The museums of Tel Aviv - the ANU Museum of the Jewish People,The Israeli Innovation Center at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, the Yitzhak Rabin Center, the Eretz Israel Museum. and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History
The ANU Museum of the Jewish people at Beit Hatfusot advertises itself as the only museum in the world dedicated to telling the ongoing story of the Jewish people from the biblical period to the present. It is located on the campus of Tel Aviv University in Ramat Aviv, a northern suburb of Tel Aviv. Its name ANU, which is Hebrew for "we," is meant to embrace inclusion. The museum was formerly known as Beit Hatfutsot, or the Diaspora Museum, but received a $100 million donation for expansion and reopened in March 2021 under its new name.
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Directions and parking: Enter “ANU” in Waze and click on “ANU Museum of the Jewish People”. Entrance is through Matatia Gate 2. There is paid parking for museums opposite gate #2. On Saturdays and holidays parking is only allowed on Klauzner St. outside the campus.
Public transport: There are close-by bus stops. Enter “ANU Museum of the Jewish People into Moovit.
Admission: The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday to Wednesday, Thursday 10.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m., Friday 9.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. and Saturday 10.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. Regular admission is 52 NIS and for seniors 26 NIS. Olim, college students and persons with disabilities 42 NIS. There are 75-minute guided tours in English at 1.00 p.m. on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday that focus on one floor at no additional cost. This needs to be booked in advance through their website. Admission is free on Friday, but should be booked in advance. Tourists and non-Israeli citizens must present a passport or proof of ID to enter the museum. Audio guides are available in a number of languages with 6 themes at no additional charge. There is a cafeteria and kiosks on the ground floor. Their telephone number is 03 500 8080. This is the museum’s website.
The aims of this museum are to strengthen Jewish identity, celebrate Jewish pluralism and diversity, provide Jews a sense of their legacy, and engender a sense of belonging. Technologically the museum is very advanced with 54 movies and 23 interactive displays. All explanations are in Hebrew and English.
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There are three floors of exhibits. The first floor is about Jewish foundations. It celebrates the fact that Judaism has a universal message and discusses in varying degrees of detail the Covenant betwen God and the Jewish people, the Jewish calendar, Shabbat, and the influence of the Bible on world culture. Synagogue Hall displays its renowned synagogue models from around the world. The second floor is about The Journey or migrations of the Jewish people, up to and including the State of Israel. Interestingly, the Holocaust has only a small room. This can be justified in that the holocaust is covered in other museums and this is a museum about Jewish life and not Jewish death. The third floor or Mosaic is about modern Jewish identity and culture and includes exhibits about theater, dance, cinema, music and luminaries.
This museum does have a philosophical direction. Multiculturalism is considered a means of Jewish inclusion rather than a stage of assimilation and opting out. Judaism remains on the first floor and is separate from The Journey and Jewish Mosaic. The continuing changes in Jewish life are considered worthy of exhibition but not Jewish consistency. It’s all a matter of perspective!
The Israeli Innovation Center at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation
Shimon Peres served as assistant to Ben Gurion, whom he much admired. Also, as prime minister of Israel and president of Israel. In these roles, he was very much involved in technological advances, including developing a fighter plane for Israel (a project which did not come to fruition) and Israel’s nuclear program which did. When he was alive, this building functioned as a Center for Peace and organized projects aiming at promoting peace between Arabs and Jews. An example was arranging soccer matches for youth. Since his death, it has become a center for displaying Israeli technological innovation.
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Visitors are taken on a 90-minute guided tour. A well-planned museum will try to draw attention to its exhibits, but nevertheless most people will fly over the material. This museum succeeds in engaging its visitors for the entire tour and you may even feel that you would like to return to look at material you did not have time for. Exhibits include a room in which one can listen to successful entrepreneurs from major companies discuss how they came up with their ideas and the challenges they faced in developing their project. Other rooms discuss details about the products of successful Israeli companies, the history of innovation in Israel, and a look into the future of innovation in Israel.​​​​​​​​​​
Directions: and parking: Enter “Peres” into Waze and click on “Peres Center for Peace and Innovation.” There is a municipal parking lot next to the visitor’s center.
Public transport: Enter “Peres” into Moovit and click on “Peres Center for peace and Innovation.”
Admission: Visits have to be pre-arranged through their website. Unless you already come with a group, you will be put together with one. There are no negatives to this. Opening hours are Sunday to Thursday 9.00 a.m. to 6.00 pm, and Friday 9 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. This is the phone number 03 568 0685. This is their website.
The Yitzhak Rabin Center
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This is an exhausting museum! Over 2 to 3 hours you are led through the life of the leader Yitzhak Rabin in the military and in the government, and this is linked to important military and social events in Israel. This overview is brilliant and inspiring. This center as one of the most, if not the most, engaging museum in Israel. Time passes without even noticing it.
