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Cafe Oleh Topic: Get To Know Israel: Tel Aviv-Yafo
Cafe Oleh Topic: Get To Know Israel: Tel Aviv-Yafo
Nefesh B'Nefesh
553 views • 16 likes
1 week ago • 1 hour and 6 min
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Transcript
[00:18]
[clears throat]
[00:23]
Hi everyone. We'll get started in just
[00:25]
another minute as more people sign in.
[01:57]
>> [clears throat]
[02:26]
>> Okay, let's get started. Hi everyone,
[02:30]
welcome and welcome back to Cafe Ole. My
[02:32]
name is Jay Rosen. I'm your host here at
[02:35]
Cafe Ole with Nephes, where we go over
[02:37]
the everyday Hebrew you need here in
[02:39]
Israel to succeed. Whether that's
[02:41]
reading and paying your bills, going
[02:43]
grocery shopping and reading,
[02:44]
nutritional labels, keeping up with the
[02:46]
news, striking up a conversation, job
[02:48]
interviewing, dating, flirting,
[02:50]
complaining, all the everyday things you
[02:52]
do in your native language in your
[02:54]
country of origin, but here in Israel in
[02:56]
modern Hebrew. As always, we want to
[02:58]
hear from you what topics you'd like us
[03:00]
to cover. You can always be in touch
[03:01]
with us by email at hebrewn.org.il.
[03:06]
That's h ebrwn
[03:08]
nbn.org. oorgg.il.
[03:11]
If you're joining us live on Zoom, you
[03:12]
can write to us in the chat uh window
[03:15]
with any questions, comments, concerns,
[03:16]
or topic requests you may have. You can
[03:19]
also see all of our previous lessons up
[03:20]
on YouTube. Just go to youtube.com, type
[03:23]
in Cafe Ole. The very first search
[03:25]
result will be a link to a playlist with
[03:28]
all of our previous lessons. More than
[03:30]
200 past lessons, more than 40,000
[03:32]
views. You can click to subscribe. You
[03:36]
can watch all of our previous lessons on
[03:37]
demand, totally free. Give us a like on
[03:40]
the classes you like. Leave us a comment
[03:43]
also. We definitely check those. Um
[03:46]
they're there for your convenience, but
[03:48]
also to double check that if we've
[03:50]
covered a class or covered a topic
[03:52]
rather or maybe we haven't in some time.
[03:54]
Um likewise, if you're joining us live
[03:56]
on Zoom, in addition to the chat, the
[03:59]
Q&A box is there for any questions you
[04:01]
may have um resulting from the class
[04:03]
we're about to start. So, if you have
[04:05]
any questions that you'd like me to
[04:06]
answer at the top of the hour, please
[04:08]
write that in the Q&A. Obviously,
[04:09]
preference will be given to questions
[04:11]
about the topic we're about to discuss.
[04:13]
Um, at the top of the hour, speaking of
[04:15]
which, I will not only answer your
[04:17]
questions in the Q&A, um, but tell you
[04:20]
about our Cafe OA conversation class on
[04:22]
Wednesday, which is likewise open to all
[04:24]
of you joining um, today live or on
[04:28]
demand on our videos. um 7:00 p.m.
[04:31]
Wednesday Israel time on Zoom as well
[04:34]
and I will tell you about next week's
[04:36]
classes and their topics. So, let's get
[04:40]
uh started. So, this week we are
[04:43]
continuing our series of getting to know
[04:45]
Israel. Um we've gone to some very
[04:49]
far-flung places in the country, the far
[04:51]
north, the far south, places that are
[04:53]
integral to Israel's history, places
[04:55]
that are millions of years old. um uh in
[05:00]
terms of geology and biology even we've
[05:03]
gone to one of Israel's largest cities
[05:06]
that is the brunt of many jokes um and
[05:09]
typically the idea is to take you to
[05:11]
places that you may not have been to
[05:13]
before and more specifically that um
[05:18]
that nephe serves typically don't choose
[05:20]
to live in those places there are always
[05:23]
you're always going to find native
[05:25]
English speakers and what I call olim by
[05:27]
choice meaning primarily from western
[05:29]
countries in these places that we visit.
[05:32]
So as always don't come after me in the
[05:34]
comments. Um whether that was Petikva or
[05:37]
Emik Israel in the north or the Arava in
[05:39]
the south, you can always find Anglo
[05:42]
throughout the country. Um, but today
[05:44]
we're going to make a little bit of a
[05:45]
change. And I gave you a preview last
[05:47]
week of it. And I gave you it in the
[05:49]
context of um not just some choice words
[05:54]
that a um viewer who chose to remain
[05:58]
anonymous left for us on YouTube. Um,
[06:01]
but an increasingly amount of push back
[06:04]
I get over this specific location. Um,
[06:09]
and often just like this um anonymous uh
[06:13]
uh viewer wrote, they don't believe this
[06:16]
particular location is part of Israel.
[06:19]
And it's a common thing we hear, it's
[06:21]
not part of Israel. It's not Israel.
[06:23]
It's not emblematic of Israel. They are
[06:26]
too fill-in- thelank. And usually it's a
[06:28]
very antagonistic reply. On the other
[06:31]
side, you have people who absolutely
[06:33]
love this place. They can't think of
[06:35]
anything else than this place. They even
[06:39]
um make this place synonymous with
[06:40]
Israel. Um and if you're thinking I'm
[06:44]
talking about or belva or even
[06:46]
Jerusalem, you would be wrong. We
[06:48]
instead are going to be talking today
[06:51]
about place I happen to be sitting in
[06:53]
right now. Um that has been my home for
[06:56]
the last 12, no more, uh 15 out of 20
[07:02]
years I've lived in Israel, which is Tel
[07:03]
Avivaf. and we're going to do it in a
[07:06]
way that I hope will illustrate that it
[07:09]
is first off indeed part of Israel. Um,
[07:11]
can't deny that and its contributions,
[07:14]
but hopefully dispel some of the myths
[07:16]
that I know a lot of us hold, myself
[07:18]
included, and residents of this city
[07:21]
also have. Um, so this isn't going to be
[07:23]
our regular tour of places you probably
[07:26]
haven't been before, cuz most if not all
[07:28]
of you have been to Tel Aviv in some
[07:30]
capacity. But we're going to look at it
[07:32]
a little differently and I'm not going
[07:33]
to do the straight up history and all
[07:35]
that. You can look those things up and
[07:37]
I'm going to even share with you some
[07:38]
resources along the way. Instead, I want
[07:40]
to focus on things you might not know as
[07:42]
much about this city. So, as always, um
[07:45]
this is going to be more of a
[07:47]
presentation instead of a straight up
[07:50]
lecture with um vocabulary, which is why
[07:53]
I always encourage you to join us for
[07:55]
Wednesdays on Cafe Olay Conversations.
[07:57]
But you're going to be able to practice
[07:59]
some of the Hebrew you learned today and
[08:01]
turn it into conversation prompts to
[08:04]
talk about what do you think about Tel
[08:06]
Aviv? Do you like it? Do you not like
[08:08]
it? Why do you like it? Why don't you
[08:10]
like it? All those things are going to
[08:11]
be Wednesday's class. I'll remind you
[08:13]
about that as I promised at the top of
[08:14]
the hour as well. Okay, but in the
[08:16]
meantime, let's get started. So,
[08:31]
Okay, getting to know Israel,
[08:35]
specifically Tel Avivaful.
[08:38]
First off, what's with the name? Tel
[08:41]
Aviv Yaful, the city's official name, is
[08:44]
a combination of the two towns
[08:46]
consolidated into one municipality all
[08:48]
the way back in 1949. Tel Aviv founded
[08:52]
in 1909.
[08:54]
Yafo is how we say it in Hebrew. Jaffa
[08:57]
is how they say it in English. Yafa is
[08:59]
how they say it in Arabic, which is
[09:00]
thousands of years old. It appears in
[09:02]
the in the Tanakh in the Bible. It has
[09:05]
thousands and thousands of years of
[09:07]
history. What you're looking at on the
[09:09]
right hand side is someone went and
[09:12]
tried to translate a map of the entire
[09:16]
municipality of Tel Aviv into English.
