Tel Aviv

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Tel Aviv

View of Tel Aviv's beachfront from Old Jaffa

Emblem of Tel Aviv
Hebrew תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ
Name meaning Spring Hill
Founded in 1909
Government City (from po)
District Tel Aviv
Population 388,700[1]
Metropolitan Area: 3,150,800 (2006)
Jurisdiction 51,788 dunams (51.8 km²)
Mayor Ron Huldai
Website www.tel-aviv.gov.il
Tel Aviv's location within the Tel Aviv District
Tel Aviv's location within the Tel Aviv District

Tel Aviv-Yafo (Hebrew: תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ‎)[2] (commonly Tel Aviv) is the second-largest city in Israel, with a population of 388,700.[1] Tel Aviv is situated on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline, covering 51.8 square kilometres (20.0 sq mi). It is the largest and most populous city in the Israeli metropolitan area known as Gush Dan, home to 3.15 million people as of 2007.[3] The city is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality, headed by Ron Huldai.[4]

Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 on the outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa (Hebrew: יָפוֹ‎, Yafo). The growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced Jaffa, which was largely Arab at the time. Tel Aviv and Jaffa were merged into a single municipality in 1950, two years after the establishment of the State of Israel. Tel Aviv's White City, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, comprises the world's largest concentration of Modernist-style buildings.[5][6][7]

Tel Aviv is Israel's economic hub, home of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and many corporate offices and research and development centers.[8] Its beaches, cafes, upscale shopping and secular lifestyle have made it a popular tourist destination.[9] Tel Aviv is the country's cultural capital and a center of music, theater and the arts.[10] In the 2007 Mercer cost of living survey, Tel Aviv was ranked as the most expensive city in the Middle East, and 17th in the world.[11]

Contents

[edit] Etymology

The name Tel Aviv (literally "Hill of Spring") was chosen in 1910 from many suggestions, among them "Herzliya". Tel Aviv is the Hebrew title of Theodor Herzl's book Altneuland ("Old New Land"), translated from German by Nahum Sokolow. Sokolow took the name from the Book of Ezekiel: "Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Aviv, that lived by the river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days."[12] This name was found fitting as it embraced the idea of the renaissance of the ancient Jewish homeland. Aviv is Hebrew for "spring", symbolizing renewal, and tel is an archeological site that reveals layers of civilization built one over the other.[13]

Theories vary about the etymology of Jaffa or Yafo in Hebrew. Some believe that the name derives from yafah or yofi, Hebrew for "beautiful" or "beauty". Another tradition is that Japheth, son of Noah, founded the city and that it was named for him. The city of Jaffa is mentioned in the Book of Jonah.[14]

[edit] History

[edit] Jaffa

Further information: Jaffa
Tel Aviv was founded on land purchased from Bedouins north of Jaffa. This photograph is of the 1909 auction of the first lots
Tel Aviv was founded on land purchased from Bedouins north of Jaffa. This photograph is of the 1909 auction of the first lots
Early Tel Aviv
Early Tel Aviv
"I will build thee, and thou shalt be built" – a memorial to the founders of Tel Aviv on Rothschild Boulevard
"I will build thee, and thou shalt be built" – a memorial to the founders of Tel Aviv on Rothschild Boulevard

Jaffa is an ancient port and has changed hands many times in the course of history. Archeological evidence shows that it was the site of permanent settlement some 7,500 years before the Christian era.[15] The earliest remnants discovered to date are from the end of the second century BCE.[16] According to some sources it has been a port for at least 4,000 years,[17][18] and archaelogical excavations have turned up artifacts from the Middle Bronze Age.[15] The city is first mentioned in letters from 1470 BCE that record its conquest by Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III.[7] In the Bible, Jaffa is the city where the prophet Jonah set sail for Tarshish and was swallowed by a great fish.[19] In the Book of Joshua Jaffa is described as bordering on the territory of the Tribe of Dan.[20] II Chronicles 2:15 relates that the wood for the Temple in Jerusalem was shipped from Lebanon to Jaffa during the reign of King Solomon.[21]

After the Crusaders left Palestine, life in Jaffa lay dormant for centuries.[16] The Mamluk Sultan Babars destroyed the harbor and razed the city in 1268.[22] To prevent further Crusader conquests, the city was ransacked in 1336, 1344 and 1346 by Nasr al-Din Muhammad.[23] In the 16th century, Jaffa was conquered by the Ottomans and was administered as a village in the sanjak of Gaza.[16] Napoleon besieged the city in 1799 and killed scores of inhabitants, followed by a plague epidemic that decimated the remaining population.[16]

Jaffa began to grow as an urban center in the early 18th century, when the central government in Constantinople introduced security measures to guard the port and reduce attacks by Bedouin and pirates.[16]

