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A TALE OF TWO CITIES

Bridging the Gap between

Jerusalem and Tel Aviv

Rabbi Doron Perez

he distance between Israel’s two undisputed hub of Israel’s commercial life State of Tel Aviv”, a sort of state within
largest cities, Jerusalem and Tel – an extraordinary achievement for a city a state of primarily liberal and secular
Aviv, represents the greatest chal- which did not exist 110 years ago! middle- and upper-class Israeli Jews.
Tlenge facing Israel today.
Not to be outdone, the story of modern-day In the State of Israel’s early years, religious
Of course, I am not referring to the 50 kilo- Jerusalem is no less remarkable. In con- communities also flourished in Tel Aviv,
meters that separate the two cities but to trast to Tel Aviv, the 4,000 year old holy which was home to 650 shuls and over 20
the religious, social and cultural schism city is one of the oldest cities in the world. Chassidic courts. Sadly, the religious com-
which lies at the heart of modern-day The greatest surviving city of antiquity, munity steadily declined, and by 2010 over
Israel. There are many fault lines in Isra- it has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 100 shuls were permanently closed while
el’s social order, but none as crucial to the times, attacked 52 times and recaptured the vast majority of the others became
long-term success of our nation’s future. 44 times. Israel’s largest city, Jerusalem inactive. Most religious Jews and commu-
In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens now has a population of 900,000, growing nities in the area relocated across the high-
portrays the social and cultural milieu of eighteen-fold in only 100 years! way to Bnei Brak and other parts of Israel.
French and English society at the time of Only a handful of yeshivot and dwindling
the French Revolution, making Paris and Clash of cultures Chassidic courts remained.
London the setting for his social critique. Culturally, the two cities could not be more Though a modern city, Tel Aviv is surpris-
In a similar sense, the two greatest cities different. Home to the Temple Mount, ingly monolithic, made up almost entirely
of modern-day Israel – Jerusalem and Tel Judaism’s holiest site, Jerusalem is the of secular Jews of a similar socioeconomic
Aviv – capture Israel’s salient social and cradle of religious yearning and practice status and only a tiny Arab population. In
cultural challenges. for Jews, Christians and Muslims. There stark contrast, Jerusalem is 38% Muslim,
are more shuls, churches and mosques while the Jewish population, making
Two remarkable cities within one kilometer of the Temple Mount up 60% of the city, is religiously diverse.
The two cities are remarkable symbols than any other place on earth. Jewish At the same time, Tel Aviv was built on
of the astonishing success of the Zionist Jerusalem has seen explosive growth in uncultivated and uncontroversial land,
enterprise. But they couldn’t be more the number of yeshivot, seminaries, and while many neighborhoods throughout
different. Chassidic courts, and is home to tens of Eastern Jerusalem and the Old City are
thousands of religious students from hotly contested lands.
Founded in 1909 on the barren sand
dunes north of Jaffa, Tel Aviv is a new Israel and the Diaspora.
and modern city of over 450,000. The Tel Aviv stands in stark contrast. Known The monumental schism
epicenter of Gush Dan, the Greater Tel as the first modern ‘Hebrew city’, it was Jerusalem is ancient and sacred, while Tel
Aviv metropolitan area, home to over largely built by waves of early secular Aviv is modern and secular. Jerusalem is
four million people, it is the focal point of pioneers. The greater Tel Aviv area has Middle Eastern, while Tel Aviv is Western.
almost half of Israel’s population and the become known as Medinat Tel Aviv, “The Jerusalem is Israel’s spiritual center, while

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