Where We Live
Yeroham (pop. 12,000), located 20 kms south of Be’er Sheva in the north-eastern Negev, is home to Atid Bamidbar.
The sixteen clan-based neighborhoods of Rahma village (pop. 2,000) border the town on three sides in a 300-degree arc.
Nearby points of interest include Yeroham Makhtesh (Crater) to the east, and Yeroham Lake and Nabatean-Byzantine Yeroham Fortress to the west.
Yeroham
Yeroham first appears as a personal name in Chronicles I, 8:7. It also appears in hieroglyphics on the list of cities in Judea that were conquered by the Egyptian King Shishak in the 10th century B.C.E.
Modern Yeroham (est. 1951) is unique in the annals of Israel’s development towns. All the others were built in peripheral locations near existing communities so that waves of newcomers had the hope of finding work—whereas Yeroham is Israel’s first and only frontier town, planted far from existing settlements in the heart of the desert.
Heritage Walking Tour
Ask us to arrange a walking tour of Yeroham that will take you to the Ma’abara (Transit Camp) Installation, the Yeroham Mosaic in the Bar Kokhba Neighborhood, the Wall of Nostalgia (a passageway in the Commercial Center), and the Yeroham Personalities mural in the Shaked neighborhood—or play Yeroham Treasure Hunt!
The Negev
“It is in the Negev where the creativity and pioneering vigor of Israel shall be tested.” David Ben-Gurion.
Depending on the ancient linguistic or scriptural source, Negev (Hebrew) or Naqab (Arabic) translates as dry or desert or south—all accurate descriptions of Israel’s arid region stretching north to south from Be’er Sheva to Eilat and comprising more than half of the country’s total land area.
