Tel Aviv תל אביב
The first modern Jewish city, founded on the dunes in 5669, where the State of Israel was proclaimed.
In the spring of 5669 sixty-six families gathered on the dunes north of Jaffa and drew lots for plots — the photograph of that lottery, with its seashells, became famous. The settlement was called Achuzat Bayit and renamed a year later Tel Aviv, Nachum Sokolow's rendering of Herzl's Altneuland: tel, an ancient mound, and aviv, spring.
The city grew with the Second and Fifth Aliyot: the first Hebrew gymnasium, the first Hebrew theatre, and the Bauhaus quarters built by architects who had fled Germany — the White City. By 5699 it was the country's largest Jewish city.
On 5 Iyar 5708, in the museum hall on Rothschild Boulevard, David Ben-Gurion read the Declaration of Independence — knowing that war would begin the next morning.