On 3 November 1878, a group of religious Jews established Petah Tikvah (Gateway of Hope), a moshav [cooperative community of farmers] a few miles east of Tel Aviv.
While the group originally sought to acquire land near Jericho, they were unable to get consent from the Ottoman authorities, leading to their eventual settlement in Petah Tikvah. The name of the moshav was taken directly by its founders from a prophecy from the book of Hosea. The initial settlement, was short-lived, however, due to disappointing harvests and an outbreak of malaria. In 1882, there were only 10 houses and 66 residents, and as conditions continued to deteriorate, the residents abandoned the settlement.
Shortly thereafter, a new group of immigrants from Russia, known as BILU (Beit Ya'akov Lekhu Venelkha, meaning "House of Jacob, let us go up”) settled in Petah Tikvah and, aided by Edmund Rothschild, a wealthy French-Zionistic philanthropist, drained the area’s swamp, thus enabling new residents to plant citrus groves, leading to economic development. By 1900, the city’s population had ballooned to 818 residents.
After World War I, Petah Tikvah continued to grow rapidly, despite the 1921 Arab Riots. According to the 1922 British Mandate Census there were 3,008 Jews living in Petah Tikvah, and by 1931 there were 6,729, an increase of 123.7%. Its first mayor, Shlomo Stampfer, was the son of one of its founders, Yehoshua Stampfer.
While Petah Tikvah escaped largely unscathed during the 1929 Arab riots, which included horrifying events such as the Hebron massacre, the 1936 Arab revolt actually began near Petah Tikvah after two Arab workers were killed in a revenge attack while sleeping in a hut close to Petah Tikvah.
After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, several nearby villages were incorporated into Petah Tikvah’s borders, increasing its population to 22,000.
Today, Petach Tikvah is Israel's second-largest industrial city, housing the major headquarters of international concerns such as Oracle Corporation, IBM, Intel, Alcatel-Lucent, ECI Telecom, and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, and Israeli companies such as Teva, Osem, and Strauss, as well as synagogues and schools spanning the political and religious spectrum of Israeli society.
Petach Tikvah’s growth was such that it became referred to as Em Hamoshavot [the mother of the moshavot].
