Current Time in Rishon LeTsiyyon, Israel

Rishon LeTsiyyon lies on the Israeli coastal plain about twelve kilometres south of Tel Aviv, between the Mediterranean dunes and the citrus country of the Judean foothills. With roughly two hundred and sixty thousand residents it is the fourth largest city in Israel and one of the anchors of the Gush Dan metropolitan area, combining older neighbourhoods around a historic core with extensive modern districts, business parks and a long stretch of beach.

The city was founded in 1882 by a small group of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire, pioneers of the movement later called the First Aliyah, who bought sandy land from a nearby village and named their settlement with a phrase from the Book of Isaiah meaning first to Zion. The first years were desperate, and the colony survived only when Baron Edmond de Rothschild took it under his patronage, funding wells, housing and, most importantly, viticulture. The great wine cellars he built in 1890 still operate and remain among the largest in the country, and the vineyards of the coastal plain trace their commercial origins to this project.

Rishon LeTsiyyon holds an unusual number of firsts in modern Hebrew culture. The first Hebrew-speaking kindergarten and elementary school were opened here, the first Hebrew orchestra was formed here, and the melody of Hatikvah, now the national anthem, was adapted and first sung publicly in the settlement in the late 1880s. An early version of the blue and white flag was raised here as well. The Founders Museum, the restored village well that serves as the city's symbol, the great synagogue of 1885 and the preserved streets of the historic centre tell that story in detail.

The modern city is prosperous and suburban. Its economy combines commerce, logistics, food processing, high technology and services, with several large shopping and entertainment complexes, one of Israel's biggest cinema centres and a well-known amusement park. The beachfront, backed by dunes and a nature reserve, is popular in summer, and there are extensive parks, sports facilities and a busy cultural scene centred on the municipal performing arts centre.

Transport connects it tightly to Tel Aviv. Motorways run north to the metropolis and east towards Jerusalem, two railway stations serve the city on lines to Tel Aviv and the south, and extensions of the Tel Aviv light rail network are planned to reach it, which would further shorten commuting times.

Higher education includes an academic college based in the city and easy access to universities in Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan and Rehovot, where the Weizmann Institute of Science lies a few kilometres to the south.

Founded by pioneers and now thoroughly modern, Rishon LeTsiyyon offers visitors a compact and vivid account of how contemporary Israel began.