[09:18]
The problem was they did it wrong in
[09:20]
that they didn't include everything. If
[09:23]
you look at it very carefully, anyone
[09:26]
who um has been here long enough or is a
[09:28]
resident, you're going to see a lot more
[09:30]
neighborhoods than perhaps exist. We're
[09:32]
going to look at a couple maps um
[09:34]
throughout this uh class today. [gasps]
[09:37]
But it's also missing a whole part of
[09:39]
Tel Aviv. It's missing a whole part of
[09:41]
the south of Tel Aviv. It's missing a
[09:43]
whole part of the east of Tel Aviv that
[09:45]
does indeed cross the alone. Um, and
[09:48]
this is one of the many reasons why I
[09:50]
want to be sure that we cover this topic
[09:52]
because I think there's a lot of about
[09:55]
this town, particularly
[09:58]
among Ulim and particularly among Jews
[10:00]
from around the world. They experience
[10:02]
this city, we experience the city in a
[10:04]
different way than native Israelis are.
[10:07]
And as a result, I want to start off
[10:09]
with this map to share that this is an
[10:12]
incomplete picture. And I think a lot of
[10:14]
us may carry incomplete pictures of what
[10:17]
the city has. First off, there is no
[10:19]
place called the Northeast Quarter.
[10:22]
There is no such thing. There are
[10:23]
multiple neighborhoods in that area that
[10:25]
all have their own names. You can
[10:27]
actually even see them under whoever
[10:28]
wrote that in. There's a whole area
[10:31]
around the Yad Eli Yahu um stadium in
[10:35]
the center bottom uh of the map that
[10:38]
isn't included in this map of Tel Aviv
[10:41]
Yafo. There's a whole part of Yafo and
[10:43]
the south that's not included in this
[10:45]
map. So, I hope we're going to be able
[10:48]
to unpack some of those misconceptions,
[10:51]
just like this map.
[10:54]
Again, what's with the name? Tel Aviv as
[10:58]
a name is first mentioned as a site in
[11:01]
which the Jews in Babylonia lived,
[11:02]
meaning not here in the land of Israel,
[11:05]
all the way over in Babylonia. It's in
[11:08]
um the uh book of Yzkeel,
[11:12]
Ezekiel in English, one of the Niveim,
[11:15]
one of the prophets. And he talks about
[11:16]
visiting one of the communities exiled
[11:20]
into Babylonia. And they lived in a town
[11:23]
called Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is two words,
[11:26]
Tel and Aviv. Tel is a word that's not
[11:30]
only in Hebrew, but in other languages
[11:32]
throughout the Middle East. Think of
[11:33]
things like humus and baklava and even
[11:37]
falafil that are um shared communally or
[11:42]
ecumenically or across cultures and
[11:45]
identities in the Middle East. Tel is
[11:47]
one of those words. Tel is a hill. It's
[11:50]
an archaeological term that's formed by
[11:52]
h strata of human settlement over time.
[11:56]
Okay. So instead of a natural hill
[11:58]
formed by um rocks and tectonic shifts
[12:03]
and all those other things, a group of
[12:05]
people live somewhere.
[12:07]
their civilization is abandoned or for
[12:10]
whatever reason people decide to um uh
[12:13]
then they decide to grow on top of it
[12:15]
and build on top of it and build on top
[12:17]
of it and build on top of it to the
[12:18]
point where thousands of years later it
[12:20]
may look to the naked eye as a natural
[12:23]
formation but it is in fact multiple
[12:25]
layers of history. You can think of it
[12:27]
if you've gone ever gone to um famous
[12:31]
historical sites not just here in Israel
[12:33]
but in Europe where the Roman Empire had
[12:36]
built something and that's just under
[12:38]
the street surface and just under that
[12:39]
maybe pagan uh remains. That's the idea
[12:42]
of a tell but in the shape of a hill
[12:46]
again something tell is something old,
[12:50]
right? Very old. It's thousands of years
[12:52]
of humans living on top of each other.
[12:55]
And aviv in modern Hebrew we translate
[12:58]
as spring. It actually wasn't a distinct
[13:01]
season um when used in the Torah and in
[13:04]
the Tanakh. Rather a step in the
[13:06]
agricultural cycles particularly when
[13:09]
things started to g shoot up from the
[13:11]
ground and turn green still tender not
[13:14]
ripe yet but getting getting close to
[13:17]
it. Right? So you put those two
[13:19]
together. Something very old tell and
[13:21]
something very young aiv. Okay. And
[13:24]
together,
[13:26]
Tel Aviv is much to represent this place
[13:30]
we're coming back to after thousands of
[13:32]
years of exile and prayer and hoping to
[13:34]
come back. Something very old, but also
[13:37]
something very new. We're not coming
[13:39]
back to the same place. We don't have
[13:41]
the same um
[13:44]
uh resources and the same connection
[13:46]
thousands of years later. We need to
[13:48]
rebuild them. Right? So, Tel Aviv was
[13:51]
the term that was used um in translating
[13:56]
um Theodore Herzel who I hope you all
[13:58]
recognize that name. um his his one of
[14:02]
his uh magnuses aloand aliand being
[14:06]
German al old noi new land this old new
[14:11]
land and the translator the Hebrew
[14:13]
translator his name is Nakum sov you may
[14:16]
have heard that name sov very important
[14:18]
writer he translated al noand not
[14:21]
literally but as tel aiv
[14:24]
name in our tradition in the Torah in
[14:27]
the Tanakh
[14:28]
and giving it this name. So, what I want
[14:31]
us to look for right now, this is a very
[14:34]
small clip on the right hand side we're
[14:35]
going to watch. I'm going to um
[14:37]
paraphrase the translation, but you'll
[14:39]
see it has Hebrew and Russian subtitles.
[14:41]
This is from a very famous documentary
[14:44]
about 15 20 years old called Tel
[14:46]
Avivafo. Um, highly recommend for those
[14:50]
of you at a more advanced level. We'll
[14:52]
share the link with you because you can
[14:53]
see all the different parts of it on
[14:55]
YouTube, but it's giving a quick
[14:57]
synopsis of how we got the name and what
[15:00]
the vision of the city was. And I'll
[15:01]
translate it after the fact.
[15:14]
for
[15:22]
noand.
[15:26]
[music]
[15:32]
[music]
[15:42]
What you're hearing is a narrator um
[15:45]
reading the words um of the main
[15:50]
developer of um what became Tel Aviv in
[15:54]
1909.
[15:55]
You all probably have seen that picture
[15:57]
of a group of people huddled on a sand
[16:00]
dune casting lots as to who gets which
[16:02]
lot. Um that's what they're talking
[16:04]
about now. And creating the first Hebrew
[16:08]
city, right? That is one of Tel Aviv's
[16:10]
many nicknames,
[16:13]
the first Hebrew city. We're going to
[16:14]
come back to that name because it's very
[16:16]
important, right? And explaining how
[16:19]
it's going to look.
[16:30]
[music]
[16:38]
Right. Just as New York is the gateway
[16:42]
to the United States for those who
[16:44]
immigrate, so too will Tel Aviv be the
[16:46]
the New York for those coming to the
[16:49]
land of Israel. That's a very important
[16:51]
comparison we're going to talk about in
[16:52]
a little bit as well.
[17:12]
>> [music]
[17:16]
>> Right. What did you hear there? As
[17:18]
opposed to all the other places in the
[17:21]
land of Israel that are thousands of
[17:22]
years old, we're going to build a modern
[17:25]
city that is going to be the first
[17:27]
Hebrew city. It's going to be European.
[17:30]
It's going to be modern. It's going to
[17:32]
be efficient, but it's going to be us.
[17:35]
It's going to be in Hebrew. It's going
[17:36]
to be for us. Okay? And what you see is
[17:40]
modernity at its height in the land of
[17:43]
Israel, which again, when you think
[17:45]
about why people are antagonistic
[17:47]
towards this city, that is a big part of
[17:49]
it. This is a full-blown city. Maybe not
[17:53]
as big of a city as you're used to, but
[17:55]
this is not the suburbs. This is not a
[17:57]
kibbutz. This is not a moshave. This is
[17:59]
not thousands of years of history. This
[18:02]
is modern 20th century life but in
[18:05]
Hebrew,
[18:08]
right?
