Tel Aviv
Encyclopedia
Tel Aviv officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel
, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of 52 km² (20 sq mi). The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline
in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with a population of 3.3 million residents as of 2010. The city is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality, headed by Ron Huldai
. Residents of Tel Aviv are referred to as Tel Avivim.
Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 by the Jewish Community of Jaffa
, on the outskirts of the ancient port city
. The growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced Jaffa, which had a majority Arab population 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 Bauhaus
buildings.
Tel Aviv is a global city
, alongside cities such as Berlin
and San Francisco.
Known as "The City That Never Sleeps", it is a popular tourist destination, attracting 2.7 million international visitors annually. It is renowned for its 24-hour culture
, beaches, bars, restaurants, cafés, parks, shopping, cosmopolitan
lifestyle, and landmark neighborhoods such as Old Jaffa
and Neve Tzedek
. Tel Aviv is an economic hub, home to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
, corporate offices and research and development
centers. It is the country's financial capital
and a major performing arts
and business center. Tel Aviv has the second-largest economy in the Middle East, and is the 19th most expensive city in the world.
In 2007, New York City-based David Kaufman
named it the "Mediterranean's New Capital of Cool". In 2010, Knight Franks world city survey ranked it 34th globally. Tel Aviv has been named the third "hottest city for 2011" (behind only New York City and Tangier) by Lonely Planet
, third-best in the Middle East and Africa by Travel + Leisure magazine
(behind only Cape Town and Jerusalem), and the ninth-best beach city
in the world by National Geographic.
's Altneuland
("Old New Land"), translated from German by Nahum Sokolow
. Sokolow had adopted the name of a Mesopotamia
n site in : "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."; The name was chosen in 1910 from several suggestions, including "Herzliya
". It was found fitting as it embraced the idea of a renaissance in the ancient Jewish homeland. Aviv is Hebrew for "spring", symbolizing renewal, and tel is a man-made mound accumulating layers of civilization built one over the other and symbolizing the ancient.
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 after him.
changed hands many times in the course of history. Archeological excavations from 1955 to 1974 unearthed towers and gates from the Middle Bronze Age
. Subsequent excavations, from 1997 onwards, helped date earlier discoveries. They also exposed sections of a packed-sandstone glacis
and a "massive brick wall", dating from the Late Bronze Age
as well as a temple "attributed to the Sea Peoples
" and dwellings from the Iron Age
. Remnants of buildings from the Persian
, Hellenistic
and Pharaonic
periods were also discovered.
The city is first mentioned in letters from 1470 BCE that record its conquest by Egyptian Pharaoh
Thutmose III
. Jaffa is mentioned several times in the Bible, as the port from which Jonah
set sail for Tarshish
; as bordering on the territory of the Tribe of Dan
; and as the port at which the wood for Solomon's Temple
in Jerusalem arrived from Lebanon. According to some sources it has been a port for at least 4,000 years.
In 1099, the Christian armies of the First Crusade
, led by Godfrey of Bouillon
occupied Jaffa, which had been abandoned by the Muslims, fortified the town and improved its harbor. As the Count
y of Jaffa, the town soon became important as the main sea supply route for the Kingdom of Jerusalem
. Jaffa was captured by Saladin
in 1192 but swiftly re-taken by Richard Coeur de Lion
, who added to its defenses. In 1223, Emperor Frederick II
added further fortications. Crusader domination ended in 1268, when the Mamluk
Sultan Baibars
captured the town, destroyed its harbor and razed its fortifications. In 1336, when a new Crusade was being planned, Al-Nasir Muhammad
had the harbor destroyed to prevent the Franks from landing there. For the same reason, both the town and the harbor were destroyed in 1345. In the 16th century, Jaffa was conquered by the Ottomans
and was administered as a village in the Sanjak of Gaza
.
Napoleon
besieged the city in 1799 and killed scores of inhabitants; a plague epidemic followed, decimating the remaining population. The surrendering garrison of several thousand Muslims was massacred.
Jaffa began to grow as an urban center
in the early 18th century, when the Ottoman government in Istanbul intervened to guard the port and reduce attacks by Bedouins and pirates. However, the real expansion came during the 19th century, when the population grew from 2,500 in 1806 to 17,000 in 1886.
From 1800 to 1870, Jaffa was surrounded by walls and towers, which were torn down to allow for expansion as security improved. The sea wall
, 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) high, remained intact until the 1930s, when it was built over during a renovation of the port by the British Mandatory authorities. During the mid-19th century, the city grew prosperous from trade, especially of silk and Jaffa orange
s, with Europe. In the 1860s Jaffa's small Sephardic
community was joined by Jews from Morocco and small numbers of European Ashkenazi Jews
, making by 1882 a total Jewish population of more than 1,500.
The first Jews to build outside of Jaffa, in the area of modern day Tel Aviv, were Yemenite Jews
. These homes, built in 1881, became the core of Kerem HaTeimanim (Hebrew for "the Vineyard of the Yemenites"). In 1896 the Yemenite Jews established Mahane Yehuda, and in 1904, Mahane Yossef. These neighbourhoods later became the Shabazi neighbourhood.
During the 1880s, Ashkenazi immigration to Jaffa increased with the onset of the First Aliyah
. The new arrivals were motivated more by Zionism
than religion and came to farm the land and engage in productive labor. In keeping with their pioneer ideology, some chose to settle in the sand dunes north of Jaffa. The beginning of modern-day Tel Aviv is marked by the construction of Neve Tzedek
, a neighborhood built by Ashkenazi settlers between 1887 and 1896.
led to further expansion. In 1906, a group of Jews, among them residents of Jaffa, followed the initiative of Akiva Arye Weiss and banded together to form the Ahuzat Bayit (lit. "homestead") society. The society's goal was to form a "Hebrew urban centre in a healthy environment, planned according to the rules of aesthetics and modern hygiene". The urban planning for the new city was influenced by the ideas of the Garden city movement
. In 1908, the group purchased 5 hectares (12.4 acre) of dunes northeast of Jaffa. Following this purchase, Meir Dizengoff
, who later became Tel Aviv's first mayor, decided to join Ahuzat Bayit. His vision for Tel Aviv involved peaceful co-existence with the Arabs. Eventually David Ben Gurion would announce the creation of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948 from Meir Dizengoff's home in Tel Aviv.
In April 1909, 66 Jewish families gathered on a desolate sand dune on what is now Rothschild Boulevard to parcel out the land by lottery using seashells. This gathering is considered the official date of the establishment of Tel Aviv, although some neighbourhoods, such as Kerem HaTeimanim, already existed. The lottery was organised by Akiva Arye Weiss, president of the building society. The names of the families were inscribed on white shells and the plot number on shells of a different color. Within a year, Herzl
, Ahad Ha'am, Yehuda Halevi, Lilienblum
, and Rothschild streets were built; a water system was installed; and 66 houses (including some on six subdivided plots) were completed. 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. On 21 May 1910, the name Tel Aviv was adopted. Tel Aviv was planned as an independent Hebrew city with wide streets and boulevards, running water at each house and street lights.
By 1914, Tel Aviv had grown to more than 1 square kilometres (247 acre). However, growth halted in 1917 when the Ottoman
authorities expelled the Jews of Jaffa and Tel Aviv
. 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.
Under British administration, political friction between Jews and Arabs in Palestine increased. On 1 May 1921, the Jaffa Riots
erupted resulting in the deaths of 48 Arabs and 47 Jews and injuries to 146 Jews and 73 Arabs. 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 around 34,000 by 1925. New businesses opened in Tel Aviv, leading to the decline of Jaffa as a commercial center. In 1925, Patrick Geddes
drew up a master plan
for Tel Aviv that was adopted by the city council led by Meir Dizengoff
. 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 now the boundaries of Tel Aviv's Old North.
Tel Aviv continued to expand in 1926, but suffered an economic setback between 1927 and 1930. The Ben Gurion House
was built in 1930–31, part of a new worker's housing development. 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. Tel Aviv gained municipal status in 1934.
The population rose dramatically during the Fifth Aliyah
when the Nazis came to power in Germany. 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. 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 revolt, a local port independent of Jaffa was built in 1938, and Lydda Airport
(later Ben Gurion Airport) and Sde Dov Airport
opened between 1937 and 1938.
Tel Aviv's White City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
since 2003, 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, like architect Arieh Sharon
, came to Palestine and adapted the architectural outlook of the Bauhaus as well as other similar schools, to local conditions, creating what is claimed to be the largest concentration of buildings in the International Style
in the world.
Tel Aviv was a major target of the Italian Bombing of Palestine in World War II. On 9 September 1940, 137 were killed in the bombing of Tel Aviv.
According to the 1947 UN Partition Plan for 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 with, as of 1945, a population of 101,580 people, 53,930 of whom were Muslim and 16,800 Christian, making up the Arab population, and 30,820 Jewish, was designated as part of the Arab state. The Arabs, however, rejected the plan. Between 1947 and 1948, tensions grew on the border between Tel Aviv and Jaffa, with Arab snipers who were firing at Jews from the minaret of the Hassan Bek Mosque
. The Haganah
and Irgun
Jewish forces retaliated with a siege on Jaffa. From April 1948, the Arab residents began to leave. When Jaffa was conquered by Israeli forces on 14 May, few remained.
Tel Aviv was the temporary government center of the State of Israel until the government moved to Jerusalem in December 1949. Due to the international dispute over the status of Jerusalem
, most foreign embassies remained in or near Tel Aviv. In the early 1980s, 13 embassies in Jerusalem moved to Tel Aviv as part of the UN's measures
responding to Israel's 1980 Jerusalem Law
. Today, all but two embassies are in Tel Aviv or environs. The boundaries of Tel Aviv and Jaffa became a matter of contention between the Tel Aviv municipality and the Israeli government in 1948. The former wished to incorporate only the northern Jewish suburbs of Jaffa, while the latter wanted a more complete unification. The issue also had international sensitivity, since the main part of Jaffa was in the Arab portion of the United Nations Partition Plan, whereas Tel Aviv was not, and no armistice agreements had yet been signed. On 10 December 1948, the government announced the annexation to Tel Aviv of Jaffa's Jewish suburbs, the ex-Arab neighborhood of Abu Kabir
, the ex-Arab village of Salama and some of its agricultural land, and the Jewish 'Hatikva' slum. On 25 February 1949, the abandoned Arab village of al-Shaykh Muwannis
was also annexed to Tel Aviv. On 18 May 1949, Manshiya and part of Jaffa's central zone were added, for the first time including land that had been in the Arab portion of the UN partition plan. The government voted on the unification of Tel Aviv and Jaffa on 4 October 1949, but the decision was not implemented until 24 April 1950 due to the opposition of Tel Aviv mayor Israel Rokach
. The name of the unified city was Tel Aviv until 19 August 1950, when it was renamed Tel Aviv-Yafo in order to preserve the historical name Jaffa.
Tel Aviv thus grew to 42 square kilometres (16.2 sq mi). In 1949, a memorial to the 60 founders of Tel Aviv was constructed. Over the past 60 years, Tel Aviv has developed into a secular
, liberal-minded center with a vibrant nightlife and café culture.
In the 1960s, some of the older buildings were demolished, making way for the country's first high-rises. Shalom Meir Tower
was Israel's tallest building until 1999. Tel Aviv's population peaked in the early 1960s at 390,000, representing 16 percent of the country's total. A long period of steady decline followed, however, and by the late 1980s the city had an aging population of 317,000. High property prices pushed families out and deterred young people from moving in.
At this time, gentrification began in the poor neighborhoods of southern Tel Aviv, and the old port in the north was renewed. New laws were introduced to protect Modernist buildings, and efforts to preserve them were aided by UNESCO
recognition of the Tel Aviv's White City as a world heritage site. In the early 1990s, the decline in population was reversed, partly due to the large wave of immigrants from the former Soviet Union
. Tel Aviv also began to emerge as a high-tech center. The construction of many skyscrapers and high-tech office buildings followed. In 1993, Tel Aviv was categorized as a world city
. The city is regarded as a strong candidate for global city status.
In the Gulf War in 1991, Tel Aviv was attacked by Scud
rockets from Iraq, but there were few casualties and no fatalities. The inhabitants of the southeastern suburb of HaTikva erected an angel-monument as a sign of their gratitude, that "it was through a great miracle, that many people were preserved from being killed by a direct hit of a Scud rocket."
On 4 November 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
.
Since the First Intifada
, Tel Aviv has suffered from Palestinian political violence
. The first suicide attack
in Tel Aviv occurred on 19 October 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 1 June 2001, during the Second Intifada, when a suicide bomber exploded at the entrance to the Dolphinarium discotheque, killing 21 and injuring more than 100. The most recent attack in the city occurred on 17 April 2006, when nine people were killed and at least 40 wounded in a suicide bombing near the old central bus station.
In 2009, Tel Aviv celebrated its official centennial. In addition to city- and country-wide celebrations, digital collections of historical materials were assembled. These include the History section of the official Tel Aviv-Yafo Centennial Year website; the Ahuzat Bayit collection, which focuses on the founding families of Tel Aviv, and includes photographs and biographies;
and Stanford University
's Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection, documenting the history of the city.
, in central Israel, the historic land bridge
between Europe, Asia and Africa. Immediately north of the ancient port of Jaffa, Tel Aviv lies 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. 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 located 60 kilometres (37 mi) northwest of Jerusalem and 90 kilometres (56 mi) south of the city of Haifa
. Neighboring cities and towns include Herzliya
to the north, Ramat HaSharon
to the northeast, Petah Tikva
, Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan and Giv'atayim
to the east, Holon to the southeast, and Bat Yam to the south. The city is economically stratified between the north and south. Southern Tel Aviv is generally reputed to be poorer than Northern Tel Aviv with the exception of Neve Tzedek
and some recent development on Jaffa
beach. Central Tel Aviv is home to Azrieli Center
and the important financial and commerce district along Ayalon Highway. The northern side of Tel Aviv is home to Tel Aviv University
, Hayarkon Park, and upscale residential neighborhoods such as Ramat Aviv
and Afeka
.
(Köppen climate classification
Csb) with hot, humid summers, unpredictable springs and autumns, and cool, rainy winters. Humidity tends to be high year-round due to ocean breeze
. In winter, average temperatures are usually between 9 °C (48.2 °F) and 17 °C (62.6 °F), with temperatures as low as 6 °C (42.8 °F) and as high as 20 °C (68 °F) occurring several times a winter.
The rainiest month on record was January 2000 with 424.9 mm (16.73 in). The rainiest day on record was 8 November 1955 with 133 mm (5.24 in). In summer, average temperatures are usually between 24 °C (75.2 °F) and 30 °C (86 °F). Tel Aviv averages 530.7 millimetre of precipitation annually, which mostly occurs in the months of October through April. Winter is the wettest season, often accompanied by heavy showers and thunderstorms. Snow is extremely rare, with the last recorded snowfall within city limits occurring in February 1950. Tel Aviv enjoys plenty of sunshine throughout the year with more than 300 sunny days annually.
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 and artist population. Similar processes are occurring in nearby Neve Tzedek
, the original Jewish neighborhood outside of Jaffa. Ramat Aviv
, a district in the northern part of the city, that is largely made up of luxury apartments and includes the Tel Aviv University
, is currently undergoing extensive expansion and is set to absorb the beachfront property of Sde Dov Airport after its decommissioning. The area known as HaKirya
is the Israel Defense Forces
(IDF) headquarters and a large military base
.
Historically, there was a demographic split between the Ashkenazi
northern side of the city, including the district of Ramat Aviv
, and the southern, more Sephardi
and Mizrahi
neighborhoods including Neve Tzedek
and Florentin.
Since the 1980s, restoration and gentrification have 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. According to his memoir, Baruch Yoscovitz, who was the city planner for Tel Aviv beginning in 2001, took old British plans from the 1920s that were never implemented for Florentine and modernized them. Yoscovitz set out to create green areas, which Florentine had none of, small pedestrian areas, new housing apartments, and have the city buy up land for public facilities. The City of Tel Aviv initially put 2 million Shekels into the Florentine Project. Yoscovitz goal was to make Florentine the Soho
of Tel Aviv, and attract artists and young professionals. Florentine has quickly been reinvented as a hip, "cool" place to be in Tel Aviv with coffeehouses, markets, bars, galleries and parties.