During the mid-19th century, the city experienced great prosperity via trade with Europe, especially in silk and Jaffa oranges.[7] Since it was the gateway to Jerusalem, many immigrants passed through the city but most settled in Jerusalem.[7] In 1860, the small Sephardic community in Jaffa was joined by Jews from Morocco and small numbers of European Ashkenazi Jews.[7] In the 1870s, the old city walls were razed to allow for expansion.[24] By 1882 Jaffa’s Jews numbered more than 1,500; meanwhile, the total population of the town grew from 2,500 in 1806 to 17,000 in 1886.[7]

During the 1880s, Ashkenazi immigration to Jaffa increased with the onset of the First Aliyah. These immigrants were motivated by Zionism more than religion. They came to farm the land and engage in productive labor.[7] In keeping with their pioneer ideology, some chose to settle in the sand dunes north of Jaffa.[7] The beginning of modern-day Tel Aviv is marked by the construction of Neve Tzedek a neighborhood constructed between 1887 and 1896, to the north of Jaffa.[5]

[edit] Ahuzat Bayit

The Second Aliyah led to further expansion.[7] In 1906, a group of Jews, among them residents of Jaffa, banded together to build a new garden suburb on the outskirts of Jaffa.[25] The goal of the Ahuzat Bayit (lit. "Homestead") society was to build a “Hebrew urban centre in a healthy environment, planned according to the rules of aesthetics and modern hygiene”.[7] In 1908, the group purchased 5 hectares (12 acres) of dunes northeast of Jaffa which were divided into 60 plots. Meir Dizengoff, who went on to become head of the Tel Aviv local council in 1911, and later, the city's first mayor, was a member of Ahuzat Bayit.[26][27] Dizengoff's vision for Tel Aviv involved peaceful co-existence with the Arabs.[7]

[edit] Nahalat Binyamin

Another housing society, Nahalat Binyamin, began to build on April 11, 1909, after holding a lottery to divide up the land.[28] Within a year, Herzl, Ahad Ha‘am, Judah Halevi, Lilienblum, and Rothschild streets were built and a water system installed. 66 houses (including some on six subdivided plots) had been completed.[28] At the end of Herzl Street, a plot was allocated for a new building for the Herzliya Hebrew High School, founded in Jaffa in 1906.[28] On May 21, 1910, the name Tel Aviv was adopted.[28] Tel Aviv was planned as a European-style garden suburb of Jaffa, with wide streets and boulevards.[29]

By 1914, Tel Aviv had grown to include more than 100 hectares (247 acres), including several new neighborhoods.[28] However, growth halted in 1917 when the Ottoman authorities expelled the Jews of Jaffa.[28] A report published in The New York Times by United States Consul Garrels in Alexandria, Egypt described the Jaffa deportation of early April 1917. The orders of evacuation were aimed chiefly at the Jewish population.[30]

[edit] Under the British Mandate

Spring scene on Rothschild Boulevard, one of Tel Aviv's historic streets
Spring scene on Rothschild Boulevard, one of Tel Aviv's historic streets
Historic Tel Aviv town hall and Nahum Gutman fountain on Bialik Street
Historic Tel Aviv town hall and Nahum Gutman fountain on Bialik Street
Site of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination at Kikar Malchei Yisrael, later renamed Rabin Square
Site of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination at Kikar Malchei Yisrael, later renamed Rabin Square

Under British administration, the political friction between Jews and Arabs in Palestine increased. On May 1, 1921, the Jaffa Riots erupted and an Arab mob killed dozens of Jewish residents. In the wake of this violence, many Jews left Jaffa for Tel Aviv, increasing the population of Tel Aviv from 2,000 in 1920 to 34,000 by 1925.[5][1] New businesses opened in Tel Aviv, leading to the decline of Jaffa as a commercial center.[28] In 1925, Patrick Geddes drew up a master plan for Tel Aviv that was adopted by the city council led by Meir Dizengoff.[7] The core idea was the development of a Garden City. The boundaries he worked within, the Yarkon River in the North and Ibn Gvirol Street in the East, are still regarded as Tel Aviv's real city limits although it has since grown beyond them.[31]

Tel Aviv continued to grow in 1926 but suffered an economic setback in 1927–30.[28][7] At the same time, cultural life was given a boost by the establishment of the Ohel Theater and the decision of Habima Theatre to make Tel Aviv its permanent base in 1931.[28] Tel Aviv gained municipal status in 1934.[28]

The population rose dramatically during the Fifth Aliyah when the Nazis came to power in Germany.[28] As the Jews fled Europe, many settled in Tel Aviv, bringing the population in 1937 to 150,000, compared to Jaffa's 69,000 residents. Within two years, it had reached 160,000, which was over a third of the country's total Jewish population.[28] Many new immigrants remained after disembarking in Jaffa, turning the city into a center of urban life. In the wake of the 1936–39 Arab rioting, a local port independent of Jaffa was built in 1938, and Lod Airport (later Ben Gurion Airport) and Sde Dov Airport opened between 1937 and 1938.[7]

Tel Aviv's White City, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, emerged in the 1930s. Many of the German Jewish architects trained at the Bauhaus, the Modernist school of architecture closed by the Nazis in 1933, fled Germany. Some came to Palestine and adapted the architectural outlook of the Bauhaus as well as other similar schools, to local conditions, creating the largest concentration of buildings in the International Style in the world.[7][5]

