Museum sights in Tel Aviv
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Bauhaus Centre
Bauhaus fans will want to stop by the Bauhaus Centre which is loaded with souvenirs and artwork. The centre runs a Bauhaus city tour on Fridays.
Bauhaus style offers simplicity and egalitarianism, designed by architects who carried socialist ideals with them from Europe to Israel. One result of their collective beliefs is the flat roof, intended to be a communal area for all the residents of each building. Of the 4000 Bauhaus-style buildings in the city, just 360 have been renovated, the rest crumbing in the salty, humid sea air, which is not kind to the plaster used for the building façades. Despite its Unesco status, there are no public funds for the restoration of…
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Nahum Goldman Museum of the Jewish Diaspora
The Nahum Goldman Museum of the Jewish Diaspora doesn't actually display any artefacts from the past. Rather, this is a good collection of models, dioramas, films and presentations chronicling the diversity of Jewish life and culture in exile. The main role of the museum, Beth Hatefutsoth in Hebrew, is to relate the unique story of the continuity of the Jewish people through exhibition, education and cultural endeavours.
Special attractions in the museum include the Feher Jewish Music Centre, the Douglas E Goldman Jewish Genealogy Centre (where visitors can register their family tree to be preserved for future generations) and a Visual Documentation Centre, which is the…
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Rothschild Blvd
This pleasant leafy boulevard was named after the Jewish family of financiers. At one time Rothschild Blvd was the address to have. It's no longer so exalted but former glories are invoked at Independence Hall (16 Rothschild Blvd), where on 14 may 1948, Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel. Previous to that, the building had been the home of Meir Bizengoff, one of the founders of Tel Aviv.
Entry includes a short introductory film and a tour of the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed.
West of the junction with Allenby St, the Haganah Museum (23 Rothschild Blvd) chronicles the formation and activities of the Haganah, the military…
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B
Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Part of an attractive modern development that includes law courts and the municipal central library, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art is home to a superb permanent collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist works, as well as some fine 20th century avante-garde. Works by Picasso, Matisse, Gauguin, Degas and Pollock feature prominently and there are some works by Jewish post-Impressionists Chagall and Soutine. The jewel of the collection has to be van Gogh's The Shepherdess (1889).
The museum often screens films and holds special exhibitions - check the Jerusalem Post on Friday or ask at the tourist information office for the Tel Aviv-Jaffa tourist booklet which usually…
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Eretz Israel Museum
The Eretz Israel Museum actually consists of 11 linked, small museums built around an archaeological site, Tel Qasile. The museum complex is made up of, among others, a planetarium, a glass museum, a folklore pavilion, a reconstruction of a medieval bazaar, a ceramics museum, and a couple of halls with temporary exhibitions. Perhaps the best section is the multimedia presentation of Baron Rothschild, the financier who paid for many public works projects in Tel Aviv in the late 19th century.
Although not all of it is exactly enthralling, it's very well done and can easily occupy a few hours of your time. To get there take bus No 24, 27 or 86.
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C
Helena Rubenstein Pavilion of Contemporary Art
Named for the woman behind the cosmetics empire, the Helena Rubenstein Pavilion of Contemporary Art is part of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and is used for temporary exhibits by guest artists, both Israeli and foreign. Admission is sometimes free depending on the exhibit, but a Tel Aviv Museum of Art ticket is valid for here, too. Call ahead before going, as the place is closed when exhibits are in transition.
The Pavilion is part of the large Heychal Ha'Tarbut (Halls of Culture) complex which includes the Mann Auditorium and Habima Theatre.
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Palmach Museum
Dedicated to the guerrilla fighters who took on the British army in the late 1940s, the Palmach Museum is a high-performance exhibit that works to both entertain and inform. Presented in a multimedia format, this museum leads visitors through several chambers that collectively describe the rise of the Palmach, their training and triumphs. It's located about 200m past the Eretz Israel Museum.
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Israel Diamond Museum
The cornerstone of the city of Ramat Gan is the Israel Diamond Centre, the vast diamond trading house that has made Israel the number-one exporter of diamonds. Sadly, the Diamond Centre is closed to the general public, but you can still get an upclose look at a woman's best friend at the Israel Diamond Museum, which shows off the process of extraction, polishing and the trade of diamonds.
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D
Haganah Museum
This museum chronicles the formation and activities of the Haganah, the military organisation that was the forerunner of today's Israel Defence Forces (IDF). It has been recently renovated in a multimedia format where you follow 'Itsik' (a fictional character) as he escapes from a European ghetto to Israel where he becomes a young war hero.
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E
Etzel Museum
The 1948 Arab-Israeli War is recorded in the Etzel Museum, an attractive smoked-glass structure built within the remains of an old Arab house close to sea. The museum presents a mainly photographic history of the Jewish victory against the Arabs in Jaffa in April 1948.
reviewed
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