Guide to Finding Anglo Communities in Israel: Best Neighborhoods for English-Speaking Immigrants

Anglo communities in Israel are neighborhoods and towns where English-speaking immigrants have settled in numbers. The sections below cover what the label means, which community types exist, and where each city fits. For prices and rents, see the table above.

What is an Anglo community in Israel?

An Anglo community is a group of immigrants from English-speaking countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and South Africa. Many Anglo communities also include Israelis who are fluent in English and identify strongly with Anglo culture.

What makes a neighborhood truly Anglo-friendly?

• Synagogues with minyanim where English is commonly spoken.

• Schools that offer English support or bilingual programs.

• Community services, lawyers, and doctors who can communicate easily in English.

• Social networks, WhatsApp groups, and cultural events where Anglos feel at home.

For new immigrants (olim), these factors can make the difference between struggling to integrate and quickly finding a sense of belonging.

Which types of Anglo community exist in Israel?

Israel’s Anglo neighborhoods reflect the different cultural and religious streams of the Jewish world:

• Secular communities: often urban, coastal, or academic hubs, with cultural life in English.

• Modern Orthodox and Religious Zionist communities: strong in areas like Beit Shemesh, Efrat, and Ra’anana.

• Haredi neighborhoods: Har Nof in Jerusalem or parts of Ramat Beit Shemesh have large Haredi Anglo populations.

• Mixed communities: places like Baka in Jerusalem or Ir Yamim in Netanya attract a wide blend.

Anglo neighborhoods often cluster around synagogues, schools, and housing projects. Events in English, such as shiurim, book clubs, concerts, and lectures, make Anglos feel at home.

Which cities and neighborhoods should you compare for an Anglo community?

Examples to research include Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, Ra’anana, Netanya and Efrat; this is not a population ranking. The best-known Anglo communities in Israel run from British neighborhoods in Ra’anana and Herzliya to American communities in Beit Shemesh and Gush Etzion.

Ra’anana

• The municipality publishes an English-language education guide for new immigrants, with links for preschool, elementary school, high school and special education.

• Use Ra’anana’s municipal newcomer services to check Hebrew-study and education information, then compare Ra’anana homes and area data.

• Nefesh B’Nefesh (NBN), the nonprofit that helps olim from North America and the UK, keeps a community guide for each city. Its Ra’anana page (updated 24 March 2026) says the areas around the Ariel, Bilu and Yavne schools are the most popular with olim, and that the religious community generally lives on the north side of the city and the secular community on the south side. That is a general pattern, not a rule for every street. Our Ra’anana guide for Anglo families covers buying there.

Herzliya Pituach

• Affluent coastal area with many Anglos in tech and business.

• Beaches, modern housing, proximity to Tel Aviv.

• NBN says most olim in Herzliya live on the western side of the city, the side that includes Herzliya Pituach. Its guide lists no separate municipal package for olim: the city grants the benefits set by law through its regular departments. To weigh the two coastal options, see our Tel Aviv vs Herzliya comparison.

Tel Aviv

• North Tel Aviv, Neve Tzedek, Old North popular with English speakers. NBN’s guide (updated 18 March 2026) adds that olim live all over the city rather than in one enclave.

• Professionals, younger crowd, vibrant culture, but high cost of living.

• The municipality’s Department for Immigration Absorption advises olim on city services, local olim benefits and careers, and serves residents in English, French, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese. Ulpan Gordon is the municipal ulpan that both the city and NBN list; ask the department which other municipal Hebrew classes are running this year.

• Tel Aviv is mainly secular, but it has synagogues and communities of every denomination. NBN’s undated list includes Orthodox congregations that welcome English-speaking olim as well as Masorti (Conservative) and egalitarian congregations, so check each one’s current times directly.

Netanya

• NBN names Ir Yamim, Ramat Poleg, Kiryat HaSharon, the Nitza Boulevard area and Nof HaTayelet as the neighborhoods popular with olim (guide updated 11 March 2024). These areas attract retirees and families.

• Strong Anglo and French presence, beachfront lifestyle, more affordable than Tel Aviv.

• NBN lists an international ulpan (Ulpan Bein Leumi), a municipal absorption (klita, קליטה) department with a coordinator for English-speaking olim, and schools in all three streams: state, state-religious and Haredi.

Jerusalem

• Neighborhoods include German Colony, Baka, Rechavia, Katamon and Har Nof.

• Dense mix of Anglo communities in Israel across every religious spectrum.

Beit Shemesh

• Ramat Beit Shemesh is part of Beit Shemesh. Compare homes and the existing neighborhood guides on our Beit Shemesh city page.

• The municipality’s 2026/27 school-registration page lists English-speaking absorption contacts for new immigrant families. Ask about support at the particular school you are considering.

