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About Ariel

Ariel serves as a leader in education, industry and immigrant absorption. The city’s diversity has become a vehicle for integration between Israelis from different walks of life—new immigrants and native Israelis, secular and observant, seniors and singles. Today, when Israeli society faces the challenges of demographic segmentation and segregation, the City of Ariel emerges with a powerful yet simple message: let’s work together.

As the capital of Samaria, Ariel’s location and unsurpassed achievements captures the world’s attention. The city’s population, its strategic significance to Israel’s security and survival, and its contribution to Israel’s economic growth all contribute to Ariel’s consensus status as an integral part of the State of Israel.

Ariel’s biblical roots and spiritual foundations are the source of inspiration. Abraham began his divinely inspired journey to the Land of Israel in the Samarian hills, where he set up his famous tent of hospitality. Joshua, who led the Jews into the Land of Israel following the exodus from Egypt, inherited this land, also known as the hills of Ephraim. He and his pioneering ally Caleb are buried opposite the foot of modern day Ariel.

The modern City of Ariel drew its name from one of the names of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. As with its sister city, Jerusalem, the ancient and modern historic continuum is plain to see. The City of Ariel is built alongside the ruins of an ancient Israelite city that dates back more than 3,000 years.

Mayor Ron Nachman (1942-2013), the founding and pioneering Mayor of the City of Ariel, succeeded in establishing and developing the city against challenging odds. He was first called upon by the government of Israel in 1974 to mobilize a group of families who would come to a barren hilltop in the heart of Samaria. Nachman went from house to house, parlor meeting to parlor meeting, to find Israel’s true pioneers. Right after his death in January 2013, he received Israel’s highest honor, the Israel Prize, for his achievement in building one of Israel’s model cities.

Under the leadership of Mayor Eliyahu Shaviro, Ariel continues to move Ariel forever towards a peaceful, stronger, and more joyful future for Ariel, the people of Israel, and the entire region.