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2 Tel-Aviv’s Birthdays: Anniversary Celebrations,
- Indiana University Press
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On 2 May 1929, for the first time in its history, Tel-Aviv celebrated the anniversary of its founding in 1909. In 1934 it commemorated its silver jubilee, and in 1959 its golden jubilee. As civic celebrations, anniversaries commemorate significant events in the history of a nation, a political regime, a religion, an institution, or culture in general. Unlike national holidays that celebrate the founding of states and regimes, the anniversaries of the founding of cities are not celebrated annually, but rather in association with outstanding years. Jubilees, centennials, and bi-centennials are common, though not an obligatory norm. As with a birthday, a city anniversary commemorates the beginning of the city and provides a calendric framework for the celebration of historical continuity that culminates in the present. Potentially shrouded with pathos and notions of destiny, the celebration of a city anniversary is saturated by the rhetoric of commitment to the city, pride in its history, and optimism about its future. Anniversary celebrations are not spontaneous . They are officially sponsored cultural productions. Promoted and produced by local elites, birthday parties of cities evince specific political priorities, ideological agendas, economic interests, and cultural conventions that underlie the form and content of the commemorative fabric and festive texture of the anniversary celebration. This essay explores three successive anniversary celebrations of Tel-Aviv as an aspect of the cultural and political history of the city. The underlying premise is that an anniversary celebration is a cultural production of the city that accords with ideas about the city and its two Tel-Aviv’s Birthdays: Anniversary Celebrations, 1929–1959 Maoz Azaryahu 14 Maoz Azaryahu history prevailing among local political and cultural elites. The three anniversaries examined here were celebrated in the “first Hebrew city” phase of the cultural history of Tel-Aviv; accordingly, their major theme was Tel-Aviv as a Zionist success story. The historical analysis of three successive anniversaries affords an opportunity to discern continuities in the form of ceremonial patterns and recurrent themes that belonged to the ideational makeup of the city. It also highlights period-specific concerns and political contingencies that underlay particular anniversary celebrations. 1929—The Twentieth Anniversary In a letter he wrote a few days after Passover 5689 (late April–early May 1929), Haim Nahman Bialik reported: The festivals were full of much noise and ado, perhaps a little too much. Pessach is becoming a vessel filled with quite a few celebrations that together fill our world to capacity.1 For the Yishuv, Passover of that year was a chain of commemorative festivals. First was Passover, the tradition-laden paradigmatic festival of Jewish memory. On the third day, Sunday, a mass event held in PetahTikva marked the silver jubilee of the Second Aliya. Produced by the central committee of the Histadrut, this anniversary was a celebration of the Zionist labor movement. Wednesday, May 1, was the last day of Passover. A public event at Beit Ha’am in Tel-Aviv attracted some 4,000 people. Leaders of the Labor movement, among them David Ben-Gurion and Eliezer Kaplan, addressed the assembled audience. The day after Passover, Thursday, May 2 (22 Nissan), Tel-Aviv celebrated the twentieth anniversary in a series of festive events.2 “Tel-Aviv Day” was extensively reported in the Hebrew press. The entire city was decorated with flags. The celebration consisted of three successive events. The opening event took place at the central hall of the Exhibition and Fair of Palestine and the Near East in the area of the future central bus station. Attended by the founders of the city, members of the municipal council, dignitaries of the Yishuv, representatives of Zionist organizations and of Jewish agricultural settlements, and the British governor of the district, the event consisted of a series of speeches by Mayor Meir [3.94.150.98] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 21:08 GMT) 15 Tel-Aviv’s Birthdays Dizengoff and guests who praised and complimented the first Hebrew city.3 As a symbolic gesture, the mayor gave the first child born in TelAviv a special certificate proclaiming him “the first natural citizen of the city of Tel-Aviv.”4 The opening ceremony concluded by sunset. Thereafter a parade of Tel-Aviv’s children and the founders, followed by the police orchestra, marched from the fairgrounds to the municipality building lit with a Fig. 2.1. Public announcement: Tel-Aviv’s twentieth-anniversary celebration, 2 May 1929. 16 Maoz Azaryahu crown on its top. While arriving at the municipality building...