Tel Aviv: 100 Years Ago

BACKGROUND
Since the late nineteenth century, millions of Jews fleeing
persecution in Russia and Eastern Europe migrated to other parts
of the world: Western Europe, USA and South America (especially
Argentina).

Immigration officials discussed new

arrivals at Ellis Island, New York, in
the early twentieth century.

Others decided to move to their ancestral

land, the Land of Israel ("Eretz Israel"),
which the Romans had called "Palestine"
to join the ancient Jewish communities
that remained there in the midst of
hardship.
Two corners of the old Jewish
quarter of Jerusalem in 1898 (left)
and 1915 (below).

This neighborhood would be destroyed by

the Jordanians when they occupied the
city after its division in 1948.

Others decided to move to their ancestral land,

the Land of Israel ("Eretz Israel"), which the
Romans had called "Palestine" to join the
ancient Jewish communities that remained
there in the midst of hardship.

Top: Jewish quarter of Hebron in 1900.Top

right: Yeshiva (religious school) in Hebron in
1911.Right below: Synagogue "Avraham
Avinu" in Hebron in 1925.Almost all of the
ancestral community of Hebron had to
leave the city after the 1929 anti-Jewish
riots.

Others decided to move to their ancestral land, the Land of Israel ("Eretz
Israel"), which the Romans had called "Palestine" to join the ancient Jewish
communities that remained there in the midst of hardship.

Ancient city of Galilee,

inhabited since the Middle
Ages by Jews engaged in
mysticism. Photo 1913.

Young people, especially those who emigrated from

Czarist Russia from 1882, were idealists who were
working to "redeem the land.",

Draining swamps in the Galilee, then

infested with malaria, in 1904.

But others wanted to develop an urban life, and settled in

the main entrance to the Ottoman territory, the port city of
Yafa (Jaffa).

Yafa 1900.

Jews in Yafa

Above:
barrels factory
(1910)

Right:
Orange picker (1915)

Jewish wedding in Yafa, 1899

Some had an idea more ambitious and a little crazy :

create the first modern Jewish city in the Land of Israel

Yafa was packed and had a very low quality of life, thereby adding to a
law known as muhram, under which the Jewish inhabitants were
obliged to change residence every year.
The Convention of the Jews of Jaffa, which took place in July 1906, a
group of families decided to move to an entirely new urban center, to
which were purchased some land north of Jaffa. This was not the first
initiative of this kind, but the most ambitious.
The new town would follow the architectural lines of the English
Garden City movement, then in fashion, with wide streets and
abundant greenery. The first land purchased was subdivided into 60
plots.

In May 1910 he changed the name of the "city" of Tel Aviv, "Hill of Spring",
inspired by the biblical book of Ezekiel and the Hebrew name of the
utopian novel Altneuland ("Old New Land") of founder of Zionism,
Theodor Herzl. Given the conditions, the name was ironic.

On, April 1, 1909 a group of Jews from Jaffa met on a sand dune by the
sea. They wrote their names on marine shells collected on the beach, and
used in a "lottery" to distribute the first plots.So they founded their city,
they called "Ahuzat Bait" ("Home Ownership").

Of course, first had to level the dunes ...

Of course, first had to level the dunes ...,

While beginning to build ...

Meir Dizengoff House (1861-1936), the

first and legendary mayor of Tel Aviv,
completed in 1911.

The first public building (1910): City Hall,

post office and water tank, all at once.

Big ambitions: in 1911, this wasteland was named "Rothschild Boulevard."

Incredibly, some of the kiosks are in the same place a century later. At bottom, the
water tank.

The "Rothschild Boulevard" soon after, photographed from a top the water tank. A city is
beginning to emerge from nowhere.

Preparing the ground for the Herzlia High School in the future Herzl Street (1909).

Herzl Street in 1913, with the Lyceum in

the background.

The Herzlia High School in 1917.During the early years was the cultural
center of Tel Aviv.

In 1914, just five years after the founding of the city, the opening of the first film, "Eden," a
cafeteria "European style" ...

First setback: THE EXILE OF TEL AVIV

On March 1917, at the end of World War I, the Ottomans (who were part of
the Axis of Germany and Austro-Hungary) was expelled from Jaffa and Tel
Aviv to the people considered sympathetic to the Allies, including all the
Jews. They have fled their homes and moved to other cities, even to
Damascus (Syria), Alexandria (Egypt), which then had large Jewish
communities.

