Steimatzky ( Hebrew : סטימצקי ) is the oldest and largest bookstore chain in Israel .
92-664: The first store was opened by Tzvi Steimatzky in 1920 in Tel Aviv , 6 Herzl St. In 1925 Tzvi's half brother Yechezkel Steimatzky opened the second store on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem . Yechezkel Steimatzky was a Russian -born immigrant from Germany . He had originally come to the British Mandate of Palestine on a short visit for the opening of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and decided to stay after he saw
184-424: A Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification : Csa), and enjoys plenty of sunshine throughout the year. Most precipitation falls in the form of rain between the months of October and April, with intervening dry summers, and there is almost no rainfall from June to September. The average annual temperature is 20.9 °C (69.6 °F), and the average sea temperature is 18–20 °C (64–68 °F) during
276-661: A secular , liberal-minded center with a vibrant nightlife and café culture. Tel Aviv is located around 32°5′N 34°48′E / 32.083°N 34.800°E / 32.083; 34.800 on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline , in central Israel, the historic land bridge between Europe, Asia and Africa. Immediately north of the ancient port of Jaffa, Tel Aviv lies on land that used to be sand dunes and as such has relatively poor soil fertility . The land has been flattened and has no important gradients; its most notable geographical features are bluffs above
368-699: A Hamas terrorist in the Café Apropo bombing on 27 March 1997. One of the deadliest attacks occurred on 1 June 2001, during the Second Intifada , when a suicide bomber exploded at the entrance to the Dolphinarium discothèque , killing 21, mostly teenagers, and injuring 132. Another Hamas suicide bomber killed six civilians and injured 70 in the Allenby Street bus bombing . Twenty-three civilians were killed and over 100 injured in
460-703: A Steimatzky store opened in Baghdad next to the British Army base, and soon after in Cairo , Alexandria , and Damascus . The Middle Eastern expansion came to a halt with the outbreak of the 1948 Arab–Israeli war and the nationalization of all branches in Beirut, Baghdad, Cairo and Damascus. By 1948 another store opened on Allenby Street in Tel Aviv. In 1963 the son of founder Yechezkel, Eri Steimatzky, joined
552-495: A center of nightlife and discotheques for Israelis who lived in the suburbs and adjoining cities. By 1989, Tel Aviv had acquired the nickname "Nonstop City", as a reflection of the growing recognition of its nightlife and 24/7 culture, and "Nonstop City" had to some extent replaced the former moniker of "First Hebrew City". The largest project built in this era was the Dizengoff Center , Israel's first shopping mall, which
644-467: A credit rating of AAA+. In the 2000s and early 2010s, Tel Aviv received tens of thousands of illegal immigrants, primarily from Sudan and Eritrea , changing the demographic profile of areas of the city. In 2009, Tel Aviv celebrated its official centennial. In addition to city- and country-wide celebrations, digital collections of historical materials were assembled. These include the History section of
736-512: A day as British forces scoured the city for militants. In spite of this, Jewish guerrilla attacks continued in Tel Aviv and other areas under martial law in Palestine. According to the 1947 UN Partition Plan for dividing Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, Tel Aviv was to be included in the proposed Jewish state . Jaffa with, as of 1945, a population of 101,580 people—53,930 Muslims, 30,820 Jews and 16,800 Christians—was designated as part of
828-546: A larger number of Jews fleeing from postwar Europe and persecution in Arab countries . However, many new immigrants did not then come to Tel Aviv. In the 1950s, towns were built on the edges of the Gush Dan, including Ashdod , Rosh HaAyin and Yavne . The nation's sole port was then located in the northern city of Haifa and its evolving metropolitan area, making that city at least as important as Tel Aviv. The new government
920-597: A matter of contention between the Tel Aviv municipality and the Israeli government in 1948. The former wished to incorporate only the northern Jewish suburbs of Jaffa, while the latter wanted a more complete unification. The issue also had international sensitivity, since the main part of Jaffa was in the Arab portion of the United Nations Partition Plan , whereas Tel Aviv was not, and no armistice agreements had yet been signed. On 10 December 1948,
1012-569: A new building for the Herzliya Hebrew High School , founded in Jaffa in 1906. The cornerstone for the building was laid on 28 July 1909. The town was originally named Ahuzat Bayit. On 21 May 1910, the name Tel Aviv was adopted. The flag and city arms of Tel Aviv (see above) contain under the red Star of David 2 words from the biblical book of Jeremiah: "I (God) will build You up again and you will be rebuilt." (Jer 31:4) Tel Aviv
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#17328012060181104-608: A raid. The city was also the scene of fighting between the Israel Defense Forces and Irgun during the Altalena Affair , in which the IDF stopped an Irgun attempt to import arms for its own use. In December 1949, the Israeli government relocated to Jerusalem . Due to the international dispute over the status of Jerusalem , most embassies remained in or near Tel Aviv. The boundaries of Tel Aviv and Jaffa became
