HaKirya, or The Kirya (lit.: The Campus), is an area in central Tel Aviv, consisting of an urban military base north of Kaplan Street, and a civilian area south of it. HaKirya contains the Tel Aviv District‘s government center and the major Israel Defense Forces (IDF) base Camp Rabin, named for Yitzhak Rabin. It was one of the first IDF bases and has served as the IDF’s headquarters since its founding in 1948. Being located in a dense urban environment, the base serves mainly command, administrative, communications, and support functions. read more…
The Templers, a religious Protestant sect formed in southern Germany in the 19th century, settled in Palestine at the urging of their leader, Christoff Hoffman, in the belief that living in the Holy Land would hasten the second coming of Christ. The Templers built a colony in keeping with strict urban planning principles and introduced local industries that brought modernity to Palestine, which had long been neglected by the Ottomans. They were the first to organize regular transportation services between Jaffa, Acre and Nazareth, which also allowed for mail delivery. In 1874 the Christian denomination of the Temple Society underwent a schism and later envoys of the Evangelical State Church of Prussia’s older Provinces successfully proselytised among the schismatics, making up about a third of the colonists. Thus the Colony became a place of partisans of two different Christian denominations and their respective congregations. read more…
