Why Yehud
Yehud is an Israeli city situated within the country's Central District. It operates alongside the neighboring community of Neve Monosson under the joint administrative framework of the Yehud-Monosson municipality. In 2007, the combined population of the municipality reached approximately 30,000 people.
The historical roots of Yehud span thousands of years, with its first recorded biblical mention appearing in Joshua 19:45. The Romans subsequently referred to the area as Iudaea. In the Ottoman era, the town was called Al-Yahudiya, maintaining a fully Muslim Arab population according to period censuses, and its proceeds were endowed to the Khasseki Sultan soup kitchen in Jerusalem during the 16th century. Across the 18th and 19th centuries, it belonged to the Nahiyeh of Lod, an extensive agricultural district spanning from the eastern foothills through the Lod Valley to the outskirts of Jaffa. In 1932, under the British Mandate, the locality was renamed Al-'Abbasiyya, commemorating a buried sheikh named al-ʽAbbas and referencing the Abbasid Caliphate. Parts of modern Yehud stand on the grounds of al-Yahudiya, which was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
A key visual highlight in the middle of Yehud is a commercial district built to mimic the historic town square of Lugano in Switzerland. Built with neoclassical columns and colonnades to promote local trade and travel, the project opened in early 2018. Municipally, while the central administration handles standard services for the region, Neve Monosson functions with substantial local self-governance as an autonomous borough established under specific merger conditions.
Yehud hosts significant business and aerospace facilities. It serves as the base for the major company Africa Israel Investments, which is primarily owned by Lev Leviev. Additionally, the control center for SpaceIL is situated in the city, from which the team managed the Beresheet lunar lander mission. The local academic infrastructure includes several elementary and high schools. In sports, the local football team Hapoel Ironi Yehud competes in Liga Gimel, continuing a local athletic legacy that saw a predecessor club win the State Cup in 1982. Prominent residents of the city include Olympic judokas Inbar Lanir and Golan Pollack, musical artist Shlomi Shabat, and writer-researcher Yonit Naaman.
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