Efrat & Gush Etzion

• Tight-knit, ideological and religious Anglos.

• Strong community bonds, schools, beautiful scenery.

Ma’ale Adumim

• Popular among Anglos who want proximity to Jerusalem but more space and affordability.

Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut

• A planned city, designed by architect Moshe Safdie and built from 1996, with a large English-speaking population.

• Good location between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

• NBN (updated 16 September 2026) lists Shvatim (North Buchman), Moriah (South Buchman), Avnei Chen (Kaiser), Masuah (Givah C), Nechalim (Shimshoni), Nofim, Tziporim and Moreshet as popular with olim, and says most neighborhoods are homogeneous in religious affiliation, so check the character of the exact street.

• The municipality’s absorption department runs an olim ulpan at 29 Irusim Street in Re’ut and has an olim coordinator for English and Russian speakers. NBN also lists a coordinator for new-immigrant students in the Education Department and a highly subsidized summer camp for olim children.

• Trade-offs to know: there is no hospital in the city (Shamir Medical Center, formerly Assaf Harofeh, and Kaplan Medical Center are the nearby ones), and NBN lists state and state-religious schools but no Haredi schools.

Central Israel and the Sharon: where olim live, city by city

Beyond the best-known names, English-speaking olim also settle across Gush Dan, the Shfela and the Sharon. The table compares 13 central cities and towns on where olim tend to live and what the municipality offers newcomers. It draws on NBN’s community guide, which is updated one city at a time, so each row shows its own date, and on the Tel Aviv-Yafo, Modi’in and Rehovot municipal olim pages. Staff change often, so reach the department through its official page rather than a named person.

A few points the table can’t hold. Rishon LeZion, 12 km south of Tel Aviv, has nearly 30 neighborhoods, and NBN finds Anglo olim in the east, the west and the centre rather than in one area. In Rehovot, home of the Weizmann Institute, most Anglo olim live near the Berman shul, a Modern Orthodox community, and Chatam, a Yeshivish learning community with an English-speaking rav. NBN describes Petach Tikva, founded in 1878 and known as Em HaMoshavot (the mother of the settlements), as integrated across every background and level of observance. Tel Mond is a small Sharon community founded more than 80 years ago, with religious and secular residents and an active Anglo community. If you are new to Ramat Gan, our guide to renting in Ramat Gan as a new oleh covers the lease side.

Northern Israel: Haifa, the Galilee and the valleys

English speakers in the north are spread across many towns rather than one enclave. Haifa’s Ahuza, Neve Shaanan and Kiryat Shmuel neighborhoods, Karmiel, Afula, Nahariya and Tzfat each have an English-speaking circle, and further south, most of the coastal area’s English-speaking immigrants live in what olim call the “Five Towns”. The accounts below are residents’ reports from undated Nefesh B’Nefesh roundtables and profiles (published around 2017 to 2018) and its community pages last updated in January 2024, so use them to decide where to look, not as a current head count.

Haifa. Ahuza, on the Carmel ridge, draws olim who want some English speakers around without living in an Anglo enclave. One family who came from Cleveland in 2011 said they “wanted to move to Israel, not to a Teaneck, New Jersey, that happens to be in Israel.” Residents point to sea views and the breeze, a mixed Jewish population (Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox), weekly Shabbat invitations and practical help for newcomers, and a big city without big-city stress and expense. A national-religious couple chose Neve Shaanan for an observant area that is not Anglo-dominated: it is full of young families, parks and nearby cafés, and one mother of three young children called it very child-friendly. Residents of both areas said buying is not cheap, though less so than in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. Kiryat Shmuel, in the Haifa Bay area near Kiryat Motzkin, is a quiet neighborhood of mostly older buildings with some modern ones, home to a small English-speaking group that runs shared events and helps its members through a crisis or a simcha. To weigh Haifa against the coast further south, see our Netanya vs Haifa comparison and the Haifa profile in our retirement cities guide.

Karmiel. NBN describes this planned, middle-class Galilee city, with open spaces and parks, as a strong choice for Haredi Anglo olim: an integrated Yeshivish and Balebatish community with an out-of-town flavor that eases the move into Israeli life. That community is concentrated in Dromit, the Rabin area and parts of Makosh, which are within walking distance of each other and offer a range of housing. An earlier NBN profile of the wider English-speaking community found many olim in Ramat Rabin and the Old Center, and newcomers there described city and ministry staff going out of their way, from taking a new couple to buy a monthly bus pass to finding a colleague who spoke English.

Afula. Afula’s frum population lives mainly in two neighborhoods close to each other, Givat HaMoreh and Afula Illit. Afula Illit has the larger English-speaking population, including many olim who arrived in recent years (NBN, January 2024).

