The Lod Community Foundation is working to restore Lod’s past glory and enormous multi-cultural splendor. The foundation aspires to widen the circle of participants who think and act for the sake of Lod.

Lod is ideally located just 15 minutes from Tel Aviv, 30 minutes from Jerusalem, and 5 minutes from Israel’s only international airport. Lod is also the most ancient city in Israel, with 8,000 years of continuous settlement. In the past, it served as the capital of every culture that ruled Israel from the Stone Ages till 1948.

The city of Lod is holy for Christians (St. George is buried there) and Muslims (the End-of-Days war is supposed to take place here). It is also a holy site for the Jews; during te time of the Mishnah and the Talmud, Lod was named “Second to Jerusalem,” and was an important spiritual center.

The approximately 75,000 residents of Lod represent a diversity of cultural backgrounds that cannot be found anywhere else in Israel, making the city a microcosm of Israeli society. Inhabitants include religious and secular Muslims and Christians; Bedouins; Jews of all different ethnicities and religious levels, from secular to ultra-orthodox, and including a Gar’in Torani presence.

For various reasons, the Lod of today is a poor city suffering under the stigma of an equally poor reputation, both amongst its residents and among the general Israeli public. The city is plagued by a lack of planning and the presence of numerous illegal neighborhoods. However, because of its prime location and impressive historical sites, Lod has great potential for tourism and economic success. At the moment, this potential is not being capitalized upon.

The Lod Community Foundation , together with partners in Israel and abroad, is working to build project plans for the development of the city in a variety of fields: welfare, community, environmental protection, education, culture, tourism and the development of the Old City. Simultaneously, Lod Community Foundation seeks funding for these development projects from private and public donors.

Since the founding of the Lod Community Foundation in June 2008, the foundation has attracted the participation of over 100 volunteers, including community representatives, top-of-the-line Israeli professionals, municipal leaders, governmental representatives, and donors in Israel and

abroad.

We at Lod Community Foundation emphasize the value of multi-culturalism, equality, and cooperation. We believe that the success of the Foundation can influence not just the fate of the city of Lod, but can be used as a model for Jewish-Arab relations in Israel as a whole, and eventually, in the entire Middle East.