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Yeruham
Found in: Local councils in Israel
Yeruham is a town (local council) in the Southern District of Israel, in the Negev desert. It covers 34,000 dunams (34 km) and had a population of 9,400 in 2006. It is named after the Biblical Jeroham. The mayor of Yeruham is Amram Mitzna.
Yeruham is the site of Tel Rahma, dating back to the 10th century BCE. On the outskirts of Yeruham is an ancient well, Be'er Rahma ( ). Some archeologists have identified it as the well where the biblical Hagar drew water for her son Ishmael.
Modern Yeruham was founded on January 9 1951 as Kfar Yeruham , but it became Yeruham in 1962. It was one of Israel's first development towns, created to settle frontier areas in the early days of the state.
For many years, Yeruham was economically depressed and suffered from image problems, but major efforts to improve the quality of life are under way.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Yeruham