A family evauated from

Tel Aviv.

But later that same year, British troops

occupied Palestine under the command
of General Edmund Allenby, ending
Ottoman control.
British Foreign Secretary, Lord Arthur
Balfour, issued the famous declaration in
which the Empire guaranteed the
creation of Jewish, "National Home in the
Land of Israel. as a result of the efforts
of the Zionist movement and in gratitude
for services rendered during the conflict.

Allenby entra en Jerusaln .

Diciembre de 1917.

In 1920, the League of Nations granted the British Empire the "Mandate"
Palestine formal. The British divided the territory in 1922: to the east of
the Jordan River created the artificial "Kingdom of Transjordan (now
Jordan), and the name of Palestine began to apply only to the small
western area.

Growth accelerated after the First World War

Herzl Street in 1920. Not a single car in sight.

Growth accelerated after the First World War

Diligence between Tel Aviv and Jaffa. The mass mobilization were horses,
camels and bicycles.

But that did not stop the dream ... Here it was decided to build a European style
flask: the future Dizengoff Square. Photo 1919.

Ben Yehuda street construction in 1924.

In 1925, the famous British planner Patrick Geddes designed a Master

Plan for Tel Aviv, which was adopted and remained in place until midcentury, tree-lined wide roads, radio intercepts, abundant gardens.

The original concept of the utopian

Garden City of Patrick Geddes (1902).

In May 1921, violent anti-Jewish riots broke out in Jaffa, urged on by

fanatical Arabs continue trying to prevent Jewish immigration to
Palestine. These facts were killed 47 Jews.
Almost every community in Jaffa was moved to
Tel Aviv. Eventually Jaffa were impoverished,
because business and industry moved into the
new city.
Tel Aviv's population increased dramatically: in two
years, between 1924 and 1926, doubled to reach
40,000. But this growth, and insufficient capital
investment, resulting in unemployment and the first
serious recession in the city.

Obrero de la construccin en la dcada de 1920.

In the twenties great progress occurred

First power plant in Tel Aviv, established in 1923.

The twenties brought great progress

New industry: assembly of buses (1924).

When they removed the height limitation of two

stories, there were striking buildings as the "Pagoda
House" on the street Nahman (1925), still standing.

Allenby street in 1926.

The first "Grand Hotel", the Palatin (1926), was also the first building with elevator in the city.

Cultural life starting to develop

First Day of the Book of Tel Aviv (1926), the predecessor of

Book Week is celebrated annually throughout Israel.

Also developed in cultural life

The Hebrew Habima Theater Company, originally founded in Moscow,
visited the city in 1927 amid great expectations. In 1931 he established his
permanent seat Habima in Tel Aviv, where he had held numerous
symphonic concerts, opera and ballet.

Agglomerations Habima to get tickets. Right:

Hanna Rovina, star of the company by 1930.

Albert Einstein, who

always supported the
Zionist movement,
visited Tel Aviv several
times. This appears in
the company of Mayor
Dizengoff and other
dignitaries of the city in
1923.

It appears the White City

The 1930's saw a new population explosion in Tel Aviv. Many European Jews
fleeing Nazism and Italian Fascism were established in the city, which grew to
150,000 in 1937, one third of the Jewish population of Palestine. As part of this
immigration, arrived in Tel Aviv many German architects and artists of the
Bauhaus movement, banned by the Nazis. His influence led to a rise of
"international style" in architecture in the area later called "White City."

But not all Germans professionals got jobs

in their fields ... A group of scholars
received training as window washers
(1933).

The White City began to develop

Constructor workers (above) Beilinson

Hospital and Tel Aviv, the Bauhaus
style, then avant-garde.

Tel Aviv has the largest concentration of Bauhaus buildings in the world
(only in the 1930's were built more than 3000). In 2003, Unesco
declared the "White City"

Bauhaus Museum in Tel Aviv

Building Ahad Ha'am Street

In 1932 the city held the first Maccabiah

Games, sports event involving athletes
from Jewish communities in many
countries. The World Maccabiah in
Israel are still held every four years.

That same year the fiera del Leavante took place in

Tel Aviv, which was the largest city in Palestine, began to
acquire international importance.

In 1936, during a new wave of violence, the Arabs closed the port of
Jaffa pressuring the British to stop Jewish immigration. Tel Aviv then
built its own port.

