A great musical moment in Tel Aviv: Some 30 singers from the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, mingling with the crowd in the Friday morning Food Market at Dizengoff Centre, all at once started singing The Anvil Chorus  from Verdi’s Il Travatore.

Revisit some highlights of the celebration of Tel Aviv’s 100th anniversary 1909-2009.  This video shows the many and varied images of the wonderful city of Tel Aviv.

The Namal - the old port of Tel Aviv - has undergone a makeover in the last years, which makes it a great place to be.  On the waters edge promenade, you can attend Ella Yoga with instructors of the high calibre of Orian Hillel,  who recently returned to Israel after several years teaching in Sydney. 

After yoga, choose from the variety of cafes, each with a great view of the Mediterranean.  Attracted by the association with the Nimrod Fortress in the Golan,  the Nimrod cafe beckoned to us.  The food was excellent as was the Limonana (lemon and mint drink). 

The poignancy of the restaurant’s name is illustrated in the menu booklet, which contains a dedication to Nimrod Segev who was killed in action on the Second Lebanon War.  In a letter written by the late Nimrod to his wife on the day that he was called to reserve duties, Nimrod tells her how strange he felt taking the kids to the kindergarten in the morning, and warring on the evening of the very same day…. Nimrod stated that “I am a high-tech engineer from Ramat Gan that took his children to the kindergarten in the morning and combats the enemy in the evening of the same day, but, nevertheless, I do it willingly in order to maintain my peace of mind”.

After Nimrod was tragically killed, his wife Iris and brother Ehud established the Cafe Nimrod named in his memory.  To illustrate the  extent of the loss of someone like Nimrod, his brother Ehud is a multitalented person with a strong link to his brother.   Ehud is both a singer and a mentalist with flair.

Achinoam Nini and Mira Awad were Israel’s representatives in Eurovision 2009. They achieved a respectable 16th position with their heartfelt song for peace, There must be another way sung in Hebrew, Arabic and English.

Nini, known professionally as Noa, is an Israeli who was raised in New York and has Yemenite roots. She has achieved international stardom. Awad, a Christian Arab, grew up in Galilee, and now lives in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. She is now a well-known actress and singer in the region, and after appearing “in the country’s first Arabic sitcom aimed at Jewish viewers, a breathless profile in a Hebrew paper crowned her ‘the new Arab woman,’” according to the Associated Press.

“Some people will see an Arab girl who looks Jewish and a Jewish girl who looks Arab, which is what we are,” Nini said. “Maybe it will open some people’s minds.”

In an interview, Awad said, “I’m for life. I want to live here and I want everyone to live here together. To live, not to die. I am sure there is a solution if everyone would just be honest,”

More info on the singers is contained here.

Below is a performance by Dana International, who won the Eurovision in 1998

Dana International appeared at a recent concert to celebrate Tel Aviv 100. Even if the sound quality is down a bit on the video below, the energy and excitement fits with “Tel Aviv never sleeps.”

Most of us who have collected stamps at one time or another have some treasured Israeli stamps. The publicity for Tel Aviv 100, with its serrated edge appearance of stamps, was a reminder of all the wonderful, evocative stamps of Israel over the last 61 years.

There is a colourful set of stamps produced by Israel for Tel Aviv 100 as shown in the catalogue from the Israel Philatelic Federation. The catalogue provides articles about the wide range of Israeli stamps and themes over the years.

In the section on new issues, it states that the year 2009 has been designated by the International Astronomical Union and UNESCO as the International Year of Astronomy, marking the 400th anniversary of the invention of the astronomical telescope by Galileo Galilei. Furthermore, there is a stamp entitled - Jacob’s Staff - Gersonides

The Philatelic Federation catalogue tells us that the study and mapping of the heavens began before Galileo, with the Jewish people making a unique contribution in the form of “Jacob’s Staff” – an ancient measurement tool for mapping stars, which was first described and in all likelihood invented by Gersonides (Rabbi Levi ben Gershon, France, 1288-1344). The staff was 1.4 meters long and notched with scale graduations along its length. Up to seven cross-pieces of varying lengths, called “transoms”, slid up and down along the main piece. By aiming one end of the transom toward a star and sliding the transom along the notched main staff until its other end lined up with another star, one could measure the angular distance between those two stars. Navigators also made use of Jacob’s Staff to measure the altitude of the North Star above the horizon in order to determine their latitude. See new issues

For more interesting information about Israeli stamps, you can look at a Slide presentation and here for some detailed discussion about Stamps from 1970. Another site for musings on Israeli stamps is a blog on Israeli stamps by Adam Caplan.

