Kerem HaTeimanim

This guide to Kerem HaTeimanim opens with Avi Mizrahi, who has lived in this Tel Aviv quarter for forty-five years, learning his block is about to be replaced by a vacation rental. From there it traces back to Yemenite Jewish families who pooled almost nothing to build this warren of tin-roofed homes in 1906, three years before Tel Aviv itself was founded, and follows the neighborhood through decades as one of the city's poorest, tightest-knit corners, with fenugreek soup simmering behind open doors and prayer chant drifting from small synagogues.