The White City of Tel Aviv

Thanks to Grandma, the Zuckerman family art historian, I have come to really appreciate the Bauhaus design tradition.  This art school started in Germany in 1919 by Walter Gropius, but was dismantled by the Nazis in 1933.  The only good thing about this is that architects from the Bauhaus tradition dispersed themselves around the world, taking their aesthetic with them.

For example, Bauhaus designer Marcel Breuer was the architect of family housing at the Institute for Advanced Study (where we lived last year).  I wrote about similarities between the Bauhaus and IAS communities in a previous blog entry here.

Bauhaus design was well received in Tel Aviv.  Why?  Well according to our tour guide, here are some reasons.  1) Tel Aviv was growing very fast and Bauhaus design was easy to construct.  2) The socialist values of Bauhaus blended with the early cultural values of Tel Aviv.  3) In addition, the design values were similar to Israeli values:  form follows function….meaning that design is all about functionality; no extra design elements to make the object more attractive.

In the end, beauty comes from straightforward functional design. Likewise, in a country struggling to establish itself, it is all about making things work well and fast.

So here we have some pictures from the Bauhaus district of Tel Aviv.  You can see the clean lines, white exteriors, round balconies, and windows that form a vertical line like windows in a thermometer.

Overall, the buildings are beautiful, but look like they could use some repair.  The tour guide acknowledged this and encouraged all of us on the tour to move to Tel Aviv to invest and refurbish Israel’s  architectural treasure. 

Tomorrow in Jerusalem!

"Cats are like squirrels in the US"

Fast Moving Kitty

 The counselors at Emma’s camp told her, “cats in Israel are like squirrels in the US.” I guess this means that cats are not seen as pets, but are rather animals that live on the street.  Perhaps this explains why people were staring at us when Emma and I stopped to pet all the street kitties. Emma calls the sidewalk by our building where all the kitties hang out, “Kitty Cat Alley.” Petting cats on the street and greeting the store clerks in the grocery on our street with a smile and “shalom” are probably sure-fire clues that we are not from here.

Camera Shy Kitty

Friendly Kitty

Enough with the Petting Kitty

Go TAU!

Here we have David in his temporary office at TAU (Tel Aviv University). With a handful of freshly sharpened pencils and a college ruled notebook, he is eager to do some theorizing regarding “algebraic approaches to problems in pseudorandomness” (from the title of the grant proposal).

And now for some campus pictures...

The main entry plaza to the campus

Flags from around the world welcome visitors, but you need to pass through security first.

Big outdoor university promotion

Common signs

Getting ready for graduation ceremonies, I assume?

Einstein, a favorite at Tel Aviv University,  too

Looking westward toward the sea via Einstein Blvd.

Greetings from Rechov Arthur Rubinstein

Striking arrival hall at Ben Gurion Airpot

I am the kind of person who walks into a restaurant, falls in love with the décor and ambiance and quickly says, “Wow, this place is great,” without ever eating a bite.  So it was as we were driving from the Ben Gurion airport to our rental apartment in Ramat Aviv (northern Tel Aviv), that I quickly decided Israel was for me.  Perhaps it was the brilliant sun that reflected off the white modern buildings.  Or maybe it was the tall palm trees that lined the wide streets. 

Ramat Aviv

Tel Aviv felt like Miami with a blue sea framing a modern, busy city.  The place was secured as my fantasy home when I turned on the car radio and the preset button played salsa music. David said Latin music was popular here.  Just a few hours in Israel without reading or speaking Hebrew, I said, “Wow, this place is great.”

Thanks to a grant from BSF (Binational Science Foundation), David is working here in Tel Aviv with a couple of colleagues for three weeks. Our apartment is about a mile from Tel Aviv University where one of his colleagues is based.  Elementary schools are still in session, so Emma is attending the American International School, a summer camp for English speakers.  

American International School

We told her she would be going to camp with mostly Americans. Emma came home the first day and told us she was the only American. Most of the kids are Russian. 

