Dermatologist Zikhron Yaakov

About Zikhron Yaakov

December 1882: Jewish pioneers from Romania found a moshava on the lands of Zammarin; in 1883 Baron Edmond de Rothschild becomes its patron and renames it in memory of his father Jacob. Perched at the southern end of the Carmel range, facing the sea and close to Highway 2, 35 km south of Haifa, Zikhron Ya'akov has kept the layout drawn by the Baron's planners: plots lined along the main street, HaMeyasdim, now a pedestrian street (the midrachov, "wine route") of cafés and boutiques, with the Aaronsohn house museum and the country's first winery (1885) still at work. The Ramat HaNadiv gardens and the Baron's tomb lie on the southern fringe. Many residents are English speakers; the secular majority lives alongside religious communities of every shade, from a Haredi yeshiva to Reform and Conservative congregations. The local railway station closed in the late 1990s, so you come by bus (the town is the terminus of lines to Binyamina, Hadera, Netanya, Caesarea and Ramat Gan) or by car; the nearest station is Binyamina. As the midrachov is closed to traffic, use the car parks around it.