Published: 4 June 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
A FULL-SIZED giraffe peers down from the balcony of Tel Aviv’s Beit Ha’ir, the city’s first town hall, its long neck traversing the windows of the historic building’s top two floors. A colourful toucan perches on a nearby terrace, a two-hump camel gazes north, and a tarantula creeps out of the former office of legendary Tel Aviv mayor, Meir Dizengoff.
ZOO Tel Aviv, a recently opened art exhibition, has taken over this historic edifice. The creatures currently on view are all paster models, but commemorate real lions, tigers and bears from the Tel Aviv Zoo, a beloved city attraction for 42 years of activity, from 1938 until 1980.
For nearly half that time, it neighboured the city’s current municipality at Rabin Square and housed around 800 cacophonous beasts. Municipal bureaucrats shuffled paperwork to a familiar soundtrack of trumpeting elephants and chattering monkeys.
FULL STORY The crazy tale of Tel Aviv’s Rabbi Dolittle, who brought animal world to Israel (Times of Israel)
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Photo: Rabbi Shorenstein with his pet cubs (Courtesy Meitar Collection)
