The Founding of 'All-Jewish City'—Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv, the first "all-
Jewish city" in modern times,
was founded in 1909 and grew
particularly in the 1930s, to
become the largest urban
settlement of the new Yishuv
and the core of a "megalopo-
lis" stretching from Herzli-
yah •in the north through,
what is Tel Aviv-Jaffa, a
merged city, to Rehovot in
the south. Tel Aviv's progress
is particularly striking be-
cause conditions detkrive it of
most of the advantages which
allowed Jaffa to thrive. Tel
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The "Evil Eye" is a wide-
spread belief that some per-
sons may produce malevol-
ent effects on others by look-
ing at them, based on the
supposed power of some eyes
to bewitch or harm by
glance. The belief in the evil
eye and the various means,
both sacred and profane, of
averting it has been very
prevalent among East Euro-
pean Jews; to this day they
exist in many oriental Jew-
ish communities. In modern
times the use of blue print
and a metal amulet in the
form of an open palm of the
hand are still widespread in
oriental communities, and
among Yiddish-speaking •Ash-
kenazi Jews, it is customary
to "qualify" any praise with
the phrase "keyn ayi
hora," often shortened to
"kaynahora" ("may there be
no evil eye"). The custom of
tying a red band around the
wrist or neck of \a newborn
child also derives from fear
of the evil eye.
In early Jewish literature
the acceptance of the exist-
ence of the evil eye as fact
precluded any theoretical ex-
planation of this phenomenon
and discussion of its origin.
Though post-talmudic litera-
ture, attempt some explana-
tions.
Measuresiaken against the
evil eye are either preventive
or protective. Prominent
men, beautiful women, and
newborn babies are especial-
ly susceptible to the evil eye.
If, however, the beauty is
veiled, riches not exhibited,
and a child covered with a
dirty bag or given an ugly
name, the happy event may
pass unnoticed. and the evil
eye thus remains passive.
Once the evil eye has been
activated, and the threat of
danger and -harm is close,
only confrontation and ex-
treme - measures based on
countermagic which deceive
or defeat the evil eye can
save the endangered person.
A mirror or a specific color
may reflect the glance; • a
holy verse may frighten the
evil eye, an outstretched
hand may stop its rays. Ac-
cording to the pronounce-
ment of the (aggadic) sen-
tence that the descendants of
Joseph are immune from the
evil eye, one should stick
one's right thumb in the left
hand and one's left thumb in
the right hand, proclaiming:
"I, so and so, am of the seed
of Joseph, whom the evil eye
may not affect."
Fine natures are like fine
poems,—a glance at the first
two lines suffices for a guess
into the beauty that waits
you if you read on —Bulwer-
Lytton
Aviv's straight, shallow shore
is unsuitable for the construc-
tion of a modern port, and
low, narrow sandstone ridges
bar the cooling sea breeze,
making the summer climate
sultry, and impeding the
drainage of rainwater from
certain sections of the city.
Only its location at a focal
point of the country's com-
munication network can be
valued as a positive factor.
Tel Aviv's beginnings go
back to the revival of the
Jewish community of Jaffa
in 1820. In that year, a travel.
e r from Constantinople
named R. Yeshaya Adjiman
became the first Jew to own
a house. Among the local
Arabs, it soon betame known
as "the Jewish house," and it
served as a temporary hostel
for newcomers. The find
Jewish settlers came from
North Africa, followed by
European Jews in the second
half of the 19th Century. The
Sephardi and the Ashkenazi
community, thus established,
were amalgamated in 1891.
After the city wall was com-
pletely demolished in 1888,
Jews began to live beyond the
confines of Jaffa's Old city.
Already the first and, even
-more, the second aliya led
to an over-crowding of the
Jewish quarters within the
city of Jaffa, and dwellings
became starce. More than 100
Jaffa Jews, 'assembled in the
Yeshurun Club, Jaffa, on
July 5, 1906, founded an Ag-
gudat Bonei Battim (House
Builder's Society). In addi-
tion to the Society's activities
within Jaffa, they intended to
establish a garden suburb
where they could retire every
evening after their day's
work in noisy Jaffa. This
small garden settlement be-
came the first "all-Jewish
city! ,
The founders could hardly
hope to be reckoned as Zion-
ist pioneers since the Zionist
movement then directed s its
resources exclusively toward
agricultural settlement. They
also had to olfercome the nu-
merous obstacles placed in
their path by the Turkish au
thorities. The members de-
posited the sum of 100,000
francs with the Anglo-•les-
tine Bank in order to pur-
chase the "Karin Jabali"
land northeast of Jaffa. The
society also obtained a loan
of 300,000 francs from the
Jewish National Fund head
office in Cologne in order to
construct the first 60 houses.
On April 11, 1909 the housing
plots were portioned out by
lottery, and this day was
henceforth regarded as Tel
Aviv's founding day. On May
21, 1910 the suburb's name
was converted to Tel Aviv,
based on the name of a Baby-
lonian city mentioned in Eze-
kiel 3:15 and chosen by Na-
hum Sokolow as the title of
his Hebrew translation of
Herzl's novel "Aitneuland."
THE DETROIT JEWISH HEWS
20—Friday, Dec. 20, 1974
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