According to the 1947 UN Partition Plan that proposed dividing Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, Tel Aviv, by then a city of 230,000, was slated for inclusion in the Jewish state. Jaffa was designated as part of the Arab state. The Arabs, however, rejected the partition plan.[7] Between 1947 and 1948, tensions grew on the border between Tel Aviv and Jaffa, with Arab snipers firing at Jews from the minaret of the local mosque. The Haganah and Irgun retaliated with a siege on Jaffa.[7] From April 1948, the Arab residents began to leave. When Jaffa was conquered by Israeli forces on May 14, few remained.[7]

[edit] After Israeli independence

By the time of Israel's Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948, the population of Tel Aviv had risen to more than 200,000.[1] Throughout the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Tel Aviv served as Israel's temporary capital because of the Arab blockade of Jerusalem, which was named the capital in December 1949.[13] Because of the international dispute over the status of Jerusalem, most foreign embassies stayed in or near Tel Aviv. In the early 1980s, 13 more returned there as part of the UN's punitive measures responding to Israel's 1980 Jerusalem Law.[32] Today, all but two of the international embassies to Israel are in Tel Aviv or the surrounding district.[33] In April 1949, Tel Aviv and Jaffa were united in the single municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo, and the lands of neighboring villages such as al-Shaykh Muwannis, Jammasin and Sumail, which had been depopulated during the war, were incorporated into the municipality.[34] Tel Aviv thus grew to 42 square kilometers (16.2 sq mi). In 1949, a memorial to the 60 founders of Tel Aviv was constructed.[35] Over the past 60 years, Tel Aviv has developed into a secular, liberal-minded city with a vibrant nightlife and café culture.[36][7]

In the 1960's, some of the city's Modernist buildings were demolished, whilst others were neglected to disrepair as new tower blocks were constructed in the city, including the Shalom Meir Tower, Israel's tallest building until 1999. Tel Aviv's population peaked in the early 1960's at 390,000, representing, 16% of the country's total.[37] A long period of steady decline followed, however and by the late 1980's, the city had an ageing population of 317,000.[37] Families were pushed out by high property prices, whilst the young were deterred from movng in from the same reasons.[37]

At this time, gentrification started taking place in the poorer southern neighborhoods and the old port area in the north was renewed.[7] New laws were introduced later to protect the Modernist buildings, and their preservation was further helped by their gaining of UNESCO status. The early 1990's saw the population decline reverse in part due to the large wave of immigrants from the former Soviet Union.[37] The 1990's also saw the emergence of Tel Aviv as a high-tech center.[7] The construction of many skyscrapers and hi-tech office buildings followed, as Tel Aviv moved into a new phase in its development. In 1993 Tel Aviv was, for the first time, mentioned as a World City by Kellerman who emphasized the existence of "leading economic functions typical for the late 20th century city: hi-tech industries and a modern service economy."[38] The city is regarded to be a strong candidate global city with many of the key characteristics of World Cities being present.[10]

On November 4, 1995, Israel's prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated at a rally in Tel Aviv in support of the Oslo peace accord. The outdoor plaza where this occurred, formerly known as Kikar Malchei Yisrael, was renamed Rabin Square.[7]

Tel Aviv has suffered from violence by Palestinian militant groups since the post-First Intifada period. The first suicide attack in Tel Aviv occurred on October 19, 1994, on the Line 5 bus, when a bomber killed himself and 21 civilians as part of a Hamas suicide campaign. The most deadly attack occurred on June 1, 2001, during the Second Intifada, when a suicide bomb exploded inside a nightclub called the Dolphi Disco, and 21 were killed and more than 100 were injured. The most recent attack in the city occurred on April 17, 2006, when 10 people, many of them foreign laborers, were killed and dozens wounded in another suicide attack in the same location.[39]

In recent years, Tel Aviv has seen increasing support towards green issues with the city turning its lights off as part of Earth Hour in March, 2008.[40]

[edit] Geography

Aerial view northwestwards across Tel Aviv
Aerial view northwestwards across Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv is located around 32°5′N, 34°48′E on the Israeli Mediterranean Coastal Plain, the historic land bridge between Europe, Africa, and Asia. Immediately north of the ancient port of Jaffa, Tel Aviv is on land that used to be sand dunes and as such has relatively poor soil fertility. The land has been flattened and has no important gradients; its most notable geographical features are bluffs above the Mediterranean coastline and the Yarkon River mouth.[41] Because of the expansion of Tel Aviv and the Gush Dan region, absolute borders between Tel Aviv and Jaffa and between the city's neighborhoods do not exist. The city is 60 kilometers (37 mi) northwest of Jerusalem and 90 kilometers (56 mi) south of the northern port city of Haifa.[42] Neighboring cities and towns include Herzliya Pituah to the north, Herzliya and Ramat HaSharon to the northeast, Ramat Gan and Giv'atayim to the east, Holon to the southeast, and Bat Yam to the south.[43]

