Jaffa - the people in the Shuk

Jaffa's Shuk HaPishpishim (fleamarket) is one of Tel-Aviv-Yafo's most popular attractions. It is also one of my favourite places in Israel. Full of shops and stalls selling antiques, carpets, clothes, bric-a-brac, food and drink, it's a great place for strolling and browsing. I love looking at the items for sale, occasionally picking up a bargain and regularly stopping for a drink or a snack. But the thing I enjoy most of all is watching the people that make this place so special - the merchants, the shoppers and on Friday, the musicians and entertainers. I recently spent a week in Jaffa, visiting the shuk every day and getting to know some of the people who work there. Several of them agreed to pose for photographs whilst I captured others in more candid shots. This post features just a few of my favourites.

The merchants

Along Oleh Zion Street, there are several shops selling carpets, rugs and other handmade floor and furniture coverings. These are not just any old carpets but beautifully crafted pieces from Turkey, Persia (Iran), Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. Many of them are antique and were made up to 100 years ago. The merchants are happy to show their wares to visitors and serious shoppers will be treated to Turkish coffee and long discussions before coming to a decision to purchase. The shop owners are not only merchants - they are also craftsmen who can be seen sitting outside their shops repairing carpets whilst waiting for customers. 

Many of these craftsmen were born in Iran, learning their skills there at a young age and coming to Israel after the Khomeini regime was established in 1979. There were once 100,000 Jews in Iran, with major communities in Isfahan, Shiraz and Teheran with a history going back to the sixth century BCE. Today there are probably no more than 10,000 Jews living there. The two men pictured at work were both born in Iran and have shops on Oleh Zion Street. I was struck by Shalomo's expression, clearly delighting in his work and by Reuven's chic style with his hat and scarf. Both continued to work as they told me their stories.

The shuk has changed significantly in recent years with fewer of the older merchants and more and more modern boutique shops selling a range of products including soaps, candles, furnishings and food items. I like both styles. The mix is very appealing and attracts a most eclectic audience but it will be a terrible shame if the older more serendipitous concerns disappear all together.

I met Mikhail in the Greek Market, just north of Oleh Zion. He has a small shop there selling antiques and vintage items. His collection includes hanukkiot, siddurim (prayer books) with silvered Bezalel School of Art designed covers, small sculptures and a range of old household items. We got talking when I asked him about a tiny, blackened metal item that turned out to be a small cooker, more than 80 years old.  Mikhail told me he was born in Afghanistan and came to Israel as a child about 60 years ago. He was very happy for me to take his picture and reminded me several times to come and see him again when I next visit the shuk. I liked his kind, open face and those bright eyes that remain the eyes of a much younger person. I asked him about his beautiful kippah with it's bright colours and decorative detail. He told me it came from Afghanistan along with the family.

The shoppers

The shuk attracts many kinds of people. Some come to buy expensive items from the modern shops. Others come to the real "flea" section at the back of the market. This is a browser's paradise with goods spread haphazardly over stalls or on sheets on the floor. In this part of the shuk you can find just about anything - vinyl records, Russian military pin badges, books, second (third, fourth, fifth) hand clothing in great heaps, shoes, hats, electrical goods and glass or metal items. The stall holders here are diverse as are the shoppers who include religious Jews, Arabs, Africans, Chinese, Filipinos and tourists from all over the world. You might even see one of the more established stall holders in here searching for items that they will later sell from their own shop.

One of the things I enjoy most here is watching the faces of the serious browsers as they hunt, pounce or consider whether they will make a purchase or not. Then of course comes the discussion about price. The man looking at the books and discs is deep in thought, having a "buy or not to buy moment". I wonder if he went ahead with a purchase.

On first site, I thought that the man with the guitar was one of the many musicians and entertainers who sometimes turn up in the shuk. Then I realised that he was trying the instrument out before deciding whether or not to buy it. As with our other pensive shopper, he appears deep in thought and somehow aloof from all around him. I really like his very cool shirt. Speaking of fashion, I also spotted a rather fabulous lady wearing leopard skin print, leafing through a book.  She had picked it up from a chaotic pile of "stuff" that includes bags, clothes, more books, an old radio and one of those revolving electric fans. A veritable department store.

The entertainers 

Friday is my favourite day at the shuk. As well as the regular shops, traders and cafes, there are extra street stalls in the Greek Market where local artists and artisans sell their work. It is also the day when singers, musicians and other entertainers come along to perform. One of my favourites is a musician who plays the kamancheh, an Iranian stringed instrument, sometimes accompanied by two other players. Their traditional Persian music is hauntingly beautiful, always attracts a crowd and on at least one occasion provoked loud ululation  from a female passerby!

