Tel Aviv

Open House Tel Aviv

Open House Tel Aviv is one of many Open House events that takes place in cities around the world. One weekend a year, Tel Aviv opens up private spaces – designer lofts, urban villas, unique synagogues, architecturally significant public buildings, curious construction sites, plazas and gardens. During the event weekend, the public can visit, explore and discuss these sites. Many people have contributed in order to allow us all discover Tel Aviv from within during this weekend, including architects, developers, property owners, institutional administrators and many others who live and breathe the city ,including some who devote their time to trying to improve it. The inspiration for the event came from OpenHouse LONDON and OpenHouse NY, and there are several Open House events around the globe.

DocAviv Festival

Docaviv NPO acts at the heart of one of the most innovative, vital, and surprising creative arenas – that of documentary filmmaking. Our vision is to provide unique platforms throughout Israel for screening documentaries, exposing new audiences to the genre and to films that re-examine and expand its boundaries. Docaviv – the Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival is the largest film festival in the city of Tel Aviv, and the only festival in Israel dedicated exclusively to documentary films. It is among the world’s leading documentary festivals, with over 130 new local and international documentaries screened each year. The program includes several competitions: The Israeli Competition, the International Competition, the Depth of Field Competition, the Shorts Competition, and the Student Competition. The Festival also features a special tribute program dedicated to the work of esteemed filmmakers, as well as themed programs dedicated to music, art, social issues, virtual reality and new technologies, and other curated programs. As a festival that aims to encourage the creation and distribution of influential, moving and powerful films, Docaviv hosts a range of multi-faceted workshops and meetings with the world’s leading documentary filmmakers, including Michel Gondry, Alan Berliner, Ondi Timoner, Brett Morgen, Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Claire Simon, João Moreira Salles, Ruth Beckermann, Kazuo Hara and others. The Festival also holds several industry events, including one-on-one meetings between Israeli filmmakers and international decision makers, and DOC-LAB-TLV, a rough-cut lab with international mentors. In 2018, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences listed Docaviv as one of the leading festivals whose winners automatically qualify for Oscar consideration. From this year on, the winners of the Israeli, International and Short film competitions at Docaviv will be eligible to compete for an Oscar in the documentary category. Each year, Docaviv awards Israel’s largest prize for an original Israeli documentary production, alongside other prizes for Israeli and international films, and outstanding student films. Prizes are also awarded to the winners of Docaviv’s annual student pitching competition and the documentary competition for high school students. Furthermore, the NPO is dedicated to supporting and encouraging young documentary filmmakers through various projects, such as DocuYoung, a hands-on documentary workshop for teenagers. The resulting films are screened each year at the Festival. Throughout the Festival’s ten days, the celebration of documentary cinema takes place at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and other venues throughout the city. In order to expose as wide an audience as possible to documentary works, the NPO also organizes two regional festivals: Docaviv Galilee, held in Ma’alot Tarshiha, and Docaviv Negev, held in Yeruham, as well as dozens of documentary film screenings at cultural centers throughout the country. In 2017, we launched Docaviv Cinema, providing film lovers with monthly screenings of the year’s greatest documentaries all year round, at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and various cinematheques across the country. The Festival and NPO were founded in 1998 by Ilana Tzur, who served as Festival Director for 12 years. The first edition of Docaviv Festival was four and a half days long, with 46 films screened. It was attended by 5,000 filmgoers. Today, Docaviv is Tel Aviv’s largest film festival, with an audience of over 67,000. In 2008, Galia Bador was appointed Festival Director and CEO of the Docaviv NPO. in 2016, Karin Rywkind Segal was appointed Artistic Director.

Tel Aviv Vegan Festival

Israel has been lauded as the most vegan nation on earth, winning accolades as a top tourism destination for vegans. The Tel Aviv Vegan Festival is the largest vegan festival in the world. Tel Aviv, consistently rated as one of the best cities for vegans and full of yummy vegan restaurants, brings paradise to vegans for two days. Vegans can enjoy over 100 stalls from the most delicious vegan restaurants and stores throughout Israel. Each year, the municipality of Tel Aviv, expects no less than 50,000 people to attend the event who indulge in a huge variety of vegan dishes and products.

