Nostalgia Sunday – Bialik Street cultural center

October 3, 2010 - 9:40 PM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: design, General, History and Culture, Nostalgia Sunday, Profiles, Travel 

Bialik Street is one of Tel Aviv’s little gems. Once an important location for the homes of not only Israel’s national poet, Haim Nahman Bialik, but also that of artist Reuven Rubin and Tel Aviv’s first city hall, the street turned dingy and dumpy for many years. It began picking up in popularity in the 1980s when Shenkin Street became trendy and now plans are afoot to turn the whole street into a center of Hebrew culture.

It’s a fitting tribute to Bialik whose house at No. 22 has, since 1937, served as a museum. It’s intention, as the Bialik Association put it was as “[a] national home, a house of the people of Israel in Eretz-Israel and in the Diaspora. Let us make this house into a storeroom for the soul of Hebrew culture; let us never extinguish the light which the poet lit in it! The house will serve as a repository for all the things connected to him and his work; a storeplace for Hebrew folklore, a gathering place for Hebrew writers and a center for Hebrew culture.”

In addition to archives, a library, paintings, furniture and many other items connected to his various activities as a poet, publisher, literary figure and Zionist leader, the house itself is something to see. It was built by architect Joseph Minor in 1925. Minor along with his teacher Alexander Baerwald, was part of a group of architects inspired by the Art and Crafts movement that wished to develop Hebrew architecture. In the case of Bialik House, the result was a building that combined western construction with romantic notions about “Orientalia” – towers, domes, pointed-arch windows and ceramic tiles designed by Zeev Raban, the foremost decorative artist of the day.

In his fine essay about Bialik House, author Yonatan Dubosarsky wrote, “The institutions which had been headed by Bialik located some of their activities in the house. Thus the Hebrew Writers Association was active in Beit Bialik and from there published its monthly magazine, which still exists, Moznayim (“Scales”). The Committee for Language and the Association of Friends of the Hebrew University in Tel Aviv met there. Similarly, courses were organized on behalf of the Vaad Leumi (the pre-state national leadership committee) for groups of youth leaders from the United States. Beit Bialik quickly became a tourist attraction for visitors to Tel Aviv. Teachers began to bring kindergarten and school children – a tradition that has continued to this day, and which over 70 years has brought the majority of Israels children to the house.”

Even if you’re not an Israeli schoolchild, a visit to Bialik House and the street’s other cultural institutions is a delightful way to spend an morning or an afternoon. Plus, once you’re done sightseeing, you can cool down with some iced coffee at Cafe Bialik (No. 2 on the street).

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Nostalgia Sunday – Hannuka like it used to be

December 28, 2008 - 10:25 PM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: General, Israeliness, Life, Nostalgia Sunday, Politics, War 

hannuak_stuffBack in the old days, children, Hannuka was a simple holiday without all the hoopla surrounding it today. The Hannuka menorah had eight branches and space for a ninth shamash candle in the center.

We lit the menorah with candles from Israel that came in a box decorated with some young fellows who became part of the family, meaning that, as the years wore on, one barely noticed that they were weird-looking and awkward – just happy to see them again.

We ate latkes, deep fried and slathered in sour cream and applesauce. We were given hannuka gelt, in both chocolate and coin form, and gambled it away playing dreidel. Yes, here and there an elderly relative would try to get us to play for walnuts, as they did in the olden days, but we were hard-nosed little capitalists and stuck with the legal tender.

There were none of these new-fangled conceptual art menorahs, like this one here, called Hanukit. hanukit01 Just plain old cast metal hannukiyot.

As the leitmotif of the day, it seems appropriate to explain that the name “Operation Cast Lead” comes from a children’s song by our national poet Haim Nahman Bialik. Translated, it goes: “My teacher gave me a dreidel / A dreidel made of cast lead / Do you know what it’s for? / Do you know what it’s for? / It’s for the hannuka holiday.” And so, they who name military campaigns, in their attempt to be clever, have ruined something lovely; will we ever again be able to sing that song without irony?

Tags: , , , ,

 

© 2012 ISRAELITY | Sitemap