Tel Aviv, Israel 100 Years Ago
Tel Aviv, Israel 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).
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.
Yafa 1900.
Jews in Yafa
Above:
barrels factory
(1910)
Right:
Orange picker (1915)
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").
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).
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" ...
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.
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.
The first "Grand Hotel", the Palatin (1926), was also the first building with elevator in the city.
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"
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
La vida se normaliza
In 1950 he decreed the
conurbation of Tel Aviv
Jaffa. Thus, the latter
became a suburb 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.
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.
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.
But Tel Aviv is a walk able city, which takes into account the pedestrian
Tel Aviv looks to the sea ... The beaches promenade are popular day and night
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.