Tel Aviv

Photo credit: PhotoDisc

If Jerusalem is Israel's "Washington DC," then Tel Aviv is its "New York." In some ways, Tel Aviv is everything Jerusalem is not. Big, brash, noisy, lively, frenetic, Tel Aviv is a city that grew from a gorgeous strip of beach along the Mediterranean to become the bold and busy city that never sleeps. Known locally as the Big Orange, Tel Aviv has no holy sites and until its founding in 1909 it had no history. Instead, it has oyster bars, nightclubs, samba sessions at the beach on summer evenings, and miles and miles of Bauhaus-era buildings - a phenomenon so unique that Tel Aviv's "White City" has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Tel Aviv is the country's commercial center, and also the cultural capital. The nation's stock market is here, as is the hub of big business. Newspapers and most books are published in Tel Aviv. Concerts, opera and theater are nonstop. Galleries and boutiques are everywhere. As are colorful markets, great fashion, and revitalized neighborhoods that combine Mediterranean quaintness with Israel's particular combination of Europe and the exoticism of the Middle East. In the 1980s, Tel Aviv's Mediterranean waterfront and promenade were beautifully renewed; the sands are among the cleanest and most easily accessible urban beaches in the world.

Yet all modern Tel Aviv has several neighborhoods that have a wonderful sense of history and romance. Neve Tzedek and Florentin, once run-down and seamy, are now the hottest places for restaurants, clubs, shopping and the most lavish homes. And Tel Aviv incorporates the once-separate city of Jaffa, which does have a history going back thousands of years (the Prophet Jonah lived in this seaport before his encounter with the whale). If you climb the hill of Old Jaffa and look northward toward Tel Aviv's shoreline, you'll see a city that is coming of age and that actually stands on the threshold of majesty. It's an amazing achievement for a city not yet 100 years old.