1196-415: A result, the Israeli government issued gas masks to its citizens. When the first Iraqi missiles hit Israel, some people injected themselves with an antidote for nerve gas. The inhabitants of the southeastern suburb of Hatikva erected an angel-monument as a sign of their gratitude that "it was through a great miracle, that many people were preserved from being killed by a direct hit of a Scud rocket." Since
1288-533: A wave of Palestinian suicide bombings in the city from the mid-1990s, to the end of the Second Intifada, as well as the dot-com bubble , which affected the city's rapidly growing hi-tech sector. On 4 November 1995, Israel's prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin , was assassinated at a rally in Tel Aviv in support of the Oslo peace accord. The outdoor plaza where this occurred, formerly known as Kikar Malchei Yisrael,
1380-528: Is found to have consumed the least water per person. In the early 21st century, Tel Aviv's municipality transformed a derelict power station into a public park, now named "Gan HaHashmal" ("Electricity Park"), paving the way for eco-friendly and environmentally conscious designs. In October 2008, Martin Weyl turned an old garbage dump near Ben Gurion International Airport , called Hiriya , into an attraction by building an arc of plastic bottles. The site, which
1472-561: Is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality , headed by Mayor Ron Huldai , and is home to most of Israel's foreign embassies . It is a beta+ world city and is ranked 57th in the 2022 Global Financial Centres Index . Tel Aviv has the third- or fourth-largest economy and the largest economy per capita in the Middle East . Tel Aviv is ranked the 4th top global startup ecosystem hub. The city currently has
1564-453: Is home to Tel Aviv University , Yarkon Park , and upscale residential neighborhoods such as Ramat Aviv and Afeka . Tel Aviv is ranked as the greenest city in Israel. Since 2008, city lights are turned off annually in support of Earth Hour . In February 2009, the municipality launched a water saving campaign, including competition granting free parking for a year to the household that
1656-487: Is modern-day Tel Aviv-Yafo's only urban centre that existed in early modern times. Jaffa was an important port city in the region for millennia. Archaeological evidence shows signs of human settlement there starting in roughly 7,500 BC. The city was established around 1,800 BC at the latest. Its natural harbour has been used since the Bronze Age . By the time Tel Aviv was founded as a separate city during Ottoman rule of
1748-475: Is primarily focused on serving the Gush Dan, although it is being replaced by the Kavim company in many of the Gush Dan's cities. Much of Israel's national highway network feeds into the area, such as Highway 1 , Highway 2 , Highway 4 , and Highway 5 . Gush Dan is also served by the local Ayalon Highway . Israel Railways , the state owned, national rail network provider, also feeds most traffic into or within
1840-510: Is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel . Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a population of 474,530, it is the economic and technological center of the country and a global high tech hub . If East Jerusalem is considered part of Israel, Tel Aviv is the country's second-most-populous city, after Jerusalem ; if not, Tel Aviv is the most populous city, ahead of West Jerusalem . Tel Aviv
1932-568: The Ahuzat Bayit (lit. "homestead") society. One of the society's goals was to form a "Hebrew urban centre in a healthy environment, planned according to the rules of aesthetics and modern hygiene". The urban planning for the new city was influenced by the garden city movement . The first 60 plots were purchased in Kerem Djebali (Karm al-Jabali) near Jaffa by Jacobus Kann , a Dutch citizen, who registered them in his name to circumvent
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#17328012060182024-534: The British administration , friction between Arabs and Jews in Palestine increased. On 1 May 1921, the Jaffa riots resulted in the deaths of 48 Arabs and 47 Jews and injuries to 146 Jews and 73 Arabs. In the wake of this violence, many Jews left Jaffa for Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv began to develop as a commercial center. In 1923, Tel Aviv was the first town to be wired to electricity in Palestine, followed by Jaffa later in
2116-655: The Eretz Israel Museum , the Museum of Art , Yarkon Park , and the city's promenade and beach . Tel Aviv is the Hebrew title of Theodor Herzl ’s 1902 novel Altneuland ("Old New Land"), as translated from German by Nahum Sokolow . Sokolow had adopted the name of a Mesopotamian site near the city of Babylon mentioned in Ezekiel : "Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Abib [Tel Aviv], that lived by
2208-561: The First Intifada , Tel Aviv has suffered from Palestinian political violence . The first suicide attack in Tel Aviv occurred on 19 October 1994, on the Line 5 bus , when a bomber killed 22 civilians and injured 50 as part of a Hamas suicide campaign. On 6 March 1996, another Hamas suicide bomber killed 13 people (12 civilians and 1 soldier), many of them children, in the Dizengoff Center suicide bombing . Three women were killed by
