A small town in the northwest of Israel; in fact, the most north-westerly town in the country. Shlomi is about 2km from the sea and 1km from the border with Lebanon
Founded originally in 1949 as an immigrant camp, Shlomi became a town in 1950 but was abandoned. In 1955, it was repopulated as a "ma'abara" (tent-camp) for Jewish refugees fleeing from North Africa, mainly Morocco.
Shlomi is one of Israel's poorer towns. For years it had the status of a Development Town but it didn't develop.
In recent years, there has been a new push for development with a new more posh neighbourhood, Shlomit, being built to the North East of the town. This new area is mainly populated by new Russian immigrants. Shlomit also houses a Youth Hostel and a regional teacher training centre The total population of Shlomi is about 6000 people.
The major source of employment in Shlomi is industry. There are factories in the north of the town, as well as a meat-processing plant.
There are two primary schools in the town; Rav Maimon is a religious school, and Ben-Zvi is secular. There is no High School, children have to bus to Cabri a few miles east, or Nahariya to the south west. Erez technical college is in Shlomi, training adults to do skilled work.
Shlomi is beautiful. To the West, you can see the sunset on the Mediterranean; To the North the mountains of Lebanon; To the East, the forests of the Galilee; and to the South, Israel spread out before you like a tablecloth.
Until May 2000 Shlomi was often attacked by katyusha rockets from Lebanon. Since the Israeli withdrawal, things have been quieter. In 2002 there was trouble again; some shrapnel fired across the border, and a possible infiltration and ambush on the road East out of town that left 6 Israelis dead and shot at the Cabri schoolbus. Luckily, nobody on the bus was injured.