Its promenade stretching along three and a half kilometers of prime Mediterranean beachfront, Bat Yam is coming into its own right as a prime resort and recreation center. Home to a diverse and ever growing population of 160,000, the city is a flavorful mix of cultures and professions.

History
In 1926, thirteen affluent families from Jaffa settled in Bat Yam. Observant Jews, they were part of the House and Garden Union, and were looking to establish a clean, roomy suburb in which to raise their families. What they found was masses of sand, and with no water or electricity, they planted, built, and struggled to create what soon became a comfortable garden suburb of Tel Aviv. Arab riots in 1929 forced them to temporarily leave their homes, but with an influx of German Jews fleeing the Nazi regime in the early 1930s, the small town flourished.

A Mix of Cultures
After Israel's War of Independence, thousands of new residents poured into Bat Yam. The municipal ulpan, or Hebrew language school was one of the biggest in the country. Jews from every corner of the globe joined Israeli-born to make their homes in the seaside town. A solid French-speaking community, many with roots in North Africa, established synagogues and community clubs. Judeo-Spanish culture, primarily the domain of Jews from Turkey, counts Bat Yam amongst its thriving centers. The Bat Yam Culture Club has a choir which sings pieces in Ladino, reads work by contemporary Ladino authors. Its Ladino theater group stages original drama and musical comedies, as well as adaptations of Hebrew works. Over the past decade and a half, close to forty thousand Jews from the Former Soviet Union settled in Bat Yam. Food stores carry Russian and Central Asian specialties, newspaper stands and many stores advertise their  services in Russian.  The ultra-orthodox Babov community has its major center in Bat Yam. Their community supports synagogues, mikves, schools and closes off its roads on the Sabbath.

The present municipal administration is making great efforts to reinvigorate Bat Yam's cultural, industrial and educational infrastructure. In addition it has embarked on a campaign to improve its reputation which was tarnished over the past decade, due to poor financial management, a physical deterioration of the city east of the beach strip, and poor public relations. During the course of one year the city has built landscaped traffic circles, fixed sidewalks and planted public gardens making the city more pleasant for residents and welcoming for visitors who vacation at the many hotels lining the coast.

Industry
Located in the center of Gush Dan, or Israel's major population center based around Tel Aviv, many Bat Yam residents find work in the neighboring towns or industrial centers. The municipality has recently created a unit to develop Bat Yam's relatively small industrial area and draw more companies into its city limits. Currently, aside from commerce and the growing tourist industry, employers in Bat Yam include industrial print houses, food processing plants and smaller factories.

Culture
Recently the recipient of rave reviews, the Bat Yam Art Museum has curated colorful, daring and sophisticated exhibits which draw visitors and critics from the entire region. Shalom Asch, a famous Yiddish writer, who spent his last years in Bat Yam, is memorialized in the Shalom Asch House which holds collections of Asch and the works of other Yiddish writers. A Holocaust Museum with an art wing and the Reebak Art Museum are integral parts of the Bat Yam cultural scene.

Ten community centers with a multitude of activities, youth centers, sports clubs and youth movements provide a choice of after-school and after-work activities for Bat Yam residents. The Bat Yam Conservatory offers voice and instrument lessons and hosts a choir, a children's theater and youth symphony. The municipal library system is well-used and constantly refurbished.

The Sea
However, from its inception, Bat Yam is a beach town. Mediterranean breezes during the hot summers and mild winter temperatures rarely dropping below18 degrees make the beach a year-round activity. The young and old, the swimmers, sailors, volleyball players, as well as those who prefer sunning or sitting on the promenade benches and looking at the sea, all enjoy the beach.

At the beginning of every summer, Bat Yam hosts what is essentially a three-day street party along its promenade - the annual Street Theater Festival. Professional clowns, street theater, jugglers, acrobats and pyrotechnic experts both from Israel and abroad, entertain and delight the over 150,000 attendees who come from every part of the country to partake in the fun. This past summer, a famous British street theater company and the Chinese Dragon Circus, were only some of the foreign guest performers to join their Israeli counterparts for warm summer evenings of pure creativity.

From the tourists who choose its range of beachfront hotels, to the residents who find the sea a place of recreation and calm refuge, the sea is the key to Bat Yam. Coupled with improved city services and an improved self-image, Bat Yam, "daughter of the sea" has the will and the means to take advantage of this ultimate resource as it moves into an era of growing prosperity.