US celloist , born here
Arye Kaspi (1945 - 2003) Israeli journalist
Shlomo Lahiani (1965 - ) Israeli politician and businessman, mayor of the city
Josef Bardanashvili(1948- ) Israeli composer born in Georgia
Kobi Israel (1970 - ) Israeli-British photographer
Rami Levi (1968 - ) Israeli ballet dancer
Alon Oliarczyk Israeli pop composer and singer
Avi Peretz (1966 - ) Israeli popular singer
Alon Porat (1951 - ) Israeli painter
Ronen Menachem (1969 - ) Israeli cinema director
Peter Rott (1974 - ) Israeli pop singer and composer
Itzik Zohar (1970 - ) Israeli soccer player