Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Back to Opinion

A Low Fat Jewish Dream

Tel Aviv is too often looked down on as a secular city empty of Jewish identity or values. I find this far from being true. Tel Aviv was founded on a Jewish spirit that is as relevant today as ever: on the dream of living a 100% Jewish life and at the same time living the best worldly life possible. The custom of showing one’s seriousness by the amount of one’s suffering is not the game here. The leaders of last summer’s social revolution felt no conflict when they ordered sushi to eat in their tents. And in these tense days — going down to the same shelter in which I sat as a child in the Six Day War, this time with my children who themselves are soldiers — I am hopeful because at night coffee houses, theater, and seminars are open. Tel Aviv is not a bubble; it is a real, low cholesterol frontier.

Ruth Calderon is head of the culture and education department at the National Library of Israel.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

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.