Before Bauhaus: “White City, Black City” Remembers Tel Aviv-Jaffa’s Forgotten History

Before Bauhaus: “White City, Black City” Remembers Tel Aviv-Jaffa’s Forgotten History

Written by urban planner Jesse Fox in Haaretz, this article is a summary and review of Sharon Rotbard’s “White City, Black City: Architecture and War in Tel Aviv and Jaffa.” This controversial book challenges the idyllic founding myth of Tel Aviv’s “White City” by revealing the often untold story of the neglect and destruction of the “Black City” – the more disadvantaged areas of South Tel Aviv and Jaffa, generally populated by Arabs and Mizrahi Jews.Â