Name of City/municipality: Bnei Brak
Population: 204,639 (2019)
Area: 7.088 km2
Bnei Brak or Bene Beraq is a city located on the central Mediterranean coastal plain in Israel, just east of Tel Aviv. A center of Haredi Judaism. It is one of the poorest and most densely populated cities in Israel, and the tenth-most densely populated city in the world.
Name of Mayor: Avraham Rubinstein
Contact: Tamar Lerer, lerer_t@bbm.org.il
Website: www.bnei-brak.muni.il
Main features:
Bnei Brak takes its name from the ancient Biblical city of Beneberak. It was founded as an agricultural village by eight Polish Hasidic families who had come to Palestine as part of the Fourth Aliyah. Yitzchok Gerstenkorn led them. It was founded about 4 kilometers from the site of Biblical Beneberak. Bnei Brak was originally a moshava (rural settelement), and the primary economic activity was the cultivation of citrus fruits.
Rabbi Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz (the Chazon Ish) settled from Belarus to Bnei Brak in its early days, attracting a large following. Leading rabbis who have lived in Bnei Brak include Rabbi Yaakov Landau, Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler and others.
Main economic activities:
One of the landmarks of Bnei Brak is the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Kahaneman St. It is owned by the Central Bottling Company (CBC), which has held the Israeli franchise for Coca-Cola products since 1968. It is among Coca-Cola’s ten largest single-plant bottling facilities worldwide.
Two major factories which dominated the centre of Bnei Brak for many years were the Dubek cigarette factory and the Osem food factory. As the town grew, they found themselves in the middle of a residential area; both left the area. Osem’s main factory is now located on Jabotinsky road in Petah Tikva, just next to Bnei Brak.
In 2011 construction started on a business district, which will include 15 office towers. Several of the towers of the Bnei Brak Business Center are already built as of 2020, and other buildings won’t be completed until after 2021.
Environmental conditions and challenges:
Being an ultra-orthodox municipality, Bnei Brak set up an alternative water supply, for use on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. This supply, which does not require intervention by Jews on days of rest, avoids the problems associated with Jews working on the day of rest at the national water company Mekorot. Most of the streets are closed on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.