Column: Beer Sheba — Israel’s Innovation Capital | The Detroit Jewish News

Currently, Beer Sheba is home to the world’s first Innovation Center for Climate Change, specializing in desert technology.

Beer Sheba (known in Hebrew as Be’er Sheva) is not on most visitors’ itinerary to Israel, but once arriving at what was often regarded as a sleepy desert outpost in Israel’s socio-economic periphery, the visitor now finds Israel’s innovation capital. The capital of Israel’s Negev is developing a most impressive 650-acre innovation district that will connect the city’s academic institutions, industry and the community, focusing on digital health solutions, desert technologies and cyber.  

Professor Daniel Haimovich, president of Ben-Gurion University, says it very clearly, over seven decades after Israel’s first prime minister David Ben-Gurion advocated the potential of the desert, “The innovation district is no longer a project but a significant landmark in the emerging history of the State of Israel and the Negev area in particular. I can already envision how the district will look: the whole area will be bustling with activity: innovative projects, promising new startups, technological and scientific advancements, blooming research, and multiple projects and collaborations that will be realized. Something big is about to happen … It will set the stage for ongoing action toward fulfilling earlier dreams.” 

Currently, Beer Sheba is home to the world’s first Innovation Center for Climate Change, specializing in desert technology. It will be joined by DeserTech, a newly launched desert technology company announced by the Israeli Innovation Institute.  Following suit, the Israeli government declared Beer Sheba the Cyber Capital of Israel and went into action by moving the IDF technology and communications divisions to the Negev.

The cooperation between the city’s institutions, including Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), with its 20,000 students, the Tech Park and the Soroka Medical Center (serving a geographical area of over 60% of the area of Israel and over 1 million residents) as well as the IDF, is putting the city on the forefront of Israel’s innovation scene.  The tech park is planned to include 15 buildings and employ over 10,000 high-tech workers. Recently, two large cyber companies, Cyberseason and CyberArk, announced establishing R&D centers in Beer Sheba, joining companies such as IBM, Dell, Amazon, Cisco, Microsoft and Google along with hundreds of startups who have already created a presence in the city.

Even Israel Railways are on board, with stations connecting Tel Aviv in less than a one-hour commute. One of the most popular mayors in the country is Beer Sheba’s Rubik Danilovich, who was recently reelected with over 92% of the ballots. He recently stated, “Beer Sheba is turning into a national-technology hub and an international knowledge center. There is no other city in the world that concentrates so much tech-knowledge and excellent human resources in such a small radius.” 

And if the innovative spirit of Beer Sheba is not enough, it is an affordable city for the young family that is finding outrageous housing prices in the center of the country and home ownership almost unattainable. Beer Sheba’s property prices are almost 70% lower than in Tel Aviv, and rents are reasonable and available. Something very big is happening in Beer Sheba. 

“It is in the Negev that the creativity and pioneer vigor of Israel shall be tested,” said David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister. 

Naomi Miller is director of Israel Partnerships at the Michigan Israel Business Accelerator and the director of Missions and Exchanges at the Jewish Federation of Metro Detroit. This essay is reprinted from the MIBA.