Rishon LeZion
— — a founders' town that grew into a city.
Not only on a wall.
“Rishon LeZion sits on the coastal plain a short drive south of Tel Aviv, a city of roughly a quarter million that began in 1882 as one of the first modern Jewish farming colonies in Ottoman Palestine. The original founders planted vines that became the Carmel Winery, still operating in the old cellars on Carmel Street. The pedestrianised Rothschild Street runs through the historic core past the Great Synagogue and the founders' museum. The Mediterranean beach sits at the western edge of the city. from the studio
Rishon LeZion, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Rishon LeZion is a city in Israel's Central District on the coastal plain, immediately south of Tel Aviv and roughly twelve kilometres from the Mediterranean coast at its central point. The 2023 estimate puts the population at about 263,000, making it Israel's fourth-largest city. It was founded on 31 July 1882 by Hovevei Zion pioneers from Russia and Ukraine as one of the first modern Jewish agricultural colonies in Ottoman Palestine. The name, taken from Isaiah 41:27, means "First to Zion." The historic core sits around Rothschild Street and Carmel Street, west of Highway 4.
The Carmel Winery was founded in Rishon LeZion in 1882 under the patronage of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, who underwrote much of the early colony. The original cellars on Carmel Street still operate and house a visitor centre that walks the history of modern Israeli winemaking from the first Cabernet plantings forward. Other founder-era firsts cluster nearby: the first Hebrew kindergarten in modern Palestine opened here in 1898, and the Great Synagogue on Rothschild Street was completed in 1885. The founders' courtyard museum preserves the original wells, vine presses, and pioneer dwellings.
The historic centre is walkable and free. The Rishon LeZion Museum at the founders' courtyard on Ahad Ha'am Street, run by the municipality, opens mornings Sunday through Thursday and shorter hours on Friday. The Carmel Winery visitor centre on Carmel Street offers paid tasting tours by reservation. The Great Synagogue stands at 14 Rothschild Street. The city beach, Holot Rishon, sits west of Highway 4 at the end of HaShachar Road and has lifeguarded sections in summer. Trains run from Rishon LeZion HaRishonim station into Tel Aviv in under twenty minutes.