Retirement in Tel Aviv: Better Than Florida or Ibiza? Judge for Yourself...

Zara is a chain of boutiques in malls all over Israel. It offers women a line of original designs targeted to the local market with international current flavor / © 2009

I do not mean to undermine Florida's and Arizona's retirement residents. Or ask English and Germans pensioners to give up Spanish and French beaches. Now that the baby boomers in western countries are in their retirement age, options where to live are everywhere. When it is harder to move from rust belts to sunny resorts all over the world, you don't need a Tel Avivian bashing at you. BUT Tel Aviv IS better for some (and for good reasons.) Thanks to its geographic location Tel Aviv offers great weather year around. If there is a complaint about the weather it comes in the hot summer days of August, when the temperature touches 100°F (47+°C) and the humidity is at 90%. If you can't take the heat, hop to Switzerland or Scotland for a month. Geography has another pleasant surprise: location. At first impression you may not think of location as a crucial factor in a retirement decision, think again. From Tel Aviv you are only a short flight away from Europe, Africa and even India and central Asia. Here you are much closer to China or Japan than San Francisco or even Stockholm. If you like exotic locations in Asia, Tel Aviv is served by over 50 Asian airlines (125 international airlines in total.) If you like adventurous locations a visit to Africa can be a bus ride to Egypt or a short flight to eastern and central Africa.

If city life is your cup of tea, you do not need to travel. Tel Aviv offers more than most medium US and European cities. All night restaurants and bars, world class shopping and entertainment. More museums and concerts in Tel Aviv and the surrounding cities than many regions in the US. Why is Tel Aviv such a cultured metropolis? Because of the people and the mission set upon European Jews 150 years ago. Israel's population came from all over the world. With large percentage from Europe and the middle east (Muslim countries.) The mission of the people is even more intriguing, Theodore Herzl said: "If you will it, it is no dream." Actually translated literally from the Hebrew "If you desire it, it is not a fairy tale". Herzl meant that a NEW JEWISH STATE can be vibrant, proud, strong and a wonderful place to live. Not because it was hard in Europe, because if you want to build a great place, you work hard and aim high... it will happen. So people came to Tel Aviv starting in the 1880's and set out to build a dynamic and vibrant new city. Literally a place that a children's fairy tale would pale in comparison. That was the aim of building Tel Aviv, from it's official declaration in 1909 up to today. How did it turn out? Well, not exactly a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale but pretty amazing by most accounts.

Back to the retirement story... Tel Aviv is not the cheapest place in the world to live in, but it is certainly competitive with US and European cities. You can rent a nice apartment in the north of the city or blocks from the beach for about US$1,000 a month. If you go out about 25 miles the price drops by half. You can have a great meal for two in a nice restaurant for about $50 to $80. If you are a good cook there is fresh produce to rival most agricultural regions and imported goods from most places in the world. A trip to the market will cost anywhere from 200 to 500 shekel's for a week's supply for two ($50 to $125.) You can shop at fashionable boutiques or bargain basements as if you were in Milan or Moscow. Prices and selections vary. A woman's shirt at Zara goes from 200 to 300 shekels ($50 to $75) the same shirt is half at a non-brand name shop. Health care is on leading edge level, both in availability and standards. Tel Aviv now attracts cosmetic surgery tourists all the way to complex heart surgery patients from less developed countries. One clinic offers a tour of Israel and cosmetic surgery all in one week. You can subscribe to a private or national medical plan and get coverage at a basic or comprehensive levels. On both the lower to the highest economic scales your lifestyle in Tel Aviv is still a bargain.

The people and cultures in Tel Aviv are accommodating beyond your expectations. Tel Aviv is truly a melting pot. In the 1990's a million Russians came to Israel, there were predictions of economic collapse, families raising children in tent cities, hunger to rival a drought in Africa. As the Russians started to arrive people took in boarders, it was cozy but soon enough apartments were built and a small economic boom was created. Fears of doom and gloom did not materialize. The exact opposite happened, Russian engineers and scientists strengthen the Israeli economy. No engineer in Israel would even think of what the technology sector would have been with 1/2 or 1/3 of the engineers if the Russians didn't come. Russian musicians, dancers and actors flooded Israeli orchestras, ballet companies and theaters. Today there is more music, art and culture thanks to the Russians than in many European and American cities. When the Ethiopian Jews were brought from a culture reminiscent of 16th century Europe. There was talk of no resistance to "modern diseases", fear of complete demise of this old, fragile tribal community. Today you will be hard pressed to find a lively Israeli wedding without a troupe of "drumming Africans" getting everyone dancing. The tribal life is gone and the transition to modern life started for Ethiopians. Second generation Ethiopians are contributing to Israeli society. You can see them in military uniform, running businesses and in governmental positions everywhere. There is still some prejudice, but we can certainly hold our head up in comparison to many places around the globe.

Israel has a modern feel, yet it respects tradition and culture. The world here is not perfect, but we certainly aim to be a shiny example to others. Add to the infusion of Jews from around the globe cultural diversity of business travelers from Africa, Asia and Europe. Foreign workers from caretakers to the old from the Philippines to accountants and diamond sorters from India. In Tel Aviv and Jerusalem you see Christian and Muslim pilgrims from all over the world, not just on holidays and religious occasions. And finally, the "stuff of culture everywhere". Tel Aviv has fashion, flavors, aromas, house goods, sounds and movements from near and far. In Dizengoff center you can find a Moroccan household goods store next to a custom T-Shirt stand with Disney characters. April perfume store with aromas from Paris' most exclusive names next to a music store blaring hip-hop. On the streets of Jaffa every Friday you can find antiques from renaissance Europe next to old Russian World War II medals. On Dizengoff street, where wedding dresses sell for € 10,000 you can still enjoy humus lunch for 22 shekels (€ 4.5) There is variety for sure, but also consistency. Neighborhoods in Tel Aviv and the surrounding cities are small islands of cultural uniformity. The Iraqi Jews are found in Ramat Gan. In Ra'anana you will find the Anglos. Bnei Brak is religious. Tel Aviv center is business and commerce. Givatay'im and Holon are bedroom communities. While some communities are 2 or 3 generations removed from their origins, you can choose from a wide range of lifestyles and values not seen in most retirement communities.

So is Tel Aviv better than Miami or Sedona for retirement? Can we give Ibiza or Sri Lanka a run for the money? If you have a spirit, want a great place to be and to enjoy life, give us a try. For most of the people who came, long ago or just last year, there is no going back ~ this place is just too good to give up for a condo in Boca Raton. After a burger at "the magic burger" you can still enjoy a French desert in as close as you can imagine Parisian bistro, just up Ibn Gvirol street*.

AmiV@TLV

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* stay tuned to more on the street Tel Aviv stories for retirees.