, the first neighborhood to be constructed outside of Jaffa is characterised by two-story sandstone buildings. By the 1920s, a new eclectic Orientalist style
came into vogue, combining European architecture with Eastern features such as arches, domes and ornamental tiles. 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.
Various architectural styles, such as Art Deco
, classical and modernist also exist in Tel Aviv.
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, around the city center, contains more than 5,000 Modernist-style buildings inspired by the Bauhaus
school and Le Corbusier
. Construction of these buildings, later declared protected landmarks and, collectively, a UNESCO
World Heritage Site, continued until the 1950s in the area around Rothschild Boulevard
. Some 3,000 buildings were created in this style between 1931 and 1939 alone.
In the 1960s, this architectural style
gave way to office towers and a chain of waterfront hotels and commercial skyscrapers. 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.
Efforts are under way to refurbish Bauhaus buildings and restore them to their original condition.
, 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 W-Tower, is in Tel Aviv.
New neighborhoods, such as Park Tzameret
, are being constructed to house apartment towers such as YOO Tel Aviv towers, designed by Philippe Starck
. Other districts, such as Sarona, are being developed with office towers. Other recent additions to Tel Aviv's skyline are the 1 Rothschild Tower
and First International Bank Tower
. As Tel Aviv celebrated its centennial in 2009, the city attracted a number of architects and developers, including I. M. Pei
, Donald Trump
, and Richard Meier
. American journalist David Kaufman
reported in New York magazine
that since Tel Aviv “was named a UNESCO World Heritage
site, gorgeous historic buildings from the Ottoman and Bauhaus era have been repurposed as fabulous hotels, eateries, boutiques, and design museums.”
in Israel. Since 2008, City lights are turned off annually in support of Earth Hour
. In February 2009, the municipality launched a water saving campaign, including competition granting free parking for a year to the household that is found to have consumed the least amount of water per person.
In the early 21st century, Tel Aviv's municipality transformed a derelict power station
into a public park, now named "Gan HaHashmal" (electric park), paving the way for eco-friendly
and environmentally conscious designs. In October 2008, Martin Weyl turned an old garbage dump near Ben Gurion International Airport
, called Hiriya
, into an attraction by building an arc of plastic bottles. The site, which was renamed Ariel Sharon
Park to honor Israel’s former prime minister, will serve as the centerpiece in what is to become a 2000 acres (8.1 km²) urban wilderness
on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, designed by German landscape architect
, Peter Latz
.
At the end of the 20th century, the city began restoring historical neighborhoods such as Neve Tzedek
and many buildings from the 1920s and 1930s. Since 2007, the city hosts its well-known, annual Open House Tel Aviv
weekend, which offers the general public free entrance to the city's famous landmarks, private houses and public buildings. In 2010, the design of the renovated Tel Aviv Port (Nemal Tel Aviv) won the award for outstanding landscape architecture at the European Biennial for Landscape Architecture in Barcelona
.
s 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. Battery replacement points will be located at the city's entrances. A visitor center of Better Place is located in northwestern entrance to the city at Pi-Glilot site.
Better Place's primary R&D facility is in Tel Aviv and is headed by Lior Storfer.
(CBS), as of 2009 Tel Aviv's population is growing at an annual rate of 0.5%. Jews of all backgrounds form 91.8% of the population, Muslim and Christian Palestinians (holding Israeli citizenship)] make up 4.2%, and the remainder belong to other groups (including various Christian and Asian communities). As Tel Aviv is a multicultural city, many languages are spoken in addition to Hebrew
. According to some estimates, about 50,000 unregistered Asian foreign worker
s live in the city. Compared with Westernised cities, crime in Tel Aviv is relatively low.
According to Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, the average income in the city, which has an unemployment rate
of 6.9%, is 20% above the national average. The city's education standards are above the national average: of its 12th-grade students, 64.4% are eligible for matriculation certificates
. The age profile is relatively even, 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.
Tel Aviv's population reached a peak in the early 1960s at around 390,000, falling to 317,000 in the late 1980s as high property prices forced families out and deterred young couples from moving in. Since the mass immigration from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s, population has steadily grown. Today, the city's population is young and growing. In 2006, 22,000 people moved to the city, while only 18,500 left, and many of the new families had young children. The population is expected to reach 450,000 by 2025; meanwhile, the average age of residents fell from 35.8 in 1983 to 34 in 2008. The population over age 65 stands at 14.6% compared with 19% in 1983.
, including 544 active synagogues with daily prayers,
including historic buildings such as the Great Synagogue
, established in the 1930s. In 2008, a center for secular Jewish Studies
and a secular yeshiva
opened in the city. Tensions between religious and secular Jews
before the gay pride parade ended in vandalism of a synagogue. One of the city's famous landmarks is the Hassan Bek Mosque
, on the Tel Aviv beachfront. The number of churches has grown to accommodate the religious needs of diplomats and foreign workers.
The population consists of 93% Jewish, 1% Muslim, and 1% Christian. The remaining 5 percent are not classified by religion. Israel Meir Lau
is chief rabbi
of the city.
and Ashdod. Instead, the city developed as a center of business and scientific research. Economic activities account for 17 percent of GDP.
The city has been called a "flourishing technological center" by Newsweek
and a "miniature Los Angeles" by The Economist
. 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 continued to develop. The Tel Aviv metropolitan area (including satellite cities
such as Herzliya
and Petah Tikva
) is Israel's center of high-tech, sometimes referred to as Silicon Wadi
.
Tel Aviv is home to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
(TASE), Israel's only stock exchange
, which has reached record heights since the 1990s. The Tel Aviv Stock exchange has also gained attention for its resilience and ability to recover from war and disasters. For example, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange was higher on the last day of both the 2006 Lebanon war and the 2009 Operation in Gaza than on the first day of fighting 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. The city's nightlife, cultural attractions and architecture attract tourists whose spending benefits the local economy.
In 2008, the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network (GaWC) at Loughborough University
reissued an inventory of world cities
based on their level of advanced producer services. Tel Aviv was ranked as a beta+ world city
.
According to Forbes
, nine of its fifteen Israeli-born billionaires live in Israel; four live in Tel Aviv and its suburbs. The cost of living in Israel is high, with Tel Aviv being its most expensive city to live in. According to Mercer
, a human resources
consulting firm
based in New York, as of 2010 Tel Aviv is the most expensive city in the Middle East and the 19th most expensive in the world.
, young atmosphere and famous 24-hour culture
. NBA
player Anthony Parker
called Tel Aviv the best basketball city to go out in. Tel Aviv has branches of some of the world's leading hotels, including the Crowne Plaza
, Sheraton
, Dan
, Isrotel
and Hilton
. It is home to many museums, architectural and cultural sites, with city tours available in different languages. Apart from bus tours, architectural tours, Segway
tours, and walking tours are also popular. Tel Aviv has 44 hotels with more than 6,500 rooms.
is the most visited urban park
in Israel, with sixteen million visitors annually. Other parks within city limits include Charles Clore Park
, Independence Park, Meir Park and Dubnow Park
. About 19% of the city land are green spaces.
restaurants, the third highest concentration in the world, do business in the city, and an Italian
restaurant in Tel Aviv was called the best Italian restaurant outside of Italy by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture.
"The gay capital of the Middle East", Tel Aviv is one of the most popular destinations for gay tourists internationally, with a large LGBT
community. American journalist David Kaufman
has described the city as a place “packed with the kind of ‘we're here, we're queer’ vibe more typically found in Sydney and San Francisco.
The city hosts its well-known pride parade, the biggest in Asia, attracting over 100,000 people yearly. In January 2008, Tel Aviv's municipality established the city's LGBT
Community Center
, providing all of the municipal and cultural services to the LGBT community under one roof. In December 2008, Tel Aviv began putting together a team of gay and lesbian athletes for the 2009 World Outgames
in Copenhagen. In addition, Tel Aviv hosts an annual LGBT Film Festival
.
Tel Aviv's LGBT community is the subject of Eytan Fox
's 2006 film The Bubble
.
show their collections at leading fashion shows, including New York’s Bryant Park
fashion show. In 2011, Tel Aviv hosted its first Fashion Week
since the 1980s, with Italian
designer Roberto Cavalli
as a guest of honor.
of all attendance occurs. 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
. With 2,760 seats, the Frederic R. Mann Auditorium
(Culture Palace) is the city's largest theater. Habima Theater, Israel's national theater, was closed down for renovations in early 2008, and reopened in November, 2011 after major remodelling. Enav Cultural Center is one of the newer additions to the cultural scene. 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 as well. Tel Aviv is home to the Batsheva Dance Company
, a world famous contemporary dance
troupe. The Israeli Ballet is also based in Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv's center for modern and classical dance is the Suzanne Dellal Center for Dance and Theater in Neve Tzedek
.
The city often hosts pop
and rock concerts in venues such as Hayarkon Park
, the Israel Trade Fairs & Convention Center, the Barby Club and the Zappa Club.
Opera and classical music performances are held daily in Tel Aviv, with many of the world's leading classical conductors
and soloists
performing on Tel Aviv stages over the years.
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 cinema
s.
Tel Aviv is known internationally for its highly active and diverse nightlife with bars staying open well past midnight and nightclubs and dance bars holding parties most nights of the week. The largest concentration of nightclubs is in the Tel Aviv port area, where the city's large, commercial clubs and bars draw large crowds of young clubbers from Tel Aviv and beyond. The TLV club is the largest and often hosts big name international acts and DJs. Another major clubbing area is the Yad Harutsim area, near the old central bus station area of town.
The South of Tel Aviv is known as being the city's main hub of alternative clubbing, with underground venues including established clubs like the Block club, Comfort 13 and the Sublime, as well as various warehouse and loft party venues.
, known for its collection of archaeology and history exhibits dealing with the Land of Israel
, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art
. Housed on the campus of Tel Aviv University
is Beth Hatefutsoth, a museum of the international Jewish diaspora that tells the story of Jewish prosperity and persecution throughout the centuries of exile
. Batey Haosef Museum specializes in Israel Defense Forces
military history
. The Palmach Museum
near Tel Aviv University offers a multimedia experience of the history of the Palmach
. Right next to Charles Clore Park
is a museum of the Etzel
. The Israel Trade Fairs & Convention Center, located in the northern part of the city, hosts more than 60 major events annually. Many offbeat museums and galleries operate in the southern areas, including the Tel Aviv Raw Art contemporary art
gallery.
league. Maccabi Tel Aviv Sports Club
was founded in 1906 and competes in more than 10 sport fields. Its basketball team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, is a world-known professional team, that holds 47 Israeli titles, has won 36 editions of the Israel cup, and has five European Championships, and its football team has won 18 Israeli league titles and has won 22 State Cups
, two Toto Cup
s and two Asian Club Championships
. Yael Arad
, an athlete in Maccabi's judo
club, won a silver medal in the 1992 Olympic Games
.
Hapoel Tel Aviv Sports Club
, founded in 1923, comprises more than 11 sports clubs, including Hapoel Tel Aviv Football Club (13 championships, 11 State Cups, one Toto Cup and once Asian champions) which plays in Bloomfield Stadium
, men's and women's basketball clubs
.
Bnei Yehuda (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.
Shimshon Tel Aviv and Beitar Tel Aviv both formerly played in the top division, but dropped into the lower leagues, and merged in 2000, the new club now playing in Liga Artzit
, the third tier. Another former first division team, Maccabi Jaffa, is now defunct, as are Maccabi HaTzefon Tel Aviv, Hapoel HaTzefon Tel Aviv and Hakoah Tel Aviv
, who merged with Maccabi Ramat Gan
and moved to Ramat Gan in 1959.
Tel Aviv is also the home to Hapoel Ussishkin, a fan-owned basketball club founded in 2007 due to disagreements between the Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball
club's management and the fans.
Two rowing
clubs operate in Tel Aviv. The Tel Aviv Rowing Club, established in 1935 on the banks of the Yarkon River, is the largest rowing club in Israel. Meanwhile, the beaches of Tel Aviv provide a vibrant Matkot
(beach paddleball) scene. Tel Aviv Lightning
represent Tel Aviv in the Israel Baseball League
. Tel Aviv also has an annual half marathon
, run in 2008 by 10,000 athletes with runners coming from around the world.
In 2009, the Tel Aviv Marathon
was revived after a fifteen-year hiatus, and is run annually since, attracting a field of over 18,000 runners.
The National Sport Center is a compound of stadiums and sports facilities, also located within the Olympic Committee of Israel center and the "National Athletics Stadium" with the Israeli Athletic Association. Adjacent is a multi-purpose sports hall with the Israeli judo association and several Israeli sports associations.
Tel Aviv is also ranked to be 10th best to-skateboarding city by Transworld Skateboarding.
The three largest newspaper companies in Israel – Yedioth Ahronoth
, Maariv
and Haaretz
– are all based within the city limits. Several radio stations cover the Tel Aviv area, including the city-based Radio Tel Aviv.
The three major Israeli television networks, Keshet
, Reshet
, and Channel 10, are based in the city, as well as two of the most popular radio stations in Israel: Galatz
and Galgalatz
, which are both based in Jaffa
.
. Ron Huldai
has been mayor of Tel Aviv since 1998. Huldai was reelected in the 2008 municipal elections, defeating Dov Henin
's list. The longest serving mayor was Shlomo Lahat
, who was in office for 19 years. The shortest serving was David Bloch
, in office for two years, 1925–27.
The demographic split in the city created political divisions between the Labor Party, usually strongest in the north, and Likud and other right-wing and religious parties, usually strongest in the south. In the 2006 election, however this pattern changed when the new centrist Kadima
party gained 28 percent of the city's vote, followed by Labor with 20 percent. While much of the country leaned right ahead of the 2009 Knesset elections in Israel, 34% of the Tel Aviv electorate voted for Kadima
. Outside the kibbutz
im, Meretz receives more votes in Tel Aviv than in any other city in Israel.
Tel Aviv's major institution for higher education is Tel Aviv University
. It is the largest university in Israel, known internationally for its physics
, computer science
, chemistry
and linguistics
departments. Together with Bar-Ilan University
in neighboring Ramat Gan, the student population numbers over 50,000, including a sizeable international community
. Its campus is located in the neighborhood of Ramat Aviv
. Tel Aviv also has several colleges.
The Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium moved from Jaffa to Tel Aviv in 1909. The school continues to operate, although it has moved to Jabotinsky Street. Other notable schools in Tel Aviv include Shevah Mofet
, the second Hebrew school
in the city, Ironi Alef High School for Arts and Alliance
.
is located in the southern part of the city.The main bus network in Tel Aviv metropolitan area operated by Dan Bus Company
, metropoline
and kavim
. the Egged Bus Cooperative, the world's second-largest bus company, provides intercity transportation.
The city is also served by local and inter-city share taxis. Many local and inter-city bus routes also have sherut taxis that follow the same route and display the same route number in their window. Fares are standardised within the region and are comparable to or less expensive than bus fares. Unlike other forms of public transport, these taxis also operate on Fridays and Saturdays (the Jewish sabbath "Shabbat"). Private taxis are white with a yellow sign on top. Fares are standardised and metered, but may be negotiated ahead of time with the driver.
along the Ayalon Highway: Tel Aviv University
, HaShalom
(adjacent to Azrieli Center
) and HaHagana
(near the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station
). It is estimated that over a million passengers travel by train to Tel Aviv monthly. The trains do not run on Saturday and holidays.
, leading to Ben Gurion International Airport
and Jerusalem. Within the city, main routes include Kaplan 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.
(IATA
: TLV). Located in the neighboring city of Lod
, it is the main airport of Israel, handling over 12 million passengers in 2010. The airport serves both international flights and domestic flights, and is the main hub of El Al
, Arkia Israel Airlines
, Israir Airlines and Sun D'Or International Airlines. The airport is 15 kilometres (9 mi) southeast of Tel Aviv, on Highway 1
between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It is often rated as the best airport in the Middle East. Another airport in the Tel Aviv area, Sde Dov
(IATA
: SDV), in northwestern Tel Aviv, serves mainly domestic flights and may be closed in favor of real-estate development. In the future all services to Sde Dov will be transferred to Ben Gurion Airport.
system is under construction and scheduled to open in 2016. The Red Line starts at Petah Tikva
's Central Bus Station, east of Tel Aviv and follows the Jabotinsky Road (Route 481) westwards at street level. At the point were Jabotinsky Road and Highway 4
intersect the line drops into an underground tunnel for 10 km (6.21 mi) through Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv and emerges again to street level just before Jaffa
, were it turns southwards towards Bat Yam.
