Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv-Yafo (Hebrew: תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ‎[2]; usually referred to as Tel Aviv, is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 384,600. Tel Aviv is located on Israel's Mediterranean coastline over an area covering 51.8 km². It is the main city of the largest and most populous metropolitan area in Israel, Gush Dan (Dan Bloc), whose population numbers 3.15 million as of 2007.[3] Tel Aviv is recognized as a strong candidate global city, and has been named the most expensive Middle Eastern city to live in.[4]

The City of Tel Aviv was originally founded in 1909 by Jewish immigrants as an alternative to expensive housing in the neighbouring historic port city of Jaffa (Hebrew: יפו‎, Yafo; Arabic: يافا, Yafa). Tel Aviv's extensive growth eventually overtook its Arab-majority neighbour, and the two towns were united into the municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo in 1950, two years after the establishment of the State of Israel. Tel Aviv is today considered the center of Israel's globally oriented economy, and is the anchor of the area popularly known as "Silicon Wadi". It is also considered Israel's cultural capital due to its vibrant, modern, cosmopolitan character.[5] The city's Bauhaus architectured White City was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003.[6]

Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 History
2.1 Early history
2.2 Mandatory period
2.3 Modern times
2.4 Terrorism
3 Geography
3.1 Topography and climate
3.2 Districts
3.3 Architecture
4 Demographics
4.1 Religion
5 Culture
5.1 Arts and theatre
5.2 Museums
5.3 Tourism and recreation
5.4 Education
5.5 Sports
6 Economy
7 Transportation
7.1 Road
7.2 Rail
7.3 Bus
7.4 Air
8 Mayors of Tel Aviv
9 Sister cities
10 Footnotes
11 See also
12 External links



[edit] Etymology
In Hebrew, the name Tel Aviv translates as "Hill (tel) of Spring (aviv)". This is the title given by Nahum Sokolow to his Hebrew translation of Theodor Herzl's book Altneuland (German: "The Old New Land"). There is an account that Sokolow came up with the Hebrew title "Tel Aviv" to allude to the destruction of the ancient Jewish state and its hoped-for restoration: aviv = "spring" to symbolize renewal, and tel to symbolize the destruction of the ancient state, following not the usual Hebrew meaning of the word "tel" but its use in archaeology, meaning "mound of accumulated ruins".[7] Sokolow took the name from the Book of Ezekiel 3:15 : "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 spelling in the King James Version of the Bible is Telabib.[8])

Jaffa in Hebrew is Yafo, which may be derived from yafah/yofi, meaning "beautiful". Tradition holds that Jaffa was founded by and named after Japheth, son of Noah. The city is also mentioned in the book of Jonah, and, by the name of "Japo", on an ancient Egyptian tax register clay tablet found at Tel el-Amarna.[9][10]


[edit] History

[edit] Early history

Tel Aviv was founded on land purchased from Bedouins, north of the existing city of Jaffa. This photograph is of 1909 auction of the first lots.
Early Tel AvivFurther information: Jaffa's history
The gulf of Jaffa has been the site of a fortified port town for at least 4000 years, and as such is the oldest port in the world. During the 19th century, the town’s population grew from about 2,500 in 1806 to 17,000 in 1886. The old city walls could no longer contain the population, and they were destroyed in the 1870s, allowing for newer, more spacious neighborhoods to be constructed.[11]

Settlement in the area of modern southern Tel Aviv (the neighbourhoods of Neve Tzedek and Neve Shalom) began in the 1880s as a substitute for the relatively expensive Arab neighbourhoods of Jaffa by some of the town's distinguished Jewish residents.[11]

In 1908 the Ahuzat Bayit (אחוזת בית) homebuilders' association bought land north of Jaffa. Building commenced in 1909, and the association admitted members of two suburbs established nearby.[12] In 1910, the common name of Tel Aviv was adopted.[13] At its founding, Tel Aviv was intended only to be a bedroom community of Jaffa. The founders envisaged a European-style garden suburb with wide streets and boulevards.[14]


