Whose Tel Aviv Is It Anyway?

September 10, 2006 - 10:54 AM by

The new glossy guide to Tel Aviv life impressed Imshin, a longtime city resident, as much as anyone. But she took issue with part of the description of the guide by Lisa, also a Tel Avivian, who was part of the team that created the guide.

Looking at the photos in the online preview, I am amused by Lisa’s comment that “It is about the real Tel Aviv”. Boy, do we ever live different lives!

It seems the guide was a bit too chi-chi to be what Imshin considers a “real” view of the city. She’s judging, however on the basis of the pages available online. Perhaps there’s more in the full version. Even so, whose to say what’s “real” in a diverse city? Is the “real” New York, Park Avenue, the East Village or the South Bronx?

What seems clear is that the guide is aimed at the traveller from abroad who focuses on Jerusalem, the north of the country and the Dead Sea and doesn’t devote much time to Tel Aviv because they don’t think there’s a lot for them to do there.

And Imshin is feeling sensitive because during the war, Tel Aviv residents were often stereotyped as indifferent hedonist bohemian cafe-sitters who didn’t do their part, characterized by the:

inaccurate and uncalled for claim by the IDF’s head human resources officer, Major General Elazar Stern, that there were relatively few Tel Avivi soldiers killed and wounded in this war (a claim which understandably greatly angered and offended the families of the Tel Avivis who were killed and wounded in the war).

Tags: • Category: Israeliness, Politics 

Comments

One Comment on Whose Tel Aviv Is It Anyway?

  1. David on Sun, Sep 10th 2006 1:05 PM

    2. It is the same for many cities. New York for example is known by only a relatively small part of one borough – Manhattan. The “real” NYC is a very big city that dwarfs the part that is liked to be portrayed as NYC.

    The rest of the City is a vast area populated by “neighborhoods” divided by ethnicity and religion. In many cases, certain groups stepping into those neighborhoods may be threatened or even physically attacked.

    Most of NYC is a very grubby looking place with small buildings. There is a renewal going on in parts of Brooklyn and Queens, but areas such as the Bronx and Staten Island are definitely the forgotten areas.

    Anyone been in NYC during summer will know that Manhattan simply stinks all the time.

    Make no mistake there are beautiful areas and history and museums and so on, but it is also totally incorrect to show NYC the way it is done.

    I like NYC, I will never be able to say I Love NYC. I do prefer Tel Aviv to NYC, there is an atmosphere far nicer, the people are warmer and the coffee and Cafe’s are much better, not to mention the climate and the beaches. I was not surprised that Starbucks failed in Israel.

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