Young Tel Aviv: A Tale of Two Cities

by Anat Helman, Haim Watzman (Translator)

Overview

Practical Zionism in the Mandate era (1920–1948) is usually associated with agricultural settlements (kibbutzim), organized socialist workers, and the creation of a formal high culture. This book fills a gap in historical research by presenting a different type of practical Zionism in Jewish Palestine—urban, middle-class, and created by popular and informal daily practices. While research on Tel Aviv has so far been confined to “positivist” historical description or focused nostalgically on local myths, Helman’s book reconstructs and analyzes the city’s formative decades on various levels, juxtaposing historical reality with cultural images and ideological doctrines. Topics include the city’s physical portrait, major public events, consumer culture, patterns of leisure and entertainment, and urban subcultures.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611683370
Publisher:	Brandeis University Press
Publication date:	07/10/2012
Series:	The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	228
Sales rank:	1,007,792
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

ANAT HELMAN is a senior lecturer in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry and in the Cultural Studies Program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments • Introduction • Portrait of a City • Public Events • Tel Aviv's Consumer Culture • Entertainment and Leisure • Subcultures in the First Hebrew City • Conclusion • Notes • References • Index

What People are Saying About This

Yael Zerubavel

"Anat Helman's Young Tel Aviv: A Tale of Two Cities offers a fascinating portrait of 'the first Hebrew city' during the interwar years. Based on a painstaking study of myriad archival and cultural sources, Helman's study presents the rich texture of daily life and public events in young Tel Aviv as it was developing into a major urban center of the Zionist Yishuv. This work addresses some aspects of Tel Aviv's life that have been little studied to date and in so doing transforms our perceptions and misconceptions regarding its early years. A must read for anyone interested in Israeli society and culture, urban history, and cultural studies."
— Yael Zerubavel, Professor of Jewish Studies & History, Rutgers University, author of Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Culture