Tel Aviv-Jaffa

Stroll on a warm summer night along the Tel Aviv beach promenade. Watch the lights of overcrowded cafes, flickering in the thick, humid air. Mix in with the loud groups of bronzed youth enjoying the light sea breeze. Listen to the music coming from a distant beach party. If you have just arrived from Jerusalem, you may be experiencing a bit of a culture shock. Only 45 minutes away from the capital, the bustling metropolis of Tel Aviv stands as its antithesis: where Jerusalem feeds on the past, Tel Aviv lives the moment; Jerusalem is sacred, Tel Aviv has no god; Jerusalem is built of stone, Tel Aviv was founded on shifting sands. Indeed, if Tel Aviv did not exist it would have to be invented-and it actually was, in 1909. as “the first Hebrew town,” on the Mediterranean shore just north of Jaffa. Quickly it became what it still is today: the modern, secular, often hedonistic center of Israeli life, the hub of the country’s economic activity and cultural pulse.

Often despised and even feared by some religious Israelis, who tend to think of it as a modern Gomorrah, Tel Aviv has probably very little to offer to the tourist who came to Israel in search of the Holy Land. But for anyone interested in learning what modern Israel is really like, or just in having some fun, Tel Aviv is the place to go. Behind the crumbling facades of its Modernist buildings lies a liberal, vibrant, restless city, which boasts beautiful beaches and a nightlife scene that rivals that of much bigger cities around the world. Today an integral part of Tel Aviv, Jaffa (Yafo, or “beautiful", in Hebrew; Yafa in Arabic) has one of the oldest functioning harbors in the world.

The 20th century, however, witnessed the gradual decline of this port; it has been relegated by the modern port of Haifa, and then Ashdod, to harboring mainly small fishing boats. Starting in the 1960s, Israel undertook a massive renovation project, restoring and cleaning many of Jaffa’s convents, mosques, alleyways, and crusader walls. The result may be a little too sterile, with restaurants and galleries catering mostly to tourists and generally avoided by locals. Still, the winding alleys of Old Jaffa are beautiful, and many other parts of Jaffa retain the vernacular Middle Eastern quality that the Modernist city of Tel Aviv so lacks.