Page "Netanya" Paragraph 25

In 1956 a beachfront in northern Netanya was selected as the home base for the Sanzer Hasidim by its leader, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam.

Halberstam established kindergartens, boys ' and girls ' schools, yeshivas, seminaries, synagogues, a children's home for orphaned and needy girls, an old-age home, and a hospital.

In addition to religious services, the new settlement had a diamond polishing factory built by a New York diamond merchant.

Halberstam established his court here in 1960.

Following his death in 1994, his eldest son, Rabbi Zvi Elimelech Halberstam, known as the Sanzer Rebbe, has been the spiritual leader of the Sanz community in Israel. Today Kiryat Sanz has a population of approximately 1000 families.

Most of the older generation are Holocaust survivors.

Besides its educational facilities for boys and girls from elementary to post-graduate, it has five synagogues, a mikveh, a printing house, a religious hotel, a religious nursing school, and the Laniado Hospital, which encompasses two medical centers, a children ’ s hospital, a geriatric center and a nursing school, serving a regional population of over 450, 000.