Hadera (Hebrew: חֲדֵרָה) is a city in central Israel, in the northern part of the Sharon Plain.
It was founded in 1890 as an agricultural settlement by activists of Hovevei Zion from Vilnius, Kaunas, and Riga. The name derives from the Arabic al-khadra (“greenery”), referring to the marshes covered with green duckweed that once surrounded the settlement.
The marshlands of the Sharon Valley were heavily infested with malaria, and during the first twenty years of the settlement more than half of its residents died from the disease. In 1895, Edmond James de Rothschild provided financial assistance for draining the swamps. Workers brought from Egypt carried out major drainage operations. Physician and public activist Hillel Yaffe played a major role in combating malaria; on his advice eucalyptus forests were planted around Hadera to help dry the soil. The eucalyptus tree later became a symbol of the city. The last swamps disappeared only in 1945, after completion of a drainage canal leading to the sea.
Citrus plantations were established before the First World War and expanded greatly during the 1920s–1930s. After construction of the Lod–Haifa railway in 1918–1919, Hadera became an important railway station. Later, with the completion of the Hadera–Petah Tikva highway, the city developed into a major transportation hub connected with Haifa in the north and the Jezreel Valley in the east.
The population steadily increased:
1898 — 152 residents
1914 — 320 residents
1922 — 450 residents
In 1929 Arab riots against Jews took place in Hadera. By 1931 the population had grown to 3,372, and in 1936 Hadera officially received city status. Over time nearby neighborhoods and settlements were incorporated into the city, including:
Nahliel (founded in 1912 by immigrants from Yemen)
Neve Haim (1936, named after Haim Arlosoroff)
Giv‘at Olga (1950, named after Olga Hankin, wife and associate of Yehoshua Hankin)
Hefzibah (1914)
By 1948 the population had reached 11,819. After the establishment of the State of Israel, growth continued largely through immigration. In 1968, of Hadera’s 31,000 residents, about 40% were native-born Israelis, 33% immigrants from Europe, and 27% immigrants from Asia and North Africa.
The economy historically combined agriculture and industry. Agricultural branches included flower and banana cultivation, fish farming, livestock breeding, poultry farming, and beekeeping. Industry became dominant, with large factories producing paper, rubber goods, tires, canned foods, and wood products.
In 1982 a large coal-fired power station was built between the city and the Mediterranean coast. Imported coal was unloaded through a specially constructed sea pier. The station supplied electricity to much of the coastal plain south of Haifa.
Further population growth occurred during the immigration wave from the former Soviet Union and the Baltic states in the 1990s. Population figures included:
1991 — 45,600
1992 — 48,400
1993 — 50,700
1994 — 56,100
1995 — 60,200
2003 — 73,100 residents
Archaeological discoveries near Hadera include remains of a Chalcolithic settlement with ceramic ossuaries shaped like houses, burials from the Second Temple period, mosaics, Roman-period ruins and bridges, and traces of a Crusader-era settlement called Liktera.