The actress Carolina Bang in the port of Jaffa, one of the oldest in the world
In this promised city there is free Wi-Fi in almost all streets and boulevards, even on the beach. Because the promised city, of course, has a beach and the sun almost always shines. Some complain that there are no shaded spaces, but in return it makes up for it with numerous terraces where to enjoy having brunch at any time . The promised city works 24 hours a day, it never closes, not even on Sabbath. Here any idea you have, no matter how crazy it may seem, can become a successful business l. In the promised city you can fall in love with whoever you want, regardless of gender, and be happy. In the promised city, it does not matter where you come from or how you are, it is only governed by a single commandment: you live your life, I live mine, and we all get along.
Friendly, tolerant, modern, epicurean, cosmopolitan, cultured, conceited... . To understand the promise that Tel Aviv represents, it is best to start by visiting Jerusalem. From the narrow streets of the Old City, feeling the historical and religious pressure concentrated in its stones helps to appreciate the dimension of what it really means Tel Aviv, so young and crazy , in this precise place in the world. There are barely 60 kilometers between one and the other, just over half an hour by car if there is not too much traffic, but in Tel Aviv one can afford to be oneself and have eggs benedict for breakfast at any time of the day or night. Something to be very thankful for a city that lives the night as if there were no tomorrow.
In Tel Aviv you live well, very well. The sun shines in a blue sky with no clouds in sight, the people, mostly beautiful, consume carefree. While in the rest of the country you hear bullets, in Tel Aviv you only hear the espresso machine. It was snowing in Jerusalem only a week ago, but in Tel Aviv smells like coconut suntan lotion . And, as if this were not enough, Tel Aviv has a beach. A beach that represents the essence of the Tel Aviv ideal: live in summer, with its ice cream parlors, its miniskirts and its eternal nights.
This breakwater, next to the beach of the Hilton hotel, very close to the marina, is a good place to sit down to fish or contemplate
And a placid, temperate sea, in which to go sailing or rowing , and where you can be optimistic and take a dip, even in winter, and even where you can go surfing even though there aren't really any waves. The breeze from the Mediterranean sneaks into Israel through Tel Aviv . It has always been the window through which the country has looked abroad, at the world, at the West, through which ideas, arts and customs have entered that have made it possible for Tel Aviv to be an island of well-being, progress and sanity in an ocean of irrationality.
They call it Ha-Buah, 'the bubble' : a semi-secular refuge of good life in which, if there was a religion, it would be hedonism. “All Jews ask God for two things: a place in paradise in the afterlife and a place on the beach in Tel Aviv in this world ”, said the writer Sholem Asch in 1937. Today he would be happy because, indeed, on the sand there is room for everyone , although on Sabbath you have to play Tetris to find a hole to put the towel. Early risers, night owls, athletes, drunks, children, the elderly, hippies, modern...
A wooden wall about three meters high separates the beach from the Orthodox – where men and women go on alternate days – of the gays. It is at the height of Hilton Hotel , very close to the new port of Namal, where the old hangars, which ten years ago were occupied by nightclubs, have been transformed into shops and restaurants and cafes with glass terraces. The new port has long ceased to function as such.
It seems that in Tel Aviv, where it is built on the ruins of the old, time runs at a different speed: the new is the past and the future is the present . Historical recycling is practiced so it is no wonder that the new attractions are, in fact, the oldest. The old railway station, Hatachana, where the first train from Jerusalem arrived at the end of the 19th century , is now a kind of open-air shopping center and, in the shadow of the three towers of Azrieli, in what was once the former colony of the Germans (the first to bring dairy cows to the country), has just opened the new 'neighborhood' of Sarona, dedicated to consumption and good eating.
But let's go back to the beach, to sink our feet in the sand and ride a bike along its famous promenade. It is the perfect way to start the day. Like this or doing a few laps in the famous Gordon Pool, considered almost a national monument, next to a marina full of yachts and beautiful people . A few steps further, under ** the Crowne Plaza tower ** is the 'court' where makta is played, a curious and ancient Jewish sport of shovels in which nobody wins or loses and, a few meters later, the improvised and fun dance floor where people of all ages, classes and conditions meets on Saturdays to dance, from polkas to the greatest hits of the Israeli Céline Dion, as you would at home while vacuuming, but in community.
