Nesher is a city in the Haifa District of Israel. In it had a population of. It was founded in 1924 as a workers town for the Nesher Cement factory, the first cement factory in the country. Most of the modern city is located on the lands of the depopulated Palestinian village of Balad al-Sheikh, immediately north of Old Nesher.
History
Nesher was founded in 1924 as a workers town for the Nesher Cement factory, established in September 1923 by Michael Pollack, a Jewish industrialist from Russia. The area was swampy and malaria-infested, but employees of the factory gradually moved there with their families, bringing the population to 1,500. Nesher was floated as a public company in 1925. In 1929, the Arabs of Balad al-Sheikh attacked the factory and burned down a farm. By the mid-1930s, Nesher Cement had 700 employees, both Jewish and Arab. In 1948, thousands of Jewish immigrants from Europe, Iraq and North Africa settled in Nesher. In 1952, a local council was formed comprising four neighborhoods – Nesher, Giv’at Nesher, Ben-Dor and Tel Hanan. The first mayor was Yehuda Shimroni.
Demographics
statistics for 2005 show Nesher's ethnic makeup as 99.5% Jewish and other non-Arabs. 30.7% of the population in 2005 were immigrants who came to Israel after 1990.
In 2005, the Broward County Jewish Federation established a partnership with Nesher in an effort to create a people-to-people cultural exchange program that includes high school and college student exchanges and video conferencing for events such as school celebrations and concerts.
The Coat of arms was designed by David Hollod and approved at a local committee meeting on the 24th of October 1962. It includes multiple references:
The Eagle represents the name of the city and the Cement factory from its inception.
The 4 hills represent the mountainous terrain and the four original neighborhoods that assembled the settlement - Ben Dor, Tel Hanan, Nesher, and Givat Nesher.
The factory and chimney represent the industrial foundation the city was founded upon.
The tree represents the growth and prosperity of the city over the years.
