#solem asch

[molecoledigiorni]

Sognare la persona che vorresti essere significa sprecare la persona che sei.

- Sholem Asch

[telavivgallery-blog]

Artist: unkown

Tel Aviv is, and has always been, a unique city because it has both a bustling urban environment and a lively beach scene.

In early 1900s, Tel Aviv’s presence on the international stage grew and it quickly became a tourist destination. The city’s seashore, specifically, attracted tourists to stay at hotels and rent apartments by the sea. The beach was a place of “worldly pleasures and physical activities” that was  “incorporated into the rhythms of the city” (Azaryahu 193). It was an important public domain, accessible to all races and socio-economic classes.

The increase of beach-seeking tourists in the city changed the city’s soundscape drastically. Israeli writer Shai Agnon spent a summer in Tel Aviv, and consequently complained that, "to my grief, rest is far away from here. The nearby Ritz Hotel seems to have won permission to become a nuisance to its entire vicinity and prevent its neighbors from having their night's sleep. It is not only the music, which will not cease before two in the morning ... but also the customers' noisy car engines and horns that will not let us to sleep. As far as I know, there is not a single resort with such manners.” In fact, around this time, Tel Aviv’s landlords complained that the city’s soundscapes caused so many of their clients to cancel their vacation plans in the city (“Soundscapes of”).

Tel Aviv’s beach also played a significant role in the context of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Zionists incorporated the splendor of Tel Aviv’s beaches into their narrative. During a wave of antisemetic attacks on Jews in Poland, Israeli novelist Solem Asch stated that, “every Jew--myself included--has two requests from God: a place in paradise in the afterlife and a place on Tel Aviv’s beach in this world.” Praise of Tel Aviv by important public figures, such as Asch, were intended to relay hope for the establishment of a Jewish State in the land of Israel (Azaryahu 194).