Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Israel News

How Israelis Are Planning For A Tsunami

Wild rain in Tel Aviv is causing some bizarre sights, like a fallen cactus piece stretched across a main street.

Today, passersby stopped during their Friday pre-Shabbat shopping to look at signs delineating a path of escape in case of tsunami.

“A tsunami means an earthquake,” opined a woman taxi driver, making her way through Dizengoff Street. The driver said the signs were previously on HaYarkon Street, and are now proliferating throughout the city, including in main shopping districts.

She said there was no reason to fear the heavy rains.

During The Flood: Pieces of cacti fell on the streets of Tel Aviv. Image by Aviya Kushner

But someone must be concerned about a possible tsunami in Tel Aviv, judging simply by the number of tsunami-escape signs. As for the word for tsunami in Hebrew? Same as in English.

Aviya Kushner is The Forward’s language columnist and the author of The Grammar of God (Spiegel & Grau). Follow her on Twitter: @AviyaKushner

A message from our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren

We're building on 127 years of independent journalism to help you develop deeper connections to what it means to be Jewish today.

With so much at stake for the Jewish people right now — war, rising antisemitism, a high-stakes U.S. presidential election — American Jews depend on the Forward's perspective, integrity and courage.

—  Jodi Rudoren, Editor-in-Chief 

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.