White Night in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv’s White Night celebration is one of the biggest events of the year, with all night parties; and when the shop owners and restaurants literally don’t close. Stores that usually close at 10pm will be open till 6am and beer will be drunk and music will be heard in different public locations throughout the city. Even some museums and galleries stay open all night, so there are hundreds of things to do!  

Tel Aviv Dance Festival at the Suzanne Dellal Centre

The Tel Aviv Dance Festival at the Suzanne Dellal Centre in Tel Aviv is a vibrant celebration of contemporary dance that captivates audiences from around the world. Set against the backdrop of the city's artistic charm, this annual festival showcases a diverse array of cutting-edge performances by both renowned and emerging choreographers, offering a fusion of creativity, innovation, and raw talent. From powerful and emotive storytelling to mesmerizing displays of movement and expression, the festival creates an immersive experience that leaves spectators in awe. As dancers take the stage in the state-of-the-art facilities of the Suzanne Dellal Centre, the festival becomes a melting pot of cultures and artistry, truly reflecting Tel Aviv's position as a global hub for artistic brilliance. For more World Jewish Travel summer festival listings in Israel and around the world click here.

Israeli Animation Festival

Asif, the main annual event of Israeli Animation, was founded by ASIFA Israel in 2000, and is produced by Animix Festival, in collaboration with the Israeli animation community. Asif aims to celebrate the crop of creative works made in the past year, and promote the art of animation in Israel, with the collection, sorting, documentation and Israeli animated films screening . Asif features selected films and an awards ceremony. Image attribution: iIraeli Animation Festival Animix via TouristIsrael

Tel Aviv Shabbat Project

The Shabbat Project is an international movement that unites all Jews to keep one Shabbat together. The Tel Aviv branch is powered by White City Shabbat.

International Hummus Day

The day that celebrates all things hummus was created by Ben Lang, a tech entrepreneur who got things started at a Tel Aviv hackathon in 2012.

Shavuot

Shavuot, the feast of weeks, is celebrated seven weeks after the second Passover seder. Although Shavuot began as an ancient grain harvest festival, the holiday has been identified since biblical times with the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. The word Shavuot means "weeks", and it marks the conclusion of the Counting of the Omer. Its date is directly linked to that of Passover; the Torah mandates the seven-week Counting of the Omer, beginning on the second day of Passover, to be immediately followed by Shavuot. This counting of days and weeks is understood to express anticipation and desire for the giving of the Torah. On Passover, the people of Israel were freed from their enslavement to Pharaoh; on Shavuot, they were given the Torah and became a nation committed to serving God. One of the biblically ordained Three Pilgrimage Festivals, Shavuot is traditionally celebrated in the Land of Israel for one day and for two days in the Diaspora. While there is more awareness of the festival in Israel among secular Jews, generally Shavuot is widely ignored by non-practicing Jews. The practice of staying up all Shavuot night to study Torah – known as Tiqun Leyl Shavuot – is linked to a Midrash which relates that the night before the Torah was given, the Israelites retired early to be well-rested for the momentous day ahead. They overslept and Moses had to wake them up because God was already waiting on the mountaintop. To rectify this perceived flaw in the national character, many religious Jews stay up all night to learn Torah. Any subject may be studied on Shavuot night, although Talmud, Mishnah, and Torah typically top the list. People may learn alone or with a chavruta (study partner), or attend late-night shiurim (lectures) and study groups. In keeping with the custom of engaging in all-night Torah study, leading 16th century kabbalist Isaac Luria arranged a recital consisting of excerpts from the beginning and end of each of the 24 books of Tanakh (including the reading in full of several key sections such as the account of the days of creation, the Exodus, the giving of the Ten Commandments and the Shema) and the 63 tractates of Mishnah, followed by the reading of Sefer Yetzirah, the 613 commandments as enumerated by Maimonides, and excerpts from the Zohar, with opening and concluding prayers. The whole reading is divided into thirteen parts, after each of which a Kaddish d-Rabbanan is recited when the Tiqun is studied with a minyan. Today, this service is held in many communities, with the notable exception of Spanish and Portuguese Jews. The service is printed in a book called Tiqun Leyl Shavuot. There exist similar books for the vigils before the seventh day of Pesach and Hosha'ana Rabbah.