[edit] Climate

Tel Aviv has a Mediterranean climate with hot summers, pleasant springs and autumns, and cool, wet winters (Köppen climate classification Csa). Humidity tends to be high year-round due to the city's proximity to the sea. In winter, temperatures seldom drop below 5 °C (40 °F) and are usually between 10 °C (50 °F) and 15 °C (60 °F); the city has not seen proper snow since 1950.[44] In summer the average is 26 °C (80 °F), and often daytime temperatures exceed 32 °C (90 °F). Despite the high humidity, precipitation during summertime is rare. The average annual rainfall is 530 millimeters (20.9 in), nearly all occurring between October and April.[45] Tel Aviv experiences on average more than 300 sunny days a year. The record high temperature the city has seen is 43 °C (110 °F), whilst the city's record low is −1 °C (30 °F).[46][47]

Weather averages for Tel Aviv
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) 17.5 (63.5) 17.7 (63.7) 19.2 (66.6) 22.8 (73.0) 24.9 (76.8) 27.5 (81.5) 29.4 (84.9) 30.2 (86.4) 29.4 (84.9) 27.3 (81.1) 23.4 (74.1) 19.2 (66.6) 24.0 (75.2)
Average low °C (°F) 9.6 (49.3) 9.8 (49.6) 11.5 (52.7) 14.4 (57.9) 17.3 (63.1) 20.6 (69.1) 23.0 (73.4) 23.7 (74.7) 22.5 (72.5) 19.1 (66.4) 14.6 (58.3) 11.2 (52.2) 16.4 (61.5)
Precipitation mm (inch) 222.3 (8.8) 128.2 (5.0) 22.0 (0.9) 1.5 (0.1) 7.5 (0.3) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 2.4 (0.1) 64.1 (2.5) 98.3 (3.9) 546.3 (21.5)
Source: Israel Central Bureau of Statistics[48][49]

[edit] Districts

Further information: Neighborhoods of Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv is made up of nine districts that have formed naturally over the city's short history. The most notable of these is Jaffa, the ancient port city out of which Tel Aviv grew. This area is traditionally made up demographically of a greater percentage of Arabs, but recent gentrification is replacing them with a young professional population. Similar processes are occurring in nearby Neve Tzedek, the original Jewish neighborhood outside of Jaffa. Ramat Aviv, a neighborhood in the northern part of the city largely made up of luxury apartments, is currently undergoing extensive expansion and is set to absorb the beachfront property of Sde Dov Airport after its decommissioning.[50]

Historically, there has been a demographic split between the Ashkenazi and Europeans north of the city, including the neighborhood of Ramat Aviv, and the southern, more Sephardi and Mizrahi neighborhoods including Neve Tzedek and Florentin.[7]

Since the 1980s, however, restoration and gentrification has taken place on a large scale in the southern neighborhoods, making them some of the city’s most desirable neighborhoods for the more prosperous north Tel Avivis.[7] In north Tel Aviv, the old port area, which had become run-down since the port was decommissioned in 1965, also saw an urban revival, becoming an upmarket area with shops and restaurants.[7]

[edit] Architecture

Further information: White City (Tel Aviv) and Category:Buildings and structures in Tel Aviv
Bauhaus architecture on Rothschild Boulevard
Bauhaus architecture on Rothschild Boulevard
Azrieli Center
Azrieli Center

The early architecture of Tel Aviv consisted largely of Eastern European-style single-story houses with red-tiled roofs.[31] Neve Tzedek, the first neighborhood to be constructed outside of Jaffa is characterised by two-story sandstone buildings.[5] By the 1920s, a new eclectic Orientalist style came into vogue, combining European architecture with Middle Eastern features such as arches, domes and ornamental tiles.[31] Municipal construction followed the "garden city" master plan drawn up by Patrick Geddes. Two and three story buildings were interspersed with boulevards and public parks.[31] Bauhaus architecture was introduced in the 1920s and 1930s, by German Jewish architects who settled in Palestine after the rise of the Nazis. Tel Aviv's White City, in north Tel Aviv, contains over 5,000 Modernist-style buildings inspired by the Bauhaus school and Le Corbusier.[5][6] Now declared protected landmarks and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, construction of these buildings continued until the 1950s in the area around Rothschild Boulevard.[6][51] 3,000 buildings were built in this style between 1931 and 1939 alone.[31]

