subject: A Brief History Of Tel Aviv-yafo [print this page] On April 11, 1909, a number of families gathered on the waterfront outside Yafo to subdivide pieces of land to create a new residential area called Ahuzat Bayit. This is the center that was later renamed as Tel Aviv. In order to ensure equitable allocation of the land, the families carried out a lottery.
The lottery was headed by Akiva Arieh Weiss, who played a key role in establishing the city. He collected sixty white seashells and sixty gray ones. The names of the people taking part in the allocation were written on the white shells while the gray shells contained the plot numbers. Akiva Arieh Weiss paired the gray and white shells randomly, thus determining which family got which plot. That marked the beginnings of Tel Aviv city.
Jewish immigration, which was known as the Second Alyia, was at its peak during this time. Overpopulation of Yafo, which was a port city, prompted this movement of people. Most of the immigrants were middle-class Europeans who still wanted to maintain the type of neighborhood they had lived in. These people wanted to establish a modern Yafo suburb.
When Sir Patrick Geddes, a Scottish urban planer, came to Tel Aviv, he spurred on development of the city. The city was expanding in a rather unplanned manner, hence the municipality sought the services of Sir Patrick Geddes in 1925. He envisioned Tel Aviv as the garden city that its founders had in mind. He planned the city in such a way that residential streets were separate from the main streets and pedestrian boulevards that were filled with vegetation. He designed a number of shared public areas, which included squares and parks.
There were new developments in the city, beginning from 1932 following the immigration of Jews who fled persecution in other parts of Europe. By 1936, the city's population had rapidly expanded to 130,000 people. Tel Aviv was designated as a city before this, in 1934. The city's first mayor was Meir Dizengoff.
Such a massive influx of people created great demands for housing. This resulted in a new type of architecture known as Modern Movement or Bauhaus. Among the immigrants were many architects who helped transform Tel Aviv to what became known as the White City. The more than 4,000 buildings made UNESCO declare the city as a World Heritage Site in 2004.
By the 1930s, the city was the largest economic center in the country. It has many cultural and social institutions. It played a great role in the development of the Hebrew culture.
Tel Aviv is one of the cities that the Arabs and Jews have disputed bitterly over. Many of the locals fled the city. April 1950 marked the merger of Tel Aviv and Yafo, resulting in the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo.
The city continued to experience decline until the 1980s when young, ambitious people started moving to the city. That resulted in a great deal of renovation, and the initial vision of its founders was achieved.
