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Yeruham () is a town in the Southern District of Israel, in the Negev desert. It covers , and had a population of in . It is named after the Hebrew Bible Jeroham.
Until early 2011 the mayor of Yeruham was Amram Mitzna, and he was succeeded by Michael Biton of Kadima, who was elected mayor in November 2010. In 2018, dark horse candidate Tal Ohana was elected the first female mayor of Yeruham.
For many years, Yeruham was economically depressed and suffered from image problems, but major efforts to improve the quality of life took place during the early 2000s. Yeruham calls elections overrated Haaretz, 28 October 2007
During the Nabatean, Roman and Byzantine periods there was a village in the western outskirts of the town and its ruins can be seen today. The site, known Qasr Rekhmeh or Mesad Yeruham, was excavated in 1966 by R. Cohen.
At the head of the settlement was Pinchas Maanit (Muchnik), one of the founders of Nahalal, who moved to the place with his family after David Ben-Gurion request to assist and help to settle and establish new home to Israeli new-comers. The crossing was established in the area where the Bedouins migrated from Mata al-Azama, some of whose residents now live in Rekha, an unknown village located in the Yeruham area.
In 1959, the settlement was dismantled, and a permanent settlement was established in its place, which was declared a local council. Maanit continued to serve as head of the council. Two years later, another settlement was established in the settlement, and almost 3000 residents were added.
The first influx of aliyah (Jewish immigrants) came from Romania, many of them Holocaust survivors, followed by immigrants from North Africa, Iran, India and elsewhere, who make up the majority of the town's population today (appr. 40%, 5%, 20%, 10% respectively). By 1961, the town's population was 1,574. In 1962, when about 1,700 residents lived in the settlement, the name was changed to Yeruham.
Yeruham was founded on the Petroleum Road in the Negev desert and its initial growth was stymied by the construction of Highway 25 and the Beersheba – Mitzpe Ramon section of Highway 40, which created a new route to Eilat and made the Petroleum Road obsolete. Because of these factors, in addition to Yeruham's distance from the center of the country, many young people left its territory and it suffered for many years from negative immigration.
Since autumn 1990, Yeruham had actively been involved in absorbing hundreds of olim from the former USSR, who came to comprise 25% of the town's nearly 10,000 residents. In recent years, young couples and families from other localities have moved to Yeruham, and some have purchased lots and built their homes in the town's new neighborhoods.
Members of the Young People in Yeruham Student Settlement Group are involved in local social action projects, organize cultural events for young people, and attract young people to settle in Yeruham. In April 2008, the Ayalim Student Village opened in Yeruham to allow students in Negev institutions of higher education to live and volunteer in the town. North American students from Nativ College Leadership Program engage in volunteer community service in Yeruham every spring. They help teach English in the local high schools and yeshivot, work with the Magen David Adom ambulance corps, teach in preschools and much more.
It is located within the Negev desert and has erosion cirques or ‘craters’ and close by is the Yeruham Iris Nature Reserve, where the rare native iris Iris petrana is found.
Tourism projects include development of the Lake Park around Yeruham Dam and Large Makhtesh. Professional training programs in computers, chemistry, engineering and other fields needed by industry. Local industrial zones have doubled in size and offer space for rental and construction.
Up to 2011, residential construction in Yeruham had been done in a non-profit manner, either by Amidar or the residents themselves. In anticipation of military personnel moving into Yeruham to server in the future adjacent City of Training Bases, land had been released for private for-profit construction.
In 2015, a tech incubator, MindCET, was established in Yeruham as a center for leadership and innovation in educational technology to foster specialized cooperation between entrepreneurs, researchers, teachers and students. Yeruham welcomes new tech incubator, MindCET MindCET operates a high-tech accelerator for edtech startups. Negev taking shape: Young entrepreneurs bring high tech arts to southern Israel, Haaretz
Education and training for over-30 adults are coordinated by the Ofek Center for Human Resources Development.
Joint programs with the Weizmann Institute, Ben-Gurion University, the Open University, the Hebrew University Center for Enrichment in Education, and volunteer tutoring by scientists at the Nuclear Research Center aim to improve educational achievements and provide enrichment, especially in the sciences.
The Matnas Youth Department runs the Machsan 52 youth club, youth rock bands and two youth councils (for different age groups). The Israeli scout movement Tzofim and Bnai Akiva both have branches in the city. Midreshet Beyahad Seminar Center and youth hostel arranges hikes, workshops and other programming for visiting groups, mainly students, as well as Jewish programming in local schools.
Other cultural programs are the Teudat Zehut Yeruham project for community empowerment through documentation and the Bamidbar Regional Center for creative, pluralistic Judaism.
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