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Friday, March 6, 2009

... despite the image of indifference



The residents of Tel Aviv are often accused of being indifferent to the problems of the rest of Israeli citizens. A Hebrew slang expression calls the city "the State of Tel Aviv" - meaning to say that Tel Avivians have their own state withing the state of Israel, with its own norms, life style, and rules.

I pondered on this when I saw a book of Robert Capa photography. Robert Capa had been in Israel in 1948-9, portraying the Israeli War of Independence and the arrival of the new settlers from the post-WWII Europe. One page of this book has two pictures (links are to these pictures reproductions on the awesome site of Magnum photos agency):
  1. The Negba Kibbutz in Negev, south Israel. Tired people eat in the kibbutz dining room, under a wall damaged by shell fire holes from Egyptian artillery fire.
  2. Armon Café, on Hayarkan Street, Tel Aviv. May, 1949. Smartly dressed fancy ladies sit in a typical Tel Aviv café.
I guess it was true then and true now. One country, sometimes two worlds.

Map (Hebrew).

2 comments:

Dina said...

I felt that when I made a rare visit to Tel Aviv for a weekend recently.
Give me Jerusalem any day!
Thanks for the links to the great old photographs.
Shabbat shalom.

B SQUARED said...

We often refer to New Yorkers in the same way. One expression is, "There is life on the other side of the Hudson." There are many more, most are not family friendly.