KIRYAT BIALIK

KIRYAT BIALIK (Heb. קִרְיַת בְּיַאלִיק; named after Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik), urban community with municipal council status (since 1950) in northern Israel, in the Haifa Bay area, founded in 1934 as part of the residential zone north of the industrial Bay area. The first settlers, 160 families, originated from Germany. In the ensuing years they were joined by immigrants from European, African, and Asian countries. Kiryat Bialik had 900 inhabitants in 1944 and grew to 13,100 by 1969. In 1976 Kiryat Bialik received city status. In the mid-1990s the population was approximately 35,300, and at the end of 2002 the population of Kiryat Bialik was 37,100 residents. Until the early 1950s, "Ahavah," a youth aliyah center for children with educational problems, was located at Kiryat Bialik. Initially a purely residential quarter with one- and two-family houses with gardens, Kiryat Bialik's municipal area was enlarged northward on the east side of the Haifa-Acre highway, multistory houses were built, public gardens planted, and a new industrial area developed in the northernmost part, including one of the country's important textile factories. Today the city's area consists of 7,200 dunams, with a large immigrant population, including Russians, Ethiopians, and Latin Americans. (Efraim Orni / Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)