The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection Feed

Archival Finding Aid

gworthey@stanford.edu — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:07:16 -0700

Use this finding aid at the Online Archive of California

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

Tel Aviv Collection Overview

jvine@stanford.edu — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:42:34 -0700

Collection Overview

The Robinson Tel Aviv Collection includes books, photographs, posters, postcards, business and architectural documents, and other materials. Approximately twenty-five percent of the collection has been digitized, and is available online; the remainder can be accessed through Stanford University Libraries' Department of Special Collections and University Archives.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

“The White City”: Bauhaus Is Our House

mgolson@stanford.edu — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:11:24 -0700

Undoubtedly the most distinctive architectural feature of Tel Aviv is its concentration of International Style apartment and commercial buildings. In a country that abounds in ancient sites, it is especially noteworthy that in March 2003 UNESCO added “The White City of Tel Aviv” to its list of World Heritage Sites.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

Education, the Arts, Popular Culture

mgolson@stanford.edu — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:52:43 -0700

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

Business and Commerce

mgolson@stanford.edu — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:51:53 -0700

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

Politics and Government

mgolson@stanford.edu — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:50:41 -0700

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

The City Expands

mgolson@stanford.edu — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:46:00 -0700

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

In the Beginning

mgolson@stanford.edu — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:40:33 -0700

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

A Tangled Knot: Arabs and Jews in Jaffa and Tel Aviv

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:15:08 -0700

Conflict between Arabs and Jews in Palestine — and in Jaffa and Tel Aviv — was inherent in the political dynamic of that time and place. Essentially, the conflict boiled down to the irreconcilable clash of two nationalisms bearing divergent historical narratives: Zionism, which advocated the immigration of Jews to their ancient homeland and the establishment there of a Jewish state; and the Palestinian national movement, whose adherents objected to the encroachment of an alien presence on their people’s land.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

The Streets of Tel Aviv: The New City and Its Setting

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:13:46 -0700

As Tel Aviv expanded, rows of apartment blocks and commercial structures were erected where previously there were sand dunes, orange groves, olive orchards, and vineyards. Agrarian villages, too, were swallowed up by the forces of urbanization. During the early 1940s the adjacent German colony Sarona was also annexed to Tel Aviv. The new city’s growth outpaced its ability to adopt modern sanitary arrangements. Among this collection’s unique items is a set of sewer diagrams prepared by a London-based engineering firm for an underground sewer system that was constructed in the 1940s.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

"In the Hands of Land Speculators": Real Estate Development and Infrastructure

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:12:01 -0700

Under the British Mandate, Tel Aviv experienced spurts of explosive growth. A small garden suburb with an initial population of 550 in 1909 expanded to more than 40,000 inhabitants in 1926, 160,000 in 1939, and 230,000 in 1947. This rapid growth led to the extension of Tel Aviv’s municipal boundaries, which engendered the annexation of Palestinian villages and the acquisition of agricultural properties, and their conversion to residential or commercial purposes.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

The Tel Aviv Municipality: Politics and Government in the Hebrew City

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:09:59 -0700

In June 1921, Tel Aviv was officially recognized by British authorities as an autonomous municipality, separate from neighboring Jaffa. This was not an amicable divorce; the municipal council was established one month after inter-communal riots in Jaffa which claimed nearly one hundred lives (including the great Hebrew writer Joseph Hayyim Brenner). Tel Aviv henceforth enjoyed a degree of local political autonomy under the British colonial administration, with its own police force, courts, taxation authority, governmental bodies, and bureaucracy.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

Constructing a Civil Society: Social and Religious Institutions

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:08:36 -0700

As new as Tel Aviv was, it possessed a wealth of voluntary organizations that simultaneously reflected Jewish traditions while comprising the ingredients of a civil society. The fundamental principle of tsedakah — charitable acts — helped to sustain the public welfare. Soup kitchens, hospitals, kindergartens, and old age homes were supported through donations solicited at home and abroad.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

The Founding Families and Their Businesses

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:06:21 -0700

The Eliasaf Robinson Collection contains a plethora of documents concerning industry, commerce, and retail trade dating from the city’s first decades. Robinson salvaged many of these from the files of firms run by members of Tel Aviv’s founding families. Two of these family-run businesses merit special mention here: Litwinsky Brothers and Chelouche Frères. Maurice Litwinsky (1888-1951), a native of Jaffa, was a banker, industrialist, wholesaler, and real estate developer in Jaffa and Tel Aviv.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

