Maale Adumim is the largest city in the West Bank and one of its most diverse places. The city took its first steps shortly after the Yom Kippur War, when a small group of several dozens of people from a wide variety of social and religious backgrounds gathered in Jerusalem and sought to found a town east of the capital.
The group succeeded at pressuring the Israeli government, which during those days was reluctant to build in Judea and Samaria, and they approved the project. It was decided to establish the Mishor Adumim industrial zone, and next to it a residential camp for workers. On the seventh day of Chanukah 1975, 23 families and 6 single men were allowed to settle in the residential camp, thereby creating the “Founders Hill”.
Two years later the Israeli government accepted the fateful decision to recognize the settlement “Maaleh Adumim”. The settlement, which already included 50 families, was awarded the municipal status of a local council. Another part of the founder’s group decided to create another, smaller, settlement, further down the road to the Dead Sea – Kfar Adumim.
Maale Adumim, with its many neighborhoods and its famous Hesder yeshiva, continued to grow rapidly, and in 1991 it officially became a city, making it the first and largest Hebrew city, in Judea and Samaria. Two years ago, the city crossed the threshold of 40,000 residents. In recent years, however, the city found itself in a serious construction crisis due to political resistance at home and abroad to expand construction in the area.
Maale Adumim first appears in the Book of Jehoshua, where the northern boundaries of the Tribe of Judah are described. The name, loosely translated as “Red Hill” stems from the reddish color of the rocks in the desert area.
