Being Cool Abroad

By Avi Shilon
Ha’Ir, September 15, 2006

City Guide Tel Aviv, which is now available in major cities throughout the world, presents Tel Aviv as more up-to-date, cultured and fashionable than ever. Are we talking about aesthetic Zionism? According to the editors of the Guide, the point is actually local patriotism

Dalit Nemirovsky and Lisa Goldman succeeded in summarizing nearly all the Foreign Ministry’s public relations efforts of the past 58 years in one book. Tel Aviv, which according to Hassan Nasrallah is the capital of Israel, was never more attractive than as it appears on the pages of the recently published City Guide Tel Aviv.

Nemirovsky (28), who produced and edited the book together with Mati Bourdo, was until recently a shift manager at the Brasserie and is completing a Master’s degree. This is her first literary venture.

The book’s biggest advantage is that it is one of those “how come I never thought of that?” ideas. That is, instead of driving yourself crazy trying to think of how to market Tel Aviv as a f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s city not just to the rather biased Jews of France, Nemirovsky chose the simple solution: to describe the city as seen through the eyes of an average young Tel Avivian, who not only knows it like the back of her hand, but is also familiar with its aesthetic and cultural aspects.

As mentioned above, Nemirovsky worked at the Brasserie. She also studied history, participated in the production of a film and danced with Ido Tadmor’s troupe. She says that the common factor in all her endeavors is “Love of art, books and Tel Aviv. My thesis is going to be about how the visual arts and film reflect history. The book was born of my love for the city and its style. The idea was to produce a guidebook that would be distributed primarily abroad and that would not be about politics but rather the aesthetic and cultural aspects of the city.”

The guide is divided according to area: north, south, center, downtown, the heart of the city and Jaffa. The descriptions of each area include information about designers, restaurants, cultural offerings and fashion. The guide purposely integrates the interior and the exterior. Natan Dvir’s stunning photos are printed on high quality glossy pages, and they show a side of Tel Aviv that the residents of King George Street never dreamed they’d see. The general sense is that, except for money – which surprisingly does not yet grow on the trees here – we really have everything. Fashion designers, architecture, nightlife, beaches, restaurants and quite a lot of natural green vistas.  The most prominent aspect of the guide is its up-to-date feeling.

“I don’t believe that a guide of this quality was ever published. We live in country that has a lot of political and security problems, so usually books about Israel address those issues. Our book is about the style and art of the city. It is also the most pertinent. Lonely Planet hasn’t updated its guide to Israel since 2000, and it doesn’t include any information about the fashionable boutiques of Tel Aviv, for example.”

The book is already available on Amazon.com, and at bookstores in New York and London. The French version will be available in – where else? – Paris in another two weeks. Besides providing a boost to the local economy, the book should also bolster the faltering tourism industry. “I have no doubt that anyone who reads the book in New York or any other place in the world will be surprised,” says Nemirovsky. “Tel Aviv will enchant him. The Foreign Ministry was amazed. We met them, and they said they’re going to help with distribution. The Municipality of Tel Aviv might also be involved.”

Cool Abroad

Are we talking about a new idea – aesthetic Zionism? Nemirovsky is not inclined to go that far. “I’m delighted by every effort to promote the distribution of the book, including the connection with the Foreign Ministry, but I don’t want to talk about Zionism or anything like that because the book is not meant to convince anyone to come visit. The book was born of pure love for the city and of the knowledge that, with all the arguments about politics and security, people around the world are missing the fact that Tel Aviv is a cosmopolitan city that deserves to be written about. There are books about Barcelona, for example, and Tel Aviv is no less stylish or cultured.”

The book touches on various underground aspects of the city, like the flowering of the fashion design industry. It also invites the reader to visit the right places but does not go into depth about them. Cantina, for example, is presented as a place that rarely has an available chair, but the book doesn’t explain precisely why the restaurant is so popular. A visitor who reads the book diligently will find all the cool places, but he won’t really understand why they have been designated as such.