One fascinating site that is also the site of an Israeli dealer is called Historama: The site discusses early stamps including the fact that immediately after declaration of independence, JNF labels were used as stamps with an overstamping of “Doar”. BUt it also has an Israeli music jukebox and an eclectic range of articles, including a great one on the day of Declaration of Independence in 1948

As to where the Hebrew word for stamp - bul comes from, the Balashon site, which we link to, provides information on - bul The word originates from the Latin bulla, and is still used as the term for a papal edict - originally a “sealed document”. The word Bulletin has a similar origin.

To try your hand at recognising Israeli personalities, including early Zionist leaders, from their individual stamp, here is a fun stamp site.

.. time to pull out the old stamp albums!

Mazaltov to Aviva, her State Zionist Council team and the many others who helped put on a great celebration for Israel’s 61st anniversary at Randwick Racecourse.

The theme was Tel Aviv’s 100th year and the place was jumping. Although this year’s event was held on a weeknight compared to last years Sunday, it was still a bumper crowd in the thousands with plenty of Ruach.

Everything I saw was great, but here is a personal run through of a few favourites

Mama Mae’ah - by “Sons of Doctors” Bjorn and Benny were there in spirit to celebrate Mae-ah (100) years of Tel Aviv; Temple Emmanuel Senior Klezmer Band - great Klezmer riffs; Alevai - Moriah singers - top quality, professional; Erev Shel Shoshanim - the didgeridoo fitted in well - can’t remember which school - they were great; “Bo-Regas” - a combined Melbourne-Sydney allstar Habonim band - Yesh Li and YoYa are always crowd pleasers, plus a good medley of Israeli tunes; the Israeli dancers - did they take a break in 3 hours?; the photography exhibition - “playing chess in the Dead Sea”; all the community organisations and stands - the greeting cards from Zahal Disabled Veterans Organisation, included tragic and inspiring individual stories of the artists; the white fairy floss - some ended on Herzl’s beard; and the Chicken Burger from Passion8.

Please feel free to write in with any of your favourites or comments on the night!

Meanwhile, here is the 100th anniversary sign from Rabin Square from earlier this month …

and a dawn video recording at Massada from a while ago.. David Broza and friends (including Shawn Colvin and Jackson Browne) singing Yihyeh Tov - “It will be good” .

Israel sits at the crossroads of different cultures, and the variety of music reflects that, especially in Tel Aviv. One place that helps ensure a high quality of Israeli musicians is the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music.

Rimon is a top school with links to Berklee College in Boston.

The Rimon faculty includes talented musicians such as Yair Dalal on oud and Avi Adrian playing piano. Here in a light moment is Avi with his blues-singing bird

Liron Deutsch, from Sydney, is a 2nd year student at Rimon, who also performs with the singer Ido Lederman and the rest of his band.

Here is a clip of the band performing “Im Telchi” at the “Tmuna” music club, with Liron on acoustic guitar.

More of their songs can be heard at www.myspace.com/idolederman. The group is launching their first CD on May 3rd, at a big concert at the highly rated “Zapa” music hall in Tel Aviv.

See here for who else is playing at the Zapa as well as linking to the variety of musical happenings in Tel Aviv - especially with Yom Ha’atzmaut coming up.

Also see the SZC website as Sydney recreates Tel Aviv to celebrate the 100th anniversary.

One hundred years after Jewish families met to establish the new city of Tel Aviv, descendants of those 66 families paid homage to their forebears in a  ceremony honoring the centennial of the city’s birth.

As reported in Haaretz, the Tel Aviv municipality invited the 3,300 descendants and their loved ones to the old Jaffa train station to recreate the memorable photograph that has become part of Zionist lore.

The event featured a short play, a speech by Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, and a panoramic photograph taken by renowned photojournalist Ziv Koren intended to recreate the original portrait of a century ago. 

The complete Haaretz article is shown here.

The Tel Aviv centennial is the theme of this years Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations.

Tel Aviv, whose 100th anniversary serves as the principal theme for Israel’s 61st Independence Day celebrations, including in Sydney, is a unique, dynamic city. 

