112
NOVEMBER 2012
•
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
THREE PERFECT DAYS
||
TELAVIV
THEY CALL TEL AVIV
“
The
Bubble”—though, typically, no
one seemsable toagreeonwhat
that means. Some Israelis use
it as a pejorative, implying that
Tel Avivians are abit flighty and
that their success is built on
less thansolid foundations. The
residents of this cosmopolitan
Mediterranean city, meanwhile,
tend to embrace the moniker,
arguing that the Middle East
could use a li le levity. “Some-
times we feel like we’re in the
mouth of a volcano,” says Guy
Share , a local linguist and tour
guide, “and sometimeswewant
to drink and dance.”
Founded in 1909 by 66 Jewish
families fleeing overcrowding
in the ancient port city of Jaffa,
Tel Avivgrewquickly, outlasting
the Ottoman Empire and the
British Mandate and, in 1948,
serving as the staging ground
for Israeli independence. All
the while it attracted immi-
grants from around the globe:
the Jewish architects escaping
Nazi Germany who gave it
the highest concentration of
Bauhaus buildings on earth
(
the hue of which earned Tel
Aviv the nickname “The White
City”), the artists who gave it its
culture and the entrepreneurs
who gave it its cash.
Today, Tel Aviv is the cultural
and economic heart of Israel,
but for all its weighty history
it is perhaps best known as a
riotous good time—which, as
visitors soon learn, should not
be confused with frivolity.
Well, not entirely.
DAYONE
| Everymorning along thewater’s edge in Tel Aviv the
soundtrack is the same: the wash of the waves, the lazy
ponk-
ponk-ponk
of
matkot
paddles. You step out onto the terrace of
your suite at the
DanTel Aviv
,
deanof the city’s oceanfront hotels,
and get your first glimpse of the curve of the Mediterranean
shoreline, the sea alight, the ancient walled city of Jaffa glowing
to the south. The viewhere has a racted the likes of Madonna and Quentin Tarantino,
and it’s no easy thing to tear yourself away.
A er a breakfast of salad, fruit, eggs and stuffed grape leaves consumed with some
haste downstairs, you take a cab to the spot where the city was born. When you get to
the intersection of Herzl and Ahad Ha’am, where Tel Aviv’s first se lement was built,
you stare up, bewildered, at an unsightly 1960s-era skyscraper. This is the
ShalomTower
,
once the tallest building in theMiddle East. You enter, and peruse an exhibit chronicling
the history of Tel Aviv, then ride the elevator to a simple library on the seventh floor that
offers an unmatched, and li le-known, panorama of the city.
Outside, you find the only remaining structure from the original se lement: the
stately Weiss house, which, fi ingly, given the arc of local history, is now a nightclub.
(
You will return to it later.) You stroll over to Rothschild Boulevard, with its tree-lined
median and customary Tel Aviv hodgepodge of architecture on either side. On the right,
you spy the former home ofMeir Dizengoff, the city’s firstmayor, though the bunkerlike
stucco structure is be er known today as
Independence Hall
.
It was here, in 1948, that
Israel declared independence fromBritain. You talk the guy at the door into le ing you
in, and get a look at the unprepossessing roomas itwaswhen the declarationwas signed.
Flushed out by a swarm of schoolkids, you walk a few blocks to the
Hotel Montefiore
,
one of the city’s trendier boutique hotels. The restaurant here is popular among Tel
Aviv’s creative class, offering traditional brasserie fare with Asian twists. The menu is
a high-wire act, but the eatery handles it with aplomb. You go for a Waldorf salad with
celery, apple and endive, and the spicy chicken tikka with zucchini and chili peppers.
Returning oncemore to the historical, youmake your way to
Bialik Square, an idyllic cul-de-sac onwhich stands
Old City Hall
,
a white, columned Bauhaus structure flanked by palms. Today
WANTMORE?
Download
our iPad app.
TEL AVIV BY THE NUMBERS
AREA, IN SQUARE MILES
19.85
POPULATION
403,000
NUMBER OF NIGHTLIFE-SECTOR
EMPLOYEES
≈100,000
NUMBER OF BARS AND CLUBS
450
PERCENTAGE OF RESIDENTS UNDER 35
50
+
AGE OF TEL AVIV, IN YEARS
103
AGE OF JAFFA, IN YEARS
≈3,000
TEL AVIVRE
Clockwise
from top left, Bialik
Square; the sumptuous
Royal Suite at the Dan
Tel Aviv; the view from
the suite’s terrace; Jaffa’s
Kedumim Square
