Ron Nachman was among the 40 families that established the city of Ariel in
1977 on what was then a barren hilltop in the land known to many Jews as
Samaria and to others as the West Bank. The city was established in an area
that prior to the 1967 war had been administered by the Kingdom of Jordan.
In a recent interview, the mayor told Heritage that he knew from the
beginning that if Ariel were to succeed as a city, its economy must rest
upon three pillars: industry, a university and tourism.

Today the home to 18,000 residents, Ariel has all three pillars established.
It is the site of the College of Judea and Samaria, which specializes in
high-tech studies. It has a number of industries, including D-Farm, a
pharmaceutical company that he described as having tremendous success in
developing a drug to treat epilepsy. And the city has hotels.
Nachman said that when he was planning to establish the city, back in the
1970s, his mother asked, "Ron, why did you decide to go to this barren hill?
There is nothing there."

He said he reminded his mother that her forebears had been among the
Zionist pioneers who came from Odessa in 1883 and established the city of
Nes Ziona in what was then a part of the Ottoman Turkish empire.

"I said, 'You know, Mother, when your father and grandfather came from
Odessa, nobody asked this question. What they did, I want to do the same. I
want to build a city.' And she said to me, 'Go, son, and succeed in what you
are doing."

The lyrics of an old song about Nes Ziona exhort listeners to "hold the flag
of Zion," and Nachman said his fellow settlers at Ariel would sing that song
at every planning meeting.
"I can remember my (maternal) grandfather as a leader of the community, and
I remember my father as a deputy mayor of Nes Ziona," Nachman said following
a speech Jan. 18 at Congregation Beth Am.

The grandfather was named Jeremiah Boxer, and a hobby of Nachman¹s is
researching the Boxer family tree. He wonders whether he and California¹s
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer might be distant cousins.

His father came to Israel in the late 1930s from Romania, and went on to be
elected as Nes Ziona's deputy mayor. The son watched as he tried to devise
programs to make productive citizens out of children who dropped out of
school. And, Nachman said, he still can remember his father worrying about
such mundane issues as the need for a fund to replace garbage containers
every two to three years because they would get so beaten up by the machines
that emptied them.

Perhaps because of his family background in municipal government, Nachman
said he gave a lot of thought to attracting enough citizens to Ariel so that
it would have the critical mass to sustain itself generation after
generation.

He contrasts his city with the kibbutzim around Israel, which were famed in
Socialist legend but which have had difficulty retaining the members'
children or attracting new members, and thus are in economic straits.
Similarly, he predicted, small settlements in Judea and Samaria as well as
those inside the borders of pre-1967 Israel may be economically doomed.
"I am not in favor of small communities that give nothing and become a
burden," he said.

Although he is controversial, especially among Palestinians who believe that
all of the land occupied by Israel as a result of the 1967 war should be
returned to Arab control, Nachman says privately he has friends among the
Palestinians " some of whom even share his dream for regional cooperation.

If ever there should be peace, he said, a regional airport could serve both
Arab and Israeli cities, and from the densest parts of Israel, a train could
be brought "to Ariel, to Nablus and Jenin, and from Haifa to Irbid in
Jordan, and we would make a regional network."