Rehovot, Israel
Tourism

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scientific complex of international repute.

History

Rehovot was originally a farming settlement founded in 1890 by Polish Jews, who dug a well and named the village Rehovot after the place of that name in the Negev where Isaac dug a well which he called Rehoboth (Genesis 26,22). The settlers originally grew vines, but at the turn of the century they switched to citrus fruits. In 1909 Yemeni Jews who had come to Israel in the second Aliyah established the suburb of Sha'araim. When at the end of the First World War Rehovot was linked up with the Lod-Gaza railroad line the rising town became an intermediary between the coastal plain and the Negev desert to the south. Its economy benefited as a result: the exports of citrus fruits increased, the orange- processing industry expanded and pharmaceutical factories were established. Chaim Weizmann, born in Russia in 1873, studied chemistry at a number of European universities and in addition became deeply committed to the aims of the Zionist movement. Attracted by the pleasant surroundings, fragrant with orange-blossom, he settled in Rehovot in 1920 and established an agricultural research station. On the occasion of his 70th birthday in 1944 his friends and admirers established the Weizmann Institute. Weizmann died in Rehovot in 1952 and was buried near the Institute.