Today Ramat Gan is contiguous with Tel Aviv and shares most of that financial and cultural capital’s metropolitan qualities, including a prevalence of information technology firms. But less than a century ago it was but a little village, established with the intention of being a communal farming settlement! In its first decade of existence it produced wheat, barley and watermelons.
In 1968, the Israel Diamond Exchange, said to be the world’s largest, was opened in Ramat Gan, and there it has operated ever since. The diamond bourse complex also includes the Moshe Aviv Tower, which is the tallest commercial building in Israel, rising in height to 240 meters. Within a few years, the Elite Tower, currently under construction, will eclipse it, but it is also located at the edge of the diamond district. The bourse area of town also hosts the foreign embassies of several embassies, including those of another diamond powerhouse, Belgium.
Ramat Gan is home to the Sheba Media Center, Bar-Ilan University and the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design. The country’s largest sports stadium is also seated in Ramat Gan. The city is twinned with a whole host of international locales, including Phoenix, Arizona, Strasbourg, France and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