The underground section will include 10 stations, including an interchange with Israel Railways
services at Tel Aviv Central Railway Station and the nearby 2000 Terminal. A maintenance depot, connected via a branch line and tunnel to the main section of the line, will be constructed in Kiryat Arye, across from the existing Kiryat Arye suburban railway station. The intended builder and operator of the first line, MTS, has had financial difficulties that postponed the line's opening. In May 2010, the ministry of finance decided to cancel the agreement with MTS due to the difficulties and the agreement was cancelled in August 2010. The line is being built instead by NTA - The Tel Aviv region's mass transit development authority. Initially, the line's targeted opening was in 2012 and today the target is 2016 after several postponements due to the disagreements with MTS and NTA's takeover of the project.
Los Angeles, and is twinned with:
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of 52 km² (20 sq mi). The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline
Israeli Coastal Plain
The Israeli coastal plain is the narrow coastal plain along Israel's Mediterranean Sea coast which houses 70% of the country's population. The plain extends north to south and is divided into a number of areas; the Plain of Zebulun , Hof HaCarmel , the Sharon plain , and the Plain of Judea The...
in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with a population of 3.3 million residents as of 2010. The city is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality, headed by Ron Huldai
Ron Huldai
Ron Huldai is an Israeli politician, academic administrator, former fighter pilot and current mayor of Tel Aviv. He was born in 1944 in Hulda to Polish parents from Łódź. He is a history graduate of Tel Aviv University, Auburn University Montgomery , the U.S...
. Residents of Tel Aviv are referred to as Tel Avivim.
Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 by the Jewish Community of Jaffa
Jaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...
, on the outskirts of the ancient port city
Port
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....
. The growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced Jaffa, which had a majority Arab population 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
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
in 2003, comprises the world's largest concentration of Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
buildings.
Tel Aviv is a global city
Global city
A global city is a city that is deemed to be an important node in the global economic system...
, alongside cities such as Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and San Francisco.
Known as "The City That Never Sleeps", it is a popular tourist destination, attracting 2.7 million international visitors annually. It is renowned for its 24-hour culture
24/7
24/7 is an abbreviation which stands for "24 hours a day, 7 days a week", usually referring to a business or service available at all times without interruption...
, beaches, bars, restaurants, cafés, parks, shopping, cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism is the ideology that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality. This is contrasted with communitarian and particularistic theories, especially the ideas of patriotism and nationalism...
lifestyle, and landmark neighborhoods such as Old Jaffa
Jaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...
and Neve Tzedek
Neve Tzedek
Neve Tzedek is a neighborhood located in southwestern Tel Aviv, Israel. It was the first Jewish neighborhood to be built outside the walls of the ancient port of Jaffa. For years, the neighborhood prospered as Tel Aviv, the first modern Hebrew city, grew up around it...
. Tel Aviv is an economic hub, home to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in Tel Aviv is Israel's only stock exchange.The TASE is the only public market for trading securities in Israel. It plays a major role in the Israeli economy....
, corporate offices and research and development
Research and development
The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...
centers. It is the country's financial capital
Financial capital
Financial capital can refer to money used by entrepreneurs and businesses to buy what they need to make their products or provide their services or to that sector of the economy based on its operation, i.e. retail, corporate, investment banking, etc....
and a major performing arts
Performing arts
The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...
and business center. Tel Aviv has the second-largest economy in the Middle East, and is the 19th most expensive city in the world.
In 2007, New York City-based David Kaufman
David Kaufman (journalist)
David Kaufman is an American journalist who writes for several influential publications, including the Financial Times, The New York Times, Details, New York and some of the premiere international publications, including Time International. He appears regularly on the Fox News business network...
named it the "Mediterranean's New Capital of Cool". In 2010, Knight Franks world city survey ranked it 34th globally. Tel Aviv has been named the third "hottest city for 2011" (behind only New York City and Tangier) by Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet is the largest travel guide book and digital media publisher in the world. The company is owned by BBC Worldwide, which bought a 75% share from the founders Maureen and Tony Wheeler in 2007 and the final 25% in February 2011...
, third-best in the Middle East and Africa by Travel + Leisure magazine
Travel + Leisure
Travel + Leisure is a travel magazine based in New York City, New York. Published 12 times a year, it has 4.8 million readers, according to its corporate media kit. It is put out by American Express Publishing Corporation, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Express Company led by...
(behind only Cape Town and Jerusalem), and the ninth-best beach city
Seaside resort
A seaside resort is a resort, or resort town, located on the coast. Where a beach is the primary focus for tourists, it may be called a beach resort.- Overview :...
in the world by National Geographic.
Etymology
Tel Aviv is the Hebrew title of Theodor HerzlTheodor Herzl
Theodor Herzl , born Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl was an Ashkenazi Jew Austro-Hungarian journalist and the father of modern political Zionism and in effect the State of Israel.-Early life:...
's Altneuland
The Old New Land
The Old New Land is a utopian novel published by Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, in 1902. Outlining Herzl’s vision for a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, Altneuland became one of Zionism's establishing texts. It was translated into Yiddish by Israel Isidor Elyashev...
("Old New Land"), translated from German by Nahum Sokolow
Nahum Sokolow
Nahum Sokolow was a Zionist leader, author, translator, and a pioneer of Hebrew journalism....
. Sokolow had adopted the name of a Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
n site in : "Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Aviv
Tel Abib
Tel Abib is an unidentified place on the river Khabur in what is now Syria. Tel Abib is mentioned in :The biblical place name was adopted by Nahum Sokolow as the title for his Hebrew translation of Theodor Herzl's Altneuland...
, that lived by the river Chebar
Khabur River
The Khabur River , , , ) is the largest perennial tributary to the Euphrates in Syrian territory. Although the Khabur originates in Turkey, the karstic springs around Ra's al-'Ayn are the river's main source of water. Several important wadis join the Khabur north of Al-Hasakah, together creating...
, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days."; The name was chosen in 1910 from several suggestions, including "Herzliya
Herzliya
Herzliya is a city in the central coast of Israel, at the western part of the Tel Aviv District. It has a population of 87,000 residents. Named after Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, Herzliya covers an area of 26 km²...
". It was found fitting as it embraced the idea of a renaissance in the ancient Jewish homeland. Aviv is Hebrew for "spring", symbolizing renewal, and tel is a man-made mound accumulating layers of civilization built one over the other and symbolizing the ancient.
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
Japheth
Japheth is one of the sons of Noah in the Abrahamic tradition...
, son of Noah
Noah
Noah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...
, founded the city and that it was named after him.
Jaffa
The ancient port of JaffaJaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...
changed hands many times in the course of history. Archeological excavations from 1955 to 1974 unearthed towers and gates from the Middle Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
. Subsequent excavations, from 1997 onwards, helped date earlier discoveries. They also exposed sections of a packed-sandstone glacis
Glacis
A glacis in military engineering is an artificial slope of earth used in late European fortresses so constructed as to keep any potential assailant under the fire of the defenders until the last possible moment...
and a "massive brick wall", dating from the Late Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
as well as a temple "attributed to the Sea Peoples
Sea Peoples
The Sea Peoples were a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty and especially during year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty...
" and dwellings from the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
. Remnants of buildings from the Persian
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire , sometimes known as First Persian Empire and/or Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation...
, Hellenistic
Hellenistic civilization
Hellenistic civilization represents the zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world from 323 BCE to about 146 BCE...
and Pharaonic
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
periods were also discovered.
The city is first mentioned in letters from 1470 BCE that record its conquest by Egyptian Pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
Thutmose III
Thutmose III
Thutmose III was the sixth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. During the first twenty-two years of Thutmose's reign he was co-regent with his stepmother, Hatshepsut, who was named the pharaoh...
. Jaffa is mentioned several times in the Bible, as the port from which Jonah
Jonah
Jonah is the name given in the Hebrew Bible to a prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel in about the 8th century BC, the eponymous central character in the Book of Jonah, famous for being swallowed by a fish or a whale, depending on translation...
set sail for Tarshish
Tarshish
Tarshish תַּרְשִׁישׁ occurs in the Hebrew Bible with several uncertain meanings:*One of the sons of Javan .* In the Bible Solomon set up a trade with Tarshish and received ivory, apes, and peacocks from Tarshish which are all native to the jungles in India. India's state bird for example is the...
; as bordering on the territory of the Tribe of Dan
Tribe of Dan
The Tribe of Dan, also sometimes spelled as "Dann", was one of the Tribes of Israel. Though known mostly from biblical sources, they were possibly descendants of the Denyen Sea Peoples who joined with Hebrews...
; and as the port at which the wood for Solomon's Temple
Solomon's Temple
Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was the main temple in ancient Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount , before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BCE....
in Jerusalem arrived from Lebanon. According to some sources it has been a port for at least 4,000 years.
In 1099, the Christian armies of the First Crusade
First Crusade
The First Crusade was a military expedition by Western Christianity to regain the Holy Lands taken in the Muslim conquest of the Levant, ultimately resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem...
, led by Godfrey of Bouillon
Godfrey of Bouillon
Godfrey of Bouillon was a medieval Frankish knight who was one of the leaders of the First Crusade from 1096 until his death. He was the Lord of Bouillon, from which he took his byname, from 1076 and the Duke of Lower Lorraine from 1087...
occupied Jaffa, which had been abandoned by the Muslims, fortified the town and improved its harbor. As the Count
Count
A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...
y of Jaffa, the town soon became important as the main sea supply route for the Kingdom of Jerusalem
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Catholic kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, but its history is divided into two distinct periods....
. Jaffa was captured by Saladin
Saladin
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...
in 1192 but swiftly re-taken by Richard Coeur de Lion
Richard I of England
Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...
, who added to its defenses. In 1223, Emperor Frederick II
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...
added further fortications. Crusader domination ended in 1268, when the Mamluk
Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)
The Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt was the final independent Egyptian state prior to the establishment of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty in 1805. It lasted from the overthrow of the Ayyubid Dynasty until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. The sultanate's ruling caste was composed of Mamluks, Arabised...
Sultan Baibars
Baibars
Baibars or Baybars , nicknamed Abu l-Futuh , was a Mamluk Sultan of Egypt. He was one of the commanders of the forces which inflicted a devastating defeat on the Seventh Crusade of King Louis IX of France and he led the vanguard of the Egyptian army at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, which marked...
captured the town, destroyed its harbor and razed its fortifications. In 1336, when a new Crusade was being planned, Al-Nasir Muhammad
Al-Nasir Muhammad
Al-Nasir Muhammad b. Cairo 1285, d...
had the harbor destroyed to prevent the Franks from landing there. For the same reason, both the town and the harbor were destroyed in 1345. In the 16th century, Jaffa was conquered by the Ottomans
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
and was administered as a village in the Sanjak of Gaza
Liwa of Gaza
The Sanjak of Gaza was a sanjak of the Damascus Eyalet, Ottoman Empire. It administrative center was within the Gaza City....
.
Napoleon
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
besieged the city in 1799 and killed scores of inhabitants; a plague epidemic followed, decimating the remaining population. The surrendering garrison of several thousand Muslims was massacred.
Jaffa began to grow as an urban center
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
in the early 18th century, when the Ottoman government in Istanbul intervened to guard the port and reduce attacks by Bedouins and pirates. However, the real expansion came during the 19th century, when the population grew from 2,500 in 1806 to 17,000 in 1886.
Seawall
A seawall is a form of coastal defence constructed where the sea, and associated coastal processes, impact directly upon the landforms of the coast. The purpose of a seawall is to protect areas of human habitation, conservation and leisure activities from the action of tides and waves...
, 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) high, remained intact until the 1930s, when it was built over during a renovation of the port by the British Mandatory authorities. During the mid-19th century, the city grew prosperous from trade, especially of silk and Jaffa orange
Jaffa orange
The Jaffa orange, also Shamouti orange, is a sweet, almost seedless orange variety. Originally developed by Palestinian farmers in the mid-19th century, it takes its name from the city of Jaffa where it was first produced for export. It became a primary citrus export of the State of Israel...
s, with Europe. In the 1860s Jaffa's small Sephardic
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
community was joined by Jews from Morocco and small numbers of European Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...
, making by 1882 a total Jewish population of more than 1,500.
The first Jews to build outside of Jaffa, in the area of modern day Tel Aviv, were Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen . Between June 1949 and September 1950, the overwhelming majority of Yemen's Jewish population was transported to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet...
. These homes, built in 1881, became the core of Kerem HaTeimanim (Hebrew for "the Vineyard of the Yemenites"). In 1896 the Yemenite Jews established Mahane Yehuda, and in 1904, Mahane Yossef. These neighbourhoods later became the Shabazi neighbourhood.
During the 1880s, Ashkenazi immigration to Jaffa increased with the onset of the First Aliyah
First Aliyah
The First Aliyah was the first modern widespread wave of Zionist aliyah. Jews who migrated to Palestine in this wave came mostly from Eastern Europe and from Yemen. This wave of aliyah began in 1881–82 and lasted until 1903. An estimated 25,000–35,000 Jews immigrated to Ottoman Syria during the...
. The new arrivals were motivated more by Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
than religion and came to farm the land and engage in productive labor. In keeping with their pioneer ideology, some chose to settle in the sand dunes north of Jaffa. The beginning of modern-day Tel Aviv is marked by the construction of Neve Tzedek
Neve Tzedek
Neve Tzedek is a neighborhood located in southwestern Tel Aviv, Israel. It was the first Jewish neighborhood to be built outside the walls of the ancient port of Jaffa. For years, the neighborhood prospered as Tel Aviv, the first modern Hebrew city, grew up around it...
, a neighborhood built by Ashkenazi settlers between 1887 and 1896.
Ahuzat Bayit
The Second AliyahSecond Aliyah
The Second Aliyah was an important and highly influential aliyah that took place between 1904 and 1914, during which approximately 40,000 Jews immigrated into Ottoman Palestine, mostly from the Russian Empire, some from Yemen....
led to further expansion. In 1906, a group of Jews, among them residents of Jaffa, followed the initiative of Akiva Arye Weiss and banded together to form the Ahuzat Bayit (lit. "homestead") society. The society's goal was to form a "Hebrew urban centre in a healthy environment, planned according to the rules of aesthetics and modern hygiene". The urban planning for the new city was influenced by the ideas of the Garden city movement
Garden city movement
The garden city movement is a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities surrounded by "greenbelts" , containing proportionate areas of residences, industry and...
. In 1908, the group purchased 5 hectares (12.4 acre) of dunes northeast of Jaffa. Following this purchase, Meir Dizengoff
Meir Dizengoff
Meir Dizengoff was a Zionist politician and the first mayor of Tel Aviv.-Biography:Meir Dizengoff was born in 1861 in the village of Akimovici near Orgeyev, Bessarabia. In 1878, his family moved to Kishinev, where he graduated from high school and studied at the polytechnic school...
, who later became Tel Aviv's first mayor, decided to join Ahuzat Bayit. His vision for Tel Aviv involved peaceful co-existence with the Arabs. Eventually David Ben Gurion would announce the creation of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948 from Meir Dizengoff's home in Tel Aviv.
In April 1909, 66 Jewish families gathered on a desolate sand dune on what is now Rothschild Boulevard to parcel out the land by lottery using seashells. This gathering is considered the official date of the establishment of Tel Aviv, although some neighbourhoods, such as Kerem HaTeimanim, already existed. The lottery was organised by Akiva Arye Weiss, president of the building society. The names of the families were inscribed on white shells and the plot number on shells of a different color. Within a year, Herzl
Theodor Herzl
Theodor Herzl , born Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl was an Ashkenazi Jew Austro-Hungarian journalist and the father of modern political Zionism and in effect the State of Israel.-Early life:...
