Dimona

Dimona (Heb. דִּימוֹנָה) is a town in southern Israel, in the central Negev Hills, 21½ mi. (35 km.) southeast of Beersheba and 25 mi. (40 km.) west of Sodom. Dimona takes its name from one of the towns belonging to the tribe of Judah in the Negev (Josh. 15:22), but it is not certain whether the ancient site is identical to that of the present town.

The first Israelis moved to the town on August 1, 1955. It was founded to provide the employees of the Sodom Dead Sea Works with homes in a healthy climate and at a convenient distance from their work. Laborers of the Oron phosphate field nearby also established permanent homes in Dimona.

The first residents were Jewish immigrants from North Africa, with an initial 36 families being the first to settle there. Its population in 1955 was about 300. The population grew to 3,500 in 1959 and by 1968 was 20,000. Of the families resident at Dimona in 1968, 65% were immigrants from North Africa, 20% from Europe, 10% from India, and the rest from Iran or were born in Israel.

In 1969, the town received municipal status.

During the 1980s, the city’s population began to decline, but thanks to the wave of immigration of the 1990s, when it took in immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia, it began to rise again. The population of Dimona in the mid-1990s was approximately 30,000, rising further by 2021 to 35,892, making the city the third largest in the Negev. Its municipal area extended over 2.3 sq. mi. (6 sq. km.).

Dimona is described as “mini-India” by many for its 7,500-strong Indian Jewish community. It is also home to Israel’s Black Hebrew community.

The city’s residents work in the textile, chemical, and electronic industries, as well as in Dead Sea tourism. Some work at the phosphate field of Zefa-Efeh and the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center, located 8.1 mi. (13 km.) southeast of the city.

The city is best known as the location of Israel’s “secret nuclear weapons” facility.

Nearby is Mamshit, a well-preserved Nabatean city known as the place where Arabian horses were bred and raised. It is a National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Sources: “Dimona,” Wikipedia.
“Dimona Israel – the Third Largest City in the Negev,” Israel Travel Secrets.
Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.

Photo: Amos Meron, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.