RAANANA

view of Raanana, courtesy, Wikipedia

Raanana is a city in the heart of the southern Sharon Plain of the Central District of Israel. Bordered by Kfar Saba and Hod HaSharon on the east and Herzliya on the southwest, it had a population of 75,421 in 2019 and was designated a "Green City" by the World Health Organization in 2005. Raanana is one of the wealthier cities in Israel with a GDP higher than the national average. While the majority of its residents are native-born Israelis, a large part of the population consists of immigrants from the Americas and Europe including the United States, Argentina, Britain, France, the former Soviet Union, and South Africa.

During the time of Joshua, the area that is now Raanana was allotted to the tribe of Menashe, in the southwestern-most region close to the tribal territory of Dan. Long given over to swampland, in 1921, a plot of land was purchased in the area by the Ahuza Society branch in New York through the Palestine Land Development Company. On April 2, 1922, two wagons left the corner of Lilienblum and Herzl Streets in Tel Aviv carrying four "Ahuza" members, three laborers and two armed watchmen. After a five-hour journey, they unloaded their baggage at the place destined to become Raanana.

In its early days, the settlement was actually called "Ahuza Aleph – New York". The Arabs of the region called it "Little America" as most of its residents were English speakers who came from New York. Later it was renamed "Ra'anania" and finally, "Ra'anana" as its official name.

The settlement was built along, and around, Ahuza Street, its main thoroughfare. Initially there were many economic difficulties, but they were gradually overcome. Between 1925 and 1927, the Community House, which would house a variety of public institutions, including the secretariat, clinic, synagogue, meeting place for local committee meetings, assembly hall, culture room, school, kindergarten, clinic, and post office, was built. An attempt was made to raise cattle as the mainstay of the economy, later changing over to the citrus crop. In the latter half of the 20s going into the 30s, rich groundwater table was tapped, and middle-class immigrants of the Fourth Aliyah and later newcomers were absorbed. In 1931, Raanana elected its first mayor, Baruch Ostrovsky, a Ukrainian-born educator from the United States. He remained mayor throughout the British Mandate period and the early years of Israeli independence during which time, Raanana was given local council status (1936). 

With the crisis in citrus farming during World War II, the inhabitants changed over to mixed farming and made the first beginnings in industry. In the 1940s, two housing quarters for Yemenite and other immigrants were built with contributions from Zionists in the United States and South Africa. In 1947, Bessie Gotsfeld, an American Religious Zionist activist who had made aliyah in 1929, founded Kfar Batya children's village in the western part of Raanana for those children who had survived the Holocaust. By 1948, during Israel’s War of Independence, Raanana was a town of 3,000 residents but grew quickly after the war when ma'barot (refugee camp) inhabitants were given permanent housing. In 1958, the Loewenstein Hospital was established and became the only rehabilitation hospital operated by Clalit Health Services, Israel's largest health care provider.  

Raanana belonged to the outer ring of the Tel Aviv conurbation and developed various industries as well as agriculture. Over the years, most of Raanana's farmland became built-up areas. In 1981, it was declared a city.

There is an industrial zone in the north of the city, which is home to the Renanim shopping mall and many high-tech companies, including Emblaze, Hewlett-Packard, NICE Systems, SAP, NCR Corporation (formerly Retalix), Comverse, Red Hat, Waze (prior to Google acquisition), Texas Instruments, Arm Holdings and ZoomInfo. In addition, Microsoft's head office in Israel and Amdocs are located in an office complex at the eastern edge of the city, close to Raanana Junction, where Highway 4 meets Ahuza Street.

Raanana is also home to the Open University of Israel and Raanana College.

The park of Raanana is the largest urban park in the Sharon region. The Founders Museum presents the story of Ra'anana's original settlers until the city achieved local council status in 1936. Raanana Park Amphitheatre has been the venue for musical acts such as Backstreet Boys, Evanescence, Alice Cooper, Lauryn Hill, Tori Amos, Chick Corea, Ian Anderson, Ziggy Marley, The Cranberries, The Stranglers, Seal, Brian Wilson, Regina Spektor, Blondie and Pet Shop Boys.

The main soccer club of the city is Hapoel Ra'anana. In basketball, the city is represented by Maccabi Raanana who play in the National League. The Raanana Roosters are the local rugby team, and the area is a center of the rugby union in Israel, with Rugby Israel being based there. With a large population of American expatriates, the Raanana Express is an inaugural team in the Israel Baseball League.