The view of Tel Aviv outside our hotel window. As you can see it’s quite a bit different from Tzfat. Tel Aviv is built on sand as you can see from the construction zone. The Mediterranean is to the right of what you see in this picture.
The port of Tel Aviv has been given over to restaurants, boutiques, and design stores. These are in historical buildings that were part of an exposition in the mid- 1930s.
Yakov Agam, an artist popular in the 1960s created this fountain in the center of downtown Tel Aviv.
A meeting of the minds at Tel Aviv University.
This moving sculpture is called “Eternal Repitition”. The caption for the work says “Three things intrigue us when relating to Jewish cultural heritage. The cycle of time, the wrong hand capturing time and events. The deleting-hand that attempts time and again, to erase heritage.
This moving sculpture was created by Michal Bar-oz and Ifat Moor at Tel Aviv University “Museum of the Diaspora.”
Interesting project brought together families to create squares to depict “what your family is made of”.
Detail of some of the squares.
Museum of the Diaspora entry model of the inside panel on “Arch of Titus.”
Sardis Synagogue, Turkey 3rd century (model)
Prague Synagogue, 13th century (model). This synagogue is still active
El Transito Toledo Synagogue, 14th century (model). Has been converted to a church.
Kai Feng Synagogue, China 13th century
Florenece Italy Synagogue, 19th century (model)
Touro Synagogue Newport Rhode Island, 18th century (model) oldest synagogue in North American
Frank Lloyd Wright, Beth Shalom Synagogue, Elkins Park PA, 1959 (model)
Synagogue Ceiling from Chodorow Galicia./Ukraine, community destroyed in Holocaust.
Grandpa Tzaki and his granddaughter in Ramat Gan. They are Facebook friends, love spaghetti Bolognese, and love the movies. Tzaki was a film producer until he lost his son in the hotel bombing in Taba (Sinai Peninsula). Grandpa and granddaughter have taken a “roots” trip to Poland.
Grandpa Dovik and gradnson Amit are posing in Kiryat Ata. Grandpa retired from Rafael (Advanced Defence Systems) and now spends time taking his grandson to soccer games and is Amit’s #1 fan. Dovik describes his mother being taken to the hospital in the back of a truck used to transport cows to give birth to him. Grandpa wishes for peace and grandson wishes for equality.
Grandpa Merhav lives in Hadera. He is a tour guide and this is his granddaughter Adi who studiens dance. For her Bat Mitzvah this year the family will travel to Jerusalem and Grandfather and Granddaughter will be tour guides. Grandpa remembers sneaking into the old city as a child.
As you can see Tel Aviv is a total opposite of where we’ve been up to now. It’s a city of 400,000 with a metropolitan area of over 3 million along the Mediterranean coast. It reminds one of New York or Miami. Just as Jerusalem is the heart of the religious communities in Israel, Tel Aviv is the heart of secular (sabra) Israel. The city was established on the sand just north of the ancient port of Jaffa in 1909. By 1950 they were one large city. Downtown Tel Aviv is lively though we haven’t seen many tourists this whole trip. It’s a very young city, lots of young people especially in the bars at night. The Tel Aviv port has been given over to restaurants and shops many of which are housed in buildings refurbished from international trade fairs in 1934 and 1936.
We visited Tel Aviv University at the northern end of the city where we saw the Beit Ha’Tefusot (Diaspora Museum). This is a museum that focuses on the worldwide Jewish communities and Jewish history outside of Israel. It is located on the campus of Tel Aviv University, the largest university in the country.
We saw the permanent collection which contains a number of models of synagogues around the world, some of which will surprise you. An interesting photography show featured elders born the year Israel got its independence with their grandchildren or other young children and how they relate to one another.
Poetry Without Words 