, Ahad Ha'am, Yehuda Halevi, Lilienblum
Moshe Leib Lilienblum
Moshe Leib Lilienblum was a Jewish scholar and author born at Keidany, Kovno, October 22, 1843. From his father he learned the calculation of the course of the stars in their relation to the Hebrew calendar . At the age of thirteen he organized a society of boys for the study of En Ya'aqob Moshe...
, and Rothschild streets were built; a water system was installed; and 66 houses (including some on six subdivided plots) were completed. 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. On 21 May 1910, the name Tel Aviv was adopted. Tel Aviv was planned as an independent Hebrew city with wide streets and boulevards, running water at each house and street lights.
By 1914, Tel Aviv had grown to more than 1 square kilometres (247 acre). However, growth halted in 1917 when the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
authorities expelled the Jews of Jaffa and Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv and Jaffa deportation
The Tel Aviv and Jaffa deportation refers to the forcible deportation of the entire civilian population of Jaffa and Tel Aviv on April 6, 1917 by the Ottoman authorities in Palestine...
. A report published in The New York Times by United States Consul Garrels in Alexandria, Egypt
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
described the Jaffa deportation of early April 1917. The orders of evacuation were aimed chiefly at the Jewish population.
Under the British Mandate
Jaffa riots
The Jaffa riots were a series of violent riots in Palestine on May 1–7, 1921, which began as a fight between two Jewish groups but developed into an attack by Arabs on Jews during which many were killed...
erupted resulting in the deaths of 48 Arabs and 47 Jews and injuries to 146 Jews and 73 Arabs. 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 around 34,000 by 1925. New businesses opened in Tel Aviv, leading to the decline of Jaffa as a commercial center. In 1925, Patrick Geddes
Patrick Geddes
Sir Patrick Geddes was a Scottish biologist, sociologist, philanthropist and pioneering town planner. He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban planning and education....
drew up a master plan
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
for Tel Aviv that was adopted by the city council led by Meir Dizengoff
Meir Dizengoff
Meir Dizengoff was a Zionist politician and the first mayor of Tel Aviv.-Biography:Meir Dizengoff was born in 1861 in the village of Akimovici near Orgeyev, Bessarabia. In 1878, his family moved to Kishinev, where he graduated from high school and studied at the polytechnic school...
. The core idea was the development of a Garden City
Garden city movement
The garden city movement is a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities surrounded by "greenbelts" , containing proportionate areas of residences, industry and...
. The boundaries he worked within, the Yarkon River in the North and Ibn Gvirol
Solomon ibn Gabirol
Solomon ibn Gabirol, also Solomon ben Judah , was an Andalucian Hebrew poet and Jewish philosopher with a Neoplatonic bent. He was born in Málaga about 1021; died about 1058 in Valencia.-Biography:...
Street in the East, are now the boundaries of Tel Aviv's Old North.
Tel Aviv continued to expand in 1926, but suffered an economic setback between 1927 and 1930. The Ben Gurion House
Ben Gurion House
The Ben Gurion House is an historic house museum in Tel Aviv, in which between 1931-1968 served as an additional residence for Israel's 1st Defense and Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, and his family, along with another additional residence, Tzrif Ben Gurion at Sde Boker Kibbutz in the Negev , and...
was built in 1930–31, part of a new worker's housing development. 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. Tel Aviv gained municipal status in 1934.
The population rose dramatically during the Fifth Aliyah
Fifth Aliyah
The Fifth Aliyah refers to the fifth wave of the Jewish immigration to Israel from Europe and Asia between the years 1929 and 1939. The Fifth immigration wave began after the 1929 Palestine riots, and after the comeback from the economic crisis in Israel in 1927, during the period of the Fourth...
when the Nazis came to power in Germany. 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. 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 revolt, a local port independent of Jaffa was built in 1938, and Lydda Airport
Ben Gurion International Airport
Ben Gurion International Airport , also referred to by its Hebrew acronym Natbag , is the largest and busiest international airport in Israel, handling 12,160,339 passengers in 2010...
(later Ben Gurion Airport) and Sde Dov Airport
Sde Dov Airport
Sde Dov Airport , also known as Dov Hoz Airport is an airport located in Tel Aviv, Israel which mainly handles scheduled domestic flights to Eilat and , northern Israel , and the Israeli Golan Heights. It is Tel Aviv's largest airport and the second largest in the area, after Ben Gurion...
opened between 1937 and 1938.
Tel Aviv's White City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
since 2003, emerged in the 1930s. Many of the German Jewish architects trained at the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
, the Modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
school of architecture closed by the Nazis in 1933, fled Germany. Some, like architect Arieh Sharon
Arieh Sharon
Arieh Sharon was an Israeli architect and winner of the Israel Prize for Architecture in 1962—the first in this discipline. Sharon was a critical contributor to the early architecture in Israel and the leader of the first master plan of the young state, reporting to then Prime Minister, David...
, came to Palestine and adapted the architectural outlook of the Bauhaus as well as other similar schools, to local conditions, creating what is claimed to be the largest concentration of buildings in the International Style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
in the world.
Tel Aviv was a major target of the Italian Bombing of Palestine in World War II. On 9 September 1940, 137 were killed in the bombing of Tel Aviv.
According to the 1947 UN Partition Plan for dividing Palestine into Jewish and Arab states
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
, Tel Aviv, by then a city of 230,000, was slated for inclusion in the Jewish state. Jaffa with, as of 1945, a population of 101,580 people, 53,930 of whom were Muslim and 16,800 Christian, making up the Arab population, and 30,820 Jewish, was designated as part of the Arab state. The Arabs, however, rejected the plan. Between 1947 and 1948, tensions grew on the border between Tel Aviv and Jaffa, with Arab snipers who were firing at Jews from the minaret of the Hassan Bek Mosque
Hassan Bek Mosque
The Hassan Bek Mosque , , also known as the Hasan Bey Mosque, is considered to be one of the most well-known mosques located in Jaffa, which is now part of the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality in Israel...
. The Haganah
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
and Irgun
Irgun
The Irgun , or Irgun Zevai Leumi to give it its full title , was a Zionist paramilitary group that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization haHaganah...
Jewish forces retaliated with a siege on Jaffa. From April 1948, the Arab residents began to leave. When Jaffa was conquered by Israeli forces on 14 May, few remained.
After Israeli independence
When Israel declared Independence on 14 May 1948, the population of Tel Aviv was over 200,000.Tel Aviv was the temporary government center of the State of Israel until the government moved to Jerusalem in December 1949. Due to the international dispute over the status of Jerusalem
Positions on Jerusalem
There are differing legal and diplomatic positions on Jerusalem held within the international community. Governments and scholars alike are divided over the legal status of Jerusalem under international law. Most countries of the world do not recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Many do not...
, most foreign embassies remained in or near Tel Aviv. In the early 1980s, 13 embassies in Jerusalem moved to Tel Aviv as part of the UN's measures
United Nations Security Council Resolution 478
United Nations Security Council Resolution 478, adopted on August 20, 1980, declared Israel's 1980 Jerusalem Law a violation of international law, and states that the Council will not recognize this law, and calls on member states to accept the decision of the council. This resolution also calls...
responding to Israel's 1980 Jerusalem Law
Jerusalem Law
The Jerusalem Law is a common name of Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel passed by the Knesset on July 30, 1980 .It began as a private member's bill proposed by Geula Cohen, whose original text stated that "the integrity and unity of greater Jerusalem in its boundaries after the Six-Day War...
. Today, all but two embassies are in Tel Aviv or environs. The boundaries of Tel Aviv and Jaffa became a matter of contention between the Tel Aviv municipality and the Israeli government in 1948. The former wished to incorporate only the northern Jewish suburbs of Jaffa, while the latter wanted a more complete unification. The issue also had international sensitivity, since the main part of Jaffa was in the Arab portion of the United Nations Partition Plan, whereas Tel Aviv was not, and no armistice agreements had yet been signed. On 10 December 1948, the government announced the annexation to Tel Aviv of Jaffa's Jewish suburbs, the ex-Arab neighborhood of Abu Kabir
Abu Kabir
Abu Kabir was a satellite village of Jaffa founded by Egyptians following Ibrahim Pasha's 1832 defeat of Turkish forces in Ottoman era Palestine. After Israel's establishment in 1948, the area became part of Tel Aviv...
, the ex-Arab village of Salama and some of its agricultural land, and the Jewish 'Hatikva' slum. On 25 February 1949, the abandoned Arab village of al-Shaykh Muwannis
Al-Shaykh Muwannis
Al-Shaykh Muwannis was a small Palestinian Arab village in the District of Jaffa in British Mandate Palestine located approximately 8.5 kilometers from the center of Jaffa city in territory earmarked for Jewish statehood under the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine.The village had...
was also annexed to Tel Aviv. On 18 May 1949, Manshiya and part of Jaffa's central zone were added, for the first time including land that had been in the Arab portion of the UN partition plan. The government voted on the unification of Tel Aviv and Jaffa on 4 October 1949, but the decision was not implemented until 24 April 1950 due to the opposition of Tel Aviv mayor Israel Rokach
Israel Rokach
Israel Rokach, Honorary CBE was an Israeli politician, Knesset member, and mayor of Tel Aviv from November 15, 1936 to April 13, 1953.-Biography:...
. The name of the unified city was Tel Aviv until 19 August 1950, when it was renamed Tel Aviv-Yafo in order to preserve the historical name Jaffa.
Tel Aviv thus grew to 42 square kilometres (16.2 sq mi). In 1949, a memorial to the 60 founders of Tel Aviv was constructed. Over the past 60 years, Tel Aviv has developed into a secular
Secularity
Secularity is the state of being separate from religion.For instance, eating and bathing may be regarded as examples of secular activities, because there may not be anything inherently religious about them...
, liberal-minded center with a vibrant nightlife and café culture.
In the 1960s, some of the older buildings were demolished, making way for the country's first high-rises. Shalom Meir Tower
Shalom Meir tower
-External links:*...
was Israel's tallest building until 1999. Tel Aviv's population peaked in the early 1960s at 390,000, representing 16 percent of the country's total. A long period of steady decline followed, however, and by the late 1980s the city had an aging population of 317,000. High property prices pushed families out and deterred young people from moving in.
At this time, gentrification began in the poor neighborhoods of southern Tel Aviv, and the old port in the north was renewed. New laws were introduced to protect Modernist buildings, and efforts to preserve them were aided by UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
recognition of the Tel Aviv's White City as a world heritage site. In the early 1990s, the decline in population was reversed, partly due to the large wave of immigrants from the former Soviet Union
Post-Soviet states
The post-Soviet states, also commonly known as the Former Soviet Union or former Soviet republics, are the 15 independent states that split off from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its dissolution in December 1991...
. Tel Aviv also began to emerge as a high-tech center. The construction of many skyscrapers and high-tech office buildings followed. In 1993, Tel Aviv was categorized as a world city
Global city
A global city is a city that is deemed to be an important node in the global economic system...
. The city is regarded as a strong candidate for global city status.
In the Gulf War in 1991, Tel Aviv was attacked by Scud
Scud
Scud is a series of tactical ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and exported widely to other countries. The term comes from the NATO reporting name SS-1 Scud which was attached to the missile by Western intelligence agencies...
rockets from Iraq, but there were few casualties and no fatalities. The inhabitants of the southeastern suburb of HaTikva erected an angel-monument as a sign of their gratitude, that "it was through a great miracle, that many people were preserved from being killed by a direct hit of a Scud rocket."
On 4 November 1995, Israel's prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin
' was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995....
, was assassinated
Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin took place on November 4, 1995 at 21:30, at the end of a rally in support of the Oslo Accords at the Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv...
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
Rabin Square
Rabin Square , formerly Kings of Israel Square , is the largest open public city square in central Tel Aviv, Israel. Over the years it has been the site of numerous political rallies, parades, and other public events...
.
Since the First Intifada
First Intifada
The First Intifada was a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The uprising began in the Jabalia refugee camp and quickly spread throughout Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem....
, Tel Aviv has suffered from Palestinian political violence
Palestinian political violence
Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence undertaken to further the Palestinian cause. These political objectives include self-determination in and sovereignty over Palestine, the liberation of Palestine and establishment of a Palestinian state, either in place of both Israel and...
. The first suicide attack
Suicide attack
A suicide attack is a type of attack in which the attacker expects or intends to die in the process.- Historical :...
in Tel Aviv occurred on 19 October 1994, on the Line 5 bus, when a bomber killed himself and 21 civilians as part of a Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
suicide campaign. The most deadly attack occurred on 1 June 2001, during the Second Intifada, when a suicide bomber exploded at the entrance to the Dolphinarium discotheque, killing 21 and injuring more than 100. The most recent attack in the city occurred on 17 April 2006, when nine people were killed and at least 40 wounded in a suicide bombing near the old central bus station.
In 2009, Tel Aviv celebrated its official centennial. In addition to city- and country-wide celebrations, digital collections of historical materials were assembled. These include the History section of the official Tel Aviv-Yafo Centennial Year website; the Ahuzat Bayit collection, which focuses on the founding families of Tel Aviv, and includes photographs and biographies;
and Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
's Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection, documenting the history of the city.
Geography
Tel Aviv is located around 32°5′N 34°48′E on the Israeli Mediterranean coastlineIsraeli Coastal Plain
The Israeli coastal plain is the narrow coastal plain along Israel's Mediterranean Sea coast which houses 70% of the country's population. The plain extends north to south and is divided into a number of areas; the Plain of Zebulun , Hof HaCarmel , the Sharon plain , and the Plain of Judea The...
, in central Israel, the historic land bridge
Via Maris
Via Maris is the modern name for an ancient trade route, dating from the early Bronze Age, linking Egypt with the northern empires of Syria, Anatolia and Mesopotamia — modern day Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria....
between Europe, Asia and Africa. Immediately north of the ancient port of Jaffa, Tel Aviv lies 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. 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 located 60 kilometres (37 mi) northwest of Jerusalem and 90 kilometres (56 mi) south of the city of Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
. Neighboring cities and towns include Herzliya
Herzliya
Herzliya is a city in the central coast of Israel, at the western part of the Tel Aviv District. It has a population of 87,000 residents. Named after Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, Herzliya covers an area of 26 km²...
to the north, Ramat HaSharon
Ramat Hasharon
Ramat HaSharon is a city located on Israel's central coastal strip in the south of the Sharon region, bordering Tel Aviv to the south and Herzliya and Kibbutz Glil Yam to the north. It is part of the Tel Aviv District, within Gush Dan metropolitan area...
to the northeast, Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva known as Em HaMoshavot , is a city in the Center District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2009, the city's population stood at 209,600. The population density is approximately...
, Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan and Giv'atayim
Giv'atayim
Giv'atayim is a city in Israel east of Tel Aviv. It is part of the metropolitan area known as Gush Dan. Givatayim was established in 1922 by pioneers of the Second Aliyah. It has a population of 53,000....
to the east, Holon to the southeast, and Bat Yam to the south. The city is economically stratified between the north and south. Southern Tel Aviv is generally reputed to be poorer than Northern Tel Aviv with the exception of Neve Tzedek
Neve Tzedek
Neve Tzedek is a neighborhood located in southwestern Tel Aviv, Israel. It was the first Jewish neighborhood to be built outside the walls of the ancient port of Jaffa. For years, the neighborhood prospered as Tel Aviv, the first modern Hebrew city, grew up around it...
and some recent development on Jaffa
Jaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...
beach. Central Tel Aviv is home to Azrieli Center
Azrieli Center
Azrieli Center is a complex of skyscrapers in Tel Aviv. At the base of the center lies a large shopping mall. The center was originally designed by Israeli-American architect Eli Attia, and after he fell out with the developer of the center David Azrieli , completion of the design was passed on to...
and the important financial and commerce district along Ayalon Highway. The northern side of Tel Aviv is home to Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
, Hayarkon Park, and upscale residential neighborhoods such as Ramat Aviv
Ramat Aviv
Ramat Aviv is the name of several neighborhoods in the Northwest District of Tel Aviv, Israel:* Ramat Aviv Aleph * Ramat Aviv Bet * Ramat Aviv Gimmel...
and Afeka
Afeka
Afeka is a residential neighborhood of Tel Aviv, Israel. It is located in the northwestern part of the city.-Notable residents:*Yaron London , media personality, journalist, actor, and songwriter...