2300-791: The Hebrew Bible . Other ancient sites in Tel Aviv include: Tell Qasile , Tel Gerisa , Abattoir Hill , Tel Hashash , and Tell Qudadi . During the First Aliyah in the 1880s, when Jewish immigrants began arriving in the region in significant numbers, new Jewish neighborhoods were founded outside Jaffa on the current territory of Tel Aviv. The first was Neve Tzedek , founded in 1887 by Mizrahi Jews due to overcrowding in Jaffa and built on lands owned by Aharon Chelouche . Other neighborhoods were Neve Shalom (1890), Yafa Nof (1896), Achva (1899), Ohel Moshe (1904), Kerem HaTeimanim (1906), and others. Once Tel Aviv received city status in
2392-751: The Jewish Virtual Library , the Jewish population of Tel Aviv had risen to 150,000 by 1937, compared to Jaffa's mainly Arab 69,000 residents, and by 1939 rose to 160,000, which was over a third of Palestine's total Jewish population. The village statistics of 1938 listed Tel Aviv's population as 140,000, all Jews. Many German Jewish architects trained at the Bauhaus , the Modernist school of architecture in Germany, and left Germany during
2484-519: The Tel Aviv central bus station massacre . Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. In the Mike's Place suicide bombing , an attack on a bar by a British Muslim suicide bomber resulted in the deaths of three civilians and wounded over 50. Hamas and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed joint responsibility. An Islamic Jihad bomber killed five and wounded over 50 on 25 February 2005 Stage Club bombing . The most recent suicide attack in
2576-449: The river Chebar , and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days." The name was chosen in 1910 from several suggestions, including " Herzliya ". It was found fitting as it embraced the idea of a renaissance in the ancient Jewish homeland. Aviv ( אביב , or Abib ) is a Hebrew word that can be translated as "spring", symbolizing renewal, and tell (or tel ) is an artificial mound created over centuries through
2668-434: The 1920s, those neighborhoods joined the newly formed municipality, now becoming separated from Jaffa. [REDACTED] Ottoman Empire 1909–1917 [REDACTED] United Kingdom 1917–1948 [REDACTED] Israel 1948–present The Second Aliyah led to further expansion. In 1906, a group of Jews, among them residents of Jaffa, followed the initiative of Akiva Aryeh Weiss and banded together to form
2760-527: The 1930s. Some, like Arieh Sharon , came to Palestine and adapted the architectural outlook of the Bauhaus and similar schools to the local conditions there, creating what is recognized as the largest concentration of buildings in the International Style in the world. Tel Aviv's White City emerged in the 1930s, and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. During World War II, Tel Aviv
2852-578: The 1970s and 1980s, when outer regions of the Gush Dan with lower costs of living absorbed many of the people who had left Tel Aviv. Only in the 1990s, with the immigration of more than 1 million Jews from former Soviet Republics , 40,000 Ethiopian Jews , and many others to Israel, as well as a boom in the religious population, would Tel Aviv begin to grow again. The demand for housing increased dramatically, with new cities such as Modiin and El'ad being built, and cities like Ashdod more than doubling in population, from 83,000 in 1990, to 175,000 in 2000. In
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2944-564: The 1990s, the decline in Tel Aviv's population began to be reversed and stabilized, at first temporarily due to a wave of immigrants from the former Soviet Union . Tel Aviv absorbed 42,000 immigrants from the FSU, many educated in scientific, technological, medical and mathematical fields. In this period, the number of engineers in the city doubled. Tel Aviv soon began to emerge as a global high-tech center. The construction of many skyscrapers and high-tech office buildings followed. In 1993, Tel Aviv
3036-481: The 2000s, the area continued to grow, attracting many immigrants from the Haifa metropolitan area . With a population of 4,052,200 people as of 2019, Gush Dan is home to the commercial, economical, cultural, and industrial center of Israel . The Tel Aviv urban conurbation, stretching from Netanya to Ashdod, concentrates the largest Jewish population globally, nearing 3.9 million Jews. This figure significantly surpasses
3128-475: The Arab state. Civil War broke out in the country and in particular between the neighbouring cities of Tel Aviv and Jaffa, which had been assigned to the Jewish and Arab states respectively. After several months of siege, on 13 May 1948, Jaffa fell and the Arab population fled en masse. After Israel declared Independence on 14 May 1948, Tel Aviv was the temporary government center of the State of Israel. The city
3220-482: The European cities of Warsaw and Odesa . The marketing pamphlets advocating for its establishment stated: In this city we will build the streets so they have roads and sidewalks and electric lights. Every house will have water from wells that will flow through pipes as in every modern European city, and also sewerage pipes will be installed for the health of the city and its residents. The walled city of Jaffa