[18:10]
Tel Aviv, by the way, was not the
[18:12]
original name used by the first
[18:14]
landowners. That guy that you the woman
[18:16]
that you heard as the narrator reciting
[18:19]
um from a guy named Akiva Vice, who was
[18:22]
the one of the organizers of that first
[18:24]
lot in 1909. They called it originally
[18:28]
after their housing organization called
[18:30]
Auzatbite.
[18:32]
Auzat bite stands for homestead, right?
[18:36]
Those who are um tending the land, in
[18:40]
charge of the land, right? And the idea
[18:43]
was far up the coast or far enough away
[18:46]
from Yafo, they would be able to start
[18:48]
their own place away from the
[18:50]
crowdedness of Yafo, away from the
[18:52]
Muslim and Christian populations of
[18:54]
Yafo. the old populations of Jews who
[18:57]
live there. Instead, we're going to
[18:58]
create our own thing, right? And in
[19:01]
1909, they break ground. They cast lots
[19:04]
as to who gets which part of this land
[19:06]
that is otherwise literally, you see the
[19:08]
picture, sand, right?
[19:11]
Problem with that narration that we
[19:14]
often hear is that in addition to Yafo,
[19:16]
there already were neighborhoods outside
[19:18]
of Yafo that were now part of Tel Aviv.
[19:22]
And in the pictures you see here, there
[19:24]
are three different pictures. At least
[19:26]
one of them I know many of you
[19:27]
recognize, which is the one on the
[19:28]
bottom, right? And you can even see it
[19:31]
in the Hebrew letters. And if you zoom
[19:32]
in even more, you'll see it. It says
[19:34]
Sona.
[19:36]
Sona was a colony um built by German
[19:41]
evangelical Protestants in the late 19th
[19:45]
century in what is now the Serona
[19:47]
complex but is also part of Israel's um
[19:51]
defense ministry compound across the
[19:53]
street on Kaplan. Um and you can see
[19:56]
these homes that do not look like
[19:58]
typical Israeli homes. They're built
[20:00]
like typical
[20:02]
central southern German homes in the
[20:04]
19th century. It was an entire compound
[20:06]
where they lived and were largely
[20:08]
self-sufficient. And this predated 1909.
[20:12]
This predated Tel Aviv and even Akuzat
[20:16]
by several decades in fact, right? And
[20:19]
by the way, they stayed there for many
[20:22]
years up until um the British in the
[20:25]
British mandate actually kicked them out
[20:27]
in um the 20s and 30s. Why? because as
[20:31]
German um evangelical Protestants, they
[20:35]
did have um uh affiliations with the
[20:38]
Nazi party as they came into power back
[20:40]
in their homeland. The British
[20:42]
rightfully so kicked them out as a
[20:45]
result. At the top right, you see a
[20:49]
church. And no, it doesn't belong to
[20:51]
these Germans. It belongs to another
[20:53]
group of evangelical Protestants,
[20:55]
Americans. In the late 18 late 1800s,
[21:00]
right, late 19th century, there was a
[21:02]
group of evangelical um Americans who
[21:06]
also settled just outside of Yafo, again
[21:10]
before Tel Aviv, before Auzat, before
[21:13]
any of this existed. And it's still to
[21:15]
this day, you can walk around just
[21:16]
outside of Yafo, and you'll see this
[21:18]
church. You'll see a few other compounds
[21:20]
that look, these homes do not look like
[21:23]
part of the Mediterranean or the Middle
[21:25]
East. They're wood. They're also very
[21:28]
boxy looking. Um, some of them have
[21:30]
turned into very fancy hotels and
[21:32]
restaurants. But again, part of this um
[21:37]
landscape that eventually became Tel
[21:39]
Aviv Yafo. It's called the American
[21:40]
Colony, right? Just like there's an
[21:42]
American colony, by the way, in
[21:44]
Jerusalem. And there are these colonies
[21:46]
of Europeans throughout the country um
[21:50]
to this day. And at the top left you see
[21:53]
what was um part of a compound part of a
[21:56]
village called Sheh Munis. Sheh Munis
[21:59]
was at the far end
[22:02]
far away from Yafo, mainly agricultural,
[22:05]
but it did have named after a um that
[22:08]
area became part of what is now
[22:10]
Universita Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv
[22:13]
University,
[22:14]
distinct from Yafo. Um and even to this
[22:18]
day, that actual building still exists
[22:20]
as one of the uh conference and event
[22:23]
centers on campus. By the way, Tel Aviv
[22:25]
University is Israel's largest
[22:27]
university. So again, for those who are
[22:29]
antagonistic towards Tel Aviv, it's kind
[22:32]
of hard to when we have the largest
[22:34]
university um in our town. And when you
[22:36]
go up to Tel Aviv University, you see
[22:39]
that it's actually built on Atel. It's
[22:42]
got a little bit of an incline to it um
[22:44]
ahead of it. And you'll see that
[22:46]
building still there to this day.
[22:49]
Right. So, this, by the way, is a much
[22:53]
more accurate map of Tel Aviv because
[22:54]
first off, this is the entirety of the
[22:56]
Tel Aviv um uh municipal boundaries as
[23:00]
opposed to that initial one. Right? You
[23:03]
see the difference between this one, the
[23:05]
highlighted places, and this one.
[23:09]
This is the official map of Tel Aviv,
[23:11]
Vafo. Um, and those of you who have
[23:14]
lived here in the last 3 years, you know
[23:17]
that the city is broken up into
[23:19]
districts like you see here. Um,
[23:21]
primarily for security reasons. So, when
[23:24]
there is, god forbid, an air raid siren
[23:26]
in Israel, it will say both on your
[23:28]
phone and on TV which part of Tel Aviv
[23:30]
you're in because it is large, right? It
[23:33]
is um 52 square kilometers.
[23:37]
The entire metropolitan, however, uh Tel
[23:40]
Aviv area is um just over 1,516
[23:45]
kilometers squared. Um that's
[23:48]
metropolitan area we call Gush Dan.
[23:50]
You've heard that before, I've mentioned
[23:52]
it before. Gush Dan is the entire
[23:54]
metropolitan area of Tel Aviv. That is
[23:56]
not included in this map, but it's all
[23:58]
the surrounding cities around it. So in
[24:00]
the south Batyam and Hulon to the east
[24:04]
katimra
[24:06]
Ramat Gan and just to the north Ramata
[24:08]
Shaon and Shaon okay that whole area is
[24:12]
called Gush Dan it's named after Chevet
[24:15]
Dan the tribe of Dan which traditionally
[24:18]
had settled in this area right that is
[24:20]
also why the bus system in this area in
[24:23]
addition to Eg and the other ones is
[24:24]
called Dan that is traditionally this
[24:27]
area okay and you See,
[24:31]
by the way, on the right hand side in
[24:32]
this map, that whole blue area, right,
[24:35]
Milaza, that's the area you're probably
[24:38]
most familiar with and the area if you
[24:40]
are even living here, but especially if
[24:42]
you're just visiting Tel Aviv, that's
[24:44]
the area you're mostly going to be in.
[24:46]
That and what we call Yafo, right? The
[24:48]
pink part here. And even in Yafo, you're
[24:51]
probably only going to be along the
[24:52]
coast and maybe inwards, right?
