Netanya

Netanya (Hebrew: נְתַנְיָה, IPA: [netanˈja]), or Natanya (IPA: [naˈtanja]), is a city in the Central District of Israel, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is 30 kilometres (20 mi) north of Tel Aviv, and 56 km (35 mi) south of Haifa, between the Poleg stream and the Wingate Institute in the south and the Avihayil stream in the north. The 14 km (8+1⁄2 mi) of beaches have made the city a popular tourist resort. Founded in 1929 by deed of a coastal land purchase in the Arab village of Umm Khalid, Netanya was named in honor of Nathan Straus, a prominent Jewish American merchant and philanthropist in the early 20th century, who was the co-owner of the Macy's department store chain. In 1948, the remaining land of Umm Khalid was deserted by its inhabitants during the Arab-Israeli 1948 war, after which Netanya started further expanding eastwards. In the 1990s, the city absorbed a large amount of immigrants from the former Soviet Union as well as from Ethiopia. As a result, 1 out of 4 inhabitants speaks Russian and the city's Ethiopian community is the largest in Israel, numbering over 12,000 citizens. In 2024, Netanya had a population of 234,813, ranking it as the 7th-largest city in Israel by population. An additional 150,000 people live in the local and regional councils within ten kilometres (six miles) of Netanya, which serves as a regional center for them.