3312-561: The Gush Dan region. The Tel Aviv Light Rail is also a major feature in the regions transport, as well as the high speed service to Jerusalem . Two airports are located in the Gush Dan; Sde Dov Airport which closed at 2019, and Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod which is Israel 's largest airport handles over 22 million passengers a year and offers flights to destinations in Europe , Africa , Asia , and The Americas . The Tel Aviv Metro
3404-535: The Jaffa Municipality in 1921. According to a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities , Tel Aviv had a population of 15,185 (15,065 Jews, 78 Muslims and 42 Christians). The population of Tel Aviv had increased to around 34,000 by 1925. The 1931 census recorded Tel Aviv as having a population of 46,101 (45,564 Jews, 288 with no religion, 143 Christians, and 106 Muslims) in 12,545 houses. With increasing Jewish immigration during
3496-578: The Jaffa deportation of early April 1917. The orders of evacuation were aimed chiefly at the Jewish population. Jews were free to return to their homes in Tel Aviv at the end of the following year when, with the end of World War I and the defeat of the Ottomans, the British took control of Palestine. The town had rapidly become an attraction to immigrants, with a local activist writing: The immigrants were attracted to Tel Aviv because they found in it all
3588-731: The Jewish association which established the neighbourhood as a modern housing estate on the outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa ( Yafo in Hebrew), then part of the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem within the Ottoman Empire . Its name was changed the following year to Tel Aviv, after the biblical name Tel Abib ( lit. " Tell of Spring") adopted by Nahum Sokolow as the title for his Hebrew translation of Theodor Herzl 's 1902 novel Altneuland ("Old New Land"). Other Jewish suburbs of Jaffa had been established before Tel Aviv,
3680-432: The Jewish population of the Gush Dan was nearly 400,000 and was the majority of the Jewish population of Mandatory Palestine . As such, almost all of it was included in the Jewish state proposed by the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine . After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War , the Arab population of the region, which had been nearly 150,000 before the war, was reduced to around 10,000. They were quickly replaced by
3772-600: The Jewish population of the New York metropolitan area, which ranks second with 2.1 million Jews. Despite some successes in ongoing attempts by the Israeli government to encourage migration to the Galilee and the Negev , Gush Dan retains its position as the heart of Israel. Population in cities as of the end of 2021: Israel Central Bureau of Statistics divides the Tel Aviv metropolitan area into four: The Dan Bus Company
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3864-548: The Mediterranean coastline and the Yarkon River mouth. Because of the expansion of Tel Aviv and the Gush Dan region, absolute borders between Tel Aviv and Jaffa and between the city's neighborhoods do not exist. The city is located 60 km (37 mi) northwest of Jerusalem and 90 km (56 mi) south of the city of Haifa . Neighboring cities and towns include Herzliya to the north, Ramat HaSharon to
3956-543: The Turkish prohibition on Jewish land acquisition. Meir Dizengoff , later Tel Aviv's first mayor , also joined the Ahuzat Bayit society. His vision for Tel Aviv involved peaceful co-existence with Arabs. On 11 April 1909, 66 Jewish families gathered on a desolate sand dune to parcel out the land by lottery using seashells. This gathering is considered the official date of the establishment of Tel Aviv. The lottery
4048-430: The accumulation of successive layers of civilization built one over the other and symbolizing the ancient. Although founded in 1909 as a small settlement on the sand dunes north of Jaffa, Tel Aviv was envisaged as a future city from the start. Its founders hoped that in contrast to what they perceived as the squalid and unsanitary conditions of neighbouring Arab towns, Tel Aviv was to be a clean and modern city, inspired by
4140-468: The assailant went on a stabbing spree, injuring eight people. Due to an Israel Border Police roadblock at the entrance and immediate response of the Border Police team during the subsequent stabbings, a much larger and fatal mass-casualty incident was avoided. On 21 November 2012, during Operation Pillar of Defense , the Tel Aviv area was targeted by rockets, and air raid sirens were sounded in
4232-456: The beginning of 1970s, the common image of Tel Aviv became that of a decaying city, as Tel Aviv's population fell 20%. In the 1970s, the apparent sense of Tel Aviv's urban decline became a theme in the work of novelists such as Yaakov Shabtai , in works describing the city such as Sof Davar ( The End of Things ) and Zikhron Devarim ( The Memory of Things ). A symptomatic article of 1980 asked "Is Tel Aviv Dying?" and portrayed what it saw as