[24:55]
Everything else is preon
[25:00]
the big yellow part in the north right
[25:03]
is beyond hayon is the river the yaon
[25:07]
river that you can see is the border
[25:09]
between the blue and yellow areas
[25:12]
right and this whole area is a more
[25:15]
recent part of Tel Aviv the original
[25:18]
part of Tel Aviv is here Yafo and then
[25:22]
just north of it in the center here this
[25:25]
whole yellow area is primarily
[25:26]
residential mostly upper um middle class
[25:29]
and upper class. You see at the bottom D
[25:34]
right the south of the city and Mizra
[25:37]
the the east of the city. Okay that is
[25:41]
the entirety of just Tel Aviv Yafo 496
[25:45]
uh 520 inhabitants. The metropolitan
[25:48]
area is the largest in Israel. Tel Aviv
[25:51]
itself Tel Aviv Yafo is the second
[25:53]
largest city after Jerusalem in terms of
[25:55]
inhabitants. But in the metropolitan
[25:57]
area, the Gushan area is overwhelmingly
[26:00]
the largest, depending on how you count
[26:01]
it. One and a half to almost 4 million
[26:04]
people live in this area. That is a big
[26:06]
chunk of the country. Most important,
[26:10]
and this is another place to push back
[26:12]
on the haters of this city, even the
[26:14]
people who live here. You cannot escape
[26:17]
the fact that the GDP of Tel Avivfo
[26:21]
alone constitutes roughly 50% of the
[26:24]
entire country's GDP.
[26:26]
High-tech, commercial, banking,
[26:30]
um, entrepreneurship. You cannot escape
[26:33]
that. You cannot divorce this city from
[26:35]
the rest of the country purely on
[26:37]
economic terms. It is by and far
[26:40]
Israel's commercial and cultural center.
[26:43]
Right? Our stock exchanges here. All our
[26:45]
all the major banks are here, right?
[26:48]
This is the epicenter outside of
[26:51]
politics to the country. So much so that
[26:53]
a lot of our national institutions are
[26:55]
also here, right? The main defense
[26:58]
compound, the Kirya,
[27:00]
part of what I just showed you, that
[27:02]
Serona compound, right, is literally
[27:04]
across the street from here in central
[27:05]
Tel Aviv, not in Jerusalem, right? So,
[27:10]
let's put that antagonism you may have
[27:12]
for this city aside, if only on
[27:15]
financial reasons. But let's unpack a
[27:17]
little bit more.
[27:19]
As I mentioned before, of the four major
[27:22]
cities in Israel, only Tel Aviv was
[27:24]
built from scratch in the past century
[27:25]
and specifically as a major city
[27:27]
commercially and residentially. As a
[27:29]
result, it has become the city for many
[27:31]
Israelis. That is an important
[27:33]
understanding that we making aliyah to
[27:36]
this country or have made aliyah to this
[27:37]
country need to understand. Israel is
[27:40]
the city. It is the only the city in
[27:42]
Israel. Tel Aviv is the only the city in
[27:45]
Israel. Yes, there's Jerusalem. Yes,
[27:47]
there's Kifa. People do not escape their
[27:51]
small town lives to go to those cities.
[27:53]
Tel Aviv is the equivalent of New York,
[27:57]
Chicago, and Los Angeles put together as
[27:59]
the city. Okay, that's it. There is no
[28:03]
other city that compares in terms of
[28:05]
opportunity, financial, cultural,
[28:08]
escaping in general. That is Tel Aviv
[28:11]
Yafo.
[28:12]
So much so that we have names for each
[28:15]
other. Right? I told you that one of the
[28:18]
nicknames of Tel Aviv is um
[28:22]
the first Hebrew city. And we're going
[28:23]
to come back to that one because that
[28:25]
also talks about the antagonism and the
[28:28]
differences people have with this city
[28:29]
versus themselves. One of them is Habu.
[28:33]
There's actually a whole movie called
[28:34]
Habu A about the lives of people living
[28:36]
in Tel Avivo. Bua in Hebrew is a bubble.
[28:40]
Just like one of those cities I just
[28:43]
mentioned, New York City, right? Think
[28:44]
about people from New York City. Think
[28:46]
about people in Manhattan versus the
[28:48]
other buraus and what they think about
[28:50]
the other burrows, let alone anything
[28:51]
outside of Manhattan, right? That is
[28:53]
habou. People who believe that Tel Aviv
[28:56]
Yafo is the epicenter of everything.
[28:58]
Likewise, we call it either habita or
[29:02]
habit. In Hebrew, the two word the words
[29:05]
for egg and swamp are spelled exactly
[29:08]
alike. They're just pronounced
[29:09]
differently. We've talked about this
[29:10]
before actually. Beta is an egg. Why?
[29:15]
First off, the idea of a bubble, right?
[29:16]
It's self-encclosed. But also because
[29:18]
Israel, Tel Aviv, excuse me, Tel Avivfo,
[29:21]
you see how interchangeable it is even
[29:23]
with me talking. Tel Aviv Yafo has the
[29:26]
world's largest concentration of bow
[29:29]
house style architecture, the
[29:30]
international style architecture, which
[29:32]
is defined by white walls. Right? So, if
[29:36]
you have a whole bunch of buildings that
[29:37]
are white, as you saw, and we're going
[29:38]
to show going to show you another um old
[29:41]
reel um from Tel Aviv UFO, it all looks
[29:44]
white on the outside, right? So, a a
[29:47]
white enclosure of the city. And also,
[29:49]
pizza is appropriate, the swamp. Why? If
[29:53]
you've been here before in the summer,
[29:54]
you know this place gets very humid,
[29:57]
very damp very fast, just like a swamp
[29:59]
does. Likewise, nicknames that we have
[30:04]
here in Tel Aviv for non-Telvi. Think of
[30:07]
it again, let's um you saw that
[30:09]
comparison in the movie. It's not just
[30:11]
me saying it, between Tel Aviv and New
[30:13]
York, right? A very apt comparison.
[30:17]
How many of you have heard the term
[30:19]
bridge and tunnel crowd? Right? That is
[30:22]
a term used by Manhattanites, people who
[30:24]
live in Manhattan to disparrage people
[30:26]
who have to come in from outside of the
[30:29]
town, outside of New York City. And they
[30:32]
define New York City as only Manhattan
[30:33]
Island, right? Because in order to enter
[30:35]
the island, you have to either take a
[30:37]
bridge or a tunnel to enter. And so
[30:39]
anyone who has to take a bridge or
[30:40]
tunnel, a bridge and tunnel crowd, is
[30:42]
someone who isn't a part of the city.
[30:44]
They may come, they may even work there,
[30:46]
but they're not really part of the city.
[30:49]
and we disparage them as a result. Some
[30:52]
people do. Tel Aviv, we have two terms
[30:55]
for thatim and
[30:58]
they both come as abbreviations, right,
[31:01]
of the towns that are immediately
[31:03]
surround Tel Aviv.
[31:05]
Is the more common term you'll hear,
[31:07]
which is
[31:09]
right,
[31:13]
right? And so you will hear people
[31:16]
disparage when you see people who look
[31:18]
clearly out of um their their zone.
[31:22]
They're sort of stumbling around on the
[31:24]
street or think about city versus
[31:27]
suburban life. Someone who's walking
[31:29]
very slowly down a street as a native uh
[31:32]
as a someone who's always grown up in a
[31:34]
city. That is one of my pet peeves of
[31:36]
all time. And you will see people in Tel
[31:38]
Aviv walking like they're in the
[31:41]
countryside. I may even say something
[31:42]
under my breath to them like where do
[31:44]
you think you are in the countryside
[31:46]
right and that is typical of someone
[31:49]
who's not from here we say it jokingly
[31:52]
but there is that center versus
[31:54]
periphery city versus non city life
[31:56]
rivalry that is found throughout the
[31:59]
world here in Israel another term for
[32:02]
non-telvivim not as nice not that
[32:04]
kubatim is necessarily nice isimbarim
[32:08]
is a little bit more inclusive because
[32:10]
it stands for kulon
[32:14]
But aar in Hebrew is a nature reserve
[32:18]
for wild animals. So it's not the nicest
[32:21]
of terms to use. Neither of them are
[32:22]
particularly nice, but they illustrate
[32:25]
that again that um antagonism I
[32:29]
described beginning also goes both ways.
[32:31]
People who live in Tel Aviv, people who
[32:33]
don't live in Tel Aviv, people who come
[32:35]
to
[32:36]
uh be a tourist in their own country,
[32:39]
great. but also the people who live here
[32:41]
and what's the connection with them and
[32:44]
I want to illustrate that connection
[32:46]
between center and periphery through
[32:47]
something you may not be accustomed to
[32:50]
um if we have time both a statistic but
[32:53]
also um through some culture
[32:58]
this divide
[32:59]
explains a common cultural trope in
[33:02]
Israel trope leaving the north or the
[33:04]
south for the city right as I explained
[33:06]
Tel Aviv is New York Chicago and LA
[33:09]
wrapped up in one and is the city for
[33:12]
Israel.
