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Friday May 27, 2005

Tel Aviv-Jaffa bridging Israel and the diaspora

by gail lichtman
ips

tel aviv | Tel Aviv-Jaffa Mayor Ron Huldai would like his city to be the diaspora’s connection to Israel. A bustling, 24/7 metropolitan hub, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Huldai proclaims, has something for everyone.

“The first Hebrew-speaking city in modern times,” says Huldai, “Tel Aviv [meaning Hill of Spring] was founded in 1909 by Jews who left the 4,000-year-old port city of Jaffa seeking a better quality of life and a better future. The establishment of this city is one of the crowning achievements of Zionism and has become the symbol of modern Israel and the commercial, business and cultural capital of the country.”

Huldai, 61, who was elected mayor in 1998, is a former Israel air force combat pilot who retired in 1989 after 24 years of service. Upon leaving the military with the rank of brigadier general, Huldai chose to follow in the footsteps of his parents and became an educator. For six years he served as principal of the elite Gymnasia Herzliya, the first Hebrew-speaking high school established in Eretz Israel.

Since becoming mayor, Huldai has strove to make Tel Aviv-Jaffa an urban showcase. He virtually eliminated the city’s deficit, streamlined the municipal workforce and increased municipal allocations for development and infrastructure in the city’s poorer southern areas. He has also emphasized education — building and upgrading, as well as ensuring that all the city’s schools have computers, particularly in low-income neighborhoods.

“The future of our state lies in education, which I consider a top-priority task,” says Huldai. “For this reason we invest more than any other city in developing education.

“We have set up a subsidized pre-kindergarten system so that every child from the age of 3 can be part of the educational system, especially those from underprivileged areas, and we are working to develop science education and promote higher education.

“At the other end of the spectrum, 80,000 of Tel Aviv-Jaffa inhabitants are senior citizens of whom 30,000 are Holocaust survivors,” he says. “We have developed and are developing a system of day centers to accommodate their needs.”

Many of Israel’s major banks are headquartered in Tel Aviv, as well as high-tech companies, and the Stock and Diamond exchanges. It is also the industrial center of Israel, where textiles, clothing, chemicals, metalworking, automobiles and electronic equipment are produced. Although its official population is only 350,000, Tel Aviv-Jaffa is the center of a metropolitan area of 2.5 million, representing more than a third of Israel’s population and workplace to some 1 million people.

The city is also home to Israel’s only opera house, as well as the famed Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, three theater companies and the Batsheva Dance Company. More than 70 percent of theatergoers attend performances in Tel Aviv, which is considered the country’s mecca for culture and art.

The city abounds with museums and art galleries, including the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, Museum of Art, Ha’aretz Museum, Nahum Gutman Museum and the Rubin Museum, and Tel Aviv-Jaffa invests a full 4 percent of its overall budget in culture and the arts.

In addition, there is a robust, round-the-clock nightlife with an abundance of pubs, discos, night clubs and restaurants.

Ganei Yehoshua, Tel Aviv’s central park, enables locals to get away from it all and relax amidst greenery and quiet only minutes from the city center. The city’s mild winters also mean that its beaches and 10-kilometer-long seaside promenade are bustling with activity almost all year round as people of all ages — including increasing numbers of young adults who have chosen to live in the city and tourists staying in Tel Aviv’s many beachfront hotels — enjoy the lively beach scene.

Last year Tel Aviv, home to the largest concentration of buildings in the world in the Bauhaus/International style of simply lined and functional form architecture, was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The municipality has invested $100 million in preserving and restoring the facades of these and other historical buildings, major boulevards and many streets, with particular attention to Jaffa, home to the city’s Arab population. It now houses a restored artists’ quarter — a maze of picturesque alleys with galleries and stores selling a range of ornamental objects.

“It is a city with a persona of its own that symbolizes the achievement of the human spirit — a city in which Jewish values, democracy, pluralism, liberalism and tolerance are realized every day,” says Huldai. “It is a place in which every person can live as he or she wishes — a truly international city similar to New York, London or Paris. It is a city not just with a history, but one with a future as well.”

In Tel Aviv-Jaffa, a diverse population that ranges from ultra-secular to fervently religious — Arab, Jew, Muslim, Christian, Ashkenazi and Sephardi — lives side by side in general peace and harmony.

“I am proud that when we speak about pluralism, in the Jewish sense, every movement has its place in this city — Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and even those who define themselves as none of the above,” Huldai says.

He believes in the importance of the diaspora-Tel Aviv connection, for the benefit of both the city and diaspora Jewry. “Unfortunately, we seem to be moving towards a situation where we will no longer be ‘one people,’ but rather two — those in Israel and those in the diaspora. The importance of Israel to the Jewish people is not as focused as it once was and assimilation is taking a heavy toll. I think we have to create a greater emotional connection between diaspora Jewry and Israel that will both strengthen Israel and serve as a bulwark against assimilation.”

The Tel Aviv Foundation, founded in 1977, works in conjunction with the municipality to improve the quality of life of the city’s residents. Among its 300 projects, it supports educational institutions, day-care centers, children’s homes, senior, youth and cultural centers, special education programs, science, art and athletic facilities and projects, medical and family health centers, libraries, museums, parks and gardens. Its budget is derived half from the municipality and half from donations, with the city matching every contribution dollar for dollar.

The Tel Aviv-Jaffa Academic College, founded in 1994, with a current enrollment of 2,500 students, is now in the process of building its campus in the heart of Jaffa, which will give a boost to this poverty-stricken section of the city.

The municipality is also about to embark on the building of a light rail system that will provide an efficient mass-transit system for a city known for its monumental traffic problems.

“This is a partnership in taking care of the future of the Jewish people; in realizing dreams,” says Hul.

ISRAEL IN THE GARDENS

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