Nostalgia Sunday – The Levant Fair

September 19, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, Profiles, Travel 

Sukkot is festival and exhibition season in Israel which means everything will be celebrated, feted and displayed over the coming weeks. But, though they may not know it, they owe a debt to the granddaddy of all Israeli events, the Levant Fair.

Fairs in the Yishuv, the early Jewish settlement, first started in the 1920s as agricultural exhibitions but by the second half of the decade their nature had changed to commercial and industrial. According to Levant Fair collector and historian Dr. Arthur H. Groten, “The need to promote the Palestine of the Yishuv, as the Jews of Palestine were called, as a vital economic link between West and East reflected the cosmopolitan attitude of many of the new immigrants…”

The 1932 Palestine and Near East Fair was the first to be called a “Levant Fair” and “was the first to have official foreign governmental representation including Great Britain, U.S.S.R, Egypt, Cyprus, Romania, Turkey, Switzerland, Poland, Latvia and Bulgaria. 831 foreign firms exhibited and 285,000 people attended.”

It was that year that the fair adopted a new mascot: a flying camel. (Groten relates “an apocryphal tale” that when Tel Aviv’s Mayor Meir Dizengoff said to his colleague, the Mayor of Jaffa that he wished for his city to host a Levant Fair similar to those held throughout the Near East, “he was told that it would happen ‘when camels fly’”). True or not, the logo was much loved; it appeared on stamps, and is still used today by the Israel Trade Fairs & Convention Center.

But things really got going in 1934, “through the construction of an entirely new complex on the banks of the Yarkon River by a group of young architects, trained in Europe, many at the Bauhaus, under the direction of Arieh El-Hanani. The fairgrounds were an integrated assemblage of International Style buildings. In fact, it was the largest such integrated grouping ever constructed… Over 600,000 visitors paid to attend an event that included 36 foreign governments and 2200 firms (1500 being foreign).”

El-Hanani also designed the sculpture “Hapoel HaIvri” (The Jewish Worker), one of the Yishuv’s first works of urban public art.

On a personal note: my Israeli mother was born in Jerusalem in 1929; five years later, her family came to live in Tel Aviv. So I like to think that maybe, just maybe, she was one of the children who climbed on the statue, sat on her mother’s knee during the opening ceremony audience or rode the “Luna Park” carousel.

The last fair, held in 1936, was not well-attended due to the increasingly troubled situation in Europe, the rise of Nazism and the war against the Jews, as well as the Arab revolt.

Over the years, the fairgrounds fell into disrepair and the pavilions used mainly as ceramic and tile warehouses. The port closed to ships in 1965. The fairgrounds were moved to North Tel Aviv. Only in 2001 did reconstruction of the historic Tel Aviv port commence and with it, the rehabilitation of the Bauhaus structures — those few that remain. However, the statue of a flying camel still sits atop a flagpole at the main entrance and the modernist statue of the Hebrew Worker has also survived.

Today’s photos come mainly from the G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection, the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, a rich source of historical images of the Middle East photographed from 1898 to 1946.

For more about the early days of Tel Aviv, see “City of Work and Prosperity”: The Levant Fair, part of the Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection at Stanford University. And there are more great photographs of the Levant Fair on a site called Abraham Stern’s Tel Aviv.

Also, check out Dr. Arthur H. Groten’s wonderful collection of stamps, ephemera and additional photos of the fair in his online paper, Semiotics and the Levant Fairs of Palestine. It is an amazing and enjoyable read.

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No photos of Bar Refaeli allowed

September 19, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Life 

The Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem

It’s going to be a shopping tightrope that its investors will be walking on when the Ramot Mall opens up next year in Jerusalem.

The capitol’s second biggest mall will feature many of the standard staples of Israeli consumer culture, like ACE, Super Pharm, FOX, To Go Shoes, Crocs and Lord Kitsch, Bank Discount and Steimatzky.

7,200 square meters (77,500 square feet) have also been rented for a range of stores following the American “shop in shop” concept like Walmart, including a number of well-known brands housed in one area.

However, what’s going to make the Ramot Mall different than most Israeli malls is its clientele. The Ramot neighborhood has some 50,000 residents, at least half if not more ultra-Orthodox haredim. While much of the potential market for the mall will come from the surrounding areas of Givat and Pisgat Ze’ev, French Hill and Ma’aleh Adumim, constituting a 300,000 population base, the mall will have to consider the sensitivities and restriction baggage that the haredi community carries with it.

Of course, the food will be kosher, like all the other Jerusalem mall. But it will likely mean no photo displays of Bar Refaeli at the FOX stores, there won’t be any hip hop piped through the mall sound system, and it will also likely mean most stores will stock goods catering to big families, so common in the haredi world.

Making the new mall attractive to secular Israelis yet palatable to haredi Israelis is going to be a tough task for the owners, Phoenix Holdings Ltd. of the Tshuva Group (70%) and Bayit Chadash Beyerushalaim Ltd. (30%).

