Friday, May 21, 2010
2 Days
Israel's 2 largest cities are, in many ways, 2 microcosms of the country. On the one hand, you have largely secular, extremely modern, coastal Tel Aviv. The beaches, the business, the bursa (Israel's stock exchange), the hustle and bustle of a modern city. Clubs, partying, lots of fun to be had. There are a few great universities-- Tel Aviv University, Bar Ilan (a religious college, actually), and the nearby Interdisciplinary College in Herzliya.
In short, Tel Aviv is a lot of what Herzl envisioned it would be in his book Altneuland, which in fact is called "Tel Aviv" in its Hebrew translation from German by Nahum Sokolow. A modern city, the 17th most expensive in the world, an Israeli Paris on the Mediterranean, the most modern and luxurious city in the Middle East, a model of what the Jewish people can do in a couple of decades.
But there's another model of Jewish city. Jerusalem is in many ways Tel Aviv's equal opposite. It houses huge religious and secular communities, including the ultra-Orthodox, the modern Orthodox, Conservative (Masorti), some Reformed (including a seminary), many Christians, whether Armenian, Eastern Orthodox or Catholic, many Muslims, mainly Sunni, and the large numbers of secular Jews. The city is modern in one sense (and the new train being built through its center, and the fancy bridge built for it reinforce that impression), sure, but one feeling you can't shake no matter how high the buildings get in Jerusalem is that this place is old. I mean, really, really, ancient. Like when I used to jog to the gym, I sometimes realized that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob might very well have tread this path at one point, long before there was pavement on it. It's a jarring feeling. It doesn't hurt that everything's made out of Jerusalem Stone to make it look like it was built before red bricks were invented!
There's no beach, unless you want to drive west to the Mediterranean or east to the Dead Sea (which isn't something you go for a swim in, more like a float). The hustle and bustle sure exists, and in that it's no different than Tel Aviv. And the clubs, bars, partying do exist, if you look for it. But what's so strange about it is that the bars in the center of town are literally a ten minute walk from the Western Wall, from the Temple Mount, from the City of David... like I said, jarring. Israel's flagship university, the Hebrew University that predates the State and counted men like Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud among its first board of governors, is definitely in line with Herzl's vision-- but all in all, I'd say that Tel Aviv is Herzl's dream city, one that any nation would be proud of.
Jerusalem is something else, a fusion of old and new, traditional and progressive, holy and mundane, fun and sobering. I guess "Altneuland" (Old-New Land) might apply to it, after all.
I think each city has something of the two Israels in it, and I think Israel is a far richer country, materially, spiritually, and culturally, for having both in one, not even an hour apart.
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Earlier today, the Parade tried to set the Guinness World Record for the largest falafel ball in in the world. Were we successful? Follow us on our website and on FB and Twitter to find out.... and pictures will be on Flickr soon!
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