As for me, I brought a suitcase of work and all the American optimism to get it all done.  I have relaxed my goals as the urgency of my “to do” lists faded with my jet lag. 

Here are a few images from our new neighborhood. A tour guide in Tel Aviv called the apartment buildings in Ramat Aviv, "Israeli style"---straightforward, functional with few frills.  I like the clean, white style of the buildings. The neighborhood feels transitional as many of the buildings are still under construction.  

our building

next door neighbors

our new street address

Below is the view from Emma’s bedroom that gives a flavor for this area. A construction site with an Israeli flag and a military airstrip lies between our apartment and the Mediterranean Sea. 

view south to downtown Tel Aviv 

In time,  these chairs on the Levi Eshkol Street near our apartment will provide some nice shade under a tree.   Until then, this sitting area (like this new neighborhood) lives in transition.

Give it up for Complexity Theory!

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The computer science conference that brought us here to Japan is called the “Tokyo Complexity Workshop.”  As David explained, a consortium of Japanese universities organized this conference with grant support from the Japanese government.  The government grant specifically targets scholarship related to complexity theory, the large general research area David calls home.  All of the attendees are computational complexity theorists with most of the presentations delivered by non-Japanese CS faculty.

One of the highlights of this trip was attending one of David’s talks. While I have heard David speak before, this was Emma’s first time seeing her Daddy in action.  Emma always sees David go to and from UT with his backpack. She hears him talk about his classes and lament about research he should be doing.  She sees him sitting on the couch, notepad and pen on his lap as he stares into space, but this is the first time Emma has seen David give a talk. 

Randomness Extraction:  A Survey

As usual, the first 5 minutes of David’s presentation was understandable, but after that things got a little complicated. He continued to speak in English, but he spoke in foreign tongue.  The highlight for me, however, was when I got to hear David refer to results conducted recently by other colleagues as “awesome.”  

Emma gets a front row seat as people fill the room

Explaining the application of randomness to cryptography with the help of "Alice" and "Bob"

Japanese Design

Lunch on the Bullet Train

I have always loved the simplicity of Zen inspired Japanese design.  Here are a few of the images I have gathered as part of my running collection….

Emma playing in the shadows of a sidewalk promotion

Light, glass, nature

The backlit hotel night stand

Emma demonstrating how leggy people sit on a low couch

Temple and Garden Visits

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Our first temple visit in Kyoto was to the Sanjusangen-do temple.  We really didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into.  The first act that signaled this was a holy place was the request that everyone remove their shoes before entering….a not so subtle instruction that Emma and I seemed to miss.  As we stepped into the shoe removal platform with our shoes on, several security women rushed us, frowned and pointed to our shoes.  Oopsy!  The Japanese are incredibly polite and gracious, so we clearly made a big mistake given their behavior toward us.  

Temple Shoe Storage Area

Our Temple Slippers

Outside Sanjusangen-do Temple

The temple was oblong with 1001 life-size Buddha statues on the right side of the structure. The lighting was dim. Incense filled the space. The temple was drafty and cold.  Buddhists monks were working behind the rail near all the statues.  People gave money to light candles.  In the center of the temple sat the largest image of Buddha I have ever seen. Signs were posted everywhere in English stating no pictures, so I only have the memory of this magical, eerie space of dimly lit rows of Buddha statues.

The next day we visited the Ginkakuji Temple Silver Pavilion in Kyoto, the most beautiful Japanese garden I have ever seen. Pictures don’t give it justice.  Ironically, walking through this garden was so stressful. I had to fight for space for my feet on these little stone paths through the garden as people were jostling for the best pictures. 

I finally found my Japanese garden after arriving in Tokyo. We walked down a ways from our hotel to a lovely green oasis in a sea of urban intensity.  Here we have David soaking up some Zen energy in a special alcove within the garden. Emma is singing and playing in the water near us. I am not worried about Emma getting her shoes wet. I sit next to David on a rock, in my own magical moment.

Hey! What are these businessmen doing in my Japanese garden? Several floors above the garden in a building nearby, I noticed a very fancy reception in progress and couldn't resist capturing the contrast.