Postcard from ... Tel Aviv
This postcard is from the city that never sleeps - New York, you ask? No - Tel Aviv! I came here for a month and never left.
Politics, terrorism and ethnic strife – probably the three concepts Israel conjures up to the uninitiated. True, these may exist to a certain extent, just as they do in most corners of the globe, but there is way more than these to living and working in Tel Aviv, the city I fell in love with the day I arrived just under 10 months ago. My colleagues are not all Hassidic Jews and I don’t board public transport in fear of my life, nor do I ride to work on a camel. No, Tel Aviv is a far cry from the place you might have imagined. It’s an eclectic, vibrant, diverse Mediterranean city with effervescent 24/7 life coursing through its veins – let me share it with you.
Initially, I came for a month, seconded from a London law firm. But seduced by the June sunshine and the exciting work, I simply could not refuse an almost-immediate opportunity to work as in-house counsel at William Hill Online.
Tel Aviv is where our marketing and advertising ops are based. As the only element of our legal team out here, I work alongside my Tel Aviv colleagues advising on a range of issues. At the office, I’m surrounded by a plethora of nationalities reflecting the truly cosmopolitan fabric of Tel Aviv, the country’s business and pleasure hub. Work culture takes on a different meaning to anything I’ve ever known, with loud excited voices and a familial atmosphere pervading the office. Festivals and birthdays are celebrated in true style, our recent ‘Purim’ fancy dress party being a testament to this if there ever was one.
Every day, as I walk the 40 minutes from my beachfront apartment to my spectacular office on the 32nd floor of the Azrieli Towers - the skyscrapers that have come to symbolise the city on every postcard and tourist brochure - I bask in the sun and take in the smell of bakeries and shwarma, watching Israelis young and old bustle about on their mopeds and pushbikes or clambering onto Sherut taxis, the communal yellow minibuses, a halfway alternative to buses and taxis. Café culture is big over here and the coffee shops overflow with people easing into their day. While that day may be long - the average Tel Avivian works at least a 45-hour week Sunday to Thursday - TLV residents are party people and they know that when the working day ends, a whole new fun day lies ahead.
Thanks to the warm and sunny year-round climate, the place is energetic and home to conspicuous health-freaks. The city’s beaches are awash with toned, olive-skinned joggers, Matkot (bat and ball) players, cyclists, gym-goers (public open-air gyms are aplenty) and dancers salsa-ing away beneath the towering rows of hotels. When not exercising on Tel Aviv’s beaches, you’ll find people doing Nike sponsored night runs in the city’s gorgeous Park Hayarkon, racing up skyscrapers (guilty! Peer pressure encouraged me to race up 1,144 steps with my colleagues to reach a music and drinks filled helipad with stunning panoramic views of the town), doing triathlons in Eilat down south or swimming across the Kineret lake up north. The bug just hits you and the atmosphere is indescribable.
Weekends begin on a Thursday night with the street parties, restaurants and nightclubs filled throughout the night. The nightlife is unsurpassed and personal safety is a worry left behind in my London past.
People tend to stick to what they know best and my favourite food places include the mouthwatering Onami Japanese restaurant at Harbaa Street, Bugsy, the trendy young music bistro in downtown Florentin, and Shtupak, a locals’ fish and seafood place on Ben Yehuda.
Despite the things I miss back in London, namely my friends, my family, salt and vinegar crisps and Cadbury’s cream eggs, I would not swap Tel Aviv for anywhere else. Don’t get me wrong, as with all societies and locations, not all the clouds are lined with sliver but one thing’s for sure as I hope you’ll have gleaned from my postcard, the pros far outweigh any cons! This is THE place to be!
Natalie Seeff is legal counsel at William Hill online in Tel Aviv.
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Readers' comments (41)
S Newman | 15-Apr-2010 6:03 pm
L Meister, I couldn't have put it better myself. The point of this 'postcard' is not to offer an opinion on the Arab-Israeli conflict, but to provide an insight in to the writer's experiences as being a lawyer based in Tel Aviv.
The Arab-Israeli conflict is not black and white. It cannot be reduced down to simply blaming one side or another. Israelis and Palestinians do not all think with one mind. They do not speak with one voice, and they certainly don’t act as one body.
There are moderates and extremists on both sides of the conflict. Posting incendiary comments on TheLawyer.com doesn't highlight the plight of the Palestinian people or condone Israeli policies in the West bank and Gaza. There is a time and place for debating Middle Eastern politics and this isn't it.
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Paddy | 16-Apr-2010 8:02 am
Meister would love for us to buy the vacuous "only democracy in the ME" line - well buddy there was also a democracy in Europe which caused much damage to humanity. You should try to talk sense into your settler friends who want to cleanse the occupied lands. Once you achieve that then you will have the right to preach.
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Henry G | 16-Apr-2010 8:16 am
L Meister continues to live in his make belief world - genocide and ethnic cleansing cannot be justified on the basis that Israel is a "democracy". Israel cannot claim its a civilised nation until it stops the occupation and allows Palestinians the right to basic utilities and food imports.
You cannot expect to promote Tel Aviv without also accepting the crimes being committed on a daily basis by Israel.
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Sean Fein | 16-Apr-2010 12:06 pm
I can't wait for Postcard from...Belfast
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JS | 16-Apr-2010 1:37 pm
As a little aside to my earlier point: actually, if anything, lawyers in Israel play a very important role in highlighting human rights issues and in pursuing them in the courts. The Israeli Supereme Court very often challenges Israeli government decisions.
So to the "haters" - perhaps you could actually be more constructive and support a legal community which often goes to great lengths to support a cause you believe in.
That said, I also want to re-iterate that this article is NOT about the political situation, nor is it about "lawyering" in TA per se. It is merely about how one particular lawyer feels about living there.
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Anonymous | 16-Apr-2010 3:25 pm
Obviously missing Cadbury's Creme Eggs so much that they have become "cream" eggs in her tortured mind...
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Olivia | 17-Apr-2010 10:37 pm
Natalie, this is a great article, thank you! Finally something positive on Israel. What a change from all the negative we usually read when it comes to Israel.If the people who wrote the negative comments had visited Israel, they would actually understand how different the reality is there from the views that anti-Israeli or pro-Palestinian groups try to promote!
Yes Israel is a democracy, yes, Tel Aviv is a great city, one where Arab and Jewish families have barbecues next to each others on the see front during the weekend ... so much for the cleansing some are mentionning.
I don't want to enter in a political debate as this is not the forum for. I just want to say that this a fine article but you probably need to be open-minded and and not too stupid to understand it!!
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Aaron I-M | 18-Apr-2010 0:40 am
This is an article about a lawyers experience in Israel, not a political debate on Israel. Its like talking to a wall sometimes, the middle east is populated by authoritarian regimes with appalling human rights records. Israel is home to at least 80 human rights organisations, a vibrant free press, a democratically elected government (with Arab, openly gay MP's), a judiciary that frequently rules against the government, a politically active academia, multiple political parties and probably more journalists per capita than any other country in the world.
On the other hand, the Iranian regime, and most Arab regimes, remained brutal, closed and autocratic, permitting little or no internal dissent.
the UN could be greatly beneficial to citizens of those countries, but they were instead being ignored as report after report on Israel is compiled and you all swallow it like everyone else down at the student union.
Its really just fashionable nonsense to criticisize Israel..
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Anonymous | 18-Apr-2010 0:48 am
Paddy and Henry G are seemingly the same people? judging by the timings, grammar and opinion. I would also go as far to say that he is also Sean Fein that returned later to see if he had any replies.
This method of blogging is just to make out that ones particular opinion is very popular with others.. just saying... get a life..
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Trainer | 19-Apr-2010 4:59 pm
Natalie, thanks for a great piece. You've described Tel-Aviv as it is and have evoked the spirit of the city.
To the sneerers (the 'cadbury's egg' comment is one example) and the other bitter armchair warriors: Let's see you write similar hateful comments about other countries who are in a state of war. Oh, I forgot...these standards (double?) only apply to Israel.
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