In the 1960s, this architectural style gave way to office towers and a chain of waterfront hotels and commercial skyscrapers.[7] Some of the city's Modernist buildings were neglected to the point of ruin. Before legislation to preserve this landmark architecture, many of the old buildings were demolished. In recent years, efforts have been made to refurbish Bauhaus buildings and restore them to their original condition.[52] In recent years, Tel Aviv has become a hub of modern high-rise architecture due to the soaring price of real-estate in the city. The Shalom Meir Tower, Israel's first skyscraper, was built in Tel Aviv in 1965, and remained the country's tallest building until 1999. The Azrieli Center, composed of three buildings— one square, one triangular, and one circular—usurped that title. Since 2001, Israel's tallest building is the City Gate Tower, which is located in the neighboring city of Ramat Gan, although the country's tallest wholly residential building, the Neve Tzedek Tower, is located in Tel Aviv. New neighborhoods such as the Park Tzameret are being constructed to house luxury apartment towers including YOO Tel Aviv towers designed by Philippe Starck, whilst zones such as The South Kirya are being developed with office towers. Other recent additions to Tel Aviv's skyline are the 1 Rothschild Tower, Be'eri Nahardea Tower and First International Bank Tower.[53][54]

Migdal Shalom

Towers in Southern Kirya district

Bauhaus Museum

Pagoda House

[edit] Demographics

City of Tel Aviv
Population by year[37][7][1][5][28]
1920 2,000
1925 34,000
1937 150,000
1939 160,000
1948 200,000
1960 390,000
1989 317,000
2006 388,700
The Great Synagogue of Tel Aviv in the 1930s
The Great Synagogue of Tel Aviv in the 1930s

The city has a population of 388,700 spread over an area of 51,788 dunams (51.8 km²) (19.5 mi²), yielding a population density of 7,445 people per square kilometer (2,875 per square mile). According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), as of June 2006 Tel Aviv's population is growing at an annual rate of 0.9%. It consists of 91.8% Jews, 4.2% Arabs and 4.0% others (Christians, Buddhists).[55] The city is relatively multicultural, and languages such as Tagalog, Thai, Russian, Arabic, French and English are often spoken aside Hebrew. According to some estimates, about 50,000 unregistered Asian foreign workers live in the city.[56] Compared with other Westernised cities, crime in Tel Aviv is relatively low.[57]

According to Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, the average income in the city is about 20% above the national average, and the unemployment rate is 6.9%.[58] The city maintains education standards above the national average; of its 12th-grade students, 64.4% are eligible for matriculation certificates, the qualification received by those finishing high school.[58] In the city, the age profile of the population is relatively evenly spread, with 22.2% aged under 20, 18.5% aged 20–29, 24% aged 30–44, 16.2% aged between 45 and 59, and 19.1% older than 60.[59]

Tel Aviv's population peaked in the early 1960's at around 390,000, falling to 317,000 in the late 1980's as high property prices forced families out and prevented young residents from moving in.[37] The early 1990's, however, saw this downturn reversed with the entry of new immigrants from the Former Soviet Union, and ever since, the population has been growing steadily.[37] Today, the city's population is young and growing.[60] In 2006, 22,000 people moved to the city, while only 18,500 left,[60] and many of the new families had young children. The population of Tel Aviv is expected to reach 450,000 by 2025; meanwhile, the average age of residents in the city fell from 35.8 in 1983 to 34 in 2008.[60] The population over age 65 stands at 14.6% compared with 19% in 1983.[60]

[edit] Religion

Despite its image as a secular city, Tel Aviv has some 500 synagogues, including historic buildings such as the Great Synagogue, established in the 1930s.[61] Jewish law states, however, that ynagogues must be close to the place of residence, explaining the high number in the city. One of Tel Aviv's famous landmarks is the Hassan Bek Mosque, located on the beachfront. Jaffa is home to a sizable Muslim and Christian population. The number of churches has grown in recent years to accommodate the religious needs of diplomats and foreign workers.[62]

The Tel Aviv District is 93% Jewish, 1% Muslim, 1% Christian. The remaining 5% are not classified by religion.[63] The liberalness of Tel Aviv is perhaps best displayed in sexual and LGBT rights matters. The city hosts a Pride Parade, and hosted, in early 2008, Israel's first sex festival.

[edit] Economy

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
Shuk HaCarmel market
Shuk HaCarmel market

Since Tel Aviv was built on sand dunes, farming was not profitable and maritime commerce was centered in Haifa and Ashdod. Instead, the city gradually developed as a center for scientific and technical research. In 1974, Intel opened its first overseas research and development operation in the city, and Tel Aviv emerged as a high-tech center in the 1990s.[7] Economic activities in the city account for 15.2% of national employment and 16.7% of GDP.[37] Furthermore, 40% of national employment in Finance and 25% of national employment in Business Services is in the city.[37]

The economy of Tel Aviv has developed dramatically over the past decades. The city has been described as a flourishing technological center by Newsweek and a "miniature Los Angeles" by The Economist.[64][7] Many computer scientists, their numbers increased by immigration from the former Soviet Union since the early 1990s, live and work in Tel Aviv. In 1998, the city was described by Newsweek as one of the top 10 most technologically influential cities in the world. Since then, high-tech industry in the Tel Aviv area has developed even more.[64] The Tel Aviv metropolitan area (including satellite cities such as Herzliya and Petah Tikva) is Israel's center of high-tech, and is sometimes referred to as Silicon Wadi.[64][11] Tel Aviv is home to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), Israel's only stock exchange, which has reached record heights since the 1990s.[65] Many international venture-capital firms, scientific research institutes and high-tech companies are headquartered in the city. Industries in Tel Aviv include chemical processing, textile plants and food manufacturers.[7] The city's nightlife, cultural attractions and architecture attract tourists whose spending is beneficial to the local economy.[66]

The Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network (GaWC) at Loughborough University has constructed an inventory of world cities based on their level of advanced producer services. The inventory lists Tel Aviv as having "strong evidence" of world city formation—the highest ranking for a Middle Eastern city with the exception of partly European Istanbul.[67]

Nine of the fifteen Israeli billionaires live in Israel; four live in Tel Aviv or its suburbs (according to Forbes).[68][69] According to Mercer, a human resources consulting firm based in New York, as of 2007 Tel Aviv is the most expensive city in the Middle East and the 17th most expensive in the world. It falls just behind New York City and Dublin and just ahead of Rome and Vienna in this respect.[70][71]

[edit] Culture

[edit] Tourism and recreation

Tel Aviv beachfront skyline
Tel Aviv beachfront skyline

As a Mediterranean city, Tel Aviv attracts a variety of tourists from across the world with some having likened it in this respect to Barcelona.[9] It has many museums, cultural sites, beaches, and streets and districts, and according to the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, it has 44 hotels with more than 5,800 rooms.[58] A memorable slogan attributed to the city is "the city that never sleeps" because of its nightlife and 24-hour culture.[72][73]

Of its public parks and gardens, the largest is Yarkon Park. Gan Meir, named after the first mayor, Meir Dizengoff, is on King George Street. Seventeen percent of the city is covered in plants.[58] The city has many malls, such as the Dizengoff Center (Israel's first mall) and the Azrieli Center, as well as many hotels including the Crowne Plaza, Sheraton, Dan, Isrotel and Hilton. It is home to many museums, architectural and cultural sites, and offers tours in different languages. A bus tour of the city was made available in 2007,[74] and the city also has architectural tours[75] and Segway tours[76] as well as walking tours of many varieties.[77] Tel Aviv is known for its openness, thriving night life, and around-the-clock culture. The nightlife is particularly active around the beachfront promenades because of its many nightclubs and bars. The city is known in Israel as "The city that never sleeps".[78] The city also has a wide variety of restaurants offering both traditional Israeli food, and international style-food, many of which are world class. There are, for example, over 100 sushi restaurants, the third highest concentration in the world, and an Italian restaurant in the city was deemed the best Italian restaurant outside of Italy by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture.[6][79]

[edit] Arts and theater

Fredric R. Mann Auditorium, Tel Aviv's largest theater
Fredric R. Mann Auditorium, Tel Aviv's largest theater
Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance and Theatre in Neve Tzedek
Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance and Theatre in Neve Tzedek

Tel Aviv is the cultural capital of Israel.[80] Eighteen of Israel's 35 major centers for the performing arts are there, including five out of the country's nine large theater, where 55% of all performances in the country and 75% of all attendances take place.[37][81] The Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center is the home of the Israeli Opera, where Plácido Domingo was house tenor between 1962 and 1965, and the Cameri Theater.[82] With 3,000 seats, the Fredric R. Mann Auditorium (Heichal Hatarbut) is the city's largest theater.[83] Habima Theater, Israel's national theater, was closed down for renovations in early 2008. Enav Cultural Center is one of the newer additions to the cultural scene.[81] Other theaters in Tel Aviv are the Gesher Theater and Beit Lessin Theater; Tzavta and Tmuna are smaller theaters that host musical performances and fringe productions. In Jaffa, the Simta and Notzar theaters specialize in fringe.

Tel Aviv is home to a number of dance centers and companies. The Batsheva Dance Company, a contemporary dance troupe, as well as Bat Dor and the Israel Ballet are also headquartered in Tel Aviv.[81]

Opera and classical music performances are held in Tel Aviv on a daily basis.[81] Many of the world's leading classical conductors and soloists have performed to crowds in the city. Zubin Mehta, Itzhak Perlman, Leonard Bernstein, Isaac Stern, Lorin Maazel and Pinchas Zukerman (born in Tel Aviv) have all appeared on Tel Aviv stages.[81]

The Tel Aviv Cinemathèque screens art movies, premieres of short and full-length Israeli films, and hosts a variety of film festivals, among them the Festival of Animation, Comics and Caricatures, the Student Film Festival, the Jazz, Film and Videotape Festival and Salute to Israeli Cinema. The city has several multiplex cinemas.[81]