Built in 1956, the Gordon pool is an emblem of the city
The Miami Beach of the Mediterranean, they call it , the San Francisco of the Middle East. To me, however, it is indisputably Levantine with a touch of oriental spices: a mix between Valencia, Brooklyn and Dubai . Hardly anyone was born here, but everyone feels part of the city . Tel Aviv never stops, it is in constant movement, 24 hours, seven days a week, including the holy Sabbath. How do you manage not to be stressful? It may be, again, by the sea.
Even in the middle of the avenue Rothschild , one of the main arteries of the city, at rush hour, it is evident that this is a beach city. It shows in the quality of the light, that is reflected in the white of the facades , and in the flattering tan of the passers-by who drink frappé in one of the numerous kiosks in the shade of the ficus trees on its boulevard. In Tel Aviv they pride themselves on preparing better coffee than in Rome.
Carolina Bang at the bar of the Herbert Samuel restaurant, one of the most exquisite addresses in Tel Aviv
The first kiosk that gave rise to all the others, the Espresso Bar Kiosk , is located on the corner of Rothschild and Herzl. Here I used to stop daily Chaim Nachman Bialik, the great national poet of modern Hebrew . A few meters further on, a flag marks the balcony from which the creation of the state of Israel was announced in 1948. The appearance of this historic place is as humble and austere as the spirit that drove the pioneer settlers.
At the end of the 19th century, the idea of building a city on the desert dunes seemed crazy. It was the first Hebrew city since the time of the Jewish flight from Egypt . Little more than a century later, Tel Aviv has grown from a suburb on the outskirts of the port of Jaffa to become a modern and prosperous city of 400,000 inhabitants -of which, about 30% are between 18 and 35 years old –, the most vital cultural and artistic center of the Eastern Mediterranean and the cradle of the new Hebrew cuisine.
Assortment of snacks from the popular Dr. Shakshuka, a famous Lebanese cuisine restaurant, in Jaffa
Skyscrapers rise to offer their privileged tenants views of the sea . The further north in the city, the higher the skyscrapers, and the higher, the more expensive. Land prices are through the roof: have risen 55% in the last five years and yet everyone from Madonna (who just bought a two-story, 360-degree penthouse in a Richard Meier-designed tower) even Google and Microsoft want to secure their space here, where the money moves.
just 30 years ago Israel based its economy mainly on the export of citrus . Now, not only do they continue to export patents for seeds that are not attacked by pests and new hydroponic farming techniques – did you know that the Israelis invented drip irrigation, cherry tomatoes and pipless watermelons? –, but also , are the world power in terms of big data management , technology applied to citizenship and high-tech enterprises. After USA, Israel is the country with the most companies listed on the NASDAQ technology index (more than in all of Europe together) .
Sarona's new shopping and entertainment center with the Azrieli skyscrapers in the background
Entrepreneurs, the 'startapistim', are the new idols to imitate in this city where more than fifty accelerators operate and the highest concentration of start-ups per capita in the world. Tel Aviv is the ' silicon wadi ' of the 'start up nation'. In the most technologically intelligent city in the world, as it was named in the last Smart City Expo World Congress held at the end of 2014, its inhabitants work with digital cards, guided maps, smartphone applications and sensors , both to reserve a table at the trendy restaurant and to make an appointment at the doctor. Enjoying free high-speed Wi-Fi is considered a necessity as basic as electricity and running water.
Actually, Tel Aviv was always an intelligently planned city. Its urban origins lie in the so-called White City, in the little streets around Rothschild and Allenby avenues , in which, in the 1930s, German Jewish architects emigrated to Israel after the Nazis came to power erected Bauhaus buildings thinking about socializing, sharing spaces and roofs and doing the laundry with the rest of the neighbors. There are more than 4,000 examples, and they are easily recognized by their off-white color, horizontal lines, and complete lack of ornamentation. In them, form follows function. . Although it is a matter of taste, the Bauhaus style, influenced by communism and its austerity, it's not pretty.