Left: newly opened port of Tel Aviv move

local products bound for Karachi, in British
India (now Pakistan)

Soon after, in 1938, opened near the village of Lydda, Airport Wilhelma. Then it was
called Lod airport, now Ben Gurion.

A major event for the city was the inauguration of Dizengoff Square in 1938. For
decades it was a symbol of the modernity of Tel Aviv and then of all Israel, as well
as a meeting place of choice in a city that had very few cars.

In 1939, the British Empire

gave in to Arab pressure and
issued the White Paper, the
law that virtually eliminated
the Jewish immigration to
Palestine on the eve of the
European Holocaust. Then
began the "Aliyah B" (illegal
immigration, organized by
Jewish organizations), in
which
numerous
boats
reached the shores of
Palestine,
especially
overnight.

The ship "Parita" hits the beaches of Tel Aviv in August 1939, days before the outbreak of
World War II. Hundreds of volunteers help to unload illegal immigrants fleeing pro-Nazi
persecution in Romania.

When war broke out, Palestine was in sights of Nazi-Fascist Axis to be

British territory. Tel Aviv came was bombed by Italian aircraft on
September 9,1940 weeks after Haifa. 137 people died and there was
severe damage.

Damage caused by Italy bombing Tel Aviv in

1940

Many Jews volunteered to fight

against the Axis. After much
discussion, the British agreed
to create the Jewish Brigade in
the army. Thousands of
Palestinian Jews fought the
Nazis and Italian fascists in
Europe and Africa, in some
cases using vehicles bearing
the Star of David.

A Jewish Brigade of the British Army

march in Tel Aviv in 1942. David Ben
Gurion said: "We will fight the Nazis
as if there were no White Paper, and
fight the White Paper as if there was
no war."

After World War intensified

unfolding in Palestine between
Arabs, Jews and Britons. There
were numerous terrorist attacks
and street fighting, mostly in
Jerusalem. The British brought
the issue to the newly created
United Nations Organization,
which in November 1947 decided
to divide the territory to create a
Jewish state and an Arab one.
The Jews accepted this plan, while

Proposed partition of Palestine in the UN,

1947. In fact, as we saw, Palestine had been
divided by the British, who created
"Transjordan" (now Jordan) in 1922.

all Muslim countries rejected it. It was

accepted, and would have a
Palestinian state and the Arab-Israeli
conflict would not exist

The Jewish population of Tel Aviv celebrated in the streets the UN decision to
create two states in Palestine, one Jewish and one Arab (November 29, 1947)

Following the partition resolution intensified Arab attacks, instigated by

the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who in 1941 had agreed with Hitler's
deportation of Jews from Palestine. From the minaret of the Hassan
Bek mosque in Jaffa were fired at the Jews still living in that city, and
also to the suburbs of Tel Aviv. In retaliation, the Haganah and the Irgun,
moves that would lead to future Israel Defense Forces, laid siege to
Jaffa. On May 14, the day was declared the new State of Israel, Jaffa
was taken by Jewish forces, many Arabs fled.

Above: the Mufti of Jerusalem with

Hitler in Berlin, 1941.Left: Hassan Bek
Mosque in Jaffa today.

Above: A sign on the market (Shuk) Caramel says:

"Caution! The enemy is watching you "warning about
the shooting from Jaffa.
Right: Wounded by sniper in Allen by Street, in late
1947.

The Declaration and signing the

minutes of the Independence of
Israel took place in the former
home of Meir Dizengoff, then
Museum of Art in Tel Aviv. The
city, of 200,000, was the
provisional capital of Israel until
1950, when political power was
transferred to Jerusalem.

David Ben Gurion, Prime Minister designate, Israel

declared independence on May 14, 1948. That
same night, six Arab countries invaded the new
state.

Hundreds of people remain on the outskirts of

Tel Aviv Museum, as they are expectant to
become citizens of their new country.

The war came to town

Tel Aviv was bombed several times by the

Egyptian aviation in 1948. Top, remains of
an Egyptian bomber fell on the beaches of
the city. At right, children run to bomb
shelters at the sound of sirens. Photos of
Life magazine, May 1948.

The war came to town

Effects after one bombing in Tel Aviv

in 1948.

The war came to town

During the first months of the
War of Independence (194849) few believed that the new
state would survive. In this
image from Life magazine,
children and adults in Tel Aviv
filled
sandbags
to
build
barricades against an invasion
that never came to the city. But
one percent of Israeli Jews
killed in this war.