[edit] Museums

Israel is claimed to have the highest number of museums per capita of any country, three of the largest of which are in Tel Aviv.[84][85] Among the most notable are the Eretz Israel Museum, known for its rich collection of archaeology and history exhibits dealing with the Land of Israel, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, one of the major art museums in Israel. Housed on the campus of Tel Aviv University is the Beth Hatefutsoth, a museum of the international Jewish diaspora. Containing both historical documents and art, the museum tells the story of Jewish prosperity and persecution throughout the centuries of exile. Batey Haosef Museum is a showcase of the Israel Defense Forces' military history, containing rare exhibits and authentic pieces from Israel's history as well as a wide variety of firearms and pictures. The Palmach Museum near Tel Aviv University gives visitors a multimedia experience of the history of the Palmach as well as vast archives depicting the lives of young self-trained Jewish soldiers who became Israel's first defenders. Near Charles Clore's garden in north Jaffa is a small museum of the Etzel Jewish militant organization, one of the achievements of which was conquering Jaffa for Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The Tel Aviv Exhibition Center in the northern part of the city hosts more than 60 major events every year. Many offbeat museums and galleries are in the city's artsy southern areas, including the Tel Aviv Raw Art contemporary art gallery.[86][87]

[edit] Sports

Tel Aviv's Nokia Arena
Tel Aviv's Nokia Arena

Tel Aviv is home to some of the top sports teams in Israel, including a world-class basketball team. It is the only city with three teams in Ligat ha'Al, the country's top football league. Maccabi Tel Aviv Sports Club was founded in 1906 and competes in more than 10 sports. Its Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club holds 47 Israeli titles, has won 36 editions of the Israel cup, and has five European Championships, and its Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. holds 18 Israeli league titles and has won 22 editions of the Israel cup, two Israel Toto cups and two Asia cups. Yael Arad, an athlete in Maccabi's judo club, won a silver medal in the 1992 Olympic Games.[88]

Hapoel Tel Aviv Sports Club was founded in 1923 and has included more than 11 sports clubs[89] including the Hapoel Tel Aviv Football Club (13 Israeli championships, 11 Israeli cups, one Toto cup and one Asia champion), a kayaking club, and a women's basketball club.

Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv's football club (once Israeli champion, twice State Cup winners and twice Toto Cup winner) is the only Israeli football team in the top division that represents a neighborhood—the Hatikva Quarter in Tel Aviv—and not a city.

Other football clubs in the top division were Shimshon Tel Aviv and Beitar Tel Aviv, which has merged into one team, Beitar/Shimshon Tel Aviv, in the third division, Liga Artzit. Another former first division team, Maccabi Jaffa, played in the lower divisions in the 2007–08 season.

Two rowing clubs operate in Tel Aviv. The Tel Aviv Rowing Club, established as early as 1935 on the banks of the Yarkon River, is the largest rowing club in Israel.[90] Meanwhile, the beaches of Tel Aviv provide a vibrant Matkot (beach paddleball) scene.[91] Tel Aviv Lightning represent Tel Aviv in the Israel Baseball League.[92]

[edit] Government

Tel Aviv City Hall
Tel Aviv City Hall
Tel Aviv Courthouse
Tel Aviv Courthouse

Tel Aviv is governed by a 31-member city council elected for a four-year term in direct proportional elections.[93] All Israeli citizens over the age of 18 with at least one year of residence in Tel Aviv are eligible to vote in municipal elections. The municipality is responsible for social services, community programs, public infrastructure, urban planning, tourism and other local affairs.[94][95][96] The Tel Aviv City Hall is located at Rabin Square. Ron Huldai is the current mayor of Tel Aviv, having held that office since 1998.[93] The longest serving mayor of the city was Shlomo Lahat who was in office for 19 years, whilst the shortest serving, David Bloch was in office for just two years between 1925 and 1927. The importance of Tel Aviv is further enhanced by the fact that due to the non-recognition of Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel by the international community, most foreign countries maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv.[97][98] Furthermore, the Israeli Ministry of Defense is located in Tel Aviv.[99]

The demographic split between the north and south of the city have also traditionally created political divisions with the north a bastion of the Labor Party, whilst in the south, support for Likud and other right-wing and religious parties is stronger.[7] In the 2006 election, however this trend changed with the new centrist Kadima party gaining 28% of the city's vote, followed by Labor with 20%.[100][101]

[edit] Mayors

Mayors of Tel Aviv
Name Took office Left office
1 Meir Dizengoff 1921 1925
2 David Bloch 1925 1927
3 Meir Dizengoff 1928 1936
4 Israel Rokach 1936 1952
5 Haim Levanon 1953 1959
6 Mordechai Namir 1959 1969
7 Yehoshua Rabinowitz 1969 1974
8 Shlomo Lahat ("Chich") 1974 1993
9 Roni Milo 1993 1998
10 Ron Huldai 1998

[edit] Education

The Engineering Faculty Boulevard in Tel Aviv University
The Engineering Faculty Boulevard in Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv is home to a large number of schools, colleges, and universities. As of 2006, 51,359 children were in education in Tel Aviv, of whom 8,977 are in municipal kindergartens, 23,573 in municipal elementary schools, and 18,809 in high schools.[58] 64.4% of students in the city are entitled to matriculation, over 5% higher than the national average.[58] 4,000 children are currently in first grade at schools in the city, although due to the increase in population size and increasing birth rate in the city, by 2012, this number is expected to reach 6,000.[60] As a result, 20 additional kindergarten classes will open in the next school year (2008-09) in the city, while additional classes will be added at schools in north Tel Aviv, and plans are being developed for a new elementary school in the area north of Sde Dov, as well as a new high school in north Tel Aviv.[60]

Particularly notable schools in the city include the Gymnasia Herzlia, which moved from Jaffa to Tel Aviv in 1909 to coincide with the establishment of the city. The school continues to operate, although has moved to Jabotinsky Street.[102] Other notable schools in Tel Aviv include Shevah Mofet, the second Hebrew school in the city, Ironi Alef and Alliance.