Carolina leaning against the rust-colored walls of the Holon Design Museum, by Ron Arad
In Tel Aviv, however, he mixed with Modernist and Mediterranean elements that give it an irresistible charm . Many of these houses are in a state of semi-abandonment, beautifully decrepit, but many others have been lovingly restored since, in 2003, UNESCO declared the city's extraordinary architectural legacy a World Heritage Site.
Carolina Bang at the door of the Épicerie Fine gastronomic delight shop in Neve Tzedek (Shabazi, 34)
One can easily imagine living in any of those houses , drinking homemade lemonade on their balconies, if not as a resident then at least as a guest for a few days. In a beautiful residential block from the 1920s, it opened a few months ago Norman , Tel Aviv's first super-luxury boutique hotel, designed a la carte for top Jewish executives in London and New York . Much of the furniture was designed for the hotel, as was the heady, garden-inspired scent. Nepalese rugs, 300 thread count Frette sheets, original tiles , an infinity pool from which to dive into the views of the rooftops of the White City and an art collection so extensive that they have a curator for guided tours. Like the city itself, The Norman looks old but is technologically advanced.
While the money moves uptown, artists and culture go in the opposite direction and took refuge in the south, in the historic neighborhoods of Jaffa Y neve tzedek , from where rising rents push them towards the Noga and Florentine neighbourhoods. And both in the north and in the south, throughout the city, new restaurants are turning Tel Aviv into a budding dining destination own right.
The artist Michal Gilboa-David in the atelier he has with his daughter, Michal & Hadass, in Neve Tzedek
And it is that beyond the traditional and omnipresent humus – the best is that of Ali Karavan, in Jaffa –, there is a new generation of daring chefs who create agnostic recipes in which Kosher regulations are not a restriction. A kaleidoscopic Mediterranean gastronomy influenced by the wealth of products from this Holy Land and by the personalized recipes throughout history by all the Jewish moms in the world . Lamb is now served with shellfish but, as they admit, the more modern they are, more return to the roots . Those of the city are rooted in neve tzedek , where it chic has managed to preserve the culture.
We people from Madrid compare it with Malasana , New Yorkers, with Williamsburg . With its two-story houses, its intellectual air and its rhythm and sounds of the people , Neve Tzedek is a very neighborhood neighborhood where lifelong neighbors live together with the new hipsters: hairstylists, filmmakers, writers, baristas and the occasional old spy from another era . The streets invite you to stroll, learning about its history, still visible, browsing in the small shops of local designers and entering the ateliers with respectful timidity. Surprises, and new friendships, are around every corner.
These three mosaics from the Neve Tzedek neighborhood explain the foundation of the state of Israel
Dusk falls and the muezzin's call to prayer resounds with a deep echo in the port of Jaffa, from which I watch the golden strip of the beach stretching north, with its row of hotel towers in the foreground. Since some years, Jaffa is no longer that dangerous area in which no one in their right mind would be seen after this hour. now it's in fashion . And it's expensive. Its narrow streets, both those in the historic center and those surrounding its popular market, are full of art galleries and signature shops that make the best of your peeling walls . Jaffa is today a changing neighborhood, but this place in the port where I am, already existed in the time of King Solomon.
According to the Bible, it was from Jaffa that Jonah went out to sea before the whale ate him . For those who do not know the story, Jonah had been sent by God with the mission of bringing the sinners of Nineveh, Iraq, to justice, but he, who did not see himself qualified for such a task, he decided to flee by sea , when, suddenly, a storm put the things, and Jonah, in his place. Aware of his guilt, Jonah asked to be thrown into the sea and a whale swallowed him up, so that later, spit on a beach , from which Jonah, with the lesson learned, went to fulfill his mission.
moral : you can't escape your fate . I wonder if Tel Aviv wants to escape its fate or if it simply knows that life is too fragile, too short-lived, to waste it worrying. In Tel Aviv everything is transitory, except the intensity with which you enjoy the day to day.
* This article is published in the June 85th issue of the Condé Nast Traveler magazine and is available in its digital version to enjoy on your preferred device.
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Ancient treasures in the Jaffa market in Tel Aviv