"City of Work and Prosperity": The Levant Fair

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:04:02 -0700

Tel Aviv derived its economic dynamism from its proximity to the agricultural hinterland of Jaffa (famous for its oranges) and from the ties that Jewish immigrants maintained with their (primarily) European countries of origin. This one-time suburb quickly grew into a formidable commercial rival to Jaffa. Constant frictions between Arabs and Jews in the two cities led to the opening of the Tel Aviv port in 1936 at the initiative of its mayor, Meir Dizengoff.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

The Customer Is Always Right: Consumerism and the Tug of Language

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:00:42 -0700

The image of the Jewish pioneer cultivating the land and draining swamps is perhaps the most prevalent one that we have about Jewish settlement in Palestine before 1948. However, the majority of Jewish immigrants settled in cities: Haifa, Jerusalem, and of course Tel Aviv. This was especially the case in the 1930s, with the arrival of tens of thousands of refugees from Nazi Germany – most of them urban and middle class in background. As they adjusted to their new surroundings, Jews from Central and Eastern Europe re-created a modern European consumer society in microcosm.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

A Walker in the City?

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:47:24 -0700

by Barbara E. Mann

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

Meir Dizengoff: Founder, Mayor, Booster, Businessman, Patron of the Arts

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:44:57 -0700

If one single individual can be said to personify the nascent metropolis of Tel Aviv, that would be Meir Dizengoff (1861-1936). He was born in Bessarabia (now Moldova) and as a young man became active in the Zionist movement in Russia. Trained as a chemical engineer, he settled in Jaffa in 1905, where he ran an import-export business specializing in machinery and automobiles. Dizengoff was one of the original investors in the Ahuzat Bayit settlement and served as the first mayor of the Tel Aviv municipality from 1921 to 1925 and again from 1928 until his death in 1936.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

Educating the "The First Hebrew Generation": The Herzliah Gymnasium and Other Schools

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:37:36 -0700

Prior to the establishment of Jewish settlements in Ottoman Palestine by adherents of Zionism in the late nineteenth century, Hebrew had not been employed as a spoken language for nearly two millennia. Little over a century ago there were no native speakers of Hebrew, although educated Jews were able to read and write that language. Hebrew eventually prevailed as a modern vernacular and language of state in the Jewish Yishuv in Palestine, thanks in no small part to the political, cultural, and educational institutions of Tel Aviv and other localities.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

Meir Dizengoff: Founder, Mayor, Booster, Businessman, Patron of the Arts

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:36:18 -0700

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

"The New Hebrew" and Physical Culture: Sports and the Maccabiah

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:31:01 -0700

“We have come to the Land to build and be rebuilt” – thus goes the opening refrain of a well-known Hebrew song from the Yishuv. Zionist leaders such as Max Nordau stressed the need to “normalize” the Jewish condition through settlement in the ancient land. There the “New Hebrew” might reclaim his people’s physical and spiritual health through – among other things – the cultivation of a virile (male) body. Thus would be realized Nordau’s ideal of a “muscular Jewry,” and the “degeneration” of fin-de-siècle Europe would be overcome.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

“The White City”: Bauhaus Is Our House

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:30:05 -0700

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

Iconic Tel Aviv: Avraham Soskin and Other Photographers

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:26:11 -0700

Avraham Soskin (1881-1963) was the quintessential "Tel Aviv photographer" in the first decades following the city’s establishment. His photograph of the historic lottery of housing parcels that took place on April 11, 1909, on the Jaffa sand dunes is the most frequently reproduced and widely disseminated image of early Tel Aviv. Soon thereafter, the streets of the Ahuzat Bayit suburb were laid out and the first buildings erected. From 1914 to 1933 Soskin maintained his studio at 24 Herzl Street, down the block from the new town’s principal landmark, the Herzliah Gymnasium.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

Staging Tel Aviv: The Annual Purim Carnival

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:15:45 -0700

Purim is a holiday that, as recounted in the biblical Book of Esther, celebrates the deliverance of the Jews from the hands of Haman, the villainous vizier of Persia’s King Ahasuerus. Traditionally this end-of-winter holiday (which takes place one month before Passover) offered a religiously sanctioned occasion for carousing, donning of costumes, gift-giving, and staging of special plays.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