.
Climate
Tel Aviv has a Mediterranean climateMediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...
(Köppen climate classification
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
Csb) with hot, humid summers, unpredictable springs and autumns, and cool, rainy winters. Humidity tends to be high year-round due to ocean breeze
Prevailing winds
Prevailing winds are winds that blow predominantly from a single general direction over a particular point on Earth's surface. The dominant winds are the trends in direction of wind with the highest speed over a particular point on the Earth's surface. A region's prevailing and dominant winds...
. In winter, average temperatures are usually between 9 °C (48.2 °F) and 17 °C (62.6 °F), with temperatures as low as 6 °C (42.8 °F) and as high as 20 °C (68 °F) occurring several times a winter.
The rainiest month on record was January 2000 with 424.9 mm (16.73 in). The rainiest day on record was 8 November 1955 with 133 mm (5.24 in). In summer, average temperatures are usually between 24 °C (75.2 °F) and 30 °C (86 °F). Tel Aviv averages 530.7 millimetre of precipitation annually, which mostly occurs in the months of October through April. Winter is the wettest season, often accompanied by heavy showers and thunderstorms. Snow is extremely rare, with the last recorded snowfall within city limits occurring in February 1950. Tel Aviv enjoys plenty of sunshine throughout the year with more than 300 sunny days annually.
Neighborhoods
Tel Aviv is divided into nine districts that have formed naturally over the city's short history. The oldest of these is Jaffa, the ancient port cityPort
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....
out of which Tel Aviv grew. This area is traditionally made up demographically of a greater percentage of Arabs, but recent gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
is replacing them with a young professional and artist population. Similar processes are occurring in nearby Neve Tzedek
Neve Tzedek
Neve Tzedek is a neighborhood located in southwestern Tel Aviv, Israel. It was the first Jewish neighborhood to be built outside the walls of the ancient port of Jaffa. For years, the neighborhood prospered as Tel Aviv, the first modern Hebrew city, grew up around it...
, the original Jewish neighborhood outside of Jaffa. Ramat Aviv
Ramat Aviv
Ramat Aviv is the name of several neighborhoods in the Northwest District of Tel Aviv, Israel:* Ramat Aviv Aleph * Ramat Aviv Bet * Ramat Aviv Gimmel...
, a district in the northern part of the city, that is largely made up of luxury apartments and includes the Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
, is currently undergoing extensive expansion and is set to absorb the beachfront property of Sde Dov Airport after its decommissioning. The area known as HaKirya
HaKirya
HaKirya, or The Kirya , is an area in central Tel Aviv, containing various government structures, including the major Israel Defense Forces base, Camp Rabin , named for Yitzhak Rabin...
is the Israel Defense Forces
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
(IDF) headquarters and a large military base
Military base
A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. In general, a military base provides accommodations for one or more units, but it may also be used as a...
.
Historically, there was a demographic split between the Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...
northern side of the city, including the district of Ramat Aviv
Ramat Aviv
Ramat Aviv is the name of several neighborhoods in the Northwest District of Tel Aviv, Israel:* Ramat Aviv Aleph * Ramat Aviv Bet * Ramat Aviv Gimmel...
, and the southern, more Sephardi
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
and Mizrahi
Mizrahi Jews
Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahiyim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus...
neighborhoods including Neve Tzedek
Neve Tzedek
Neve Tzedek is a neighborhood located in southwestern Tel Aviv, Israel. It was the first Jewish neighborhood to be built outside the walls of the ancient port of Jaffa. For years, the neighborhood prospered as Tel Aviv, the first modern Hebrew city, grew up around it...
and Florentin.
Since the 1980s, restoration and gentrification have 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. According to his memoir, Baruch Yoscovitz, who was the city planner for Tel Aviv beginning in 2001, took old British plans from the 1920s that were never implemented for Florentine and modernized them. Yoscovitz set out to create green areas, which Florentine had none of, small pedestrian areas, new housing apartments, and have the city buy up land for public facilities. The City of Tel Aviv initially put 2 million Shekels into the Florentine Project. Yoscovitz goal was to make Florentine the Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
of Tel Aviv, and attract artists and young professionals. Florentine has quickly been reinvented as a hip, "cool" place to be in Tel Aviv with coffeehouses, markets, bars, galleries and parties.
Architecture
The early architecture of Tel Aviv consisted largely of European-style single-story houses with red-tiled roofs. Neve TzedekNeve Tzedek
Neve Tzedek is a neighborhood located in southwestern Tel Aviv, Israel. It was the first Jewish neighborhood to be built outside the walls of the ancient port of Jaffa. For years, the neighborhood prospered as Tel Aviv, the first modern Hebrew city, grew up around it...
, the first neighborhood to be constructed outside of Jaffa is characterised by two-story sandstone buildings. By the 1920s, a new eclectic Orientalist style
Eclecticism in art
Eclecticism is a kind of mixed style in the fine arts: "the borrowing of a variety of styles from different sources and combining them" . Significantly, Eclecticism hardly ever constituted a specific style in art: it is characterized by the fact that it was not a particular style...
came into vogue, combining European architecture with Eastern features such as arches, domes and ornamental tiles. Municipal construction followed the "garden city" master plan drawn up by Patrick Geddes
Patrick Geddes
Sir Patrick Geddes was a Scottish biologist, sociologist, philanthropist and pioneering town planner. He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban planning and education....
. Two- and three-story buildings were interspersed with boulevards and public parks.
Various architectural styles, such as Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
, classical and modernist also exist in Tel Aviv.
Bauhaus
BauhausBauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
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, around the city center, contains more than 5,000 Modernist-style buildings inspired by the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
school and Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...
. Construction of these buildings, later declared protected landmarks and, collectively, a UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage Site, continued until the 1950s in the area around Rothschild Boulevard
Rothschild Boulevard
Rothschild Boulevard is one of the principal streets in the center of Tel Aviv, Israel, beginning in Neve Tzedek at its southwestern edge and running north to Habima Theatre. It is one of the busiest and most expensive streets in the city, being one of the city's main tourist attractions...
. Some 3,000 buildings were created in this style between 1931 and 1939 alone.
In the 1960s, this architectural style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
gave way to office towers and a chain of waterfront hotels and commercial skyscrapers. 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.
Efforts are under way to refurbish Bauhaus buildings and restore them to their original condition.
High-rise construction and towers
The Shalom Meir TowerShalom Meir tower
-External links:*...
, Israel's first skyscraper, was built in Tel Aviv in 1965 and remained the country's tallest building until 1999. The Azrieli Center
Azrieli Center
Azrieli Center is a complex of skyscrapers in Tel Aviv. At the base of the center lies a large shopping mall. The center was originally designed by Israeli-American architect Eli Attia, and after he fell out with the developer of the center David Azrieli , completion of the design was passed on to...
, 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 W-Tower, is in Tel Aviv.
New neighborhoods, such as Park Tzameret
Park Tzameret
Park Tzameret is a newly built neighborhood of Tel Aviv, Israel, currently under construction in the east-central side of the city. Set to contain twelve luxurious tall apartment buildings, surrounded by green space, the 133 dunam area has been modelled upon similar projects in London and Paris....
, are being constructed to house apartment towers such as YOO Tel Aviv towers, designed by Philippe Starck
Philippe Starck
Philippe Patrick Starck is a French product designer and probably the best known designer in the New Design style...
. Other districts, such as Sarona, are being developed with office towers. Other recent additions to Tel Aviv's skyline are the 1 Rothschild Tower
Rothschild Boulevard
Rothschild Boulevard is one of the principal streets in the center of Tel Aviv, Israel, beginning in Neve Tzedek at its southwestern edge and running north to Habima Theatre. It is one of the busiest and most expensive streets in the city, being one of the city's main tourist attractions...
and First International Bank Tower
First International Bank Tower
The First International Bank Tower is a skyscraper in Tel Aviv, Israel located on Rothschild Boulevard, currently under construction. At 132 meters in height over 32 floors, the tower will be Israel's fourtheenth tallest building...
. As Tel Aviv celebrated its centennial in 2009, the city attracted a number of architects and developers, including I. M. Pei
I. M. Pei
Ieoh Ming Pei , commonly known as I. M. Pei, is a Chinese American architect, often called a master of modern architecture. Born in Canton, China and raised in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Pei drew inspiration at an early age from the gardens at Suzhou...
, Donald Trump
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump, Sr. is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have...
, and Richard Meier
Richard Meier
Richard Meier is an American architect, whose rationalist buildings make prominent use of the color white.- Biography :Meier is Jewish and was born in Newark, New Jersey...
. American journalist David Kaufman
David Kaufman (journalist)
David Kaufman is an American journalist who writes for several influential publications, including the Financial Times, The New York Times, Details, New York and some of the premiere international publications, including Time International. He appears regularly on the Fox News business network...
reported in New York magazine
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
that since Tel Aviv “was named a UNESCO World Heritage
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
site, gorgeous historic buildings from the Ottoman and Bauhaus era have been repurposed as fabulous hotels, eateries, boutiques, and design museums.”
Environmental campaigns and urban restoration
Tel Aviv is ranked as the greenest citySustainable city
A sustainable city, or eco-city is a city designed with consideration of environmental impact, inhabited by people dedicated to minimization of required inputs of energy, water and food, and waste output of heat, air pollution - CO2, methane, and water pollution...
in Israel. Since 2008, City lights are turned off annually in support of Earth Hour
Earth Hour
Earth Hour is a global event organized by WWF and is held on the last Saturday of March annually, asking households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change...
. In February 2009, the municipality launched a water saving campaign, including competition granting free parking for a year to the household that is found to have consumed the least amount of water per person.
In the early 21st century, Tel Aviv's municipality transformed a derelict power station
Power station
A power station is an industrial facility for the generation of electric energy....
into a public park, now named "Gan HaHashmal" (electric park), paving the way for eco-friendly
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
and environmentally conscious designs. In October 2008, Martin Weyl turned an old garbage dump near Ben Gurion International Airport
Ben Gurion International Airport
Ben Gurion International Airport , also referred to by its Hebrew acronym Natbag , is the largest and busiest international airport in Israel, handling 12,160,339 passengers in 2010...
, called Hiriya
Hiriya
Hiriya is a former waste dump located southeast of Tel Aviv, Israel.-History:Hiriya takes its name from the pre-1948 Arab village of al-Khayriyya, which was built on the site of the ancient biblical town of Beneberak....
, into an attraction by building an arc of plastic bottles. The site, which was renamed Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
Park to honor Israel’s former prime minister, will serve as the centerpiece in what is to become a 2000 acres (8.1 km²) urban wilderness
Urban wilderness
Where appreciation for the importance of biodiversity meets the New Urbanism movement, one can find the pursuit of the creation of urban wilderness...
on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, designed by German landscape architect
Landscape architect
A landscape architect is a person involved in the planning, design and sometimes direction of a landscape, garden, or distinct space. The professional practice is known as landscape architecture....
, Peter Latz
Peter Latz
Peter Latz is a German landscape architect and a professor for landscape architecture at the Technical University of Munich. He is best known for his emphasis on reclamation and conversion of former industrialized landscapes...
.
At the end of the 20th century, the city began restoring historical neighborhoods such as Neve Tzedek
Neve Tzedek
Neve Tzedek is a neighborhood located in southwestern Tel Aviv, Israel. It was the first Jewish neighborhood to be built outside the walls of the ancient port of Jaffa. For years, the neighborhood prospered as Tel Aviv, the first modern Hebrew city, grew up around it...
and many buildings from the 1920s and 1930s. Since 2007, the city hosts its well-known, annual Open House Tel Aviv
Open House Tel Aviv
Open House Tel Aviv happens over the course of a weekend annually in Tel Aviv, Israel, in which different buildings, landmarks and private residences open their doors to the general public to offer a free glimpse of architecture in the past and present, with a preview of design for the future...
weekend, which offers the general public free entrance to the city's famous landmarks, private houses and public buildings. In 2010, the design of the renovated Tel Aviv Port (Nemal Tel Aviv) won the award for outstanding landscape architecture at the European Biennial for Landscape Architecture in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
.
Electric cars
In early 2008, Tel Aviv Municipality announced a pilot scheme to build charging stationCharging station
An electric vehicle charging station, also called EV charging station, electric recharging point, charging point and EVSE , is an element in an infrastructure that supplies electric energy for the recharging of electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric-gasoline vehicles) or semi-static and mobile...
s for electric cars
Electric vehicle
An electric vehicle , also referred to as an electric drive vehicle, uses one or more electric motors or traction motors for propulsion...
. 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
Battery electric vehicle
A battery electric vehicle, or BEV, is a type of electric vehicle that uses chemical energy stored in rechargeable battery packs. BEVs use electric motors and motor controllers instead of, or in addition to, internal combustion engines for propulsion.A battery-only electric vehicle or...
project, Project Better Place. Battery replacement points will be located at the city's entrances. A visitor center of Better Place is located in northwestern entrance to the city at Pi-Glilot site.
Better Place's primary R&D facility is in Tel Aviv and is headed by Lior Storfer.
Demographics
Tel Aviv has a population of 404,400 spread over a land area of 52000 dunams (52 km²) (20 mi²), yielding a population density of 7,606 people per square kilometer (19,699 per square mile). According to the Israel Central Bureau of StatisticsIsrael Central Bureau of Statistics
The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , abbreviated CBS, is an Israeli government office established in 1949 to carry out research and publish statistical data on all aspects of Israeli life, including population, society, economy, industry, education and physical infrastructure.It is headed by a...
(CBS), as of 2009 Tel Aviv's population is growing at an annual rate of 0.5%. Jews of all backgrounds form 91.8% of the population, Muslim and Christian Palestinians (holding Israeli citizenship)] make up 4.2%, and the remainder belong to other groups (including various Christian and Asian communities). As Tel Aviv is a multicultural city, many languages are spoken in addition to Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
. According to some estimates, about 50,000 unregistered Asian foreign worker
Foreign worker
A foreign worker is a person who works in a country other than the one of which he or she is a citizen. The term migrant worker as discussed in the migrant worker page is used in a particular UN resolution as a synonym for "foreign worker"...
s live in the city. Compared with Westernised cities, crime in Tel Aviv is relatively low.
According to Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, the average income in the city, which has an unemployment rate
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
of 6.9%, is 20% above the national average. The city's education standards are above the national average: of its 12th-grade students, 64.4% are eligible for matriculation certificates
Bagrut
Te'udat Bagrut is the official Israeli matriculation certificate. The bagrut is similar to the British A-levels, German Abitur, French Baccalauréat, and Austrian Matura...
. The age profile is relatively even, 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.
Tel Aviv's population reached a peak in the early 1960s at around 390,000, falling to 317,000 in the late 1980s as high property prices forced families out and deterred young couples from moving in. Since the mass immigration from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s, population has steadily grown. Today, the city's population is young and growing. In 2006, 22,000 people moved to the city, while only 18,500 left, and many of the new families had young children. The population is expected to reach 450,000 by 2025; meanwhile, the average age of residents fell from 35.8 in 1983 to 34 in 2008. The population over age 65 stands at 14.6% compared with 19% in 1983.
Religion
The city has its fair share of houses of worshipPlace of worship
A place of worship or house of worship is an establishment or her location where a group of people comes to perform acts of religious study, honor, or devotion. The form and function of religious architecture has evolved over thousands of years for both changing beliefs and architectural style...
, including 544 active synagogues with daily prayers,
including historic buildings such as the Great Synagogue
Great Synagogue (Tel Aviv)
The Great Synagogue of Tel Aviv is located on Allenby Street, Tel Aviv, just east of the Shalom Tower. The building was designed by Yehuda Magidovitch in 1922 and completed in 1926. It was renovated in 1970 with a new external facade of arches....
, established in the 1930s. In 2008, a center for secular Jewish Studies
Jewish studies
Jewish studies is an academic discipline centered on the study of Jews and Judaism. Jewish studies is interdisciplinary and combines aspects of history , religious studies, archeology, sociology, languages , political science, area studies, women's studies, and ethnic studies...
and a secular yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
opened in the city. Tensions between religious and secular Jews
Secular Jewish culture
Secular Jewish culture embraces several related phenomena; above all, it is the international culture of secular communities of Jewish people, but it can also include the cultural contributions of individuals who identify as secular Jews...
before the gay pride parade ended in vandalism of a synagogue. One of the city's famous landmarks is the Hassan Bek Mosque
Hassan Bek Mosque
The Hassan Bek Mosque , , also known as the Hasan Bey Mosque, is considered to be one of the most well-known mosques located in Jaffa, which is now part of the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality in Israel...
, on the Tel Aviv beachfront. The number of churches has grown to accommodate the religious needs of diplomats and foreign workers.
The population consists of 93% Jewish, 1% Muslim, and 1% Christian. The remaining 5 percent are not classified by religion. Israel Meir Lau
Yisrael Meir Lau
Yisrael Meir Lau is the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Israel, and Chairman of Yad Vashem. He previously served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1993 to 2003.-Biography:...
is chief rabbi
Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities...
of the city.
Economy
Tel Aviv was built on sand dunes in an area usuitable for farming, and maritime commerce was centered in HaifaHaifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
and Ashdod. Instead, the city developed as a center of business and scientific research. Economic activities account for 17 percent of GDP.
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
and a "miniature Los Angeles" by The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
. 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 continued to develop. The Tel Aviv metropolitan area (including satellite cities
Satellite town
A satellite town or satellite city is a concept in urban planning that refers essentially to smaller metropolitan areas which are located somewhat near to, but are mostly independent of, larger metropolitan areas.-Characteristics:...
such as Herzliya
Herzliya
Herzliya is a city in the central coast of Israel, at the western part of the Tel Aviv District. It has a population of 87,000 residents. Named after Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, Herzliya covers an area of 26 km²...
and Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva known as Em HaMoshavot , is a city in the Center District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2009, the city's population stood at 209,600. The population density is approximately...
) is Israel's center of high-tech, sometimes referred to as Silicon Wadi
Silicon Wadi
Silicon Wadi is an area with a high concentration of high-tech industries in the coastal plain in Israel, similar to Silicon Valley in California, in the United States. Silicon Wadi is considered second in importance only to its Californian counterpart...
.
Tel Aviv is home to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in Tel Aviv is Israel's only stock exchange.The TASE is the only public market for trading securities in Israel. It plays a major role in the Israeli economy....
(TASE), Israel's only stock exchange
Stock exchange
A stock exchange is an entity that provides services for stock brokers and traders to trade stocks, bonds, and other securities. Stock exchanges also provide facilities for issue and redemption of securities and other financial instruments, and capital events including the payment of income and...
, which has reached record heights since the 1990s. The Tel Aviv Stock exchange has also gained attention for its resilience and ability to recover from war and disasters. For example, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange was higher on the last day of both the 2006 Lebanon war and the 2009 Operation in Gaza than on the first day of fighting Many international venture-capital
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
firms, scientific research
Scientific method
Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
institutes and high-tech companies are headquartered in the city. Industries in Tel Aviv include chemical processing, textile plants and food manufacturers. The city's nightlife, cultural attractions and architecture attract tourists whose spending benefits the local economy.
In 2008, the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network (GaWC) at Loughborough University
Loughborough University
Loughborough University is a research based campus university located in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, in the East Midlands of England...
reissued an inventory of world cities
Global city
A global city is a city that is deemed to be an important node in the global economic system...
based on their level of advanced producer services. Tel Aviv was ranked as a beta+ world city
Global city
A global city is a city that is deemed to be an important node in the global economic system...
.
According to Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
, nine of its fifteen Israeli-born billionaires live in Israel; four live in Tel Aviv and its suburbs. The cost of living in Israel is high, with Tel Aviv being its most expensive city to live in. According to Mercer
Mercer (consulting firm)
Mercer is a human resource and related financial services consulting firm, headquartered in New York City. The firm operates internationally in more than 40 countries, with more than 19,000 employees, and is the world's largest human resource consulting firm....
, a human resources
Human resources
Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations...
consulting firm
Management consulting
Management consulting indicates both the industry and practice of helping organizations improve their performance primarily through the analysis of existing organizational problems and development of plans for improvement....
based in New York, as of 2010 Tel Aviv is the most expensive city in the Middle East and the 19th most expensive in the world.
Tourism
With 2.7 million international visitors annually, Tel Aviv is a popular tourism destination. It is known as "the city that never sleeps" and a "party capital" due to its thriving nightlifeNightlife
Nightlife is the collective term for any entertainment that is available and more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning...
, young atmosphere and famous 24-hour culture
24/7
24/7 is an abbreviation which stands for "24 hours a day, 7 days a week", usually referring to a business or service available at all times without interruption...
. NBA
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
player Anthony Parker
Anthony Parker
Anthony Michael Parker is an American professional basketball player who last played with the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association . After graduating from Bradley University with a major in liberal arts, he entered the 1997 NBA Draft and played briefly in the NBA before...
called Tel Aviv the best basketball city to go out in. Tel Aviv has branches of some of the world's leading hotels, including the Crowne Plaza
Crowne Plaza
Crowne Plaza is a chain of full service, upscale hotels catering to business travelers and to the meetings and conventions market. It forms part of the InterContinental Hotels Group family of brands, which include InterContinental and Holiday Inn and operates in 52 countries, usually located in...
, Sheraton
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide's largest and second oldest brand . Starwood's headquarters are in White Plains, New York.-Sheraton history:...
, Dan
Dan Hotels
Dan Hotels is a chain of Israeli luxury hotels established in 1947. The chain owns 14 hotels with 3,669 rooms, a convention center and a hotel training center. -History:...
, Isrotel
Isrotel Tower
The Isrotel Tower is a skyscraper hotel located on the beachfront of Tel Aviv, Israel. Standing 108 meters high, the 29 floor tower is operated by the Israeli Isrotel hotel group and is the tallest tower on Tel Aviv's Promenade. The tower was completed in 1997 and features a rooftop swimming pool,...
and Hilton
Hilton Hotels
Hilton Hotels & Resorts is an international chain of full-service hotels and resorts founded by Conrad Hilton and now owned by Hilton Worldwide. Hilton hotels are either owned by, managed by, or franchised to independent operators by Hilton Worldwide. Hilton Hotels became the first coast-to-coast...
. It is home to many museums, architectural and cultural sites, with city tours available in different languages. Apart from bus tours, architectural tours, Segway
Segway PT
The Segway PT is a two-wheeled, self-balancing transportation machine invented by Dean Kamen. It is produced by Segway Inc. of New Hampshire, USA. The name "Segway" is a homophone of "segue" while "PT" denotes personal transporter....
tours, and walking tours are also popular. Tel Aviv has 44 hotels with more than 6,500 rooms.
Recreation
The beaches of Tel Aviv play a major role in the cultural and touristic scene in the city, often ranked as some of the best beaches in the world. Hayarkon ParkYarkon Park
Yarkon Park , also known as Joshua Gardens, is a large public urban park in Tel Aviv, Israel, with about sixteen million visitors annually...
is the most visited urban park
Park
A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...
in Israel, with sixteen million visitors annually. Other parks within city limits include Charles Clore Park
Charles Clore Park
Charles Clore Park is a beachfront public park in southwestern Tel Aviv, Israel. The park covers of public land and runs along the Mediterranean Sea.It opened to the public in 1974, and in 2007 underwent a two-year makeover....
, Independence Park, Meir Park and Dubnow Park
Dubnow Park
Dubnow Park is a public park located in the center of Tel Aviv, Israel, lying at the back of the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center. The park is named for Simon Dubnow, a Jewish Belarusian historian, writer and activist, with Dubnow Street running at its western end.It is a very popular relaxing place...
. About 19% of the city land are green spaces.
Cuisine
Tel Aviv is famous for its wide variety of world-class restaurants, offering traditional Israeli dishes as well as international fare. More than 100 sushiSushi
is a Japanese food consisting of cooked vinegared rice combined with other ingredients . Neta and forms of sushi presentation vary, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is shari...
restaurants, the third highest concentration in the world, do business in the city, and an Italian
Italian cuisine
Italian cuisine has developed through centuries of social and political changes, with roots as far back as the 4th century BCE. Italian cuisine in itself takes heavy influences, including Etruscan, ancient Greek, ancient Roman, Byzantine, Jewish and Arab cuisines...
restaurant in Tel Aviv was called the best Italian restaurant outside of Italy by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture.
LGBT culture
Named by Out MagazineOut (magazine)
Out is a popular gay and lesbian fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle magazine, with the highest circulation of any gay monthly publication in the United States. It carries itself in a similar editorial manner to Details, Esquire, and GQ. Out was published by PlanetOut Inc...
"The gay capital of the Middle East", Tel Aviv is one of the most popular destinations for gay tourists internationally, with a large LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
community. American journalist David Kaufman
David Kaufman (journalist)
David Kaufman is an American journalist who writes for several influential publications, including the Financial Times, The New York Times, Details, New York and some of the premiere international publications, including Time International. He appears regularly on the Fox News business network...
has described the city as a place “packed with the kind of ‘we're here, we're queer’ vibe more typically found in Sydney and San Francisco.
The city hosts its well-known pride parade, the biggest in Asia, attracting over 100,000 people yearly. In January 2008, Tel Aviv's municipality established the city's LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
Community Center
Community centre
Community centres or community centers or jumping recreation centers are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole community or for a specialised group within...
, providing all of the municipal and cultural services to the LGBT community under one roof. In December 2008, Tel Aviv began putting together a team of gay and lesbian athletes for the 2009 World Outgames
2009 World Outgames
The 2009 World Outgames, the 2nd World Outgames, was hosted by Copenhagen, Denmark from July 25 to August 2, 2009. It was one of the largest international sports and cultural event ever held on Danish soil, with 8,000 people from all corners of the world expected to participate. The World...
in Copenhagen. In addition, Tel Aviv hosts an annual LGBT Film Festival
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
.
Tel Aviv's LGBT community is the subject of Eytan Fox
Eytan Fox
-Biography:Fox was born in New York City and moved with his family to Israel when he was two. His father, Seymour Fox, was a Conservative rabbi and a leading professor of Jewish education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His mother, Sara Kaminker-Fox, was the head of the Jerusalem city...
's 2006 film The Bubble
The Bubble (2006 film)
The Bubble is a 2006 romantic drama directed by Eytan Fox telling the story of two men who fall in love, one Israeli and one Palestinian...
.
Fashion
Tel Aviv has become an international center of fashion and design. It has been called the “next hot destination” for fashion. Israeli designers, such as swimwear company GottexGottex
Gottex is an Israeli swimwear manufacturer. It is America's top imported swimsuit label.-History:Gottex was founded in 1956 by Lea Gottlieb, a new immigrant from Hungary who adapted her expertise as a raincoat manufacturer to create a pioneering swimsuit company.She sold her wedding ring for...
show their collections at leading fashion shows, including New York’s Bryant Park
Bryant Park
Bryant Park is a 9.603 acre privately managed public park located in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan...
fashion show. In 2011, Tel Aviv hosted its first Fashion Week
Fashion Week
A fashion week is a fashion industry event, lasting approximately one week, which allows fashion designers, brands or "houses" to display their latest collections in runway shows and buyers and the media to take a look at the latest trends. Most importantly, these events let the industry know...
since the 1980s, with Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
designer Roberto Cavalli
Roberto Cavalli
Roberto Cavalli is an Italian fashion designer from Florence.-Biography:Roberto Cavalli was born in Florence, Tuscany. His grandfather, Giuseppe Rossi, was a member of the Macchiaioli Movement, whose work is exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery. Cavalli decided to enroll at the local Art Institute,...
as a guest of honor.
Entertainment and performing arts
Tel Aviv is Israel's major center of culture and entertainment. Eighteen of Israel's 35 major centers for the performing arts are located in the city, including five of the country's nine large theaters, where 55% of all performances in the country and 75%of all attendance occurs. The
Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center
Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center
The Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center is a performing arts center at King Saul Boulevard in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was designed by Israeli architect Jacob Rechter....
is the home of the Israeli Opera, where Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
was house tenor between 1962 and 1965, and the Cameri Theater
Cameri Theater
The Cameri Theater , established in 1944 in Tel Aviv, is one of the leading theaters in Israel, and is housed at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center....
. With 2,760 seats, the Frederic R. Mann Auditorium
Frederic R. Mann Auditorium
Fredric R. Mann Culture Center, commonly referred to as The Culture Palace, is a performing arts venue in Tel Aviv, Israel, which was opened in 1957 at Habima Square.It is home to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra....
(Culture Palace) is the city's largest theater. Habima Theater, Israel's national theater, was closed down for renovations in early 2008, and reopened in November, 2011 after major remodelling. Enav Cultural Center is one of the newer additions to the cultural scene. Other theaters in Tel Aviv are the Gesher Theater and Beit Lessin Theater
Beit Lessin Theater
Beit Lessin Theater is a theater in Tel Aviv, Israel.Established in 1978 by Yaakov Agmon for the Histadrut, the theater resided in Lessin House until moving to the old residence of the Cameri Theater in 2003....
; Tzavta and Tmuna are smaller theaters that host musical performances
Performance
A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
and fringe
Fringe theatre
Fringe theatre is theatre that is not of the mainstream. The term comes from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which name comes from Robert Kemp, who described the unofficial companies performing at the same time as the second Edinburgh International Festival as a ‘fringe’, writing: ‘Round the fringe...
productions. In Jaffa, the Simta and Notzar theaters specialize in fringe as well. Tel Aviv is home to the Batsheva Dance Company
Batsheva Dance Company
The Batsheva Dance Company is an internationally acclaimed dance company based in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was founded by Martha Graham and Baroness Batsheva De Rothschild in 1964....
, a world famous contemporary dance
Contemporary dance
Contemporary dance is a genre of concert dance that employs compositional philosophy, rather than choreography, to guide unchoreographed movement...
troupe. The Israeli Ballet is also based in Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv's center for modern and classical dance is the Suzanne Dellal Center for Dance and Theater in Neve Tzedek
Neve Tzedek
Neve Tzedek is a neighborhood located in southwestern Tel Aviv, Israel. It was the first Jewish neighborhood to be built outside the walls of the ancient port of Jaffa. For years, the neighborhood prospered as Tel Aviv, the first modern Hebrew city, grew up around it...
.
The city often hosts pop
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
and rock concerts in venues such as Hayarkon Park
Yarkon Park
Yarkon Park , also known as Joshua Gardens, is a large public urban park in Tel Aviv, Israel, with about sixteen million visitors annually...
, the Israel Trade Fairs & Convention Center, the Barby Club and the Zappa Club.
Opera and classical music performances are held daily in Tel Aviv, with many of the world's leading classical conductors
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
and soloists
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
performing on Tel Aviv stages over the years.
The Tel Aviv Cinemathèque
Cinematheque
A cinémathèque is a French word used to refer to a film archive with small cinemas that screens particularly classic and art-house films.- History :...
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 cinema
Multiplex (movie theater)
A multiplex is a movie theater complex with multiple screens, typically three or more. They are usually housed in a specially designed building. Sometimes, an existing venue undergoes a renovation where the existing auditoriums are split into smaller ones, or more auditoriums are added in an...
s.
Tel Aviv is known internationally for its highly active and diverse nightlife with bars staying open well past midnight and nightclubs and dance bars holding parties most nights of the week. The largest concentration of nightclubs is in the Tel Aviv port area, where the city's large, commercial clubs and bars draw large crowds of young clubbers from Tel Aviv and beyond. The TLV club is the largest and often hosts big name international acts and DJs. Another major clubbing area is the Yad Harutsim area, near the old central bus station area of town.
The South of Tel Aviv is known as being the city's main hub of alternative clubbing, with underground venues including established clubs like the Block club, Comfort 13 and the Sublime, as well as various warehouse and loft party venues.
Museums
Israel is said to have the highest number of museums per capita of any country, with three of the largest located in Tel Aviv. Among these are the Eretz Israel MuseumEretz Israel Museum
The Eretz Israel Museum is a historical and archeological museum in the Ramat Aviv neighborhood of Tel Aviv, Israel.Eretz Israel Museum, established in 1953, has a large display of archaeological, anthropological and historical artifacts organized in a series of exhibition pavilions on its grounds...
, known for its collection of archaeology and history exhibits dealing with the Land of Israel
Land of Israel
The Land of Israel is the Biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant, also known as Canaan and Palestine, Promised Land and Holy Land. The belief that the area is a God-given homeland of the Jewish people is based on the narrative of the...
, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Tel Aviv Museum of Art
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was established in 1932 in a building that was the home of Tel Aviv's first mayor, Meir Dizengoff. The Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art opened in 1959. The museum moved to its current location on King Saul Avenue in...
. Housed on the campus of Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
is Beth Hatefutsoth, a museum of the international Jewish diaspora that tells the story of Jewish prosperity and persecution throughout the centuries of exile
Jewish diaspora
The Jewish diaspora is the English term used to describe the Galut גלות , or 'exile', of the Jews from the region of the Kingdom of Judah and Roman Iudaea and later emigration from wider Eretz Israel....
. Batey Haosef Museum specializes in Israel Defense Forces
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
military history
Military history
Military history is a humanities discipline within the scope of general historical recording of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, their cultures, economies and changing intra and international relationships....
. The Palmach Museum
Palmach
The Palmach was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine. The Palmach was established on May 15, 1941...
near Tel Aviv University offers a multimedia experience of the history of the Palmach
Palmach
The Palmach was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine. The Palmach was established on May 15, 1941...
. Right next to Charles Clore Park
Charles Clore Park
Charles Clore Park is a beachfront public park in southwestern Tel Aviv, Israel. The park covers of public land and runs along the Mediterranean Sea.It opened to the public in 1974, and in 2007 underwent a two-year makeover....
is a museum of the Etzel
Irgun
The Irgun , or Irgun Zevai Leumi to give it its full title , was a Zionist paramilitary group that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization haHaganah...
. The Israel Trade Fairs & Convention Center, located in the northern part of the city, hosts more than 60 major events annually. Many offbeat museums and galleries operate in the southern areas, including the Tel Aviv Raw Art contemporary art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
gallery.
Sports
Tel Aviv is the only city with three clubs in Israeli Premier League, the country's top footballFootball in Israel
Football is the most popular sport in Israel. Football as an organised sport first developed in the United Kingdom who controlled Israel during the days of the British Mandate. Israel will be hosting the UEFA U-21 Championship in 2013....
league. Maccabi Tel Aviv Sports Club
Maccabi Tel Aviv
Maccabi Tel Aviv is the biggest sports club in Israel and a part of the Maccabi association. It runs many sports club and teams in Tel Aviv, which compete in a variety of sports, such as football, basketball, judo, swimming, handball, and others....
was founded in 1906 and competes in more than 10 sport fields. Its basketball team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, is a world-known professional team, that holds 47 Israeli titles, has won 36 editions of the Israel cup, and has five European Championships, and its football team has won 18 Israeli league titles and has won 22 State Cups
Israel State Cup
The State Cup , is a knockout cup competition in Israeli football, run by the Israeli Football Association.The State Cup was first held in 1927–28 as the Palestine Cup...
, two Toto Cup
Toto Cup
The Toto Cup is an association football tournament that exists separately in the two highest divisions in Israel: the Premier League and Liga Leumit....
s and two Asian Club Championships
AFC Champions League
The AFC Champions League is the premier Asian club football competition hosted annually by Asian Football Confederation . The tournament is contested among the top thirty-two clubs from the top 10 Asian leagues, two of which must qualify through the playoffs...
. Yael Arad
Yael Arad
Yael Arad is an Israeli judoka.She was the first Israeli to win an Olympic medal. She is widely recognized as one of Israel's most successful athletes and is credited with bringing judo into the athletic mainstream....
, an athlete in Maccabi's judo
Judo
is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...
club, won a silver medal in the 1992 Olympic Games
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 1986 to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same...
.
Hapoel Tel Aviv Sports Club
Sports club
A sports club or sport club, sometimes athletics club or sports association is a club for the purpose of playing one or more sports...
, founded in 1923, comprises more than 11 sports clubs, including Hapoel Tel Aviv Football Club (13 championships, 11 State Cups, one Toto Cup and once Asian champions) which plays in Bloomfield Stadium
Bloomfield Stadium
Bloomfield Stadium is a 14,700-seat football stadium in the Tel Aviv District city of Jaffa, Israel. It is the home stadium of Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv.-History:...
, men's and women's basketball clubs
Hapoel Tel Aviv B.C.
Hapoel Tel Aviv B.C. is an Israeli basketball club. The second most successful side in Israeli basketball, The club Owned by Hapoel Tel Aviv Supporters Trust and is currently in Liga Leumit, the Second tier.-History:...
.
Bnei Yehuda (once Israeli champion, twice State Cup
Israel State Cup
The State Cup , is a knockout cup competition in Israeli football, run by the Israeli Football Association.The State Cup was first held in 1927–28 as the Palestine Cup...
winners and twice Toto Cup
Toto Cup
The Toto Cup is an association football tournament that exists separately in the two highest divisions in Israel: the Premier League and Liga Leumit....
winner) is the only Israeli football team in the top division that represents a neighborhood, the Hatikva Quarter
Hatikva Quarter
The Hatikva Quarter is a neighbourhood in south-eastern Tel Aviv, Israel, long known as a working class area. It was founded in 1930 and was merged into Tel Aviv following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War....
in Tel Aviv, and not a city.
Shimshon Tel Aviv and Beitar Tel Aviv both formerly played in the top division, but dropped into the lower leagues, and merged in 2000, the new club now playing in Liga Artzit
Liga Artzit
Liga Artzit was the third tier of Israeli football after the Premier League and Liga Leumit, and was run by the Israel Football Association.-Structure:...
, the third tier. Another former first division team, Maccabi Jaffa, is now defunct, as are Maccabi HaTzefon Tel Aviv, Hapoel HaTzefon Tel Aviv and Hakoah Tel Aviv
Hakoah Tel Aviv F.C.
Hakoah Tel Aviv was an Israeli football club based in Tel Aviv. In 1959 it merged with Maccabi Ramat Gan to form Hakoah Maccabi Ramat Gan.-History:...
, who merged with Maccabi Ramat Gan
Maccabi Ramat Gan F.C.
Maccabi Ramat Gan was an Israeli football club based in Ramat Gan. In 1959 it merged with Hakoah Tel Aviv to form Hakoah Maccabi Ramat Gan.-History:...
and moved to Ramat Gan in 1959.
Tel Aviv is also the home to Hapoel Ussishkin, a fan-owned basketball club founded in 2007 due to disagreements between the Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball
Hapoel Tel Aviv B.C.
Hapoel Tel Aviv B.C. is an Israeli basketball club. The second most successful side in Israeli basketball, The club Owned by Hapoel Tel Aviv Supporters Trust and is currently in Liga Leumit, the Second tier.-History:...
club's management and the fans.
Two rowing
Rowing (sport)
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
clubs operate in Tel Aviv. The Tel Aviv Rowing Club, established in 1935 on the banks of the Yarkon River, is the largest rowing club in Israel. Meanwhile, the beaches of Tel Aviv provide a vibrant Matkot
Matkot
Matkot is a popular paddle ball game in Israel similar to beach tennis, often referred to as the country's national sport.Matkot is a non-competitive beach game in which two or more players hit a small ball back and forth using paddles...
(beach paddleball) scene. Tel Aviv Lightning
Tel Aviv Lightning
The Tel Aviv Lightning is an Israeli baseball team from Tel Aviv in the Israel Baseball League.The Lightning finished the inaugrual 2007 season in second place with a 26-14 record, and lost to the Modi'in Miracle in the semifinals of the 2007 IBL championship.6' 5" lefthander Aaron Pribble was...
represent Tel Aviv in the Israel Baseball League
Israel baseball league
The Israel Baseball League was a six-team professional baseball league in Israel. The first game was played on June 24, 2007...
. Tel Aviv also has an annual half marathon
Half marathon
A half marathon is a road running event of . It is half the distance of a marathon and usually run on roads. Participation in half marathons has grown steadily recently. One of the main reasons for this is that it is a challenging distance, but does not require the same level of training that a...
, run in 2008 by 10,000 athletes with runners coming from around the world.
In 2009, the Tel Aviv Marathon
Tel Aviv Marathon
The Tel Aviv Marathon is an annual marathon held each spring in Tel Aviv, Israel, with Charles Clore Park as its starting point. Inaugurated in 1981, it was held annually until 1994. In 2009, it was revived and has been taking place annually since, attracting over 18,000 runners....
was revived after a fifteen-year hiatus, and is run annually since, attracting a field of over 18,000 runners.
The National Sport Center is a compound of stadiums and sports facilities, also located within the Olympic Committee of Israel center and the "National Athletics Stadium" with the Israeli Athletic Association. Adjacent is a multi-purpose sports hall with the Israeli judo association and several Israeli sports associations.
Tel Aviv is also ranked to be 10th best to-skateboarding city by Transworld Skateboarding.
Media
Yedioth Ahronoth
Yedioth Ahronoth is a daily newspaper published in Tel Aviv, Israel. Since the 1970s, it has been the most widely circulated paper in Israel. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Yedioth Ahronoth retained the title of most widely read newspaper in Israel...
, Maariv
Maariv
Maariv is a Hebrew language daily newspaper published in Israel. It is second in sales after Yedioth Ahronoth and third in readership after Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel HaYom. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Maariv saw its market share fall slightly...
and Haaretz
Haaretz
Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
– are all based within the city limits. Several radio stations cover the Tel Aviv area, including the city-based Radio Tel Aviv.
The three major Israeli television networks, Keshet
Keshet (TV)
Keshet Broadcasting or Keshet is a media group and leading television program maker licensed in Israel. Keshet operates under the auspices of the Second Israeli Broadcasting Authority . It is one of two operators that have run the main Israeli commercial television channel, Channel 2, since 1993,...
, Reshet
Reshet
thumb|right|"Reshet" logoReshet is one of the two concessionaires running the Israeli commercial television channel, Arutz 2 since 1993. Reshet is considered one of the most successful television networks in Israel....
, and Channel 10, are based in the city, as well as two of the most popular radio stations in Israel: Galatz
Israel Army Radio
Army Radio or Galei Tzahal known in Israel by its acronym Galatz , is a nationwide Israeli radio network operated by the Israel Defense Forces....
and Galgalatz
Galgalatz
Galgalatz is a popular Israeli radio station operated by Israel Defense Forces Radio. This is the second of two Israel Defense Forces-operated stations, while the first one is Israel Defense Forces Radio/Galatz. The station was established in 1993 and broadcasts primarily nonstop pop music and...
, which are both based in Jaffa
Jaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...
.
Local government
Tel Aviv is governed by a 31-member city council elected for a five-year term in direct proportional elections. 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. The Tel Aviv City Hall is located at Rabin SquareRabin Square
Rabin Square , formerly Kings of Israel Square , is the largest open public city square in central Tel Aviv, Israel. Over the years it has been the site of numerous political rallies, parades, and other public events...
. Ron Huldai
Ron Huldai
Ron Huldai is an Israeli politician, academic administrator, former fighter pilot and current mayor of Tel Aviv. He was born in 1944 in Hulda to Polish parents from Łódź. He is a history graduate of Tel Aviv University, Auburn University Montgomery , the U.S...
has been mayor of Tel Aviv since 1998. Huldai was reelected in the 2008 municipal elections, defeating Dov Henin
Dov Khenin
Dov Khenin is an Israeli political-scientist, lawyer, and member of the Knesset for the leftist Hadash party. He is a member of the central committee of Maki , an activist for socio-economic equality and an environmentalist...
's list. The longest serving mayor was Shlomo Lahat
Shlomo Lahat
Maj. Gen. Shlomo "Chich" Lahat is a former Israeli general and politician.Lahat was born in Germany and made Aliyah in 1933. He served in the Haganah and the Israel Defense Forces...
, who was in office for 19 years. The shortest serving was David Bloch
David Bloch-Blumenfeld
David Bloch-Blumenfeld , sometimes simply David Bloch, was one of the leaders of the Labor Zionism movement in Mandate Palestine and mayor of Tel Aviv in 1925–27. Moshav Dovev in northern Israel is named after him.-External links:...
, in office for two years, 1925–27.
The demographic split in the city created political divisions between the Labor Party, usually strongest in the north, and Likud and other right-wing and religious parties, usually strongest in the south. In the 2006 election, however this pattern changed when the new centrist Kadima
Kadima
Kadima is a centrist and liberal political party in Israel. It was established on 24 November 2005 by moderates from Likud largely to support the issue of Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan, and was soon joined by like-minded Labor politicians...
party gained 28 percent of the city's vote, followed by Labor with 20 percent. While much of the country leaned right ahead of the 2009 Knesset elections in Israel, 34% of the Tel Aviv electorate voted for Kadima
Kadima
Kadima is a centrist and liberal political party in Israel. It was established on 24 November 2005 by moderates from Likud largely to support the issue of Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan, and was soon joined by like-minded Labor politicians...
. Outside the kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
im, Meretz receives more votes in Tel Aviv than in any other city in Israel.
Mayors
| Name | Took office | Left office | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meir Dizengoff Meir Dizengoff Meir Dizengoff was a Zionist politician and the first mayor of Tel Aviv.-Biography:Meir Dizengoff was born in 1861 in the village of Akimovici near Orgeyev, Bessarabia. In 1878, his family moved to Kishinev, where he graduated from high school and studied at the polytechnic school... |
1921 | 1925 |
| 2 | David Bloch David Bloch-Blumenfeld David Bloch-Blumenfeld , sometimes simply David Bloch, was one of the leaders of the Labor Zionism movement in Mandate Palestine and mayor of Tel Aviv in 1925–27. Moshav Dovev in northern Israel is named after him.-External links:... |
1925 | 1927 |
| 3 | Meir Dizengoff | 1928 | 1936 |
| 4 | Israel Rokach Israel Rokach Israel Rokach, Honorary CBE was an Israeli politician, Knesset member, and mayor of Tel Aviv from November 15, 1936 to April 13, 1953.-Biography:... |
1936 | 1952 |
| 5 | Haim Levanon Chaim Levanon Chaim Levanon was an Israeli politician and mayor of Tel Aviv between 13 April 1953 and 1959.-Personal life:Levanon was born in Kraków, Poland, in 1899 as Chaim Yosef Levinstein. After graduating from a yeshiva, he studied agricultural engineering at the Jagiellonian University.He made aliyah in... |
1953 | 1959 |
| 6 | Mordechai Namir Mordechai Namir Mordechai Namir was an Israeli politician, who served as the mayor of Tel Aviv, a Knesset member and government minister, as well as being one of the heads of the Labour Zionist movement.-Biography:... |
1959 | 1969 |
| 7 | Yehoshua Rabinowitz Yehoshua Rabinovitz Yehoshua Rabinovitz was an Israeli politician who served as a government minister and mayor of Tel Aviv.-Biography:Born in Vishneva in the Russian Empire , Rabinovitz attended high school in Vilnius, and went on to train as a teacher in the same city. He worked as a teacher and headmaster, and was... |
1969 | 1974 |
| 8 | Shlomo Lahat Shlomo Lahat Maj. Gen. Shlomo "Chich" Lahat is a former Israeli general and politician.Lahat was born in Germany and made Aliyah in 1933. He served in the Haganah and the Israel Defense Forces... ("Chich") |
1974 | 1993 |
| 9 | Roni Milo Roni Milo Roni Milo is an Israeli politician, lawyer and journalist, and a former Knesset member who held several ministerial positions. He was also mayor of Tel Aviv from 1993 to 1998.-Political career:... |
1993 | 1998 |
| 10 | Ron Huldai Ron Huldai Ron Huldai is an Israeli politician, academic administrator, former fighter pilot and current mayor of Tel Aviv. He was born in 1944 in Hulda to Polish parents from Łódź. He is a history graduate of Tel Aviv University, Auburn University Montgomery , the U.S... |
1998 |
Education
Tel Aviv is home to a significant number of schools, colleges and universities. As of 2006, 51,359 children attended school in Tel Aviv, of whom 8,977 were in municipal kindergartens, 23,573 in municipal elementary schools, and 18,809 in high schools. Sixty-four percent of students in the city are entitled to matriculation, more than 5 percent higher than the national average. About 4,000 children are in first grade at schools in the city, and population growth is expected to raise this number to 6,000 by 2012. As a result, 20 additional kindergarten classes were opened in 2008–09 in the city, while additional classes will be added at schools in northern Tel Aviv. A new elementary school is planned north of Sde Dov as well as a new high school in northern Tel Aviv.Tel Aviv's major institution for higher education is Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
. It is the largest university in Israel, known internationally for its physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
and linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
departments. Together with Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University is a university in Ramat Gan of the Tel Aviv District, Israel.Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is now Israel's second-largest academic institution. It has nearly 26,800 students and 1,350 faculty members...
in neighboring Ramat Gan, the student population numbers over 50,000, including a sizeable international community
International student
According to Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development , international students are those who travel to a country different from their own for the purpose of tertiary study. Despite that, the definition of international students varies in each country in accordance to their own national...
. Its campus is located in the neighborhood of Ramat Aviv
Ramat Aviv
Ramat Aviv is the name of several neighborhoods in the Northwest District of Tel Aviv, Israel:* Ramat Aviv Aleph * Ramat Aviv Bet * Ramat Aviv Gimmel...
. Tel Aviv also has several colleges.
The Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium moved from Jaffa to Tel Aviv in 1909. The school continues to operate, although it has moved to Jabotinsky Street. Other notable schools in Tel Aviv include Shevah Mofet
Shevah Mofet
Shevah Mofet is a high school on HaMasger Street in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was established in 1946 as a vocational school. Since the 1990s, new programs were inaugurated to meet the needs of the Russian immigrant population in Israel.-History:...
, the second Hebrew school
Hebrew school
Hebrew school can be either the Jewish equivalent of Sunday school - an educational regimen separate from secular education, focusing on topics of Jewish history and learning the Hebrew language, or a primary, secondary or college level educational institution where some or all of the classes are...
in the city, Ironi Alef High School for Arts and Alliance
Alliance Israélite Universelle
The Alliance Israélite Universelle is a Paris-based international Jewish organization founded in 1860 by the French statesman Adolphe Crémieux to safeguard the human rights of Jews around the world...
.
Transportation
Tel Aviv is a major transportation hub, served by a comprehensive public transport network, with many major routes of the national transportation network running through the city.Bus and taxi
As with the rest of Israel, bus transport is the most common form of public transport and is very widely used. The Tel Aviv Central Bus StationTel Aviv Central Bus Station
Tel Aviv Central Bus Station, known as the New Central Bus Station , is the main bus station of Tel Aviv, Israel...
is located in the southern part of the city.The main bus network in Tel Aviv metropolitan area operated by Dan Bus Company
Dan Bus Company
Dan Bus Company is an Israeli bus company based in Tel Aviv. It operates local bus service in the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area as well as some intercity bus services between the Gush Dan area and nearby regions such as Samaria, and a connection between Bne Brak and Jerusalem. Dan operates 1,200...
, metropoline
Metropoline
Metropoline is an Israeli bus company, which provides bus routes from Beersheba to Tel Aviv and other destinations, mainly in the Southern District...
and kavim
Kavim
Kavim is an Israeli bus company. It was founded in 2000 and provided lines in the eastern Gush Dan region - the towns/cities Kiryat Ono, Petah Tikva, Or Yehuda, Giv'atayim and others. In February 2005, Kavim expanded to the north, where it started providing bus lines in Afula, Bet She'an and the...
. the Egged Bus Cooperative, the world's second-largest bus company, provides intercity transportation.
The city is also served by local and inter-city share taxis. Many local and inter-city bus routes also have sherut taxis that follow the same route and display the same route number in their window. Fares are standardised within the region and are comparable to or less expensive than bus fares. Unlike other forms of public transport, these taxis also operate on Fridays and Saturdays (the Jewish sabbath "Shabbat"). Private taxis are white with a yellow sign on top. Fares are standardised and metered, but may be negotiated ahead of time with the driver.
Rail
The Tel Aviv Central train station is the main train station of the city, and the busiest station in Israel. The city has three additional train stationsIsrael Railways
Israel Railways is the principal passenger railway operating company in Israel, and is responsible for all inter-city and suburban rail way passenger and freight traffic in the country. All its lines are standard gauge. The network is centered in Israel's densely populated coastal plain, from...
along the Ayalon Highway: Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University Railway Station
Tel Aviv University Railway Station is an Israel Railways station in northern Tel Aviv, Israel. It is officially named Tel Aviv Universita – Merkaz HaYeridim in Hebrew , due to its proximity to Tel Aviv University and the Israel Trade Fairs & Convention Center.The station has four platforms...
, HaShalom
Tel Aviv HaShalom Railway Station
Tel Aviv HaShalom Railway Station is one of the busiest railway stations in Israel, serving most lines of Israel Railways. It is located on HaShalom Interchange over Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv...
(adjacent to Azrieli Center
Azrieli Center
Azrieli Center is a complex of skyscrapers in Tel Aviv. At the base of the center lies a large shopping mall. The center was originally designed by Israeli-American architect Eli Attia, and after he fell out with the developer of the center David Azrieli , completion of the design was passed on to...
) and HaHagana
Tel Aviv HaHagana Railway Station
Tel Aviv HaHagana Railway Station is an Israel Railways station in Tel Aviv. It is Tel Aviv's southernmost railway station, located some 400 meters to the east of Tel Aviv Central Bus Station. It is located between the lanes of the Ayalon Highway, just north of where Highway 1 splits from it...
(near the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station
Tel Aviv Central Bus Station
Tel Aviv Central Bus Station, known as the New Central Bus Station , is the main bus station of Tel Aviv, Israel...
). It is estimated that over a million passengers travel by train to Tel Aviv monthly. The trains do not run on Saturday and holidays.
Roads
The main highway leading to the city 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 1Highway 1 (Israel)
Highway 1 , is the main highway connecting Tel Aviv with Jerusalem.-History:The section between Latrun and Jerusalem roughly follows an ancient path connecting Jaffa and Jerusalem...
, leading to Ben Gurion International Airport
Ben Gurion International Airport
Ben Gurion International Airport , also referred to by its Hebrew acronym Natbag , is the largest and busiest international airport in Israel, handling 12,160,339 passengers in 2010...
and Jerusalem. Within the city, main routes include Kaplan Street
Kaplan Street
Kaplan Street is a major thoroughfare in central Tel Aviv, Israel, running from the Azrieli Center interchange on its eastern edge, to Ibn Gabirol Street on its western edge. Named after Eliezer Kaplan, an important Israeli politician, the street connects the city center to the Ayalon Highway, and...
, Allenby Street
Allenby Street
Allenby Street is a major street in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was named in honor of Field Marshal Viscount Allenby.Allenby Street stretches from the Mediterranean sea in the northwest to HaAliya Street in the southeast. It was first paved with concrete in 1914. During the day, it is a commercial street...
, Ibn Gabirol Street
Ibn Gabirol Street
Ibn Gabirol Street is a major street in Tel Aviv, Israel.Ibn Gabirol Street is named after the medieval Hebrew poet and philosopher Solomon ibn Gabirol...
, Dizengoff Street
Dizengoff Street
Dizengoff Street is a major street in central Tel Aviv, named after Tel Aviv's first mayor, Meir Dizengoff.The street runs from the corner of Ibn Gabirol Street in its southernmost point to the port area of Tel Aviv in its northwestern point...
, Rothschild Boulevard
Rothschild Boulevard
Rothschild Boulevard is one of the principal streets in the center of Tel Aviv, Israel, beginning in Neve Tzedek at its southwestern edge and running north to Habima Theatre. It is one of the busiest and most expensive streets in the city, being one of the city's main tourist attractions...
, and in Jaffa the main route is Jerusalem Boulevard. Namir Road connects the city to Highway 2
Highway 2 (Israel)
Highway 2 is an Israeli highway located on the coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea. It stretches from Tel Aviv to Haifa. The highway is also called The Coastal Highway or The New Haifa - Tel Aviv Highway ....
, 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
Road pricing
Road pricing is an economic concept regarding the various direct charges applied for the use of roads. The road charges includes fuel taxes, licence fees, parking taxes, tolls, and congestion charges, including those which may vary by time of day, by the specific road, or by the specific vehicle...
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.
Air
The main airport serving Tel Aviv is Ben Gurion International AirportBen Gurion International Airport
Ben Gurion International Airport , also referred to by its Hebrew acronym Natbag , is the largest and busiest international airport in Israel, handling 12,160,339 passengers in 2010...
(IATA
IATA airport code
An IATA airport code, also known an IATA location identifier, IATA station code or simply a location identifier, is a three-letter code designating many airports around the world, defined by the International Air Transport Association...
: TLV). Located in the neighboring city of Lod
Lod
Lod is a city located on the Sharon Plain southeast of Tel Aviv in the Center District of Israel. At the end of 2010, it had a population of 70,000, roughly 75 percent Jewish and 25 percent Arab.The name is derived from the Biblical city of Lod...
, it is the main airport of Israel, handling over 12 million passengers in 2010. The airport serves both international flights and domestic flights, and is the main hub of El Al
El Al
El Al Israel Airlines Ltd , trading as El Al , is the flag carrier of Israel. It operates scheduled domestic and international services and cargo flights to Europe, North America, Africa and the Far East from its main base in Ben Gurion International Airport...
, Arkia Israel Airlines
Arkia Israel Airlines
Arkia Israel Airlines , usually referred to as Arkia is an airline with its head office on the grounds of Sde Dov Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. It is Israel's second largest airline operating scheduled domestic and international services as well as charter flights to destinations in Western Europe...
, Israir Airlines and Sun D'Or International Airlines. The airport is 15 kilometres (9 mi) southeast of Tel Aviv, on Highway 1
Highway 1 (Israel)
Highway 1 , is the main highway connecting Tel Aviv with Jerusalem.-History:The section between Latrun and Jerusalem roughly follows an ancient path connecting Jaffa and Jerusalem...
between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It is often rated as the best airport in the Middle East. Another airport in the Tel Aviv area, Sde Dov
Sde Dov Airport
Sde Dov Airport , also known as Dov Hoz Airport is an airport located in Tel Aviv, Israel which mainly handles scheduled domestic flights to Eilat and , northern Israel , and the Israeli Golan Heights. It is Tel Aviv's largest airport and the second largest in the area, after Ben Gurion...
(IATA
IATA airport code
An IATA airport code, also known an IATA location identifier, IATA station code or simply a location identifier, is a three-letter code designating many airports around the world, defined by the International Air Transport Association...
: SDV), in northwestern Tel Aviv, serves mainly domestic flights and may be closed in favor of real-estate development. In the future all services to Sde Dov will be transferred to Ben Gurion Airport.
Light rail
The first line of a light railLight rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
system is under construction and scheduled to open in 2016. The Red Line starts at Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva known as Em HaMoshavot , is a city in the Center District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2009, the city's population stood at 209,600. The population density is approximately...
's Central Bus Station, east of Tel Aviv and follows the Jabotinsky Road (Route 481) westwards at street level. At the point were Jabotinsky Road and Highway 4
Highway 4 (Israel)
Highway 4 is an Israeli highway that runs along Israel's entire coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea, its route in the north runs from the Rosh HaNikra border crossing with Lebanon until the Erez Border Crossing with the Gaza Strip...
intersect the line drops into an underground tunnel for 10 km (6.21 mi) through Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv and emerges again to street level just before Jaffa
Jaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...
, were it turns southwards towards Bat Yam.
The underground section will include 10 stations, including an interchange with Israel Railways
Israel Railways
Israel Railways is the principal passenger railway operating company in Israel, and is responsible for all inter-city and suburban rail way passenger and freight traffic in the country. All its lines are standard gauge. The network is centered in Israel's densely populated coastal plain, from...
services at Tel Aviv Central Railway Station and the nearby 2000 Terminal. A maintenance depot, connected via a branch line and tunnel to the main section of the line, will be constructed in Kiryat Arye, across from the existing Kiryat Arye suburban railway station. The intended builder and operator of the first line, MTS, has had financial difficulties that postponed the line's opening. In May 2010, the ministry of finance decided to cancel the agreement with MTS due to the difficulties and the agreement was cancelled in August 2010. The line is being built instead by NTA - The Tel Aviv region's mass transit development authority. Initially, the line's targeted opening was in 2012 and today the target is 2016 after several postponements due to the disagreements with MTS and NTA's takeover of the project.
Bicycle sharing system
In April 2011, Tel Aviv municipality launched Tel-O-Fun, a bicycle sharing system, in which 150 stations of bicycles for rent were installed within the city limits.Twin towns — sister cities
Tel Aviv has a partnership with Los Angeles, and is twinned with:| San Salvador San Salvador The city of San Salvador the capital and largest city of El Salvador, which has been designated a Gamma World City. Its complete name is La Ciudad de Gran San Salvador... , El Salvador Mexico City, Mexico Freiburg Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain... , Germany Toulouse Toulouse Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea... , France, since 1962 Philadelphia, United States, since 1967 Cologne Cologne Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the... , Germany, since 1979 Frankfurt, Germany, since 1980 Bonn Bonn Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999.... , Germany, since 1983 Buenos Aires Buenos Aires Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent... , Argentina, since 1988 Budapest Budapest Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter... , Hungary, since 1989 Belgrade Belgrade Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe... , Serbia, since 1990 Warsaw Warsaw Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most... , Poland, since 1992 Essen Essen - Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of... , Germany, since 1992 |
Sofia Sofia Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated... , Bulgaria, since 1992 Cannes Cannes Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department.... , France, since 1993 Łódź, Poland, since 1994 Milan Milan Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,... , Italy, since 1994 Thessaloniki Thessaloniki Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace... , Greece, since 1994 Beijing Beijing Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's... , China, since 1995 Barcelona Barcelona Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of... , Spain, since 1998 |
Izmir Izmir Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey... , Turkey, since 1998 Gaza Gaza Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,... , Palestinian Authority Palestinian National Authority The Palestinian Authority is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip... , since 1998 Note: Suspended by Tel Aviv in 2008 Almaty Almaty Almaty , also known by its former names Verny and Alma-Ata , is the former capital of Kazakhstan and the nation's largest city, with a population of 1,348,500... , Kazakhstan, since 1999 Chişinău Chisinau Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc... , Moldova, since 2000 Incheon Incheon The Incheon Metropolitan City is located in northwestern South Korea. The city was home to just 4,700 people when Jemulpo port was built in 1883. Today 2.76 million people live in the city, making it Korea’s third most populous city after Seoul and Busan Metropolitan City... , South Korea, since 2000 Limassol Limassol Limassol is the second-largest city in Cyprus, with a population of 228,000 . It is the largest city in geographical size, and the biggest municipality on the island. The city is located on Akrotiri Bay, on the island's southern coast and it is the capital of Limassol District.Limassol is the... , Cyprus, since 2000 Moscow Moscow Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent... , Russia, since 2000 São Paulo São Paulo São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among... , Brazil, since 2004 Vienna Vienna Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre... , Austria, since 2005 Paris Paris Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region... , France since 2010 Ottawa Ottawa Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario... , Canada since 2011 |
See also
- White City (Tel Aviv)
- Tel Aviv PortTel Aviv PortThe Tel Aviv Port is a commercial and entertainment district in northwest Tel Aviv, Israel along the Mediterranean Sea. The port was opened on February 23, 1938 and closed on October 25, 1965 when its operations moved to the Ashdod Port. In recent years, it underwent a major restoration program and...
- Jaffa PortJaffa PortJaffa Port is an ancient port located in the Old City of Jaffa, Israel.Jaffa and its port have a history spanning over three millennia. The port itself is mentioned in various ancient works, including the Bible and Josephus. Still functional as a small fishing port, the port is currently a...
- Kiryat AtidimKiryat AtidimKiryat Atidim is the Hi Tech area of Tel Aviv. It is located in North East of Tel Aviv near the Petah Tikva industrial zone.The zone was opened in 1972 as a project of Tel Aviv University and Tel Aviv City Hall.- External links :*...