[33:14]
Speaking of which, what do you see here
[33:16]
on this and I'll translate it for you
[33:19]
what you're looking at? It says at the
[33:20]
top in Hebrewdivo
[33:26]
which
[33:28]
of the four public health care funds in
[33:31]
Israel is the largest in Tel Avivfo
[33:34]
meaning Israel has universal free
[33:36]
healthcare. Well, it's not free in that
[33:38]
we pay for it through taxes, but it's
[33:39]
universal, right? Everyone is guaranteed
[33:41]
healthcare in Israel. You pay for it
[33:44]
partially through taxes and partially
[33:46]
through public funds. And there are four
[33:47]
of them, Makabi, Milit.
[33:51]
Okay. In Tel Aviv, Yafo, which is the
[33:54]
largest?
[33:56]
52.9% belong to Makabi.
[34:00]
Why do you think 52% of Tel Aviv
[34:02]
residents might use Makabi as their
[34:04]
katim when 52% of all Israelis, the same
[34:08]
percentage are on Klit? Kalit was the
[34:11]
original one. Its headquarters are
[34:13]
actually here in Israel in Tel Aviv to
[34:15]
this day. It was part of the Histad, the
[34:18]
labor trade federation and their
[34:20]
headquarters are here just as Clalit's
[34:22]
headquarters are here in Tel Aviv. But
[34:25]
more than half of Tel Aviv residents
[34:27]
belong to Makabi.
[34:29]
Why do you think that is? Think about
[34:31]
this for a minute. If Tel Aviv is the
[34:34]
only city in Israel, you're coming from
[34:38]
a kibbutz, a mushab, a small town north,
[34:41]
south, even in the center of the
[34:42]
country.
[34:44]
What do you think your small town
[34:45]
consists of? A few shops for sure. It
[34:49]
probably only has one or two doctors
[34:52]
living there. And your doctor in Hebrew,
[34:55]
your general practitioner is not called
[34:57]
a general practitioner. In Hebrew, it's
[34:59]
a mishbah. Literally, your family
[35:03]
doctor. So, think about it. You are
[35:05]
growing up in this town. You're becoming
[35:08]
of age. You may have some medical
[35:10]
questions and medical issues you don't
[35:12]
want your parents, let alone your nosy
[35:14]
neighbors, to know about. And yet,
[35:16]
everyone goes to the same.
[35:19]
So you're in the same waiting room as
[35:21]
people that you don't want to know why
[35:23]
you're there because this is Israel
[35:25]
after all and they are going to ask
[35:26]
what's wrong are you sick and start
[35:28]
asking you qu all sorts of questions so
[35:31]
what invariably happens and this is a
[35:33]
very common phenomenon you not only
[35:35]
leave your small town or your slightly
[35:38]
smaller town to come to Tel Aviv you
[35:40]
change your katulim you're allowed to do
[35:42]
that x amount of times in a year it used
[35:44]
to be a much bigger deal to do now it's
[35:46]
far easier but you change your kat pim
[35:49]
to say I am no longer part of that small
[35:53]
town life and I want to be sure I have
[35:55]
my own privacy. I have my own anonymity.
[35:57]
No one's necessarily going to find out
[35:59]
about things. It's not that I'm
[36:00]
disappearing, but part of that shift is
[36:04]
I am no longer part of that small town
[36:05]
mentality. I don't want everyone up in
[36:07]
my own business. I want to blend in with
[36:09]
the larger city. Think about that in any
[36:12]
other global city in the world. You
[36:13]
blend into a larger place. You are your
[36:16]
own person for sure, but you can blend
[36:18]
in a way that you can't in a small town.
[36:20]
And this is a great illustration of
[36:22]
that. If that isn't enough of an
[36:25]
illustration, I want to share with you
[36:28]
um a song, in fact, from about nearly 30
[36:32]
years old. Um, we talked last week about
[36:36]
October 7th and um, specifically
[36:40]
um, we've talked about in the past when
[36:42]
we've talked about October 7th, the town
[36:44]
of Stot, the only major city in the
[36:47]
south along the um, uh, Gaza Strip
[36:51]
border.
[36:53]
And from Stot, there's a lot of
[36:56]
important music that came out. And we're
[36:57]
actually going to talk about that in a
[36:58]
few weeks from now when we talk about
[36:59]
Misahi music. Um, and one of those bands
[37:02]
is called Tpex. Tpex is the Hebrew word
[37:04]
for white out, right? Um, and they have
[37:08]
a song called Lama Menu, Why Did You
[37:12]
Leave Us? And the song is a duet between
[37:14]
at the time two really big artists in
[37:18]
the Mizrai music world and also
[37:20]
straddling pop music.
[37:23]
Apex from Ster in the south and Sit Kad
[37:26]
a relatively new um female singer from
[37:30]
the north from um or from the northern
[37:33]
border of the center of the country and
[37:35]
it's a duet between them right if we
[37:37]
have time I'll even play it at the end
[37:39]
of class but I want you to look at these
[37:41]
words
[37:48]
Mama,
[37:54]
why did you leave us? How could you
[37:55]
abandon us? We ask each time a new what
[37:58]
what we didn't do. We nurtured and we
[38:00]
hoped and suddenly you just left. This
[38:02]
is Kobio the male singer of Tpek
[38:05]
singing. And then replies,
[38:11]
"I was weak. I was sad.
[38:16]
I was alone. I couldn't develop.
[38:24]
I was weepy. I was pathetic. I had
[38:26]
potential. And I had enough of this
[38:27]
place. Right? And then later on she
[38:31]
sings,
[38:34]
I wanted freedom. I wanted progress.
[38:41]
I want to succeed to work and also to
[38:43]
profit.
[38:48]
I wanted Tel Aviv and to adopt a hobby.
[38:53]
I wanted a goal and I had had enough.
[38:56]
Right? So that conflict between center
[39:00]
and periphery also takes place in music.
[39:03]
I also share with you guys a list of
[39:06]
songs about Tel Aviv, right? There are
[39:08]
few places in this country that have
[39:10]
hundreds and dozens if not hundreds of
[39:12]
songs written about them because it is
[39:14]
the city. And in this song, it perfectly
[39:17]
illustrates the conflict between growing
[39:19]
up in a small town, whether it's Stot in
[39:21]
the south or in the north, and saying,
[39:24]
"I want to leave. I don't feel like I
[39:26]
can be who I want to be, and I want to
[39:27]
try new things.
[39:29]
Tel Aviv. I wanted Tel Aviv, and that's
[39:32]
why I left." What does that mean for the
[39:34]
small town? You'll hear about it in the
[39:36]
song. You'll read the lyrics, we'll of
[39:38]
course share them with you, right? But
[39:39]
it's emblematic of what we're talking
[39:41]
about here. You leave, you want a fresh
[39:43]
start. You don't want anyone following
[39:45]
you. You don't want your family
[39:48]
underpinnings holding you back. You want
[39:51]
to try something new. That also includes
[39:53]
your health. You don't want people know
[39:56]
maybe I want to try something new. Maybe
[39:59]
I'm a different person. Maybe I just
[40:01]
don't want uh maybe I want a level of
[40:03]
privacy I was never afforded. and living
[40:05]
in a city can do that.
[40:08]
Right? So, we talked about
[40:12]
center versus periphery. We talked about
[40:14]
some other clashes that people often
[40:17]
have with this city. Let's look at other
[40:25]
probably one of the biggest ones that
[40:26]
people have about this city. Secular
[40:29]
versus religious. A common myth about
[40:31]
Tel Avivo is that its residents are
[40:33]
quote unquote secular or antagonistic
[40:36]
towards Jewish tradition as it's by the
[40:38]
number of places open on Shabbat and
[40:40]
non-coosher establishments. Maybe you've
[40:42]
read some hand um headlines in the past
[40:44]
where there have indeed been flicks
[40:47]
between groups of people, not the whole
[40:50]
city, groups of people. Not to mention,
[40:53]
we're on a beach, right? a beach means
[40:56]
you're going to probably be dressed a
[40:57]
lot more skimpily than you are in other
[40:59]
places.