4324-403: The center of Israel's financial and High technology sector. The metropolitan area having an estimated population of 4,156,900 residents, 89% of whom are Israeli Jews . The name Gush Dan means "Dan Bloc", and is so named because the area was the territory of the tribe of Dan in the ancient Kingdom of Israel . According to the biblical narrative, the tribe had originally tried to settle in
4416-527: The central coastal area of Canaan , but enmity with the Philistines , who had already settled there, caused it to be able to camp only in the hill country overlooking the Sorek Valley . The camp location became known as Mahaneh Dan ("Camps of Dan"). The region that they attempted to settle included the area as far north as Joppa and as far south as Shephelah in the area of Timnah . As a result of
4508-414: The city changed in the 2000s, as it began to attract a higher proportion of young residents. By 2012, 28 percent of the city's population was aged between 20 and 34 years old. Between 2007 and 2012, the city's population growth averaged 6.29 percent. As a result of its population recovery and industrial transition, the city's finances were transformed, and by 2012 it was running a budget surplus and maintained
4600-687: The city for the first time since the Gulf War . All of the rockets either missed populated areas or were shot down by an Iron Dome rocket defense battery stationed near the city. During the operation, a bomb blast on a bus wounded at least 28 civilians, three seriously. This was described as a terrorist attack by Israel, Russia, and the United States and was condemned by the United Nations, United States, United Kingdom, France and Russia, whilst Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri declared that
4692-692: The city hosts its well-known, annual Open House Tel Aviv weekend, which offers the general public free entrance to the city's famous landmarks, private houses and public buildings. In 2010, the design of the renovated Tel Aviv Port ( Nemal Tel Aviv ) won the award for outstanding landscape architecture at the European Biennial for Landscape Architecture in Barcelona . In 2014, the Sarona Market Complex opened, following an 8-year renovation project of Sarona colony . Tel Aviv has
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#17328012060184784-411: The city occurred on 17 April 2006, when 11 people were killed and at least 70 wounded in a suicide bombing near the old central bus station . Another attack took place on 29 August 2011 in which a Palestinian attacker stole an Israeli taxi cab and rammed it into a police checkpoint guarding the popular Haoman 17 nightclub in Tel Aviv which was filled with 2,000 Israeli teenagers. After crashing,
4876-492: The city's existential problems: "Residents leaving the city, businesses penetrating into residential areas, economic and social gaps, deteriorating neighbourhoods, contaminated air – Is the First Hebrew City destined for a slow death? Will it become a ghost town?". However, others saw this as a transitional period. By the late 1980s, attitudes to the city's future had become markedly more optimistic. It had also become
4968-641: The city. In 1946, following the King David Hotel bombing , the British carried out Operation Shark , in which the entire city was searched for Jewish militants and most of the residents questioned, during which the entire city was placed under curfew. During the March 1947 martial law in Mandatory Palestine , Tel Aviv was placed under martial law by the British authorities for 15 days, with the residents kept under curfew for all but three hours
5060-439: The city. It made significant investment in major boulevards, to create attractive pedestrian corridors. Former industrial areas like the city's previously derelict Northern Tel Aviv Port and the Jaffa railway station , were upgraded and transformed into leisure areas. A process of gentrification began in some of the poor neighborhoods of southern Tel Aviv and many older buildings began to be renovated. The demographic profile of
5152-686: The comforts they were used to in Europe: electric light, water, a little cleanliness, cinema, opera, theatre, and also more or less advanced schools... busy streets, full restaurants, cafes open until 2 a.m., singing, music, and dancing. Tel Aviv, along with the rest of the Jaffa municipality, was conquered by the British imperial army in late 1917 during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I and became part of British-administered Mandatory Palestine until 1948. Tel Aviv, established as suburb of Jaffa, received "township" or local council status within
5244-654: The company and became its general manager . A period of expansion followed. In 1995 the Steimatzky company purchased the Sifri chain with seven stores. The chain was a virtual monopoly in Israel until 2002. In 2002 two smaller competitors ( Tzomet Sfarim , Yerid Hasfarim ) and Modan Publishing House united under the Tzomet Sfarim brand, operating about 40 stores. In 2004 Steimatzky merged with Keter Publishing House . In 2005 Markstone Capital Partners purchased
5336-639: The company. In 2006, Steimatzky operated stores in 68 cities in Israel as well as in London and Los Angeles . It was estimated that the company held a 40% share in the Israeli book retailing market and employed over 700 people worldwide. In September 2007, Eri Steimatzky announced his retirement from the chain, leaving the company in the hands of Markstone Capital. In 2010 Steimatzky operated over 160 stores across Israel in various formats. These included mall-based stores, stores with coffee shops, extensive non-book offerings, and larger formats. In June 2014 Steimatzky
