page_title: Migdal HaEmek
section_title: Background and establishment
hierarchical_section_title: Migdal HaEmek / History / Background and establishment
caption_attribution_description: English: Geography of Israel עברית: הבניין הוקם להנצחתם של בני המקום שנפלו במערכות ישראל. חנוכת הבניין נערכה ב-30.11.200 במעמד ראש העיר, מר אלי ברדה. במקום פועלים:חדר ספריה ועיון למורשת ההיסטוריה הצבאית, עמדת מחשב ובה מידע על הנופלים, בית תפילה, אולם הרצאות וחדר הנצחה לזכר הנופלים., Original Image Name:בית יד לבנים-צילום חוץ, Notes:יישובי להבה, Location:מגדל העמק
context_page_description: Migdal HaEmek is a city in the Northern District of Israel. In 2018 it had a population of 25,636. There is a tower to the north-east, above the town.
context_section_description: Prior to 1953, the area nearest to where Migdal HaEmek was founded was an Arab Palestinian village named al-Mujaydil. It had existed there since as early as 1596 during the Ottoman era.
  In July 1948, the village which Migdal HaEmek replaced, al-Mujaydil, was "completely destroyed" due to aerial bombing during the operations conducted by Yishuv Golani Brigade forces, resulting in its depopulation, before Israel established its independence.
  Migdal HaEmek was started in 1953 as a ma'abara for Jews from Arab countries, before becoming a development town. The original site of the ma'abara was west of the current site, at Shimron hill.
  In 1959, during Wadi Salib riots, the "Union des Nords-africains led by David Ben Haroush, organised a large-scale procession walking towards the nice suburbs of Haifa creating little damages but a great fear within the population. This small incident was taken as an occasion to express the social malaise of the different Oriental communities in Israel and riots spread quickly to other parts of the country; mostly in towns with a high percentage of the population having North African extraction like in Tiberias, in Beer-Sheva, in Migdal HaEmek".
  The chief rabbi of the city is Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman, who won the Israel Prize in 2004 for his social service work and outreach youth programs. Every year volunteers from Habonim Dror come to Migdal HaEmek to volunteer in the community. Typically these roles include members of Kvutsat Yovel, and involve teaching in primary and secondary schools, and working with local Magen David Adom units.
caption: Yad LaBanim soldiers memorial in Migdal HaEmek
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