9781684582563
9781684583010
The literary memoir of a founder of Tel Aviv, now available for the first time in an annotated English translation.
Born in Jaffa in 1870, Yosef Eliyahu Chelouche grew up within a notable Sephardi family in the local Jewish community. He went on to become a prominent entrepreneur; a founder of Tel Aviv; and a fierce critic of the Ashkenazi Zionist leadership, Arab nationalism, and British colonial sectarianism; before emerging, in the last decade of his life, as an anguished public figure struggling to repair Arab-Jewish relations.
His memoir paints an intimate portrait of life in Palestine at the turn of the twentieth century, told from the perspective of a Middle Eastern Jew deeply embedded in local society. By centering on the world and experiences of a native Jew who was an eyewitness to and participant in the unfolding conflict in Palestine, this book shows how the course of Zionist politics and Jewish-Arab relations in pre-state Palestine might have taken alternative pathways. A comprehensive introduction sets the scene in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Jaffa and thoughtful annotations contextualize Chelouche’s story within the modern history of Palestine and Israel. Between Jaffa and Tel Aviv, 1870–1930 tells the fascinating story of a civic leader—and offers a complex view of the various cultural, social, and political forces that forged multilayered Jewish identities in the Middle East. The book includes a family tree and is illustrated with photographs of the family and scenes of Jaffa and early Tel Aviv.
Born in Jaffa in 1870, Yosef Eliyahu Chelouche grew up within a notable Sephardi family in the local Jewish community. He went on to become a prominent entrepreneur; a founder of Tel Aviv; and a fierce critic of the Ashkenazi Zionist leadership, Arab nationalism, and British colonial sectarianism; before emerging, in the last decade of his life, as an anguished public figure struggling to repair Arab-Jewish relations.
His memoir paints an intimate portrait of life in Palestine at the turn of the twentieth century, told from the perspective of a Middle Eastern Jew deeply embedded in local society. By centering on the world and experiences of a native Jew who was an eyewitness to and participant in the unfolding conflict in Palestine, this book shows how the course of Zionist politics and Jewish-Arab relations in pre-state Palestine might have taken alternative pathways. A comprehensive introduction sets the scene in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Jaffa and thoughtful annotations contextualize Chelouche’s story within the modern history of Palestine and Israel. Between Jaffa and Tel Aviv, 1870–1930 tells the fascinating story of a civic leader—and offers a complex view of the various cultural, social, and political forces that forged multilayered Jewish identities in the Middle East. The book includes a family tree and is illustrated with photographs of the family and scenes of Jaffa and early Tel Aviv.
400 pages | 6 x 9 | © 2025
The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry
History: Middle Eastern History
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Editors’ Acknowledgements
Notes on Transliteration
List of Figures
Editors’ Introduction
Parashat Hayay: The Translated Memoir
Forward
Part I
Chapter 1: Days of My Infancy, Childhood, and Youth
Chapter 2: The Kidnapping of Yosef
Chapter 3: My Earliest Life Experiences; The First Pioneers
Chapter 4: My School Days in Beirut
Chapter 5: My engagement, and my father-in-law Rabbi Avraham Moyal
Chapter 6: My wedding, and my entry into the world of commerce
Chapter 7: In the days of the Turkish regime
Chapter 8: Visits to our home by famous people
Chapter 9: Between building and destruction
Chapter 10: Founding of Tel Aviv and construction of the Gymnasium
Chapter 11: New Company and The Shield association
Chapter 12: The silicate initiative, my dream - and those for whom it came true
Part II
Chapter 13: Beginning of the World War
Chapter 14: The days of Ottomanization and the cruel expulsion of the foreign subjects
Chapter 15: The final days in power of Baha al-Din and the audience with Djemal Pasha
Chapter 16: Days of hunger in the land
Chapter 17: The Expulsion of Jaffa and Tel Aviv
Chapter 18: A terrifying night in deserted Jaffa and more…
Chapter 19: The entry of the English into Petah Tikva, and their departure
Chapter 20: And they journeyed and encamped in the village of Qalqilya
Chapter 21: From Qalqilya to Kafr Jammal
Chapter 22: Informers, the Turkish government and kindly Arabs
Chapter 23: Imprisoned in Tulkarm, and once again in Kafr Jammal
Chapter 24: The arrival of the redeemers and conquerors of our country
Chapter 25: Following the Balfour Declaration, days of light and shadow
Chapter 26: Bloody clashes in Jaffa, May 1921
Chapter 27: The neighborly relations that broke down
Chapter 28: My work on behalf of building and expanding Tel Aviv
Chapter 29: The bloody riots of August 1929, and their aftermath
Epilogue
Chelouche Family Tree
Bibliography
Editors’ Acknowledgements
Notes on Transliteration
List of Figures
Editors’ Introduction
Parashat Hayay: The Translated Memoir
Forward
Part I
Chapter 1: Days of My Infancy, Childhood, and Youth
Chapter 2: The Kidnapping of Yosef
Chapter 3: My Earliest Life Experiences; The First Pioneers
Chapter 4: My School Days in Beirut
Chapter 5: My engagement, and my father-in-law Rabbi Avraham Moyal
Chapter 6: My wedding, and my entry into the world of commerce
Chapter 7: In the days of the Turkish regime
Chapter 8: Visits to our home by famous people
Chapter 9: Between building and destruction
Chapter 10: Founding of Tel Aviv and construction of the Gymnasium
Chapter 11: New Company and The Shield association
Chapter 12: The silicate initiative, my dream - and those for whom it came true
Part II
Chapter 13: Beginning of the World War
Chapter 14: The days of Ottomanization and the cruel expulsion of the foreign subjects
Chapter 15: The final days in power of Baha al-Din and the audience with Djemal Pasha
Chapter 16: Days of hunger in the land
Chapter 17: The Expulsion of Jaffa and Tel Aviv
Chapter 18: A terrifying night in deserted Jaffa and more…
Chapter 19: The entry of the English into Petah Tikva, and their departure
Chapter 20: And they journeyed and encamped in the village of Qalqilya
Chapter 21: From Qalqilya to Kafr Jammal
Chapter 22: Informers, the Turkish government and kindly Arabs
Chapter 23: Imprisoned in Tulkarm, and once again in Kafr Jammal
Chapter 24: The arrival of the redeemers and conquerors of our country
Chapter 25: Following the Balfour Declaration, days of light and shadow
Chapter 26: Bloody clashes in Jaffa, May 1921
Chapter 27: The neighborly relations that broke down
Chapter 28: My work on behalf of building and expanding Tel Aviv
Chapter 29: The bloody riots of August 1929, and their aftermath
Epilogue
Chelouche Family Tree
Bibliography