Tel Aviv's major institution for higher education is Tel Aviv University. Together with Bar-Ilan University in neighboring Ramat Gan, the student population is over 50,000, with a sizeable number of international students.[103][104] Tel Aviv University, founded in 1953, is now the largest university in Israel, internationally known for its physics, computer science, chemistry and linguistics departments. The campus is located in the Ramat Aviv neighborhood.[105]

[edit] Transport

Multimodal traffic in Tel Aviv: pedestrians, private cars, buses, trucks, taxis and train station
Multimodal traffic in Tel Aviv: pedestrians, private cars, buses, trucks, taxis and train station
The Ayalon Highway on Tel Aviv eastern border
The Ayalon Highway on Tel Aviv eastern border
Main article: Transport in Tel Aviv

Many major routes of the national road network pass through or end in Tel Aviv, a transportation hub. The main road access route to Tel Aviv is the Ayalon Highway (Highway 20), which runs along the eastern side of the city from north to south along the Ayalon River riverbed, dividing for the most part Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan. Driving south on the Ayalon gives access to Highway 1, leading to Ben Gurion International Airport and Jerusalem. Within the city, the main routes are King George Street, Allenby Street, Ibn Gabirol Street, Dizengoff Street, Rothschild Boulevard, and in Jaffa the main route is Jerusalem Boulevard. Namir Road connects the city to Highway 2, Israel's main north–south highway, and Begin/Jabotinsky Road, which provides access from the east through Ramat Gan, Bnei Brak and Petah Tikva. Tel Aviv, accommodating about 500,000 commuter cars daily, suffers from increasing congestion. In 2007, the Sadan Report recommended the introduction of a congestion charge similar to that of London in Tel Aviv as well as other Israeli cities. Under this plan, road users traveling into the city would pay a fixed fee.[106] Tel Aviv Municipality is trying to encourage the use of bicycles in the city, aiming to open 100 bicycle-rental stations to serve 74 kilometers (46.0 mi) of bicycle paths. Plans call for expansion of the paths to 100 kilometers (62.1 mi) by 2009.[107]

Tel Aviv has four train stations along the Ayalon Highway. The stops are from north to south: Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv Merkaz, Tel Aviv Hashalom (near Azrieli Center shopping mall) and Tel Aviv Hahaganah (near the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station). It is estimated that more than a million people travel by train from the surrounding cities to Tel Aviv each month.

The Tel Aviv Central Bus Station is in the south of the city. The main bus network in Tel Aviv is operated by Dan Bus Company; the Egged Bus Cooperative, the world's second-largest bus company, provides intercity transportation.[108]

Tel Aviv's domestic airport is Sde Dov in the northwestern part of the city. Sde Dov is slated to close because it occupies prime coastal real estate near the upscale Ramat Aviv neighborhood.[109] In the near future all services to Sde Dov will transfer to Ben Gurion International Airport, Israel's main international airport, close to the city of Lod and 15 kilometres (9 mi) southeast of Tel Aviv. Because it is close to Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion International Airport is often referred to as Tel Aviv International Airport even though it is not part of any municipal jurisdiction.

In early 2008, Tel Aviv Municipality announced a pilot scheme to build charging stations for electric cars. Initially, five charging points will be built, and eventually 150 points will be set up across the city as part of the Israeli electric car project, Project Better Place.[110] Furthermore, battery replacement points will be located at the city's entrances.

[edit] Media

Headquarters of Yedioth Ahronoth in Tel Aviv
Headquarters of Yedioth Ahronoth in Tel Aviv

The three largest newspapers in Israel are published in Tel Aviv. Tabloid Yedioth Ahronoth has been Israel's most widely circulated newspaper since the 1970s and is headquartered on Begin Road.[111] Maariv, Israel's second most popular tabloid, is also published in the city, while Haaretz, Israel's most popular broadsheet, is based in the city.[111] Tel Aviv also acts as the base for other national press, including the evening financial newspaper Globes, the weekly newspaper HaTzofe, and the daily newspaper Makor Rishon.[111] Iton Tel Aviv and the weekly Zman Tel Aviv report local news.[111] More recently, the free daily Israel Post and Israeli have been produced in the city. Several radio stations cover the Tel Aviv area, including the city-based Radio Tel Aviv.[112]

[edit] Sister cities

Tel Aviv is twinned with 27 cities and has a partnership with Los Angeles, California, USA:[113]

[edit] References

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[edit] External links

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Coordinates: 32°5′0″N, 34°48′0″E

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