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The exhibition begins and ends with his assassination. You begin as a participant in the mass peace rally at Kings of Israel Square (now Rabin Square) in Tel Aviv where he was assassinated by Yigal Amir, a law student and right-wing extremist opposed to the Oslo Accords. You end by listening to obituaries from family members and world leaders at his funeral.
Rabin is unabashedly and rightfully presented as a model of devoted leadership in the fields of security for Israel, civil society, democracy, and the quest for peace.
The format of this museum is brilliant. There is an inner circle that presents the life of Rabin and this is interspersed with side-chambers that present the events of that period. You are provided with an audio guide. You do not have to do anything except continue walking as it is sensor-activated. The audio is linked into the description on the wall (but is not a repeat of it). It provides music and speeches, often by Rabin himself. It is a total experience, aided by 1,500 still photographs and almost 200 short documentary films.
The contents of the museum are self-explanatory and need no elaboration. However, a timeline is useful for putting everything together.​​​​​​​​​​​
Directions and parking: Enter “Yitzhak Rabin Center” into Waze. The center is in Chaim Levanon Street. For parking enter “Muza Parking Lot” on Chaim Levanon Street or “Rokach Blvd 80 Parking” on Rokach Boulevard.
Public transport: Enter “Yitzhak Rabin Center” into Moovit.
Admission: The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday. It is closed on Shabbat. The box office closes 1½ hours before closing time. Admission is 50 NIS and 25 NIS for seniors. You are provided with an audio-guide that can be in Hebrew, English, French, Spanish, Russian or Arabic. There is no cafeteria, but there is a room with chairs and tables that provides snacks and hot and cold drinks from vending machines. Before you leave, go to the large balcony with a view over Tel Aviv. It is advised to pre-book your visit by calling *4585 or 03-745 3333, or by email order1@rabincenter.org.il or order2@rabincenter.org.il. Prebooking is not always necessary. This is their website.
Time: Recommended is 2 hours, but the average is 3½ hours.
The famous shaking of hands with Yasser Arafat in the White House.
The Center deals fairly with the issue of the Palestinian refugees.
This is the final room commemorating the murder of Yitzhak Rabin.
The Oslo Accords
Understandably, there is no discussion in the exhibits of Yitzhak Rabin’s crowning achievement, the Oslo Accords. Rabin spent 27 years as a military person, from the very beginnings of the Israel Defense Forces, first as a member of the Palmach. His quest for peace was a personal crusade, as it was for every Israeli politician in the Labor Party at that time. It was based on the assumption that peace with the Palestinians was a political issue and should therefore be ameniable to a political solution.
Almost 30 years later it is possible to ask why the Oslo Accords did not bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What went wrong?
The Israelis reached out to the leader of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, in Tunisia, and this led to mutual recognition. In a letter sent to Rabin, Arafat renounced violence and officially recognized Israel. That same day, Rabin sent a letter to Arafat officially recognizing the PLO. The Oslo Accords led to the creation of the Palestinian National Authority, which was an important step towards Palestinian self-determination. As part of the agreement, Israel withdrew its forces from parts of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and transferred control to the Palestinian Authority. A framework for future negotiations was also established and a timeline for future talks on critical issues such as borders, refugees, security and Jerusalem.
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However, extremists opposed to the peace process, namely Hamas and Islamic Jihad, continued to perpetuate violence and terrorism. The assassination of Rabin and subsequent political shifts in Israel and Palestine hindered further progress. Important issues dividing the two sides were never resolved. This would lead to the Second Intifada, a period of intense violence from 2000 to 2005. All this led to a further breakdown of trust between the two sides.
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A generous explanation from the perspective of the Palestinians for the failure of Oslo to bring about a final peace agreement was that Israel was never prepared to make enough concessions to satisfy the Palestinians, particularly with respect to the Palestinian refugees. Understandably, Israel believes that the return of refugees would lead to the end of Israel as a Jewish state and probably the end of Israel. A less generous explanation is that Yasser Arafat never intended to make the concessions necessary for a Two-State Solution at peace with Israel.
This explanation holds that since the time of the first Arab riots in the 1920s under the leadership of the Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al Husseini, a founding member of the Muslim Brotherhood, many Palestinians have held that Jews have no place in the Middle East. They believe that Palestine has always been Islamic and this cannot change. The conflict between the Palestinians and Jews is as much a religious conflict (on both sides) as a nationalistic one. Nationalist struggles are open to compromise. Religious struggles are not.
Yasser Arafat and his PLO were in a challenging situation prior to Israel reaching out to them The PLO was expelled from Jordan after the Black September conflict in 1970 and relocated to Lebanon. After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the PLO leadership was forced to move again, this time to Tunis in Tunisia. Arafat’s agreement to the conditions of the Oslo Accords gave the PLO and the Palestinians a new lease of life in their struggle against Israel. Yasser Arafat’s mission had always been to free Palestine from the Jews and this was not about to change. If all that was needed were some letters, this is what he would do.