[41:01]
And there's a lot to unpack here. We
[41:02]
don't have a lot of time. What I want to
[41:04]
share with you are three things. One,
[41:07]
the problem with that myth is that Tel
[41:09]
Aviv Yafo is home to at present 538
[41:12]
registered synagogues, the vast majority
[41:15]
of whom are Orthodox. And that happens
[41:17]
to be one of the highest per capita
[41:19]
ratios in the country. Okay, that is
[41:22]
according to the local RA 138 registered
[41:25]
synagogues. Not to mention the picture
[41:28]
that you see at the top right. Almost
[41:31]
since the establishment of Tel Aviv
[41:33]
Yafo, there has been populations of
[41:36]
Orthodox and Jews living in Tel Aviv.
[41:40]
The mo one of the most famous ones is
[41:42]
right up the street from me, the bells
[41:45]
kasidic uh community that lives at the
[41:48]
corner of Akadada A and Shaken streets
[41:50]
here in the center of Tel Aviv. So much
[41:53]
so have they lived here for so long and
[41:54]
this is a picture of the school that's
[41:56]
right on the street and they live around
[41:58]
it that for decades the commerce
[42:03]
immediately at the next intersection at
[42:06]
Shanken Aadam the closest to their
[42:09]
neighborhood. All of those stores were
[42:11]
shut on Shabbat. The whole rest of the
[42:14]
street to this day is still very busy
[42:16]
but that specific corner out of respect
[42:19]
to both communities is closed on
[42:21]
Shabbat.
[42:22]
Okay. So, we need to read behind the
[42:25]
salacious headlines. They are based in
[42:28]
reality. Unfortunately, there are
[42:30]
conflicts between religious and secular
[42:32]
and secular religious. But there's also
[42:34]
a level of coexistence. And what I want
[42:38]
to show you is another reel. This one
[42:39]
from 1939 that's been colorized at the
[42:41]
bottom left. Hopefully, you can see it.
[42:43]
I'll share with you this link. and it is
[42:45]
a reel of life in Tel Aviv, but
[42:48]
specifically getting ready for Shabbat
[42:50]
1939. So again, the city does not live
[42:54]
up to its um uh myths about its relation
[42:59]
with uh religion.
[43:04]
[music]
[43:14]
>> [music]
[43:28]
>> Heat. Heat.
[43:32]
[music]
[43:35]
Heat. Heat.
[43:38]
[music]
[43:45]
[music]
[43:53]
>> [music]
[43:57]
>> Heat. Heat.
[44:00]
[music]
[44:06]
Heat. Heat. [music]
[44:13]
[music]
[44:16]
Heat.
[44:18]
[music]
[44:26]
Heat.
[44:30]
[music]
[44:41]
>> [music]
[44:47]
>> Right.
[44:49]
There are many many reels like this on
[44:51]
YouTube and of course we'll share the
[44:53]
full uh reel with you. It's you can see
[44:55]
it's 16 minutes long colorized from
[44:57]
1939. There's even older ones. There's
[44:59]
newer ones. The point though is this is
[45:01]
a city and it has lots of layers and a
[45:03]
lot of diversity, including when it
[45:04]
comes to secular versus religious. But
[45:07]
the difference I want to focus on the
[45:09]
most, especially because this is a
[45:10]
Hebrew class, but I think this is the
[45:13]
most important difference in why many of
[45:16]
us don't know how to quote unquote do
[45:19]
Tel Aviv
[45:21]
is Hebrew versus non-Hebrew. And I'm
[45:23]
going to go back to that nickname,
[45:28]
right? the first Hebrew city. That is
[45:32]
one of Tel Aviv Yafo's most enduring
[45:35]
names and enduring um uh titles.
[45:41]
Residents and visitors almost since its
[45:43]
inception were required to communicate
[45:45]
only in Hebrew. What you see on the
[45:47]
right hand side is from 1938 and it is a
[45:51]
ordinance from the Tel Aviv municipality
[45:55]
to only speak in Hebrew. That everything
[45:57]
has to be conducted in Hebrew. No
[46:00]
Yiddish, no Latino, no Arabic, no
[46:02]
German, no French, no English, no
[46:04]
nothing else. Only Hebrew. And for
[46:07]
decades decades, you could not navigate
[46:12]
Tel Avivo without Hebrew. you the whole
[46:15]
phenomenon you know now you might know
[46:17]
now not only of olim moving on mass to
[46:21]
Tel Aviv but that everything is
[46:23]
accessible in English is only about 10
[46:25]
years old case in point as someone who's
[46:28]
lived here for a while only when the
[46:30]
city last hosted the Eurovvision Song
[46:32]
Contest in 2019 2019
[46:36]
7 years ago folks did all the street and
[46:39]
public transportation signage get
[46:40]
translated into English until 2019 19, 7
[46:44]
years ago, signage in Tel Aviv was
[46:47]
lopsided. Some places were in English,
[46:49]
some places weren't. Definitely the bus
[46:52]
system was not in English. You had to
[46:55]
know where you were going. And even
[46:56]
then, maybe it had Arabic as opposed to
[46:59]
Jerusalem, as opposed to other places in
[47:00]
this country. Did not find English in
[47:03]
this city. Now, of course, it's
[47:05]
everywhere, right? But that is one of
[47:09]
the most enduring parts of why people I
[47:12]
think have such a disconnect with this
[47:14]
city. Because if you don't speak modern
[47:16]
Hebrew, if you're only learning biblical
[47:19]
Hebrew or you're relying on liturggical
[47:22]
Hebrew, you're not going to get it
[47:24]
right. This is the first modern Hebrew
[47:26]
city and you're seeing the language come
[47:28]
alive in an urban setting that is brand
[47:31]
new for people. That's what makes it
[47:32]
exciting and I think that's also why it
[47:34]
makes it a little difficult for a lot of
[47:36]
people.
[47:38]
how to get here,
[47:40]
right? Tel Avivo sits in the center of
[47:43]
the country. Everything comes in,
[47:45]
everything comes out. Local and express
[47:47]
bus lanes. We have four train stations
[47:50]
um that go through the entire country.
[47:52]
Anything that comes through the center
[47:53]
of the country stops in Tel Avivo. The
[47:56]
light rail and the proposed metro lines
[47:58]
will all run through Tel Avivo. We
[47:59]
already have one line already running.
[48:01]
We're about to have another one about
[48:03]
come up. There's a third one on the way,
[48:05]
not to mention all the metro lines that
[48:07]
will reach even higher. Israel's main
[48:09]
international airport, even though it
[48:11]
sits 20 minutes outside of the city,
[48:13]
technically in another city called Lud,
[48:15]
it's TLV as the airport code, right? It
[48:19]
has nothing to do with TLV, but this is
[48:21]
the center of the country. It is the
[48:23]
largest metropolitan area. It only makes
[48:25]
sense. The city is also home to two
[48:28]
ports um which were very instrumental in
[48:30]
its thousands of his years of history.
[48:32]
Certainly in Yafo in the south, Tel Aviv
[48:35]
had also built a rival port in the north
[48:38]
of the city to this day at where the
[48:40]
Yalon drops off right here in the center
[48:42]
of this map. Um, you can visit today.
