Tel Aviv – The City That Never Sleeps
Tel Aviv, Israel’s largest and most cosmopolitan city, was founded 100 years ago when a small group of Jewish settlers living in the coastal city of Jaffa decided to establish their own separate community “across the sand dunes” about two kilometers to the north of the mostly Arab city. Following this move, which established the first community of Jews outside of the ancient city of Jaffa, and near an already established cemetery, the new community was named Tel Aviv, meaning Hill of Spring.
By the mid 1920′s the new city had already established itself as a commercial and cultural center, and streets such as Yehuda Halevi, Herzl, and Rothschild boulevard became popular residential areas, with large mansions built to accommodate residents who had already made considerable sums of money in commercial and trading enterprises. New streets such as Allenby Road (named after British WWI General Edmund Allenby), Dizengoff, King George, and Ben Yehuda streets added to city’s growing commercial sector. The city became popular with British and other foreign residents during the period of the British Mandate, and became the center of the Mandatory government as well as the beginnings of the Jewish “Yeshuv” governing authority.
Following riots in Arab dominated Jaffa, the remains of that city’s Jewish community moved to Tel Aviv and the two cities became estranged from one another, especially during and following WWII. Meanwhile the city’s population had grown so much that new communities called Givatayaim (Two Hills) Ramat Gan, and Bnei Barak came into being in the north and east, and later, Holon and Bat Yam (Daughter of the Sea) came into being in the south.
Following Israeli Independence in May, 1948, Israel’s first government and parliament was established in Tel Aviv and remained there until 1951 when Jerusalem became the country’s capital. Foreign embassies continued to be situated in Tel Aviv, however, where most of them remain to this day.
The city’s first skyscraper, the Shalom Tower, was constructed in the late 1950s; and was followed by the building of the first building of the Diamond Exchange complex, the Shimshon building, on the border of Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan.
Following a dramatic increase in commercialism and with the advent of technology based industries, Tel Aviv’s growth literally took off in the mid 1990′s; and today, one sees modern skyscrapers in place all over the city, with the newly completed Azrieli 3 building complex being the tallest commercial buildings. Following the construction of the first modern shopping mall on the corner of Dizengoff and King George streets,
Malls or ‘Kanionim’ are now found scattered all over the city.
Tel Aviv has long established itself as the hub of the country’s fast paced night life, which has given it the title of “the city that never sleeps”. It remains a mecca for young Israelis to come and live in as well as enjoy the city’s hundreds of bars, pubs and discotheques, restaurants, and other forms of entertainment.
Being the country’s largest city, Tel Aviv has also experienced more than it’s share of terror attacks, with some of the worst ones occurring between the years 1994 and 2003 (following the advent of both the Oslo Accords and the Second Intifada of September, 2000).
The city’s present metro population exceeds 500,000, and plans are now in the offing to construct an inner city rail tram to help relieve the city’s excessive traffic congestion, as well as lessen air pollution.
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