The commercial area of the mall will be 22,000 square meters (about 237,000 square feet) over three floors, with tons of parking space in another three-floor parking lot and additional space outside.

Next to the Malha Mall, it will be the biggest mall in the capitol. But with the haredi influence, will it become another white elephant like the dismal Center One at the entrance to the city? It depends which side of the tightrope the owners fall on.

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Foto Friday – Sound the Shofar

September 17, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Pop Culture, Religion, Travel 

Is the shofar — the ram’s horn instrument sounded in the Jewish High Holy Day ceremonies — an ancient form of vuvuzela? Is the vuvuzela a shofar? This question has been plaguing Jewish football (that’s soccer to us Yanks) fans and non-fans alike since we first heard the annoying but compelling buzz during the World Cup Finals this past summer.

The issue’s been discussed roundly by writers at The Jerusalem Post, The Washington Post, and of course, the authoritative Vuvuzela South Africa blog, as well as by rabbis and church clergy alike, to no obvious conclusion (except that the vuvuzela is annoying but here to stay).

Photo by Zoltan Kluger, National Photo Archive of the State of Israel

Image left: shofar; right: Shofar by Alphonse Lévy. All courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The shofar is mentioned frequently in the Bible, most famously in the Book of Joshua , but one of the earliest depictions we have also comes from Jericho: a 6th century synagogue mosaic floor.

They say that the Yemenite Jews procured their shofarim from the horn of the African Kudu, with its dramatic twists and exaggerated size. But this photo from the 1930s of a Yemenite Jew would prove otherwise.


Photo by Matson Photo Service. The G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Nonetheless, this style of exotic shofar has become extremely popular. Once they were quite unusual but nowadays you can buy them in bulk — likely made of more common stock like the local Nubian Ibex or mountain goat — in the open market.


Photo: Wikimedia Commons

There’s no doubt that there’s something extremely macho about this type of shofar… we’ll just leave it at that.


Photo by Martin Kozák, Wikimedia Commons

The shofar may not be sounded on Shabbat, because blowing it might be construed as work. So we won’t get to hear its call till sundown tomorrow. At that time, the Yom Kippur fast will be broken and we’ll truly be able to begin our New Year.

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Oiling the wheels and dusting off the siddur

September 17, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Religion 

Yom Kippur arrives tonight, and the schizoid makeup of the Israeli public will once again become apparent.

Between the choices of fasting and attending synagogue services, walking, bike riding, and skating in the empty streets, or, if you live along the coast, heading the beach, makes the solemn day of atonement one of the busiest days in the Israeli calendar.

According to a poll conducted by Ynet and the Yesodot association, 61% of Israelis said they plan to fast on the holiday and 28% said no. Six percent said they would fast only part of the day and 5% had yet to decide. Interestingly, among secular Israelis, about half of respondents said they would fast (most of them all day).

Just because one fasts doesn’t mean that they’ll be attending a service, however. Ten percent of those that said they were planning to fast responded that they wouldn’t be going to shul on the holiday.

And in a more nebulous religious/secular question, 77% of the public plans on asking forgiveness from God or other people on Yom Kippur, as opposed to 23% who do not plan to make amends with anyone.

Relating to the uniquely Israeli tradition of youth jamming the streets on the eve of Yom Kippur with bikes and other wheeled vehicles, the public was divided. 35% responded that it is a violation of the sanctity of the day just as driving a car is, while 29% responded positively that it is one of the symbols of the day. Seventeen percent did not respond.

Like on every other day of the year, Yom Kippur provides ample proof that in Israel, anyone can find a way of life suitable to their beliefs and needs. May you find yours.

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Walmart in Israel?

September 16, 2010 by · 10 Comments
Filed under: Israeliness, News 

Walmart coming to Israel?

For those of us who have moved to Israel, a trip back to the old country usually includes a shopping trip to a “big box” store – a football sized extravaganza of conspicuous consumption which, in our case, actually saves us money when comparing U.S. prices with those in Israel.

Who among us hasn’t left Israel with one piece of checked luggage and returned with three filled with boxes of batteries, piles of pants, telephone headsets, hard drives and a two year supply of toothpaste and deodorant?

Well, there may be good news for expatriates and price conscious Israelis alike: Haaretz reported this week that real estate company Minrav Holdings wants to bring Walmart to Israel. Minrav says it approached Walmart several months ago about entering the Israeli market and has already been scouting out sites. That may not be so easy, at least in the country’s urban areas – Walmarts can reach as large as 20,000 square meters.

If Walmart did come to Israel, it would be joining other international chains such as Ikea, Office Depot and even Cinema City (which has branches all across Europe), not to mention ubiquitous food vendors such as McDonalds and Pizza Hut.

Naturally both Minrav and Walmart had no comments, with Walmart going so far as to say “we don’t respond to rumors.” And no Wal-Mart representatives have visited Israel yet, Haaretz said. Still it’s a tantalizing possibility. It really is kind of a long trip to the States just to bring back 50 pairs of underwear.

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