Then began the mass immigration

Between 1948 and 1951 Israel's population doubled (to reach 1.7
million), receiving hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors and
Jews expelled from Arab countries. Some newcomers were sent directly
to the front, before the armistice of 1949.

Holocaust survivors arriving

in Israel in 1948(Photo from
Life magazine.)

Then began the mass immigration

Then began the mass immigration

In Israel there was not enough housing for many immigrants. Hundreds of thousands had
to live for months or even years, in tent camps ("Maabarot") while building a high speed.
Often, Maabarot were flooded in the rainy season.

Life returns to normal

New housing developments began to
emerge in the land formerly devoted
for grazing around Tel Aviv.

During the first decade of the new state

governed strict rationing, and electrical
goods such as refrigerators were a
luxury. On the right, peddling ice bar in
Tel Aviv by 1950.

La vida se normaliza
In 1950 he decreed the
conurbation of Tel Aviv
Jaffa. Thus, the latter
became a suburb of Tel
Aviv.

As in any Mediterranean city,

sitting in outdoor cafes became a
favorite activity of the inhabitants
of Tel Aviv.

La vida se normaliza
In 1949 the first elections took place in the Knesset
(Parliament), and Tel Aviv was filled with election
propaganda. Most parties were center-left. The Labour
dominate Israeli politics for 28 years.

In 1953 the street were opened in Arlozoroff the

building of the Histadrut, the powerful union.
Many criticized him for being too fancy.

Tel Aviv created its own University

In 1956 construction began on Tel Aviv University (TAU), today Israel is
the largest of more than 30,000 students.

Above: The University of Tel Aviv under

construction in the mid 1950's.
Right: and new buildings by 1970.

During the 1960's, Tel Aviv-Yafo finished absorbing surrounding small towns such as Ramat
Gan, Holon, Bnei Brak, Bat Yam, totaling about 700,000 inhabitants, and took on an air of the
metropolis. In the photo, Plaza Herbert Samuel and double-decker bus. The cars were still
scarce.

Dizengoff Square area in the mid-twentieth century.

In 1965, in the place he had occupied the

Herzlia High School, opened the first
skyscraper in Israel: Shalom Meir Tower,
at that time the tallest building in the
Middle East.

In the 1980 built the first true

freeway in the area of Ayalon.

But Tel Aviv bombing became known. During the first Gulf War in January 1991,
Saddam Hussein launched several Scud missiles into the city, although Israel was not
involved in the conflict. U.S. Patriot antimissile rockets (pictured left) did not have much
effectiveness in preventing damage. Fortunately there were few casualties.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a massive immigration of a

million Jews from the former USSR and its satellites led to a new
building boom. In addition, Tel Aviv became even more cosmopolitan
Russian is now the second most spoken language in the city.

Immigrants from the former

Soviet Union arrive at Ben
Gurion Airport in the early
1990's

Since the 90's the city has experienced a boom

and is still continuing

The highways are congested ...

But Tel Aviv is a walk able city, which takes into account the pedestrian

The Habima Theatre is currently the National Theater of Israell

Museo de Arte Moderno

Casa y Torre de la pera

Biblioteca Pblica Beit Ariela

Cinemateca de Tel Aviv

El Parque Hayarkon es el principal oasis urbano

El Parque Hayarkon es el principal oasis urbano

Yafo es eminentemente turstico, centro de restaurantes, marinas y vida nocturna

The metropolitan area of Tel Aviv

called "Gush Dan", to coincide with
the territory in the Old Testament
belonged to the tribe of Dan.
The population of this area is
3,200,000 inhabitants, or 40% of all
Israel.

In Herzlia is the "Silicon Valley" high-tech

industrial zone where, in addition to Israeli
companies, the most important technology
companies in the world have installed
research and development.

Tel Aviv looks to the sea ... The beaches promenade are popular day and night

Tel Aviv mira hacia el mar El paseo de la playa es popular de da y de noche

Azrieli Center Towers are new urban icon

Las torres del Azrieli Center constituyen un nuevo icono urbano

But Tel Aviv is not a "showcase city." It was built with the hard work of its
inhabitants, who live and enjoy it intensely. It is also one of the main cities
of the Mediterranean.

Tel Aviv epitomizes Herzl's dream of a reborn Jewish state, an

emancipated people, cutting-edge but also proud of its cultural heritage, an
example of what can be achieved with effort and knowledge.