Givatayim (Hebrew: גִּבְעָתַיִם, lit. "two hills"; Arabic: جفعاتايم‎) is a city in Israel east of Tel Aviv. It is part of the metropolitan area known as Gush Dan. Givatayim was established in 1922 by pioneers of the Second Aliyah. It had a population of 54,700 people in 2011.

The name of the city comes from the "two hills" on which it was established: Borochov Hill and Kozlovsky Hill. Kozlovsky is the highest hill in the Gush Dan region at 85 meters above sea level. The city expanded in the 1930s so that today it is actually situated on 4 hills, Borochov, Kozlovsky, the railroad workers (poalei harakevet), and Rambam Hill.

History

Archaeological ruins date settlement on the site of what is now Givatayim back to the Calcolithic period. The modern town was founded on April 2, 1922 by a group of 22 Second Aliyah pioneers led by David Schneiderman. The group purchased 300 dunams (300,000 square metres (3,200,000 sq ft)) of land on the outskirts of Tel Aviv that became the Borochov neighborhood, the first workers' neighborhood in the country. It was named for Dov Ber Borochov, founder of the Poalei Zion workers' party. Later, another 70 families joined the group, receiving smaller plots. The land was purchased with their private savings, but was voluntarily transferred to the Jewish National Fund, which organized Jewish settlement at the time, in keeping with the pioneers' socialist beliefs.