Eating out is one of the pleasures with a wide variety of restaurants.  Daniel Rogov takes us on a wide-ranging tour of food and wine in Israel, including choice recipes and anecdotes (e.g. Nebuchadnezzar, the vegetarian fan of berries; Mark Twain eating in the Holy Land).  He adds a possible recipe for Manna - timely although of uncertain historical accuracy, since the recipe on the  link uses Matza.  This website from Daniel Rogov, the renowned Israeli food and wine critic, is well worth a lookaround.

Pictured is Dr Shakshuka, located next to one of the Flea Market alleys. They mostly serve Shakshuka, which is a casserole of tomatoes, peppers and eggs, served with white bread.  The Tel Aviv food experience is included in this review by Michael Z. Wise.

As he notes“It’s in the back of your mind that you live in a war zone,” Uchovsky tells me as we settle in on the terrace of Cantina, an Italian restaurant on vibrant Rothschild Boulevard. “But look around. Many people want to live apolitically and have a modern, Western life, as if this is London or Paris”.

A popular restaurant next to the Tel Aviv beach is the Herbert Samuel, presumably not named because of its herbs, but its link to the first British High Commissioner of Palestine , whose appointment made him the first Jew to govern in the Land of Israel in 2,000 years.  The restaurant is headed by Yonatan Roshfeld “prince of the Israeli haute-cuisine”.

Children are also well catered for in Tel Aviv, which thrives on outdoor activities and parks.

There are said to be 2 origins for the word Tel Aviv - a city whose 100th anniversary is the theme for this years Yom Haatzmaut.

Firstly, in Ezekiel 3:15, it is said “Then I came to them of the captivity, at Tel Aviv, that dwelt by the river Chebar” as written here and in Hebrew.

Secondly, Nahum Sokolow, who translated Herzl’s “Altneuland” (Old new land) into Hebrew, made the title of the Hebrew translation of the book Tel Aviv - with the word “Tel” symbolising old and ancient; and “Aviv” the season of spring, symbolising newness. In Altneuland (1902), Herzl pictured the future Jewish state as a socialist utopia, envisaging a new society that in a cooperative manner utilized science and technology to develop the land. He included detailed ideas about how he saw the future state’s political structure, immigration, diplomatic relations, social laws and relations between religion and the state. In Altneuland, Herzl foresaw the Jewish state as a pluralist, advanced society, a “light unto the nations”. The book had a great impact on the Jews at the time and became a symbol of the Zionist vision in the Land of Israel. It concludes with the famous words “If you will it, it is no dream” (legend or fairytale).

“Altneuland” is included in a fascinating article on Hebrew science fiction and fantasy from the Bible to the 90s and a follow-up article of Hebrew science fiction for the 21st century. Not surprisingly, Israel has a resonance for futuristic books.

The architecture of Tel Aviv, the White City, is renowned with its own museum and discussed in this expansive site.

The White City refers to a collection of 4,000 Bauhaus style buildings built in Tel Aviv from the 1930s by German Jewish architects. Tel Aviv has the largest number of buildings in this style of any city in the world. UNESCO proclaimed Tel Aviv’s White City a World Cultural Heritage site, as “an outstanding example of new town planning and architecture in the early 20th century.” The citation recognized the unique adaptation of modern international architectural trends to the cultural, climatic, and local traditions of the city.

British urban planner Patrick Geddes, who had previously worked on town-planning in New Delhi, was commissioned by Tel Aviv’s first mayor, Meir Dizengoff, to draw up a master plan for the new city. Geddes worked from 1925 to 1927 on the plan, which was accepted in full by the council. Patrick Geddes laid out the streets and decided on block size and utilisation. But he did not prescribe an architectural style for the buildings in the new city. But by 1933, many Jewish architects of the Bauhaus school in Germany, like Arieh Sharon, which was closed down on the orders of the Nazis, fled to the British Mandate of Palestine. The residential and public buildings were designed by these Bauhaus-trained architects, who took advantage of the absence of established architectural conventions to put the Bauhaus principles into practice. The Bauhaus style, with its emphasis on functionality and inexpensive building materials, was perceived as ideal in Tel Aviv. (from Wickipedia)

There are so many fascinating places in Tel Aviv, and we each have our favourites, often from our most recent visit. Two that come to mind are Ben Gurion’s House, and the Hagana Museum on Sderot Rothschild. Here you can go on a Virtual tour of Tel Aviv, and link more specifically to some of the museums through here.