A final peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians will need generations to accomplish. This is why Rabin’s Labor Party is now only a small political party, no longer in the government, and a Two State Solution is favored by only a minority of Israelis and Palestinians.
The Eretz Israel Museum
This focused museum deal with the history and culture of Israel, including its coins, ceramics, glassware and more. There are also temporary exhibits. The exhibits are not interactive. Pavilions are set in an expansive grounds with delightful gardens, which are in turn centered around the archeological site of Tel Qasile.
Directions: and parking: Enter “Eretz Israel Museum” into Waze. There is paid parking for museum visitors by the museum, although parking may be limited.
Public transport: Enter “Eretz Israel Museum” into Moovit.
Admission: The museum is open from Monday to Wednesday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is closed on Sunday. It is advised that a full tour of the museum takes 3 hours. Descriptions of all the exhibits are also in English. Admission is 52 NIS, free to children under 18 unless with a group, seniors 26 NIS, and students 35 NIS. There is a restaurant inside the museum with indoor and shaded outdoor seating. It is not supervised kosher. Their contract number is 03-745 5729. This is their website.
Early Canaanite pottery exhibited in the Ceramics Pavilion.
These are the pavilions in the museum:
The Kadman Numismatic Pavilion shows the story of coins and their evolution as currency from ancient times to today.
The Alexandar Museum of Postal History and Philately tells the history of postal and communications services over the last 2,500 years, especially that in the Land of Israel in the past 150 years.
The Ceramics Pavilion shows different aspects of ancient ceramics.
The Nechushtan Pavilion shows different aspects of the extraction of copper, including the restoration of an ancient copper mine.
The Glass Pavilion shows some of the world’s most beautiful and rare ancient glass utensils.
The outdoor Mosaic Square shows ancient mosaics.
The permanent exhibits at the Rothschild Center show the special connection of the Rothschild family, particularly Edmund de Rothschild, with settlement in the Land of Israel.
The Ethnography and Folklore Pavilion shows Judaica from across the globe.
There is also a Planetarium which has presentations at selected times in Hebrew. See the schedule on the museum’s website.
A building with olive presses shows olive presses throughout the ages.
To my mind, what sets this museum apart from many others are the beautiful gardens, many of which contain interesting sites, such as a pool, wine press and mill. The gardens are set around the Tel Qasile excavation site. This was first settled in the 12th century BCE by the Philistines. The excavation site is not currently open to visitors and has not been so for over a year.
It is pointed out in the brochure that most of the pavilions are to the left of the entrance. Other pavilions are to the center of the museum grounds. One can then go onwards to the pavilions at the far end of the grounds.
My own advice is to choose in advance which pavilions are of interest to you, and how, looking at the map, you will get from one pavilion to the other. Remember, the grounds are quite extensive. Also, read the brochure to find out what each pavilion is trying to show, since this is not immediately obvious just by walking through the pavilion door. It would be nice if each pavilion had a movie explaining this - but it doesn't.
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The pond is supplied by run-off water that is channeled into an underground reservoir with a natural purification basin.
The olive press consisted of a long wooden beam to which weights were attached.
A typical four-room house in the Israelite period shown in the Ceramics Pavilion.
The beginning of coinage in the Greek period shown in the Kadman Numismatic Pavilion.
The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History
The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History is in north Tel Aviv on the campus of the Tel Aviv University. There are literally thousands of exhibits on display at any one time. It is appreciated by the museum that it is impossible to view all the exhibits at one visit and that one has to be selective. The exhibits are arranged according to topic. You can go on a tour to appreciate the range offered, you can look at their website and choose displays that are either recommended, of interest to you, or both. You can also speak to the people at the desk for recommendations.
Some examples: The entire third floor covers “What makes us human” and is about the origin of humans and their anatomical and physiological evolution. There are also exhibits on studying past climates so as to prepare for the future. All their videos have subtitles in Hebrew, English and Arabic.​​​​
Directions: and parking: : The address is 12 Klausner Street. Enter “Steinhardt Museum” into Waze. There is a large parking lot under the museum.
Public transport: Enter “Steinhardt” into Moovit and click on “The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History”. There are many bus routes. For those coming by rail, the Tel Aviv University stop is a 1.2 Km/15-minute walk from the museum.
Admission: The museum is open on Monday and Wednesday 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m., Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 10.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m., Friday and holidays 10.00 to 2.00 pm, and it is closed on Sunday. Their phone number is 03-640 7070 and the ticket office 073 380 2000. Tickets can be booked through their website. It is recommended to buy tickets in advance as visitors may need to be limited at any one session. Admission is 52 NIS, seniors, students and Tel Aviv residents 42 NIS, age 5 and under free, family admission (4 people) 168 NIS. This is their website.
The web of existence for the acacia tree.
