Tel-Aviv, the First Century: Visions, Designs, Actualities

Afterword: Tel-Aviv between Province and Metropolis

Writing about Tel-Aviv in 1932, Poet Natan Alterman observed that Despite all indications, Tel-Aviv is not provincial; it is not provincial in the common meaning of the term. Tel-Aviv has many signs of provincialism —true indeed! Tel-Aviv is small—true indeed! But noise, multitudes, and great deeds do not make a town a metropolis . . . Tel-Aviv is far from the “foci mundi” . . . and nevertheless, it is a center, a double center, to the country, and especially to the people.1 The relationships between the city and the Israeli province on the one hand and specific world-renowned metropolitan centers such as Paris and New York on the other have figured prominently in the public discourse and cultural constitution of Tel-Aviv as an aspiring metropolis . The underlying issue was the dissonance between the apparent provincialism of the city and the persistent quest to become and be recognized as a city of distinction and fame. In an essay in 1979, literary critic Yoram Bronovsky commented: Indeed, Alterman succeeded in capturing the uniqueness of Tel-Aviv in regard to the issue of the relations between center and province. Also today Tel-Aviv is not a provincial city even though it has “many signs of provincialism.” . . . However, it has the power and essence of the center.2 According to Bronovsky, it is not the measure of the city that determines whether it is a center. Athens is a large, yet rather provincial European city; Istanbul, despite her cosmopolitan tradition, has a provincial scent. In his judgment, “Tel-Aviv preserves a measure of agitation, of energy, Afterword: Tel-Aviv between Province and Metropolis Maoz Azaryahu Be a tail to the lions rather than head to the foxes. —Pirkei Avot 4:15 which is characteristic of only a small number of cities in the world that are true foci of the center and according to them all other cities are defined as provincial.” Throughout its history, striving to make Tel-Aviv a great metropolis and addressing its provincialism commingled. The issue is one of scale. On a local (or Israeli) scale, the city qualified as a center, and from a Tel-Avivian perspective, the rest of the country, including Jerusalem, was considered periphery and deemed provincial. On a global scale, as commentators and local patriots were well aware, Tel-Aviv was on the margin when compared with the great metropolises such as Paris, London , or New York. These two scales converged in the local discourse of Tel-Aviv, evident in the ambiguity produced by the conflation of a sense of superiority and awareness of inferiority. This essay expands on notions of what Yoram Bronovsky called “The uniqueness of Tel-Aviv in regard to the issue of the relations between center and province” that contributed to the cultural constitution of Tel-Aviv as an aspiring metropolis in successive phases of the city’s history . Embedded into the city’s official ideology and articulated in the terms and patterns of popular culture, such notions were formulated in metaphorical terms highlighting certain differences and hierarchies. Of special significance for this analysis is the issue of distinction, evident in attempts to make Tel-Aviv distinctive from the local, Israeli province, and at the same time distinguish it as a city on a par with metropolises such as Paris or New York or as a city that has a legitimate claim to fame on a global scale. This analysis is divided into four parts, each dealing with a particular phase in the cultural history of Tel-Aviv. The first focuses on the “first Hebrew city” stage, which lasted from its foundation through the 1950s, when the notion of Tel-Aviv as a unique Zionist creation reigned supreme. The second part deals with the 1960s and the 1970s, when Dizengoff Street was a metonym of Tel-Aviv as a large and modern city. The third is devoted to the 1980s and the 1990s, when the celebration of Tel-Aviv as a “city that never sleeps” represented the hype around the notion of the city as a vibrant cosmopolis on a par with New York. The fourth addresses the “White City” as a contemporary expression of Tel-Aviv’s distinction as formulated in terms of architectural heritage . Afterword 407 408 Maoz Azaryahu Phase I: The First Hebrew City Celebrating Tel-Aviv as the first Hebrew city cast its essence in the mold of her unique position...