1934 Brawer Zionist Map of Tel Aviv during the Fifth Aliyah

A rare Zionist Hebrew-language Abraham Jacob Brawer map of Tel Aviv, Israel, issued in 1934, the year Tel Aviv became an independent municipality separate from Jaffa. The map illustrates the early development of the new Jewish city north of old Jaffa in response to the housing demands of the Fifth Aliyah.

A Closer Look

This highly-detailed map notes streets and roads (of various types and qualities), rail lines, parks, public buildings, synagogues, lands owned by the National Jewish Fund, and public transportation networks. 47 important buildings, including schools, hospitals, banks, synagogues, and government offices, are numbered and correspond to a table on the right side of the map. The color shading reflects the 'percentage of build plots,' a means of expressing population density.

Tel Aviv and Fifth Aliyah

Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 as a residential area by Yishuv Jews (Jews living in Israel under Ottoman Syria). From the beginning, it was intended to be a modern metropolis in the 'garden city' model. The National Jewish Fund and other organizations acquired vast swathes of land for primarily Jewish settlement. The rise of the Third Reich in Germany led to a new wave of Ashkenazi Jewish immigration to Israel - the Fifth Aliyah - much of which settled in Tel Aviv, leading to the explosive urban growth chronicled here. By 1930, the population of Tel Aviv exceeded that of Old Jaffa. It was formally declared a separate municipality in 1934, the same year this map was published.

Publication History and Census

This map was surveyed by a cartographer surnamed Ben-Nissim (בן נסים) and edited by Abraham Jacob Brawer, the father of Israeli cartography, in late 1934 (אדר תרצ'ד). It was printed by Eliahu Koffman (אליהו קופמן) and published by the Technical Department of the new Tel Aviv Municipality for a guidebook of Tel Aviv published by 'City News' (יְדִיעוֹת עירית), a Hebrew-language newspaper in Tel Aviv in the mid-late 1930s. This map is rare. We only note examples at the Central Zionist Archives and the National Library of Israel.