[48:44]
It's a whole entertainment complex with
[48:47]
restaurants and cafes and stores and
[48:49]
concert venues and farmers markets and
[48:51]
food and things in the north as well as
[48:53]
a marina or boats. What you see here on
[48:57]
the right hand side is also a relatively
[48:59]
new phenomenon. These are the lines of
[49:03]
public transportation on Shabbat as
[49:06]
opposed to the regular buses Dan Eged
[49:08]
and so forth and met and all the other
[49:10]
ones. These lines are run by the local
[49:13]
municipalities. There's actually two
[49:15]
rival companies because two Jews, three
[49:18]
opinions, we couldn't ever work
[49:19]
together, right? The first line called
[49:22]
Sabus, right? taking Sababa meaning
[49:26]
great in Hebrew slang in from Arabic and
[49:28]
Busous that was created by the Ramadan
[49:32]
municipality the next um over
[49:34]
municipality and naim sufas which means
[49:38]
both it's pleasant on the weekend but
[49:40]
also moving traveling on the weekend
[49:43]
created by Tel Aviv VFO these are the
[49:46]
all the different lines that um serve
[49:49]
populations in and around the center of
[49:50]
the country actually going all the way
[49:52]
to the outskirts of Jerusalem
[49:54]
on Friday nights, Saturday days, and on
[49:57]
holidays, right? So, even more way means
[50:01]
of connecting. And finally, um before I
[50:04]
play that song for you, because it's um
[50:07]
we need to always expand your cultural
[50:09]
uh uh knowledge and share with you
[50:11]
another link of all these Tel Aviv
[50:13]
songs. Um as a Tel Aviv resident, I want
[50:16]
to give you some choice tips for the
[50:19]
next time you come to visit our city. So
[50:22]
you don't act like a hubati and you
[50:24]
don't uh incur our wrath, but rather fit
[50:27]
in like you should because this is part
[50:29]
of Israel after all. Don't do that. Do
[50:32]
this instead.
[50:34]
Don't go to Shuka Carmel. The Carmel
[50:37]
Market, I'm sure all of you have been
[50:39]
there before. Um it's a mess. It's been
[50:42]
here for a long time. It's got its vibe
[50:44]
for sure. But I'm going to point you to
[50:46]
a better and cheaper shook outdoor
[50:49]
market. Shukatikva. Shukatikva is on the
[50:52]
other side of the highway in south and
[50:55]
east Tel Aviv. Again, that part that
[50:57]
wasn't mentioned in the English language
[50:58]
map. It is a much better shook. It is
[51:01]
cheaper. It is far more affordable, has
[51:03]
much more um varying things going on and
[51:07]
it's a much more authentic Middle
[51:09]
Eastern Mediterranean outdoor market. Go
[51:11]
to Shukatikva.
[51:13]
Skip Hakar as much as you can. AtikVa is
[51:16]
your friend. Don't go to the central
[51:18]
beaches.
[51:20]
Golden.
[51:23]
They're packed, especially on the
[51:25]
weekend, but they're packed. Um,
[51:27]
unfortunately, there is some petty crime
[51:28]
that takes place, but you're really
[51:30]
sitting on top of each other. Go to the
[51:32]
north and south beaches instead. Alma in
[51:35]
the south, Mitsim in the in the north.
[51:38]
They're cleaner, they're bigger, they're
[51:40]
quieter, they're much nicer beach
[51:42]
experiences.
[51:44]
Do not take the train into Tel Aviv to
[51:46]
or from Hashalom. Hashalom sits right
[51:49]
next to um the Azraeli center and the
[51:51]
Israeli mall. Serona, all the big
[51:54]
places. It is packed. It is also one of
[51:57]
the most um polluted airwise train
[52:01]
stations. It is packed. It is very hard
[52:03]
to sit stand on the platform. Go to
[52:05]
Savvi Milkaz. It's only 2 minutes away
[52:09]
by the same train and it sits also right
[52:12]
on the light rail. And all the major
[52:14]
buses go up there as well. take it to
[52:17]
Savvido Milkaz. You'll be able to
[52:18]
breathe literally and figuratively a lot
[52:21]
better. I have lots of other tips, but
[52:24]
especially this is a big one. Don't come
[52:27]
to Tel Aviv on a Friday. All those
[52:30]
people I were telling you about, those
[52:31]
who are walking around at a snail's pace
[52:34]
on very narrow streets competing with
[52:36]
all the existing um uh busyiness,
[52:39]
especially as the days get shorter ahead
[52:41]
of Shabbat and winter. Don't come on a
[52:43]
Friday. come any other time. We want to
[52:46]
have you here all the time here in Tel
[52:48]
Avivfo. Trust me, you'll have a better
[52:51]
experience. We'll have a better
[52:52]
experience, just not on a Friday. Okay,
[52:56]
with that, we have a few more minutes.
[52:58]
So, before I take your questions, I want
[52:59]
to share with you a few more things.
[53:03]
one is
[53:07]
um
[53:09]
another resource I'm going to share with
[53:10]
you um a resource that I've shared with
[53:13]
you in the past called Chilonet which
[53:16]
has the lyrics of almost every Hebrew
[53:18]
song ever um written um has a whole
[53:22]
section by category including songs
[53:24]
about Tel Aviv. You'll see there are
[53:27]
this is just the second of two pages,
[53:31]
right? These are all songs about Tel
[53:33]
Aviv. Some of them you may have heard
[53:35]
before. Some of them are very esoteric.
[53:38]
Ironically, our song about leaving the
[53:40]
countryside or leaving the small town
[53:42]
for the big city isn't included.
[53:45]
But there are lots old classic songs
[53:48]
from the 20s and 30s like we saw in
[53:50]
those reels to very contemporary socks.
[53:52]
So, I'll send you this link as well,
[53:54]
especially those of you who like music.
[53:56]
Um, and I want to play the song that I
[54:00]
shared with you a little bit of the um
[54:03]
uh lyrics from. The music video isn't
[54:05]
very emblematic of what the lyrics are,
[54:08]
but it's a great song. I think also just
[54:10]
to round out things. So, this is from
[54:12]
1997. Like I said, Tpek um
[54:17]
Why did you leave us meaning the town?
[54:20]
Let me actually play if I have
[54:23]
the music video. Yes.
[54:35]
[music]
[54:41]
[music]
[54:51]
>> [music]
[54:59]
[music]
[55:07]
[music]
[55:11]
>> Mama Lord.
[55:13]
>> [music]
[55:18]
[music]
[55:19]
>> I
[55:24]
think [music]
[55:28]
I
[55:30]
[music]
[55:35]
die.
[55:38]
[music]
[55:45]
>> [music]
[55:49]
>> Babychech.
[55:51]
[music]
[55:56]
[music]
[56:03]
[music]
[56:09]
Love [music]
[56:16]
[music]
[56:19]
me.
[56:22]
[music]
[56:28]
[music]
[56:34]
>> [music]
[56:45]
[music]
[56:53]
[music]
[57:02]
[music]
[57:03]
>> Time's
[57:08]
>> [music]
[57:12]
>> That's me.
[57:16]
[music]
[57:22]
[music]
[57:27]
[music]
[57:33]
>> [music]
[57:39]
[music]
[57:45]
>> Right. What's the end of the the last
[57:47]
verse there?
[57:51]
The small town cries. It only longs for
[57:55]
you. It misses you. Um
[58:01]
All the kids are leaving or abandoning
[58:03]
us and are not coming back. Right? It's
[58:06]
very much that pull and tug towards the
[58:09]
m the big city, the only city, the place
[58:11]
that they can find themselves. As she's
[58:13]
singing, I want to find myself. I wanted
[58:16]
um adventure. I wanted I looked in the
[58:19]
mirror and I didn't find myself or I
[58:20]
didn't see anything. Right? So the
[58:23]
tension that some of us on this call may
[58:25]
have with Tel Aviv is not anything new.
[58:29]
Israelis have this tension with this
[58:30]
city, the second largest city, the
[58:33]
richest city, the most important city
[58:36]
culturally and commercially to this
[58:38]
country um as well. And so we are a part
[58:42]
of it by pushing back at the city, but
[58:44]
we need to also make a connection to the
[58:47]
city and not say it's not part of
[58:48]
Israel. Okay, with that Wednesday we are
[58:52]
going to continue talking about Tel
[58:54]
Aviv, our likes, our dislikes, do we see
[58:57]
ourselves living there, do we why don't
[58:58]
we live there, what do we like and not
[59:00]
like and so forth. So finding those
[59:02]
expressions is going to be in
[59:04]
Wednesday's class. If you sign up ahead
[59:06]
of tomorrow because we send out the
[59:08]
conversation prompts 24 hours in
[59:10]
advance, you'll get the prompts which
[59:12]
will give you some more vocabulary to
[59:14]
describe a little bit of this so you can
[59:16]
practice at any proficiency level. We
[59:18]
have people who are absolute beginners
[59:20]
to advance who join us. All are welcome.