There is little about the inexpensive aspects of Tel Aviv. Not a word about Aikam’s bourekas. “We’re not going to write about places like the best shawarma on King George, because we decided to create a guidebook with style, and style is Armadillo or Orna and Ella but not shawarma. This is not a guidebook for backpackers. It’s a book for people who are interested in the stylish Tel Aviv.” For the same reason Nemirovsky did not include information about the illegal underground aspects of the city. “There are a lot of drugs in the city, but that is not part of what we want to promote. I also don’t think it would have been correct to write that Whisky a Go Go attracts a less cultured crowd than the Breakfast Club. Not only because it’s not true, in my opinion, but also because I preferred to describe things in a positive light. So, for example, in the Guide it says that Whisky a Go Go attracts a celebrity crowd and the place looks like a nineteenth century bordello, and that the Brasserie attracts a lot of stars. Based on that, people can decide to go to the place that suits their style, without my telling them what my preferences are. On principle, we only wrote about places that are worth visiting.”

Mueums were also shunted into a corner

“The museums are listed in an index at the end of the book, because the goal was to raise awareness of Tel Aviv as Tel Avivians experience the city. To present the added value of life here, not via museums or historical sites that they can read about in travel brochures or conventional guidebooks. I thought it was more important to detail the history of Sheinkin Street than the history of Etzel. The book is about the orientation of Tel Aviv as it is, and in the most relevant manner, like the neighborhood bar Armadillo on Ahad Ha’am.”

Non-stop, with self-confidence

Nemirovsky initiated, edited and guided the project, but Lisa Goldman (39), a freelance journalist who has written for The Guardian and other foreign publications and works for the bureau chief of Corriere Della Sera, is responsible for the graceful writing. She immigrated to Israel less than a decade ago. “I was delighted when Dalit presented the idea to me,” she says. “Not only because I love Tel Aviv very much, but also because there is not a single book about Tel Aviv culture. In fact, there is hardly a single book about Israel that is not written from the perspective of the Jewish-Arab conflict. So I saw a fantastic opportunity in this book.”

Goldman’s involvement is particularly significant because she is able to compare Tel Aviv with its competitors. “I lived in New York for 10 years and I can say without reservation that I much prefer Tel Aviv. Not just as a Jew. Tel Aviv is a dynamic, non-stop city but there is also a sense of security here and that is significant. There are no other large western cities where women can wander around at two or three o’clock in the morning without feeling threatened.”

During and after the war Tel Aviv came under a lot of criticism for being detached from the rest of the country. What’s your opinion?

“I’ve heard people speak derisively of the Tel Aviv attitude, but that attitude is rather charming to me – especially in comparison to the attitude you find in other western cities. Tel Aviv does have a self-satisfied aspect, but it’s an ironic sort of self-satisfaction – a kind of self-mocking attitude that I actually like. It’s not just Jewish tourists who fall in love with Tel Aviv. Palestinian and Lebanese friends who visited the city think it’s pretty impressive too.”

You wrote about a lot of different places, but Tel Aviv is mostly about the people who live here. In your opinion, are there any people who particularly represent Tel Aviv in terms of its international style?

“It’s really difficult to choose just one person, but perhaps Rel Nadel, one of the owners of Whisky a Go Go, is a good example of Tel Avivians who dare to take chances, to try. They don’t feel limited even when they admit they might not succeed. And a lot of ideas born in Tel Aviv didn’t succeed, but that attitude of daring to try in any field is very representative of Tel Aviv.”

People always compare Tel Aviv with New York. Are they so similar?

“Even though I’ve never visited Beirut, based on what I’ve been told it seems that the city which most resembles Tel Aviv is Beirut. Both are large cities that combine nightlife and beach life, business and art, and especially a sense of joie de vivre. At any rate, whenever I return from abroad – whether it be New York, London or any other city – I always feel a sense of relief when I land in Tel Aviv.”