Orient Fair

Coordinates: 32°5′53.60″N 34°46′32.08″E / 32.0982222°N 34.7755778°E / 32.0982222; 34.7755778

Aerial view of the Orient Fair in the 1930s

The Orient Fair (Hebrew: Yerid Hamizrach) (also Levant Fair) ^[1] was an international trade fair held in Tel Aviv in the 1920s and 1930s.

History

Early Years

The second of the exhibitions took place in April 1914 and was held at a boys' school. It was titled "Exhibition and Fair for the Promotion of Goods Made in Israel". The last exhibition to occur was held in the summer of 1923 in three rooms of the Zionist Club on Rothschild Boulevard. This exhibition's success in turn paved the way for five subsequent fairs and improved the area provided by the municipality for entrepreneurs.

This area was in a desolate southern town with an old bus station (now the Administration Building of the Society for the Protection of Nature). There were exhibitions in 1925, two in 1926, 1929, and one in 1932. The fair in 1932 was the first to be called "Eastern Fair." A special symbol called the "Flying Camel" was designed for the fair by its chief architect, Lion Elhanani. Trees were planted during the fair in honor of the former exhibition, and three palm trees are there to this day.^[2]

Exhibitions began to be referred to as fairs, and were quite successful. They were ordered for tens of thousands and then hundreds of thousands of Jews, Arabs, English, and tourists. The fair in 1932 was visited by nearly 300,000 people. Voice Jerusalem began regular radio broadcasts about the fair, in Hebrew, starting in 1936.

Fair visitors have included some very distinguished people, including British High Commissioners for Palestine Herbert Samuel (1920-1925), Herbert Plumer (1925-1928), John Chancellor (1928-1931) and Arthur Wauchope (1932-1937), as well as Arab mayors of Jaffa and Jerusalem.

Permanent Home

With the expanded scope of the exhibition, it became necessary to build a permanent compound fair and other fairs. High Commissioner Wauchope, who supported the Yishuv, liked the idea and ran the Yarkon Peninsula area north of the city for construction of the complex. On August 17, 1933, a cornerstone ceremony was held that featured Wauchope, Meir Dizengoff, and community leaders. For the opening of the fair trained Lod Airport, airport later named Ben – Gurion.

The fair of 1934, opened at the festive Exhibition Grounds at the north edge of Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv on April 26, 1934. Opening the fair was the High Commissioner Arthur Wauchope. Fair Jubilee celebrations were incorporated into the founding of Tel Aviv. The fair was a major event in the economic life of the community. Thirty countries participated in the fair which attracted 600,000 visitors during its six weeks.

The fair covered an area of 10 hectares, including display booths of the participating countries, landscaping, gardening, roads, Luna Park and sculptures. The fair was of great importance in the history of local architecture and design because pavilions were built by prominent Jewish architects of the time, such as Elhanani, Richard Kauffmann and Arieh Sharon. The fair's icon, envisioned by Alexander Ezer (Yevzerov) and designed by Leo Elhanani, was a winged camel, nicknamed "The Flying Camel". The Fair entrance plaza was called "Palomar Square" in honor of the High Commissioner Herbert Plumer. This square was on the masthead flying camel statute built by architect Arieh Elhanani. Near the mouth of the Yarkon Maccabiah Stadium, the statute was built first in 1932. Palomar Square next to the main entrance was established broad amphitheater.

Fair also included the Lebanese Pavilion, according to the then Lebanese President intended to foster the traditional friendship between the two neighbors. The building was a relief of ancient Baalbek, which can be seen today.

The central pavilion at the fair was made in Israel, designed by architect Richard Kauffmann in the shape of a ship. A sculpture "The Hebrew verb" built by Leo Elhanani stood on the site today. Other statues at the fair were "rejected Lot's wife," "Sower statue," "statue of deer," and "statue of the woman." It also put great emphasis on design elements, such as "flag poles" filled the roads Fair and "lampposts" headed by a round plate was placed under incandescent bulbs were foreign.

Another fair was held in 1936, but following the riots, which began two weeks before the opening, which shut the port of Jaffa, it was a small fair, far smaller in scope than its predecessor. Many events were canceled and many exhibitors canceled their participation. This fair organized by the company caused financial losses.

Demise

After 1936 and the duration of Second World War, the Orient Fair ceased operating. Of the state fairgrounds established alternative fairgrounds complex.

When the Tel Aviv Port was built near the site in 1936, it was used for storage of temporary Levant Fair,^[3] to set up the permanent storage of the harbor. The street leading to the harbor is called "Zion Gate"; it was the name of the port given as pop.

In December 1936, the fair was the location of one of the first concerts of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Arturo Toscanini.

In World War II, the fairgrounds were taken over by the British Army to be used for military training. During the War of Independence of the fairground structures were used for storage of the IDF.

After Israeli independence the fairgrounds were abandoned and became the site for workshops and garages. Some of the buildings were destroyed and others crumbled. Sculptures and works of art in the fairground have mostly disappeared except the Jewish worker statue restored. Plumer Square is now a parking lot.

In 1959, a new exhibition grounds opened in Sderot Rokach beyond the Yarkon River initiated by then Mayor Haim Lebanon along with "Exhibition 50 years of Tel Aviv" and a design plan for a "Fair Middle" by architect Arieh Elhanani.

In recent times there has been rehabilitation work area and a plans to turn it into the shopping and entertainment area.

Urban development of the area peninsula at the mouth of the Yarkon has led to a series of events in the development of the city of Tel Aviv and continued north beyond the Yarkon River, such as the establishment of Tel Aviv Port next door and the establishment of the airport "Sde Dov" in 1936 along with the Reading Power Station. In 1938 the "Maccabiah Stadium" was built nearby and Philharmonic Orchestra Hall within the area of the former fairgrounds.

Memory Pages

Stationed at the entrance to the fairground are two memory pages:

The memory page Irgun attack on December 27, 1945, the British military camp was in place to facilitate the confiscation of weapons and ammunition. Killed in action Irgun fighter Dov Strnglz. Page Memory Institute of branch "of IMI was the Romanian Pavilion in 1942–1947 with parts manufactured sub–machine guns and machinery manufacturing