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It was a beautiful, clear, windy day when we arrived in Tel-Aviv on Saturday afternoon during Shabbat.  The street-side cafes were packed with people and the waterfront area was bustling with activity.  This liveliness in the Jewish secular city of Tel-Aviv on Shabbat was a world apart from what we had experienced on the same holiday in more conservative Jerusalem where the streets were relatively deserted until sundown.

On the waterfront beach volleyball was going strong, sailboats and windsurfers were catching the breezes, sun worshippers and children were frolicking in the sea, couples played hardball on the boardwalk, and joggers were dodging the human traffic.  But what really caught my attention was a large eclectic group of mostly-middle-aged people who were dancing to lively tunes on the boardwalk.

The music which was blasting out of a couple of speakers had a “folksy” sound to it.   Line dancing  changed to couple dancing then back to line dancing.  All were welcome to spontaneously join in.   This activity was eons away from the kind of dancing and chanting I observed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, I thought.  A woman visiting from Austria who was standing next to me was trying to coax her male companion to join her on the “dance floor”  She told me that whenever she visits Tel-Aviv she tries not to miss dancing on the beach on Shabbat.

We later learned that the music we heard that day was derived from the folk music of the Russian immigrants who came to Israel and founded the Kibbutzim many years ago.

This secular city swings!

Shalom
Merrilee

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