[edit] Mandatory period
Tel Aviv's growth was halted in 1914 when the Ottoman authorities expelled its inhabitants. However, its residents returned and resumed development following the British conquest. The period of British administration saw increasing political friction between Jews and Arabs throughout Palestine, and in May 1921, dozens of Jews were killed by an Arab mob in the Jaffa riots. Soon after, thousands of the 16,000 Jews of Jaffa moved north to Tel Aviv. Following the violence, the inhabitants of Tel Aviv created a new central business district. The master plan for development of the city, based on a framework of central routes and boulevards, was designed in 1925 by Patrick Geddes and adopted by the city council under Meir Dizengoff. Owing to its proximity to the port of Jaffa, and its status as the first Jewish community that immigrants saw when coming into the country, Tel Aviv quickly grew to become the centre of Israeli urban life, which it remains to this day. Due to the 1936-1939 Arab rioting, a local port was opened in 1938, which was an important milestone marking its independence from Jaffa.

According to the 1947 UN Partition Plan, Palestine was to be partitioned into Jewish and Arab states. Tel Aviv was to be part of the Jewish state, while Jaffa was to become an enclave belonging to the Arab state. The plan was rejected by the Arabs, and violence erupted immediately. During an offensive on Jaffa that started in April 1948, many of its Arab residents fled through the harbor. When Jaffa was taken on May 14, only about 4,100 out of its 70,000 Arab residents remained.[14]


[edit] Modern times
Israel's Declaration of Independence took place in Tel Aviv on May 14, 1948, and the town served as Israel's provisional capital throughout the 1948 Arab-Israeli War due to the Arab blockade of Jerusalem, which was proclaimed capital in December 1949. Due to the international dispute over the status of Jerusalem, most embassies stayed in the Tel Aviv area. Thirteen more returned there in the early eighties as part of the UN's punitive measures responding to Israel's 1980 Jerusalem Law.[15] [16] Today all but two of the international embassies to Israel are in Tel Aviv or the surrounding district.[17] In April, 1949, Tel Aviv and Jaffa were united in the single municipality Tel Aviv-Yafo, and the lands of neighboring villages such as al-Shaykh Muwannis, Jammasin and Sumail, which were depopulated during the war, were incorporated into the united municipality.[18] Tel Aviv thus grew to 42 square kilometres (16.2 sq mi).


[edit] Terrorism
Tel Aviv has suffered violence and terrorism at the hands of Palestinian militant groups over the course of several decades. The first suicide attack in Tel Aviv occurred on October 19, 1994, when a suicide bomber exploded on the Line 5 bus killing himself and 21 civilians, as part of a Hamas suicide campaign. This was followed, on March 4, 1996, when another suicide bomber exploded nearby at an ATM during Purim holiday festivities and killed 18 civilians. Оn June 1, 2001, during the Second Intifada, a suicide bomber exploded inside a nightclub called the dolphi disco, and 21 were killed and more than 100 were injured. On January 25, 2002, 20 were killed in a suicide attack near the old Central Bus Station, and on January 5, 2003, in two nearly simultaneous attacks, 23 were killed. On 17 April 2006, 10 people were killed and dozens wounded in another suicide attack in the same location, with many of the victims in these attacks being foreign labourers.[19]


[edit] Geography

[edit] Topography and climate

Tel Aviv is located around 32°5′N, 34°48′E on the Israeli Mediterranean Coastal Plain, the historic land bridge between Europe, Africa, and Asia. Immediately north of Jaffa, Tel Aviv is situated on land which used to be sand dunes, and as such has relatively poor soil fertility. It is now on flat land with no notable gradients. As such, its most notable geographical feature are the bluffs above the Mediterranean coastline and the Yarkon River's mouth. In modern times, due to the expansion of Tel Aviv and the Gush Dan region in general, absolute borders between Tel Aviv and Jaffa, and between the city's neighbourhoods do not exist. The city is located some 60 kilometers (37 mi) northwest of Jerusalem, Israel's capital city, and some 90 kilometres (55.9 mi) south of the northern port city of Haifa.

Tel Aviv has a mediterranean climate with hot summers, pleasant springs and autumns, and cool, rainy winters. Humidity tends to be high all year round, and rain usually occurs between October to May. In winter, temperatures seldom drop below 5 °C and are more likely to be in the region of 10° to 15 °C, while in summer the average is 26 °C. The average annual rainfall is 530 millimetres (20.9 in).[20] Tel Aviv boasts on average over 300 sunny days a year. The autumn and spring periods are short, and with climate change appear to be shrinking. Many see the best time of year in Tel Aviv as April when the sun is bright, temperatures are moderate, humidity is down, and the flowers are in bloom.[21]

[hide]Weather averages for Tel Aviv
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) 17.5 (63.5) 17.7 (63.7) 19.2 (66.6) 22.8 (73.0) 24.9 (76.8) 27.5 (81.5) 29.4 (84.9) 30.2 (86.4) 29.4 (84.9) 27.3 (81.1) 23.4 (74.1) 19.2 (66.6) 24.0 (75.2)
Average low °C (°F) 9.6 (49.3) 9.8 (49.6) 11.5 (52.7) 14.4 (57.9) 17.3 (63.1) 20.6 (69.1) 23.0 (73.4) 23.7 (74.7) 22.5 (72.5) 19.1 (66.4) 14.6 (58.3) 11.2 (52.2) 16.4 (61.5)
Precipitation mm (inch) 222.3 (8.8) 128.2 (5.0) 22.0 (0.9) 1.5 (0.1) 7.5 (0.3) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 2.4 (0.1) 64.1 (2.5) 98.3 (3.9) 546.3 (21.5)
Source: Israel Central Bureau of Statistics [22][23]


[edit] Districts
Further information: Neighborhoods of Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv is made up of a large number of districts which have formed naturally over the city's short history. The most notable of these is Jaffa, the ancient port city which Tel Aviv grew out of. This area is traditionally made up demographically of a greater percentage of Arabs, but recent gentrification is finding them replaced by a yuppie population. Similar processes are occurring in nearby Neve Tzedek, the original Jewish neighborhood outside of Jaffa. Ramat Aviv, a neighborhood in the northern part of the city largely made up of luxury apartments, is currently undergoing extensive expansion and is set to absorb the beachfront property of Sde Dov Airport after its decommissioning.[24]


[edit] Architecture

Old Tel Aviv municipality and Nahum Gutman fountainModern Tel Aviv is notable for two of its architectural styles. Of greatest international notability is the White City which was designated by UNESCO in July 2003 as a World Heritage Site due to its 2500 structures constructed in the Bauhaus, or International Style.[25] These buildings were built largely between the 1930s and 1950s as the modernist art movement reached its apogee in Europe by many Jewish architects who had trained in the style in pre-Nazi era Germany. Tel Aviv now boasts the largest collection of such buildings anywhere in the world,[26] which tie in with its Garden City styling and the city's many wide-boulevards.

More recently, Tel Aviv has become a hub of modern high-rise architecture due to astronomically high land values and the concurrent deterioration of many low-quality buildings constructed in the 1960s to cope with Israel's mass-immigration. The Shalom Tower, Azrieli Center, and the YOO Towers, designed by Phillipe Stark and currently under construction, are among the city's most internationally significant skyscrapers.[27]


[edit] Demographics
The city itself has a population of 384,600 over an area covering 50,553 dunams (50.6 square kilometres (19.5 sq mi)) giving a population density of 7,445 people per km². According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), as of June 2006, Tel Aviv's population is growing at an annual rate of 0.9%. It consists of 91.8% Jews, 4.2% Arabs and 4.0% "other".[28] According to some estimates, about 50,000 unregistered foreign workers live in Tel Aviv. In south Tel Aviv, there are 30,000 to 40,000 construction workers from Eastern Europe and Turkey. Most foreign workers are from Asia (particularly, the Philippines and Thailand), and many others are from Africa.[29]

According to December 2001 statistics, Tel Aviv's socio-economic status was classified as high (8 out of 10) and 63.1% percent of twelfth grade students received graduation certificates in 2000. In 2000, the average monthly wage stood at 6,773 NIS, which is roughly equal to the national average. In the city the population was spread out with 22.2% aged under 20, 18.5% aged 20-29, 24% aged 30-44, and 16.2% aged between 45 and 59. 19.1% of the city's population is aged over 60.


[edit] Religion

The Great Synagogue of Tel Aviv in the 1930sWhilst Jerusalem is regarded as Israel's religious hub, Tel Aviv is perceived as a secular, culturally open coastal city. Despite this, Tel Aviv still has about 500 synagogues, of which some 350 are active. Tel Aviv, especially in Jaffa, has a sizable Muslim population and contains a number of mosques. Furthermore, in part due to the many embassies and foreign diplomatic staff located in the Tel Aviv-Yafo area, the Christian Arab population of Yafo and the increasing number of foreign workers from Eastern Europe, South America, Africa and Southeast Asia, a number of churches have been established in and around the city.[30]


[edit] Culture

[edit] Arts and theatre

One of the entrances of the Tel Aviv Performing Arts CentreMany see Tel Aviv as Israel's cultural capital.[5] Cultural centers in Tel Aviv include the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Centre, which serves as the home of the Israeli Opera House where Plácido Domingo was the house tenor between 1962 and 1965, and of the Cameri Theater. The Culture Hall, is a 3,000 seat theatre, making it the biggest theatre in the city. The Israeli National Theater, Habima Theater ("The Stage"), is the most recognized of its many theatre companies and theatre halls. Others include the Jaffa-based Gesher Theater, and Beit Lessin Theater. Tzavta and Tmuna are smaller theaters used mainly for musical and fringe productions. In Jaffa, the Simta and Notzar theaters specialize in fringe. Also, the city hosts the most international live performances of all the main cities in the region. Kerem Hateimanim also provides insights into the heritage of Yemenite Jews and is also the most observant Jewish place within the city itself.


[edit] Museums
Israel has the highest number of museums per capita of any country, three of the largest of which are located in Tel Aviv.[31][32] Among the most notable are the Eretz Israel Museum which is known for its rich collection of archaeology and history exhibits dealing with the Land of Israel, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art which is one of the major art museums in Israel. Housed on the campus of Tel Aviv University is the Beth Hatefutsoth, a museum of the international Jewish diaspora. Containing both historical documents and art, the museum tells the story of Jewish prosperity and persecution throughout the centuries of exile. Batey Haosef Museum is a showcase of the Israel Defense Forces' military history, containing rare exhibits and authentic pieces from Israel's history as well as a wide variety of firearms and pictures. Meanwhile, the Palmach Museum near Tel Aviv University gives visitors a multimedia experience of the history of the Palmach, as well as vast archives, depicting the lives of young self-trained Jewish soldiers who eventually became the first defenders of Israel. Near Charles Clore's garden in north Jaffa is a small museum of the Etzel Jewish militant organization, one of whose achievements was conquering Jaffa for Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The Tel Aviv Exhibition Centre which is located in the northern side of the city, hosts over 60 major events every year. Many offbeat museums and galleries are located in the city's artsy southern areas including the Tel Aviv Raw Art contemporary art gallery.


[edit] Tourism and recreation

Tel Aviv's coastlineTel Aviv is a major tourist destination, combining a Mediterranean feel with culture and complexity. The city has several public parks and gardens, the largest being The Yarkon Park. Gan Meir, named after the first mayor, Meir Dizengoff, is on King George Street. Tel Aviv is known for its openness as well as its thriving night life.[33] It holds many malls, such as Dizengoff Center (Israel's first mall) and the Azrieli Center. The city has many hotels, such as the Crowne Plaza, Sheraton, Four Seasons, Dan, and Hilton. There is also a mall inside the Opera Tower. The city is known in Israel as the city that never sleeps.[33]

Tel Aviv is also known for its lively nightlife and around the clock culture. Its beachfront promenades are especially a focal point of that atmosphere due to its myriad nightclubs and bars.


[edit] Education

The Engineering Faculty Boulevard in Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv's Nokia ArenaHome to a large number of schools, colleges, and universities, Tel Aviv is a center for education in Israel with two universities, Tel Aviv University, and Bar-Ilan University (with its campus in neighbouring Ramat Gan). These two universities give a combined student population of Tel Aviv reaching well over 50,000, of whom a sizeable number are international students.[34][35]

Tel Aviv University was founded in 1953 and is now the largest university in Israel with an excellent reputation internationally, especially for its physics, computer science, chemistry and linguistics departments, and is located in the Ramat Aviv neighbourhood. Bar-Ilan University was founded in 1955 and is located in the suburb of Ramat Gan. It is Israel's largest academic community.


[edit] Sports
Tel Aviv is home to some of the top sports teams in Israel, including a world-class basketball team. Tel Aviv is the only city with three teams in the Israeli football premier league. Maccabi Tel Aviv Sports Club was founded in 1906 and competes in over ten sports including Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club which has forty-seven Israeli titles, won thirty-six editions of the Israel cup, and has five European Championships and Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. which has eighteen Israeli league titles, won twenty-two editions of the Israel cup, two Israel Toto cup and two Asia cups. Maccabi's Judo club athlete Yael Arad won a silver medal in the 1992 Olympic Games.[36]

Hapoel Tel Aviv Sports Club was founded in 1923, and over the years has included over eleven sports,[37] including the Hapoel Tel Aviv Basketball Club (five Israeli championships, four Israeli cups) and the Hapoel Tel Aviv Football Club (thirteen Israeli championships, eleven Israeli cups, one Toto cup and once Asia champion), kayaking Club, women's basketball club and more that have always been amongst the top Israeli clubs.

Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv's football club (once Israeli champion, twice Israeli cup holder and twice Israeli Toto cup holder) is the only Israeli football team in the top division (Ligat Ha'al) that represents a neighbourhood - Shechunat Hatikva ("The Hope Neighbourhood") in Tel Aviv - and not a city.

Other football clubs which used to play in the top division were Shimshon Tel Aviv and Beitar Tel Aviv, which are now merged into one team (Beitar/Shimshon Tel Aviv that plays in the third division (Liga Artzit). Maccabi Jaffa is another former 1st division team that currently plays in the lower divisions.

Tel Aviv is also the home of many other sports. Two rowing clubs operate in Tel Aviv. The Tel Aviv Rowing Club, which was established as early as 1935 on the banks of the Yarkon River, is the biggest rowing club in Israel.[38] Meanwhile, the beaches of Tel Aviv provide arguably the most vibrant Matkot scene in the world.[39]

The Israel Baseball League begins its inaugural season in June, with the Tel Aviv Lightning representing the city.


[edit] Economy
The economy of Tel Aviv has developed dramatically over the past decades, and as well as being Israel's economic capital, the bustling city has now been described as a flourishing technological center by Newsweek and a "miniature Los Angeles" by The Economist.[40][41] Many computer scientists now live and work in Tel Aviv. Their numbers increased as a result of immigration from the former Soviet Union since the early 1990s. The city is considered by Newsweek to be one of the top ten most technologically influential cities in the world. Actually, it is the metropolitan area (including satellite cities such as Herzlia and Petah Tikva) that contains much of Israel's high-tech muscle which has become known as Silicon Wadi.[40]

Historically, Tel Aviv struggled to find a niche economic position. The city's location on sand dunes was not suited for agricultural usage, and its sea shore poorly suited for a seaport, a role assumed by nearby Haifa and Ashdod. Slowly, the city developed a reputation as a centre for scientific and technical research. In 1974, Intel opened its first overseas research and development operation in Israel, and Tel Aviv finally emerged in the high-tech map in the 1990s following an economic boom.[41]

Tel Aviv is home to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, (TASE), Israel's only stock exchange, which in recent times has reached record heights,[42] as well as many international headquarters of venture-capital firms, scientific research institutes, and high-tech companies. Having said this, there is some industry in the Tel Aviv area, and goods such as chemicals, textiles and food are exported from factories here.[41] Also important to the Tel Aviv economy is tourism, and people travel from around the world to this city not only because of the plethora of cultural sites which Israel can offer, but also because of its legendary nightlife, atmosphere, and architecture.[43]

The Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network (GaWC) at Loughborough University constructed an inventory of world cities based upon their level of advanced producer services. The inventory includes Tel Aviv as having "strong evidence" of world city formation—the highest ranking for a Middle Eastern city with the exception of partly-European Istanbul.[44]

Seven out of the nine Israeli billionaires reside in Israel; of them, at least four live in Tel Aviv or its suburbs (according to Forbes).[45][46] According to Mercer, as of 2007, Tel Aviv is considered the most expensive city in the Middle East to live, and seventeenth most in the world. It falls just short of New York City and Dublin and right ahead of Rome and Vienna.[47][48]


[edit] Transportation

Multimodal traffic in Tel Aviv: pedestrians, private cars, buses, trucks, taxis and train station
[edit] Road
The main road access route to Tel Aviv is the Ayalon Highway (a.k.a. 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 1, leading to Ben Gurion International Airport and Jerusalem. Within the city, the main routes are King George Street, Allenby Street, Ibn Gabirol Street, Dizengoff Street, Rothschild Boulevard and in Jaffa, Jerusalem Boulevard. Other access routes include Namir Road (which connects to Highway 2, and provides access from the North) and Begin/Jabotinsky Road (which provides access from the east, through Ramat Gan, Bnei Brak and Petah Tiqva).


[edit] Rail
Tel Aviv has four train stations all located along the Ayalon Highway. The stops are from north to south: Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv Savidor Merkaz (Tel Aviv Central Train Station), Tel Aviv Hashalom (near Azrieli Center shopping mall) and Tel Aviv Hahaganah (near the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station). It is estimated that over a million people use the train from the surrounding cities to Tel Aviv each month.

Furthermore, the first phase of the Tel Aviv Subway is planned to be completed by 2012, which is expected to improve public transportation in the city dramatically.[49]


[edit] Bus
The Tel Aviv Central Bus Station, a large central bus station, is located in the south of the city. The main bus network in Tel Aviv is operated by Dan Bus Company whilst the Egged Bus Cooperative, the world's second-largest bus company, provides intercity transportation.[50]


[edit] Air

Ben Gurion International AirportTel Aviv's airport is Dov Hoz Airport Sde Dov (code: SDV) which is located in the northwestern side of the city and serves as a major airport for domestic flights. Sde Dov is, however, slated to close, as the land it is constructed on is prime-coastal real estate in the upscale Ramat Aviv neighbourhood.[51] As such, sometime in the near future, all services to Sde Dov will transfer to Ben Gurion International Airport (code: TLV), Israel's main international airport, which is located 15 km southeast of Tel Aviv, close to the city of Lod. Because of its proximity to Tel Aviv and its location within the metropolitan area of Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion International Airport is often referred to as Tel Aviv International Airport despite the fact that the airport is not included in any municipal jurisdiction.


[edit] Mayors of Tel Aviv
Meir Dizengoff (1921–1925)
David Bloch (1925–1927)
Meir Dizengoff (1928–1936)
Israel Rokach (1936–1952)
Haim Levanon (1953–1959)
Mordechai Namir (1959–1969)
Yehoshua Rabinowitz (1969–1974)
Shlomo Lahat ("Chich") (1974–1993)
Roni Milo (1993–1998)
Ron Huldai (1998–)

[edit] Sister cities
Toulouse, France (1962)
Philadelphia, USA (1966)
Cologne, Germany (1979)
Frankfurt, Germany (1980)
Bonn, Germany (1983)
Buenos Aires, Argentina (1988)
Budapest, Hungary (1989)
Belgrade, Serbia (1990)
Essen, Germany (1992)
Sofia, Bulgaria (1992)
Warsaw, Poland (1992)
Cannes, France (1993)
Łódź, Poland (1994)
Milan, Italy (1994)
Thessaloniki, Greece (1994)
Beijing, China (1995)
Barcelona, Spain (1998)
İzmir, Turkey (1998)
Chişinău, Moldova (2000)
Incheon, South Korea (2000)
Limassol, Cyprus (2000)
Moscow, Russia (2000)
São Paulo, Brazil (2004)
Vienna, Austria (2005)