5428-439: The early 1960s at 390,000, representing 16 percent of the country's total. By the early 1970s, Tel Aviv had entered a long and steady period of continuous population decline, which was accompanied by urban decay . By 1981, Tel Aviv had entered not just natural population decline, but an absolute population decline as well. In the late 1980s the city had an aging population of 317,000. Construction activity had moved away from
5520-416: The ensuing decades by Jewish immigration from Europe , with its population reaching 150,000 in 1934, and 230,000 when Israel gained its independence in 1948. Before the establishment of Israel , other towns in the Gush Dan were founded as well, such as Petah Tikva in 1878, Rishon LeZion in 1882, Ness Ziona in 1883, Rehovot in 1890, and most other Gush Dan cities were established before 1948. In 1947,
5612-402: The event. The first water well was later dug at this site, located on what is today Rothschild Boulevard , across from Dizengoff House. Within a year, Herzl , Ahad Ha'am , Yehuda Halevi , Lilienblum , and Rothschild streets were built; a water system was installed; and 66 houses (including some on six subdivided plots) were completed. At the end of Herzl Street, a plot was allocated for
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#17328012060185704-453: The first time including land that had been in the Arab portion of the UN partition plan. The government voted on the unification of Tel Aviv and Jaffa on 4 October 1949, but the decision was not implemented until 24 April 1950 due to the opposition of Tel Aviv mayor Israel Rokach . The name of the unified city was Tel Aviv until 19 August 1950, when it was renamed Tel Aviv-Yafo in order to preserve
5796-680: The founding capital of Israel – a function it retained officially until 1950. After the 1947–1949 Palestine war , Tel Aviv began the municipal annexation of parts of Jaffa, fully unified with Jaffa under the name Tel Aviv in April 1950, and was formally renamed to Tel Aviv-Yafo in August 1950. Tel Aviv's White City , designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, comprises the world's largest concentration of International Style buildings, including Bauhaus and other related modernist architectural styles. Popular attractions include Old Jaffa ,
5888-530: The government announced the annexation to Tel Aviv of Jaffa's Jewish suburbs, the Palestinian neighborhood of Abu Kabir , the Arab village of Salama and some of its agricultural land, and the Jewish Hatikva slum. On 25 February 1949, the depopulated Palestinian village of al-Shaykh Muwannis was also annexed to Tel Aviv. On 18 May 1949, Manshiya and part of Jaffa's central zone were added, for
5980-900: The headquarters and logistical center of Steimatzky moved from Kiryat Aryeh in Petach Tikva to the Lev HaAretz industrial area in Kafr Qasim . Since 2020, the website of Steimatzky sells a wide range of consumer products including shoes, perfumes, home appliances , and electronics. On 1 January 2022, Steimatzky has 128 branches. Tzomet Sfarim has 89. On 17 March 2023, Steimatzky has 138 branches. Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( Hebrew : תֵּל אָבִיב-יָפוֹ , romanized : Tēl ʾĀvīv-Yāfō , IPA: [tel aˈviv jaˈfo] ; Arabic : تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا , romanized : Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa , and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv ,
6072-430: The highest cost of living in the world. Tel Aviv receives over 2.5 million international visitors annually. Tel Aviv is home to Tel Aviv University , the largest university in the country with more than 30,000 students. The city was founded in 1909 by the Yishuv ( Jewish residents) and initially given the Hebrew name Ahuzat Bayit ( Hebrew : אחוזת בית , lit. 'House Estate' or 'Homestead'), namesake of
6164-495: The historical name Jaffa. Tel Aviv thus grew to 42 km (16.2 sq mi). In 1949, a memorial to the 60 founders of Tel Aviv was constructed. In the 1960s, some of the older buildings were demolished, making way for the country's first high-rises. The historic Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium was controversially demolished, to make way for the Shalom Meir Tower , which was completed in 1965, and remained Israel's tallest building until 1999. Tel Aviv's population peaked in
6256-460: The inner ring of Tel Aviv, and had moved to its outer perimeter and adjoining cities. A mass out-migration of residents from Tel Aviv, to adjoining cities like Petah Tikva and Rehovot , where better housing conditions were available, was underway by the beginning of the 1970s, and only accelerated by the Yom Kippur War . Cramped housing conditions and high property prices pushed families out of Tel Aviv and deterred young people from moving in. From
6348-498: The northeast, Petah Tikva , Bnei Brak , Ramat Gan and Giv'atayim to the east, Holon to the southeast, and Bat Yam to the south. The city is economically stratified between the north and south. Southern Tel Aviv is considered less affluent than northern Tel Aviv with the exception of Neve Tzedek and northern and north-western Jaffa . Central Tel Aviv is home to Azrieli Center and the important financial and commerce district along Ayalon Highway . The northern side of Tel Aviv