Resources

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 09:38:21 -0700

Taube Center for Jewish Studies - http://www.stanford.edu/dept/jewishstudies/overview/index.html

SULAIR Judaica and Hebraica Collections - http://library.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/jewish/jewish.html

Israel Center (San Francisco) - http://www.sfjcf.org/israelcenter/

Ahuzat Bayit website (in Hebrew) - http://www.ahuzatbait.org.il/

Tel Aviv-Yafo Centennial Year 1909-2009 - http://www.tlv100.co.il/EN/Pages/EngHome.aspx

Tel Aviv White City - http://www.white-city.co.il/english/index.htm

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

Jaffa, the Bride of the Sea

mgolson@stanford.edu — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:40:11 -0700

The ancient port city of Jaffa (Yafa in Arabic, Yafo in Hebrew) is mentioned in the Book of Jonah and elsewhere in the Bible. Often referred to in Arabic as Urs al-Bahr (Bride of the Sea), a century ago Jaffa was typical of Levantine port cities in its religious, ethnic, linguistic, and economic mix. In 1900, out of a total population estimated at 35,000, approximately 23,000 were Muslims, with the remainder comprising Christians (5,000, of various denominations and nationalities) and Jews (7,000).

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

The Lively Arts: Literature and Music in Tel Aviv

mgolson@stanford.edu — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:14:40 -0700

Practically from its inception, residents of Tel Aviv were able to partake of a rich cultural life. Some of the leading lights of modern Hebrew literature settled there, among them the philosopher Asher Ginzberg (1856-1927) – better known by his pen name, Ahad Ha‛am – and the national poet Hayyim Nahman Bialik (1873-1934). Amateur and professional theater and dance troupes performed before enthusiastic audiences as well. A thriving classical music scene also emerged in Tel Aviv, offering chamber music recitals, stagings of operas, and symphony concerts.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

The Talkies Come to Tel Aviv: The Eden and Other Cinemas

mgolson@stanford.edu — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:05:39 -0700

The Eliasaf Robinson Collection offers striking evidence that Tel Aviv was a city of avid moviegoers. Dozens of posters, dating from the late 1920s to the mid-1930s, announce the latest cinematic offerings – both silents and talkies – from Europe and Hollywood. The earliest cinema was the Eden, built by Moshe Abarbanel and Mordecai Weisser in 1914, and located on Lilienblum Street.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

World War I and the British Mandate

mgolson@stanford.edu — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:01:44 -0700

During the First World War, Turkey aligned itself with the Central Powers and Great Britain with the Allies. As a result, Palestine became a battleground between these two empires. In March 1917 most Jews were expelled from Jaffa and Tel Aviv because they were citizens of countries at war with Turkey, and as such were considered to be enemy aliens. Some moved temporarily to other districts within Palestine and others fled as far afield as Damascus and Alexandria.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

Ahuzat Bayit and the Founding of Tel Aviv in 1909

mgolson@stanford.edu — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:00:04 -0700

In the spring of 1909, when Palestine was still under Ottoman rule, sixty-six Jewish families took possession of lots in Karm al-Jabali, on the northern outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa near the Mediterranean coast amidst dunes, vineyards, and orchards. There they established a “garden suburb” called Ahuzat Bayit (“Homestead”), which was soon renamed Tel Aviv, or Hill of Spring.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

"The First Hebrew City"

mgolson@stanford.edu — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:56:47 -0700

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

Digitizing the Collection

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:13:33 -0700

Page about how the Tel Aviv Collection was digitized.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection

Introduction

mgolson@stanford.edu — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:47:39 -0700

This year marks the centennial of the city of Tel Aviv. In the spring of 1909, when Palestine was still under Ottoman rule, sixty-six Jewish families purchased lots in Karm al-Jabali, on the northern outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa near the Mediterranean coast amidst dunes, vineyards, and orchards. The Ahuzat Bayit (literally, Housing Property) “garden suburb” soon had its name changed to Tel Aviv, or Hill of Spring. This was a scriptural allusion – the prophet Ezekiel [3:15] mentions a place in Babylonia called Tel Aviv – that also possessed a contemporary political resonance: The Hebrew translation of the book Altneuland (Old/New Land), in which the Zionist leader Theodor Herzl outlined his utopian vision for the Holy Land, bore the title Tel Aviv.

The Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection