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Dizengoff Fountain

The “Fire and Water Fountain”, commonly referred to as “Dizengoff Square Fountain”, is a Tel Avivian landmark in the center of Dizengoff Square. Dedicated in 1986, the fountain is a kinetic sculpture and the work of the Israeli artist, Yaacov Agam. Agam developed this fountain over a period of ten years and it is one of his most renowned creations. He has gained international recognition as one of the founders of the kinetic art movement. The fountain consists of an illusory and a movement dimension. These are both typically works of Kinetic and Op art, which is achieved by the use of technology and the observer’s movement. The fountain is composed of several big jagged wheels, which were designed in the kinetic style (colored geometric shapes, which are perceived as different images from different angles). A technological mechanism is automatically activated at different times of the day and the night, turning the wheels on their hinges, injecting water upwards in various forms, spitting fire upwards, while playing music. Throughout the years the fountain drew a lot of criticism from the Tel Aviv residents for the high cost of its ongoing maintenance. Until recently, the fountain was poorly maintained and occasionally stopped operating. However, the fountain was recently repainted and is a large social landmark known by all Tel Avivians.

Photo Attributions: Ted Eytan, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons Ori lubin, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons Rubinstein Felix,, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Eretz Israel Museum

The Eretz Israel Museum is a historical and archeological museum in the Ramat Aviv neighborhood of Tel Aviv. Established in 1953, the museum has a large display of archaeological, anthropological, and historical artifacts organized in a series of exhibition pavilions on its grounds. Each pavilion is dedicated to a different subject: glassware, ceramics, coins, copper, and more. The museum also has a planetarium. The “Man and His Work” wing features live demonstrations of ancient methods of weaving, jewelry and pottery making, grain grinding, and bread baking. Tel Qasile, an excavation in which 12 distinct layers of culture have been uncovered, is on the grounds of the museum.

Hapalmach Museum

Located in Ramat Aviv, The Palmach Museum is dedicated to the Palmach. This is the strike-force of the pre-state underground Haganah defense organization, which is now integrated into the Israel Defense Forces. Opened in 2000, the Palmach Museum commemorates the Palmach contribution to Israel’s establishment and designed by Israeli architects Zvi Hecker and Rafi Segal. The museum is an underground series of multi-media experience chambers, starting with a memorial for the fallen.

Tel Aviv Museum of Art

While established in 1932, The Tel Aviv Museum of Art was originally the home of Meir Dizengoff, Tel Aviv’s first mayor. In 1959, The Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art had officially opened. When the museum’s collections of modern and contemporary art began to outgrow the premises, planning for a new building began in 1963. Construction commenced in 1966 but stopped for two years due to a shortage of funds. The new museum moved to its current location on King Saul Avenue in 1971. An additional wing was built in 1999, allowing the Lola Beer Ebner Sculpture Garden to be created. The museum also contains “The Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Art Education Center”, which opened in 1988. The museum houses a comprehensive collection of classical and contemporary Israeli art, a sculpture garden, and a youth wing. In 2018, the museum set an all-time attendance record with 1,018,323 visitors, ranking 70th on the list of most visited art museums. In 2019, the museum’s ranking rose to 49th with 1,322,439 visitors. The Museum’s collection represents some of the leading artists of the first half of the 20th century and many of the major modern art movements in this period. This includes but is not limited to Fauvism, German Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Russian Constructivism, the De Stijl movement, and Surrealism. It additionally contains french art from the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists period to the School of Paris. These pieces include works of Chaim Soutine, key works by Pablo Picasso, Cubist paintings, sculptures by Jacques Lipchitz, and Surrealists works of Joan Miró.

A portion of the Museum displays Israeli Art history and its origins among local artists in the pre-state Zionist community during the early twentieth century. In 1989, the American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein created a giant two-panel mural specifically for the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, which is currently hung in the entrance foyer. The collection includes several masterpieces. Among them is the 1916 Friedericke Maria Beer Painting, painted by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt and Untitled Improvisation V. In 1914, the Russian master Wassily Kandinsky contributed to the painting as well. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, donated in 1950, includes 36 works by Abstract and Surrealist artists. These include pieces by Jackson Pollock, William Baziotes, Richard Pousette-Dart, and Surrealists works by Yves Tanguy, Roberto Matta, and André Masson. Sculptures are displayed in the entrance plaza and an internal sculpture garden. In addition to a permanent collection, the museum hosts temporary exhibitions of individual artists’ work and group shows curated around a common theme.

Carmel Market

The Carmel Market is the largest bazaar market in Tel Aviv. It is bordered by Allenby Street and Magen David Square and is principally located along Carmel Street. Over time, it has expanded to streets such as the infamous Nachlat Binyamin. The market is open every day of the week, with the exception of Shabbat [Saturday]. It sells mostly fruits, vegetables, and authentic Israeli specialties, but also contains a variety of items such as home accessories and flowers. Tuesday’s and Friday’s are the signature days at the market as several independent artists and vendors sell unique crafts, art, and jewelry along Nahalat Binyamin Street. On those same days famous Israeli Folk singer Miri Aloni performs many traditional Israeli songs that date back to the days of the establishment of the State of Israel.

Museum at Eldridge Street

Initially opened in 1887, The Museum at Eldridge Street is located in the Eldridge Street Synagogue, a magnificent National Historic Landmark. Today it is one of the only remaining historical sights related to early eastern European migration to America. The Museum offers year-round tours, exhibitions, cultural events and educational programs; detailing Jewish immigrant life and its historical roots to New York.

Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery

Located in the Lower East Side, Manhattan, Yonah Schimmel’s Knish Bakery has been in operation since 1910. Serving Knish, an Eastern European snack food, these handmade delicacies are a must for anyone’s visit to New York. Schimmel’s has served Knish to many notable guests throughout its history, such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Barbara Streisand and Woody Allen, clearly indicating its popularity as one of New York’s top Jewish bakeries.

Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy

The Lower East Side Conservancy, also known as The Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy (LESJC), is an educational and advocacy organization, created in 1998 to preserve the synagogues and cultural heritage of the Lower East Side, America’s most famous immigrant neighborhood, and present them to the public. Through the organization’s efforts, many have been designated as historic landmarks, and have been listed on New York State and National Registers. In 2000, the Conservancy assisted in designating a 32 – block area as a historic district.

Their mission is accomplished through quality touring programs, both private, public, and educational, which showcase the Lower East Side’s landmarks, history and people. As the only non-profit organization dedicated solely to the historic preservation of the Lower East Side’s sacred sites, the Conservancy has formed relationships with the leaders of all of the synagogues remaining in this iconic immigrant neighborhood.

In addition to the Lower East Side, the LESJC provides tours of other New York neighborhoods of Jewish importance, such as Jewish Harlem, the Upper West Side, and Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The conservancy aimed to transform the old Beth Hamedrash Hagadol into a visitors center for the Lower East Side with educational programs and gallery space, but the building was destroyed in 2017 with a fire, and was torn down in 2019.

Congregation Shearith Israel

The Congregation Shearith Israel – often called The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue – is the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. It was established in 1654 in New Amsterdam by Jews who arrived from Dutch Brazil. Until 1825, when Jewish immigrants from Germany established a congregation, it was the only Jewish congregation in New York City.

The Orthodox synagogue, which follows the Sephardic liturgy, is located on Central Park West at 70th Street, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The congregation has occupied its current Neoclassical building since 1897.

The first group of Spanish and Portuguese Jews were twenty-three refugees from Dutch Brazil, who arrived in New Amsterdam in September 1654. After being initially rebuffed by anti-Semitic Director of New Netherland Peter Stuyvesant, Jews were given official permission to settle in the colony in 1655. This year marks the founding of the Congregation Shearith Israel. Although they were allowed to stay in New Amsterdam, they faced discrimination and were not given permission to worship in a public synagogue for some time (throughout the Dutch period and into the British). The Congregation did, however, make arrangements for a cemetery beginning in 1656.

It was not until 1730 that the Congregation was able to build a synagogue of its own; it was built on Mill Street (now William Street) in lower Manhattan. The Mill Street synagogue was said to have had access to a nearby spring which it used as a mikveh for ritual baths. Before 1730, as noted on a 1695 map of New York, the congregation worshipped in rented quarters on Beaver Street and subsequently on Mill Street. Since 1730 the Congregation has worshipped in five synagogue buildings; the current building was extensively refurbished in 1921.

As the American Reform Judaism made headway in the late 19th century, many rabbis critical of the Reform movement looked for ways to strengthen traditional synagogues. Shearith Israel, and its rabbi, Henry Pereira Mendes, were at the fore of these efforts. Rabbi Mendes cofounded the American Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in 1886, in order to train traditional rabbis. The school held its first classes at Shearith Israel. In JTS’ earliest days, it taught and researched rabbinics similarly as was done in traditional yeshivas, in contrast to the Reform Hebrew Union College.

Twelve years later, in 1896, Mendes was acting president of JTS. He promoted the formation of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (commonly known as the OU, the Orthodox Union). This synagogue umbrella group provided an alternative to the Reform movement’s Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

As JTS grew, it needed better financing and a full-time head. The seminary moved to its own building, and Mendes was replaced by Solomon Schechter. However, Schechter developed a less traditional approach, which became the basis for Conservative Judaism (called Masorti outside North America). Initially there was considerable cooperation between the Orthodox and Conservative groups but, over time, the divide became clearer.

Schechter formed the United Synagogue of America (now the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, or USCJ) to promote synagogue affiliation with his conservative ideology.

Shearith Israel remained aligned with the Orthodox tradition. It eventually repudiated its association with JTS. In a sense, Shearith Israel helped create three of the largest and most significant Jewish religious organizations in the United States: JTS, the OU, and USCJ. Shearith Israel remains a member only of the Orthodox Union.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

The deadliest disaster to strike New York until the 9/11 attacks, 90 years later, was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory disaster. The Brown Building stands as a monument to the 146 Jewish and Italian immigrants killed by a massive fire and locked doors and is both a National Historic Landmark and a New York City Landmark.

Currently, The Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition educates the public about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire through its ongoing projects, educational outreach, and its social media presence. It also supports the annual remembrance activities on the anniversary of the fire on March 25 and is in the works of establishing a permanent memorial for those who lost their lives on the site.

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