Non­fic­tion

Tel Aviv: Mythog­ra­phy of a City

Maoz Azaryahu
  • Review
By – March 23, 2012

Tel Aviv was the first Hebrew City. Before 1909 there was noth­ing, today, it is the biggest metrop­o­lis in Israel. 

Azaryahu shows the devel­op­ment of Tel Aviv from a sand dune to a sky­scraper-stud­ded mega­lopo­lis. He blends won­der­ful cre­ative sto­ries and char­ac­ters as he focus­es on peri­ods and places and takes the read­er on a walk­ing tour through the past 100 years. He looks at some of the great char­ac­ters and lead­ers of the city, like Tel Aviv’s first may­or, Meir Dizen­goff, and the poet lau­re­ate of Israel, Hayy­im Nach­man Bialik. 

This remark­able book explores a city with so much and such var­ied char­ac­ter that is has earned a wide vari­ety of endear­ing nick­names. It is the City of White, the City of Won­ders, the City of Oranges, and the Non-Stop City. It is Tel Aviv. It is a place where cul­tur­al cen­ters and counter-cul­ture hang­outs co-exist. 

Tel Aviv real­ly is a micro­cosm of the Zion­ist expe­ri­ence; some­thing cre­at­ed from noth­ing. It is a link with the past that is total­ly new. To quote the proud first may­or of the city, Tel Aviv is the mod­el of the nation­al home.”

Mic­ah D. Halpern is a colum­nist and a social and polit­i­cal com­men­ta­tor. He is the author of What You Need To Know About: Ter­ror, and main­tains The Mic­ah Report at www​.mic​ah​halpern​.com.

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