Paula Honigman, 85 years old, walked into Cafe Noach this morning, sat down at one of the tables and looked around her with an expression of barely-controlled excitement. Suddenly she stood up, walked over to the wall and pointed at a black-and-white photograph. “I know those people!” she said. “I used to work here, when it was a pharmacy.”
Sarit, one of the cafe owners, took the photo off the wall so that Paula could take a closer look. She identified each of the people in the photo and told me, “This neighbourhood was where all the important people lived. I used to make deliveries to them, so I knew them all. Do you know how I felt when I came in here and sat down, after all these years? My heart was going like this! Poom, poom, poom.”
This is Cafe Noach today, as captured by the fabulous Idan Gazit.
And here is a very sad article in the Wall Street Journal about the age-old Jewish fear. It doesn’t matter whether or not the fear is well-grounded; in this case, as in so many others, perception is everything.
On Saturday night the Tel Aviv municipality kicked off the centennial year celebrations with a concert and fireworks at Rabin Square. Zubin Mehta conducted the Israel Philharmonic, followed by Berry Sacharoff* and assorted pop stars. I arrived late, as usual, so I missed the first half.
There were masses and masses of people – more than I’ve ever seen for any event at the square. I am not so into noise and crowds – actually, I really can’t stand them – so I was glad that Idan Gazit’s brother lives in a building with a rooftop view. I am also glad that Idan brought his camera. He put a set up on Flickr; below are a few of my favourites.
Oh, and here is a link to TLV100, the site that lists all the events planned for the centennial.
Just because so many people tell me I should blog more frequently, to which I reply that I need hours to write every post, to which they reply that not every post needs to be an epic, for heaven’s sake, to which I said, Wow, that’s true.
Last night my friend D came down from Jerusalem for a night of eating, drinking, gossiping and giggling. Below are a few photos I took between glasses of Shiraz (never leave home without your compact digital camera).
Rothschild Boulevard, all dressed up for Tel Aviv's 100th birthday
Tapas bar
Inauthentic, overpriced yet tasty TLV interpretation of tapas.
Tel Aviv turns 100 on April 9. To celebrate, I’ve written a paean to my beloved city for the Forward. It starts like this:
“Every few weeks, gay Arab men from all over Israel gather for a party at a rented nightclub on Tel Aviv’s Herzl Street. The highlight of the evening is a drag show, with heavily made-up amateur performers dressed as sexy, pouting Arab pop stars. They are followed by Raafat, a performance artist from Jaffa, who lip-syncs old-fashioned Palestinian nationalist songs. Nearly all these men lead double lives; if they were to reveal their sexual orientation in their conservative communities, they would risk ostracism or even death. But in Tel Aviv they are free to celebrate their Palestinian, gay identity — at a club located on a street named after the founder of modern Zionism.
This scene probably wasn’t exactly what Tel Aviv’s founders had in mind when they envisioned the first Hebrew city. But when one recalls that their intention was to build a truly modern city, informed by the ideals of 19th-century European liberalism and of the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment, it makes perfect sense. They laid the groundwork for the Middle East’s most forward-looking and culturally vibrant metropolis.”
I am a freelance journalist and blogger, currently based in Jaffa. I write mostly about Israel-Palestine (IsPal). Since co-founding +972 Magazine, I post all my articles in both blogs.
