Historical Sites
By: Amir Yarkoni
Neve tzedek
Neve tzedek (Oasis of Justice) is actually the first neighborhood of Tel Aviv. This neighborhood was founded in 1887 by Aharon Shlush, 22 years before Tel Aviv was founded. Shlush was a successful businessman who wanted to escape the crowded living quarters of Jaffa, and founded this neighborhood. Later, Neve tzedek was connected to Achuzat Bayit to form baby Tel Aviv. Many of the neighborhoods turn of the century houses can still be seen, and while the neighborhood has gone yuppie in the past years, it has retained much of its old charm. The Nobel prize winning author and poet Shemuel Agnon, lived and wrote here, encouraged by his fellow writer and neighbor Haim Brener.
You can still visit Shlush house, which now houses art exhibits, and see the small synagogue that Shlush built to encourage Jews to leave Jaffa. Nearby is Shlush bridge which was built for Mr. Shlush after the old Jaffa-Jerusalem railway was constructed. This used to run in the canal under the bridge. |
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| You can still visit Shlush house in Neve Tzedek, which now houses art exhibits, and see the small synagogue that Shlush built to encourage Jews to leave Jaffa. |
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On Rochach st. (a 2 minute walk) you can see ‘Beit Hasofrim’ (house of writers) which housed many famous writers and is now the Nachum Gutman Museum. Nearby is the Rokach house, built for the Rokach family in 1887 by an Austrian architect, in a special European style including copper plated domes. The Rokach family have been prominent figures in Tel Aviv political life for over a century. Close by on Pines st. (pronounced penis) you can see the twin buildings built by Aharon Shlush for his two grandsons. |
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Just across the street you can see Tel Aviv’s first movie theatre the ‘Eden’. This theatre was opened by Tel Aviv first mayor, Meir Dizengoff, in 1913. It held up to 1100 people in an open air theatre. Today it is a storage area for one of Israel’s leading banks.
Bialik House
| Haim Nehman Bialik is and always has been Israel's national poet. He came to Israel at 51 years of age in 1924, after years of activity in the Zionist movement of Old czarist Russia, Poland and other East European regions. During that time, he wrote most of his famous stories, poems, lyrics and masses, describing the Jewish life in exile ("gola", out of Israel). He wrote about small village life, about Pogroms that were executed on Jews and the personal tragedies that occurred.
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When he arrived in Israel, he settled in Tel Aviv, where he lived until his death in 1934. His old residence is located in today's Bialik Street, and is now a museum that tells the story of this great poet. The house is an impressive 3 story white Bauhaus -style little mansion, surrounded by vegetation. It underwent a re-construction and preservation endeavor, like many areas of south Tel Aviv.
Bialik Street is a small alley with a few more historically valuable structures, some re-constructed and now conserved.
Tel Aviv Port
Etzel House
On November 29 1947, with the UN resolution dividing mandatory Palestine into 2 states, Hebrew and Arab, the Arabs waged hostile actions against the Jewish population throughout the land.
Tel Aviv was a city in war.
Like the rest of the new Israel, it was subject to Arab attacks.
The attacks came mainly from the bordering Arab Jaffa, the largest Arab city in Israel. Snipers and militia man have paralyzed large parts of south Tel Aviv with dozens of causalities and wounded.
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Etzel was the military wing of the "Beitar" (revisionist Jewish movement) and was an armed resistance underground during the time of the British mandate. It was considered extreme and invoked in merciless hostilities with the British forces. It also was at odds with the central political movement of the Jewish "ishuv", the main-stream political Jewish institutions in Palestine, backed by the "Hagana" military organization, the largest and most powerful, considered "half-legitimate" by the British.
On April 1948, the Etzel was set to take over Jaffa.
600 Etzel Fighters were gathered under the leadership of the legendary leader Menahem Begin, the to-be prime minister of Israel 30 years later, 30 years that were spent in the political desert (parliamentary opposition). They attacked Jaffa, and after a few days of push-backs and hard battles with Arab fighters and British units that were still situated in the area and tried to hold back the attack, they managed to take over Jaffa.
Jaffa was later annexed to Tel Aviv and today they are a united municipal entity. The Jaffa takeover was crucial for any attempt to create a sustainable Hebrew state. With hostile Jaffa in the middle of Tel Aviv, no territorial continuity could be established for the new Hebrew state.
The story of the takeover is told in the Etzel museum, a dark glass impressive structure off the beach in the border of Tel Aviv-Yaffo.
The "Yamenese Vineyard"
| There is something in the air in the small alleys of the "Kerem" (Vineyard). Different kind of Tel Aviv, maybe an old remnant of a life style that is today mostly disappeared. |
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There is something in the air in the small alleys of the "Kerem" (Vineyard). Different kind of Tel Aviv, maybe an old remnant of a life style that is today mostly disappeared.
You will find no fancy cafe's here - if any… you will however find great small, home-cooking style restaurants with delicious food. You will find a pace of life that is alien to modern economy in the heart of Tel Aviv, in the Yamenese Vineyard. |
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This quarter of Tel Aviv is named the after its founders and first inhabitants, Yamanite Jews who settled in the area. The land was bought from Arab Fallachs (farmers) in 1842 by Aaron Shlush, and the first settlers located near a vineyard, thus the second part of the quarter's name.
The neighborhood was settled in 1904, and the first generations of residents were only Yamanitee Jews. They still dominate the neighborhood today, 100 years later….
Take a walk in the narrow alleys with graceful old houses, some rebuilt and some still as old as 100 years …smell the special scents of the spice shops and the cooking of the restaurants and homes. Take a look at the old, shady gardens. Walk to the adjacent "Shuk Hacarmel", the largest market of Tel Aviv. Enjoy the feeling of old time life style, in this retreat, at the heart of the bustling metropolitan of Tel Aviv.
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