6440-422: The northern part of the township was based on Ebenezer Howard 's garden city movement . The plan consisted of four main features: a hierarchical system of streets laid out in a grid, large blocks consisting of small-scale domestic dwellings, the organization of these blocks around central open spaces, and the concentration of cultural institutions to form a civic center. While most of the northern area of Tel Aviv
6532-414: The official Tel Aviv-Yafo Centennial Year website; the Ahuzat Bayit collection, which focuses on the founding families of Tel Aviv, and includes photographs and biographies; and Stanford University 's Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection, documenting the history of the city. Today, the city is regarded as a strong candidate for global city status . Over the past 60 years, Tel Aviv had developed into
6624-488: The oldest among them being Neve Tzedek . Tel Aviv was given township status within the Jaffa Municipality in 1921, and became independent from Jaffa in 1934. Immigration by mostly Jewish refugees meant that the growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced that of Jaffa, which had a majority Arab population at the time. In 1948, the Israeli Declaration of Independence was proclaimed in the city, with Tel Aviv named as
6716-494: The organisation "blesses" the attack. More than 300 rockets were fired towards the Tel Aviv Metropolitan area in the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis . New laws were introduced to protect Modernist buildings, and efforts to preserve them were aided by UNESCO recognition of Tel Aviv's White City as a world heritage site in 2003. In the early 2000s, Tel Aviv municipality focused on attracting more young residents to
6808-581: The potential in opening a foreign language bookstore that would serve a growing immigrants' market as well as British Army soldiers serving under the British Mandate. The concept was so successful that he opened an additional store in Haifa later that year. In 1927 Steimatzky saw the potential for expansion throughout the Middle East and opened a store in Beirut . The company name was changed to Steimatzky Middle East Agency . During World War II ,
6900-601: The pressure from the Philistines, the tribe abandoned hopes of settling near the central coast and instead migrated to the north of the country. After conquering Laish, the tribe refounded it as its capital and renamed it Dan . In remembrance of the original territory assignments, the coastal region is referred to as Gush Dan. The modern city of Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 as a suburb of the Arab-majority coastal city of Jaffa . The city of Tel Aviv grew rapidly in
6992-489: The region, Jaffa had been ruled by the Canaanites , Egyptians , Philistines , Israelites , Assyrians , Babylonians , Persians , Phoenicians , Ptolemies , Seleucids , Hasmoneans , Romans , Byzantines , the early Islamic caliphates , Crusaders , Ayyubids , and Mamluks before coming under Ottoman rule in 1515. It had been fought over numerous times. The city is mentioned in ancient Egyptian documents, as well as
7084-615: The same year. The opening ceremony of the Jaffa Electric Company powerhouse, on 10 June 1923, celebrated the lighting of the two main streets of Tel Aviv. In 1925, the Scottish biologist, sociologist, philanthropist and pioneering town planner Patrick Geddes drew up the Geddes Plan for Tel Aviv , a master plan for Tel Aviv which was adopted by the city council led by Meir Dizengoff . Geddes's plan for developing
7176-642: The term is in frequent use by both governmental bodies and the general public. It ranges from combining Tel Aviv with cities that form an urban continuum with it, to the entire areas from both the Tel Aviv District and the Central District , or sometimes the whole Metropolitan Area of Tel Aviv , which includes a small part of the Southern District as well. Gush Dan is the largest conurbation and metropolitan area in Israel and
7268-455: The war, and every city in the Tel Aviv area except for Bnei Brak was hit. A total of 74 Israelis died as a result of the Iraqi attacks, mostly from suffocation and heart attacks, while approximately 230 Israelis were injured. Extensive property damage was also caused, and some 4,000 Israelis were left homeless. It was feared that Iraq would fire missiles filled with nerve agents or sarin . As
7360-456: The winter, and 24–29 °C (75–84 °F) during the summer. The city averages 528 mm (20.8 in) of precipitation annually. Gush Dan Gush Dan ( Hebrew : גּוּשׁ דָּן , lit. ' Dan bloc ' ) or Tel Aviv metropolitan area is a conurbation in Israel , located along the country's Mediterranean coastline . There is no single formal definition of Gush Dan, though
7452-473: Was hit by Italian airstrikes on 9 September 1940, which killed 137 people in the city. The village statistics of 1945 listed Tel Aviv's population as 166,660, consisting of 166,000 Jews, 300 "other", 230 Christians, and 130 Muslims. During the Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine , Jewish Irgun and Lehi guerrillas launched repeated attacks against British military, police, and government targets in