[59:23]
Next week our classes are going to
[59:25]
continue on what I would call
[59:27]
contentious topics. Um because in two
[59:30]
weeks we have national elections and of
[59:32]
course we'll have a lastm minute class
[59:34]
getting you ready for that. But next
[59:35]
week we are going to relearn how to say
[59:38]
no in Hebrew. And it's not as simple as
[59:41]
the word low because there are
[59:43]
derivations of low. There's also we use
[59:47]
negation in very specific ways
[59:49]
grammatically in Hebrew beyond the word
[59:52]
low. So the class will be don't just say
[59:54]
uh don't just say no. Um going as a
[59:57]
important grammatical review in next
[60:00]
week's class. But in the meantime, Tel
[60:01]
Aviv will be the topic uh for this
[60:03]
week's conversation. Um we're at the top
[60:06]
of the hour. So, first off, toaba for
[60:07]
all of you joining. This class will be
[60:10]
um up on YouTube in the next day or two
[60:12]
along with all the resources I shared.
[60:14]
With a little bit of time that I have,
[60:15]
I'll happily answer any questions in the
[60:17]
Q&A. Um
[60:20]
and go forth.
[60:24]
Um has Tel Aviv, like Boston, Houston,
[60:27]
annex suburbs to itself over the
[60:29]
decades? Does that have to do with why
[60:30]
the central rail station is right on the
[60:32]
border? That's a great question. As you
[60:35]
saw, the map of Tel Aviv goes far north
[60:38]
than where commercially people are.
[60:40]
Residentially, the north, right, the
[60:42]
other side of the Elkon is a more recent
[60:45]
introduction to Tel Aviv. So, you're
[60:47]
right. As the city expanded, what became
[60:50]
the center is a different place. For
[60:51]
example, where I live, we call Lev Hilo,
[60:54]
Lev heartil city, heart of the city. The
[60:58]
problem is everyone wants to be Lev
[61:00]
Hail. Everyone wants to be the heart of
[61:02]
the city, but not everyone can be. So,
[61:04]
there is also a, you know, there's a
[61:07]
toss and tug about that. Finally, one of
[61:11]
the train stations is called Milkai, the
[61:13]
center. It is by no means the center,
[61:15]
unless you take into account all those
[61:17]
residential neighborhoods at the far end
[61:19]
of the city that from the center of the
[61:21]
city, where the original part of the
[61:24]
city is, where I am, it takes almost an
[61:26]
hour on the bus to get there. So, it's a
[61:28]
much bigger city than it may seem.
[61:31]
Is Dayer the same as South Tel Aviv?
[61:33]
Yes. D means south. Der the south of the
[61:37]
city.
[61:40]
1.5 to 4 million is a big gap. Why is
[61:43]
such a big gap? It depends on what we
[61:44]
call the metropolitan area. Gushan,
[61:47]
right? Gushan includes
[61:50]
um um administratively as a metropolitan
[61:54]
area includes Batiaman Hulon to the
[61:56]
south Gatim Ramatan Benak to the east
[62:01]
and then there's a question do we
[62:02]
include Petikva the next town over which
[62:05]
is a large city as you know we've done
[62:07]
that um that was our first stop on this
[62:09]
trip and to the north Raata Shaon and
[62:12]
Hod Shaon which is technically part of
[62:13]
the Shaon area but we include it because
[62:16]
it's right on Tel Aviv's border The
[62:18]
moment we start expanding it, we could
[62:20]
even then say does Hilty be included
[62:22]
because it's the next major city to the
[62:24]
north. That number gets much bigger.
[62:30]
Is the White City the same area that the
[62:32]
Bow House architecture is? Yes. Let me
[62:34]
um reshare
[62:36]
the um
[62:39]
presentation so you can see it on the
[62:41]
map where the there are tours of um the
[62:47]
uh major um epicenters of bow house
[62:50]
architecture in the city. But I'll show
[62:52]
you more or less where they all are.
[63:01]
Right. The major um bow house is in
[63:05]
Milkazel, right? The whole area. Um
[63:09]
basically if let me see if I can show it
[63:12]
to you here. Um
[63:15]
drop
[63:19]
this right here.
[63:22]
If I can see it
[63:25]
right here. Right. This is Rochield.
[63:30]
And this whole area is the original part
[63:32]
of Tel Aviv, right? Rochield going down
[63:35]
into the sea. So the major parts of Bow
[63:38]
House are going to be in this neck of
[63:40]
the woods, right? So if you go on one of
[63:42]
the White City tours, it's going to be
[63:44]
primarily in that area. You also have a
[63:46]
lot of um imitation
[63:49]
um uh bow house, meaning it's not the
[63:52]
authentic stuff, but it um replicates
[63:56]
the look and the feel of it, right?
[64:02]
more questions. I saw in the healthcare
[64:05]
center versus periphery, why is it
[64:07]
mihupa instead of aokupa? That's a great
[64:09]
question. Um, think of it in English,
[64:12]
right? Which is the largest katulim in
[64:15]
Tel Aviv versus who is the largest katim
[64:18]
or who has the largest kupatim in Tel
[64:20]
Aviv. In English, you can also get away
[64:22]
with that. same in Hebrew I think is
[64:24]
what they were trying to say of which
[64:25]
one is uh which but also saying who at
[64:28]
the same time. Great question.
[64:36]
Okay.
[64:38]
Uh will you do a class on election
[64:40]
terminology? We've in fact done two
[64:42]
classes already on it. YouTube.com is
[64:44]
your friend, folks. Please go to
[64:46]
youtube.com, type in Cafe Olay
[64:48]
elections. We've already done two
[64:50]
classes. We're going to do one more
[64:51]
class the day before election day,
[64:53]
literally hours before the polls open.
[64:55]
Um, it'll actually be 12 hours before
[64:57]
polls open, but that's going to be a
[64:59]
last minute refresher course and
[65:01]
answering any questions. Do the
[65:02]
homework. Watch our two previous
[65:04]
classes.
[65:10]
The 538 synagogues, does that include
[65:12]
Benblak? Folks, Benbach is a city. Tel
[65:16]
Aviv is a city. Two different cities.
[65:18]
538 synagogues just in Tel Aviv. Yafo
[65:23]
Benblock is not part of Tel Aviv. It is
[65:25]
part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.
[65:27]
It is a separate municipality. So no, it
[65:29]
does not include Bblock because Ben is
[65:32]
not part of Tel Aviv.
[65:44]
Um someone trying to push back on sex
[65:46]
segregated prayer services. That is
[65:48]
incorrect. That is absolutely incorrect.
[65:49]
That has to do with permits and there's
[65:51]
absolute freedom of expression and
[65:53]
religion in Tel Aviv. There actually is
[65:55]
a push back nationwide about people who
[65:57]
are not part of the rabinet endorsed
[66:00]
orthodoxy, but that is a class for
[66:01]
another time, but please don't come
[66:03]
after me after the comments. That is
[66:04]
factually incorrect. The municipality is
[66:06]
actually very much working with all
[66:08]
streams, but particularly the Orthodox.
[66:10]
So, that is factually incorrect.
[66:14]
Will you write out the name of the shook
[66:15]
you said to go to? You will get a a a
[66:17]
copy of that presentation. Shuk Hatikva
[66:20]
is the name of it.
[66:23]
You will all get a copy of the
[66:24]
presentation, folks. I see a lot of
[66:25]
people asking about it. You will get a
[66:27]
copy of it. Don't worry.
[66:34]
Okay, with that, um, a lot more
[66:37]
questions, but not enough time to answer
[66:39]
all of them. Please join us on Wednesday
[66:41]
for more talking about Tel Aviv. In the
[66:44]
meantime, this recording will be up on
[66:45]
YouTube in the next day or two. Thank
[66:47]
you all for joining. See you all very
[66:49]
soon.
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