Others include the wonderful mime artist who puts on an amusing, witty and sometimes sad performance to a variety of songs ranging from French chansons to modern pop music. Elegantly dressed in trousers with braces (called suspenders in North America but definitely not in the UK!) he fits in very nicely to the surroundings of the Greek market and could easily have come directly from Saloniki. Just a few steps away from him you can see another kind of street theatre as a young woman produces enormous bubbles by soaking a hoop in detergent and then letting the wind catch it. As a child I loved those small bottles of bubbles we would be given from time to time so this is a real throwback for me. And clearly not just for me as she gathers quite a crowd of adults (and children) taking pictures or trying to catch or burst the bubbles.

Then there are the people passing through, stopping to chat with friends or just enjoying the atmosphere like those in the pictures below. Watching people must be the best free entertainment there is. I can't wait to return before the end of the year...

Shuk HaPishpishim is open from Sunday - Friday. Most of the shops and stalls are closed on Saturday for shabbat although several of the restaurants are open.

Read more about the Fleamarket here.

A modernist house with a story - the French Ambassador's house in Jaffa

Art deco staircase in the French Ambassador's house, Toulouse Street, Jaffa

The French Ambassador to Israel is a vary lucky man. He gets to live in one of the most beautiful modernist houses in the country. Tucked away in Jaffa's Ajami neighbourhood with stunning views of the Mediterranean from the roof terrace, spacious rooms, works of art on the walls and (of course) very tasteful furniture, the ambassador and his family live in a house with quite a story.

The story begins in 1934 during the period of the British Mandate in the unlikely setting of the Tel-Aviv Rotary Club. The club had a membership of one third Jews, one third Arabs and one third Britons. It was here that Muhammed Abdel al-Rahim one of Jaffa's wealthiest residents met Jewish architect Yitzhak Rapoport and impressed by his designs for the nearby Dajani Hospital, commissioned him to build a house in Jaffa. al-Rahim was a successful businessman and landowner and wanted to enjoy a home with modern facilities but which also maintained his religious and social traditions,  separating public and private spaces and with distinct quarters for men, women and children. In response, Rapoport designed an elegant Bauhaus exterior with an interior floor plan to fulfil his client's requirements. This included a mashrabiyya - a latticed screen to denote the boundary between the women's quarters and the rest of the building with another one inserted into a wall to enable the women to see into the more public areas without being observed.

A mashrabiyya, separating men's and women's quarters

Main reception room

The 1930's saw rapid development in Tel-Aviv and Jaffa with many homes and public buildings being constructed in the Bauhaus style. They also saw significant periods of unrest and growing tension between the different communities. The Arab riots of 1936 saw many people killed and Rapoport would no doubt have been nervous visiting the construction site in this largely Arab populated neighbourhood. He had developed a kind of friendship with al-Rahim through working with him on the commission and the architect was smuggled into the area in Arab dress and introduced to his client's other guests as a visitor from Kuwait.

Both men took risks in continuing to work together during this period but the risk was even greater than we might imagine. al-Rahim was an Arab nationalist and treasurer of the group carrying out attacks on Jewish residents, whilst Rapoport was working as a spy for the Haganah and used his visits to Jaffa to inform on the overheard plans and discussions of the Arab group. Their relationship continued with al-Rahim going on to commission Rapaport to design a flour mill for him. The same flour mill became a strategic post for Jaffa's Arabs during the 1948 war and the architect was able to use his knowledge of the building to advise on how to topple it.

There are different versions of what happened to al-Rahim after the 1948 War. Some say he left for Lebanon in 1948, others that he lived on in the house for a year before leaving. Either way, astonishingly he signed the house over to Rapoport in order to protect his asset. Rapoport is known to have asked him why he didn't hand it to his own relatives and was told that he was more trustworthy. The architect resisted attempts to nationalise the property before selling it to the French for their first embassy in Israel in 1949 before traveling to Naples to hand the money to his friend and political rival. Doubt has been placed on this story, but the French confirm it and it a bill of sale for £20,000 for the property sits in the Tel Aviv municipal land registry. Over time the two men lost contact. al-Rahim died in Lebanon in the 1960's whilst Rapoport lived on until 1989.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be able to see inside the house as it was open to the public as part of Tel Aviv's Houses From Within programme - similar to London's Open House. Groups of about 20 people were led on thirty minutes tours of several of the ground floor rooms and the lower terrace. My Hebrew is not good enough to have fully understood the guide's commentary but I was able to enjoy touring the reception rooms, high ceilings,  the dining room hidden behind a glass wall that doubles as a door and the classic glazed stairwell and lines and angles of Rapoport's exterior. There is also a wooden door that folds like an accordion. But the real show stopper is the fantastic art deco staircase with its smooth marble steps and wall panel and its ornate metal railings. Unfortunately the tour did not include the chance to climb those stairs but what a privilege to be able to see and photograph them! 

The connection with the Rapoport family continues as the architect's son, Oded followed the family trade and became an architect and has worked on minor renovations in the house at the Embassy's request.  

You might also like Picture Post 31 - the former Alhambra Cinema on Jerusalem Boulevard, Tel-Aviv, Yafo or Picture Post 30 - 56 Mazeh Street Tel Aviv - Bauhaus Beauty