Rishon LeZion: First to Zion

Rishon LeZion, meaning “First to Zion,” was founded in 1882 by a group of approximately seventeen Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who had arrived in the Land of Israel as part of the First Aliyah. It was one of the first modern Jewish agricultural settlements in Palestine, and its survival story is inseparable from the name of one man: Baron Edmond de Rothschild.

A Settlement on the Brink

The founders of Rishon LeZion purchased a stretch of sandy land south of Jaffa and began trying to farm it. They had almost no agricultural experience, no reliable water source, and very little money. Within months, the settlement was on the verge of collapse. The soil was difficult, the climate was harsh, and disease took a heavy toll. Several of the original families left.

In desperation, the settlers sent a plea to Baron Edmond de Rothschild in Paris. The Baron responded with money, agricultural experts, and a plan. His intervention saved Rishon LeZion, but it also came with conditions: Rothschild’s administrators took control of the settlement’s affairs, imposed French farming methods, and made decisions that the settlers did not always welcome. The tension between the Baron’s paternalism and the settlers’ desire for independence became a recurring theme in the history of the First Aliyah.

The Wine Cellars of Rishon LeZion

One of Rothschild’s most enduring contributions was the establishment of a winery at Rishon LeZion. In 1889, he funded the construction of wine cellars, completed in 1890 and imported grape varieties from France, laying the foundations for what would become the Carmel Winery, one of the oldest and largest wineries in Israel. The original wine cellars, built with stone arches and underground tunnels to maintain cool temperatures, are still standing and can be visited today. The winery became a model for Rothschild’s other wine venture at Zikhron Ya’akov, and together they established the Israeli wine industry.

The First Hebrew School

Rishon LeZion holds another distinction in Zionist history: it was the site of the first school in which Hebrew was used as the language of instruction. The revival of Hebrew as a spoken language , a project driven by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and embraced by the settlers of the First Aliyah, found one of its earliest practical expressions in this small settlement south of Jaffa. The decision to teach children in Hebrew rather than Yiddish or French was a statement of intent: this community was building something new, not replicating the diaspora.

HaTikva

It was in Rishon LeZion, in 1888, that the poem “HaTikva” (The Hope) was first performed as a song. Written by Naftali Herz Imber and set to music by Samuel Cohen, the song expressed the longing of the Jewish people to return to their homeland. It would eventually become the national anthem of the State of Israel. The fact that it was first sung in one of the earliest Jewish settlements, by pioneers who were living the very hope the song described, gives HaTikva a connection to Rishon LeZion that the city proudly preserves.

From Settlement to City

Rishon LeZion grew from a struggling agricultural colony into one of Israel’s largest cities, with a population of over 250,000. The original settlers’ neighborhood, with its historic buildings and Rothschild-era wine cellars, has been preserved as a pedestrian heritage area. The Founders’ Well, where the settlers discovered the water that saved the settlement, is marked and memorialized.

The city’s development mirrors the broader story of Israel: a place founded on idealism and near-impossible odds that grew, through stubbornness and outside help, into something its founders could never have imagined.

Visit with Hoshen Tours

Rishon LeZion’s historic core tells the story of the First Aliyah in a way that few other places can match. Hoshen Tours visits the original wine cellars, the Founders’ Well, and the heritage quarter, connecting Rishon LeZion to the broader Rothschild story that stretches from Rosh Pina in the Galilee to Zikhron Ya’akov on the Carmel coast. Because the story of Israel’s founding is not just a Tel Aviv story. It started here, in a sandy field with a well and a dream.