7544-468: Was acquired by a group of investors led by G. Yafit . Eyal Greenberg, the son of Yafit Greenberg ("G Yafit"), was appointed CEO. By September 2017 the gap between Steimatzky and its main competitor, Tzomet Sfarim, was closing. Steimatzky reduced its number of branches to 140, Tzomet Sfarim upped to 96. On 1 October 2018 and 1 April 2020, Tzomet Sfarim had 95 branches. Steimatzky was unchanged on 1 October 2018 and down to 136 on 22 November 2020. Early 2018,
7636-516: Was built according to this plan, the influx of European refugees in the 1930s necessitated the construction of taller apartment buildings on a larger footprint in the city. Ben Gurion House was built in 1930–31, part of a new workers' housing development. At the same time, Jewish cultural life was given a boost by the establishment of the Ohel Theatre and the decision of Habima Theatre to make Tel Aviv its permanent base in 1931. Tel Aviv
7728-463: Was categorized as a world city . However, the city's municipality struggled to cope with an influx of new immigrants. Tel Aviv's tax base had been shrinking for many years, as a result of its preceding long term population decline, and this meant there was little money available at the time to invest in the city's deteriorating infrastructure and housing. In 1998, Tel Aviv was on the "verge of bankruptcy". Economic difficulties would then be compounded by
7820-731: Was completed in 1983. Other notable projects included the construction of Marganit Tower in 1987, the opening of the Suzanne Dellal Center for Dance and Theater in 1989, and the Tel Aviv Cinematheque (opened in 1973 and located to the current building in 1989). In the early 1980s, 13 embassies in Jerusalem moved to Tel Aviv as part of the UN's measures responding to Israel's 1980 Jerusalem Law . Today, most national embassies are located in Tel Aviv or environs. In
7912-711: Was granted the status of an independent municipality separate from Jaffa in 1934. The Jewish population rose dramatically during the Fifth Aliyah after the Nazis came to power in Germany. Many new Jewish immigrants to Palestine disembarked in Jaffa, and remained in Tel Aviv, turning the city into a center of urban life. Friction during the 1936–39 Arab revolt led to the opening of a local Jewish port, Tel Aviv Port , independent of Jaffa, in 1938. It closed on 25 October 1965. Lydda Airport (later Ben Gurion Airport) and Sde Dov Airport opened between 1937 and 1938. According to
8004-483: Was organised by Akiva Aryeh Weiss , president of the building society. Weiss collected 120 sea shells on the beach, half of them white and half of them grey. The members' names were written on the white shells and the plot numbers on the grey shells. A boy drew names from one box of shells and a girl drew plot numbers from the second box. A photographer, Abraham Soskin (b. 1881 in Russia, made aliyah 1906 ), documented
8096-688: Was planned as an independent Hebrew city with wide streets and boulevards, running water for each house, and street lights. By 1914, Tel Aviv had grown to more than 1 km (247 acres). In 1915 a census of Tel Aviv was conducted, recording a population 2,679. However, growth halted in 1917 when the Ottoman authorities expelled the residents of Jaffa and Tel Aviv as a wartime measure. A report published in The New York Times by United States Consul Garrels in Alexandria, Egypt described
8188-420: Was renamed Ariel Sharon Park to honor Israel's former prime minister, will serve as the centerpiece in what is to become a 2,000-acre (8.1 km ) urban wilderness on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, designed by German landscape architect , Peter Latz . At the end of the 20th century, the city began restoring historical neighborhoods such as Neve Tzedek and many buildings from the 1920s and 1930s. Since 2007,
8280-638: Was renamed Rabin Square . In the Gulf War in 1991, Tel Aviv was attacked by Scud missiles from Iraq. Iraq hoped to provoke an Israeli military response, which could have destroyed the US–Arab alliance. The United States pressured Israel not to retaliate, and after Israel acquiesced, the US and Netherlands rushed Patriot missiles to defend against the attacks, but they proved largely ineffective. Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities continued to be hit by Scuds throughout
8372-541: Was repeatedly bombed by Egyptian warplanes and shelled by Egyptian warships during the Israeli War of Independence , killing around 150 people. The most significant attack was the bombing of the central bus station , in which 42 people were killed. On 3 June 1948, the Israeli Air Force scored its first aerial victory over Tel Aviv when Israeli fighter pilot Modi Alon shot down two Egyptian bombers during
8464-567: Was then trying to disperse the nation's population to the periphery and discouraged settlement in the already-populated Gush Dan. That slowed the growth of the Gush Dan, but the area still more than doubled in population within 20 years of the establishment of Israel. The opening of the Port of Ashdod in the southern Gush Dan also increased the area's importance, with the importance of Haifa diminishing and that of Tel Aviv increasing because of its proximity. Tel Aviv itself witnessed population decreases in
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