Nahariya and Tzfat. Nahariya’s English speakers include olim from the United States and England, many in their 40s to 70s who followed grown children to Israel, and they run their own English book club. One resident put it this way: there are enough Anglos to make an English speaker comfortable, “but not so many as to feel that you’re back in” the old country. In Tzfat, olim describe a warm Anglo community. One couple, now living in Givat Shoshana a short walk from the Old City, found Shabbat hosts through an English posting list when they first visited, and several English-language Facebook and WhatsApp groups serve the community. For the city itself, read our Tzfat (Safed) guide.

The “Five Towns” south of Haifa. Anglo olim call Pardes Hanna-Karkur, Zichron Yaakov, Caesarea, Hadera and Binyamina the Five Towns. Most of the area’s English-speaking immigrants live in these five, and a Five Towns WhatsApp group and several Facebook groups serve them. Pardes Hanna-Karkur itself has enough English speakers for a cultural cushion without becoming an Anglo enclave; Anglo families live in neighborhoods such as Neve Merchav, and residents say you need a car there.

The valleys: Migdal HaEmek and Yokneam Illit. In Migdal HaEmek English-speaking olim are a tiny minority. Those who came say the people are the town’s greatest asset, that it has the groceries, doctors, shopping centers and parks they need, and that an English speakers’ WhatsApp group gives enough support while they integrate. Yokneam Illit has few English speakers. A family who moved there from Haifa in 2013 chose it partly because there weren’t many Anglos, and their son was the only native English speaker in his school. Another resident who chose the town for the same reason explained why: past a certain size an Anglo group “becomes a clique and a community within a community,” which he sees as bad for children’s integration.

Why many northern olim choose to be a minority. Across these towns, from Yokneam Illit and Migdal HaEmek to Pardes Hanna-Karkur, Nahariya and Haifa’s Ahuza and Neve Shaanan, many English speakers deliberately pick places where Anglos are few, to push their Hebrew and their children’s integration, and lean on small English WhatsApp and Facebook groups for support. That is the bubble trade-off described below, and it is a pattern in residents’ accounts, not a statistic. If you are unsure which side of it suits your family, renting first in the neighborhood you are testing keeps the decision reversible.

Carmei Gat & Harish

• Newer housing projects, actively drawing young Anglo families.

• More affordable, marketed with housing projects in the best Anglo neighborhoods branding.

Ashdod, Ashkelon and Be’er Sheva

On the southern coast, Ashdod and Ashkelon offer beach living within commuting range of Tel Aviv. NBN describes Ashdod as more affordable than some of its neighboring cities, and Ashkelon as a place with a high standard of living at low cost. In Ashdod, NBN reports that its olim aged 40 and over live mostly in the neighborhoods south of Sderot Yerushalayim, that younger olim are spread across the city, and that Rova Yud Zayin (Quarter 17) and the Marina are popular. Ashkelon has a long Anglo history: many South African Jews settled there in the early 1950s, followed by successive waves of olim from the UK. NBN’s guide (updated 8 March 2026) says olim live all over Ashkelon, that several English speakers work in the municipality and help newcomers with municipal offices, and that ESOA (English Speakers of Ashkelon) runs a community library, book clubs, chesed groups, shiurim and craft groups, with a volunteer committee that answers questions from Anglos. Our Ashdod vs Ashkelon comparison sets the two side by side, and the Be’er Sheva city page covers the Negev’s main city.

Should I buy in a new housing project in an Anglo neighborhood?

It can work, because many Anglos buy into new housing projects in Anglo neighborhoods that are designed with immigrants in mind. Examples include:

• Neve Shamir in Ramat Beit Shemesh Hei

• Ir Yamim in Netanya

• Carmei Gat in Kiryat Gat

These projects are often marketed in English, with Anglo realtors, lawyers, and financing options. The trade-off: new construction is not automatically cheaper, and the actual schools, synagogues and services must be checked for the exact address.

What are the advantages and trade-offs of living in an Anglo community?

The main advantage is easier daily life in English, and the main cost is a higher price in the most popular enclaves.

Advantages of Anglo communities in Israel:

• Easier social integration, because neighbors and schools speak English.

• English-friendly bureaucracy and professionals.

• Networking and support for jobs, business, and family life.

Trade-offs:

• Higher cost in the most popular Anglo enclaves.

• Sometimes a cultural “bubble” that limits Hebrew immersion.

• Distance from job centers in some newer housing projects.

Where can I find Anglo lists, maps, and resources?

Anglos stay connected through lists, maps, and property portals:

• “Anglo List” websites and Facebook groups.

• Israel neighborhood map for English speakers, showing Anglo-heavy areas.

• Real estate portals like Semerenko Group that highlight English neighborhoods and provide detailed data on communities.