Christians in Ramla

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Among Ramla’s residents is a small community of Christians who currently constitute about 6.2% of the city’s overall population. Most of the Christian residents reside in the area of the Old City and in the various neighborhoods where Jews reside.

There are four streams of Christian communities in Ramla, with the largest being the Orthodox Church. The additional communities are: the Franciscan Church (Catholic), the Anglican Church (Protestant) and the Armenian stream.

The Church of Nicodemus & St. Joseph of Arimathea

The Christian inhabitants are involved in community life and endeavor in the city and engage in various and diverse areas of employment such as: Commerce, construction, food services, education and liberal professions, akin to the rest of the city’s residents.

The community has several preschools, elementary schools and high schools that are overseen by the churches with great success and graduates achieve impressive accomplishments in matriculation exams.

The Christians in Ramla have several churches which are used as a meeting place and a place of prayer:

The Greek Orthodox Church, the Franciscan Church, and the Protestant Church

Promoting Values of Co-existence

The Municipality of Ramla and its mayor, Mr. Yoel Lavie, view the integration of Ramla’s Christian Arab community in the city’s municipal projects as an integral part of the joint endeavors and co-existence of a locality with a mixed population. And indeed, in recent years, many municipal projects and plans have been drawn up for different age groups, incorporating both the Arab and Jewish population with the aim of promoting co-existence in the city.

Projects worth mentioning: Neta Project, a joint program with Cisco International, the Jewish Agency, the United Jewish Appeal and the Tapuah NPO for training Arab and Jewish students as computer technicians. Additionally, there is joint youth activity which has created social activities and contributed to the community. 40% of the students involved in this project are Arabs, mostly Christian. Similarly, there are projects such as the Preschool Project, Yad Rachel Programs for Elementary Arab Education, Municipal Communications Center, Computer for Each Teacher Project, road safety, School Project for Parents and many other education and welfare projects.

Community Center Network

The city’s Muslim and Christian population has a Community Center Network which is geared towards the child, youth, adult and elderly populations. Numerous financial resources have been collected from various donors, including the American Jewish Congress – monies which have been routed by the Municipality Administration directly to the establishment of a community center in Juarish.

The construction of educational centers, the Arab community center in Juarish, the community center extension in the Old City, “Kadima” after school club, have all made an important contribution to the enrichment of the community and particularly to the enrichment of children and youth who are exposed to lessons and educational activities, theater, cultural events and mixed gatherings