Shalom Meir Tower

This guide to the Shalom Meir Tower in Tel Aviv opens on bulldozers tearing into the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium in July 1959, the world's first all-Hebrew high school, its land judged more valuable than the building itself. You'll hear how public anger over that demolition helped push Israel to found its national heritage protection council, and how the modern tower that replaced the school was named for the family who built it. Look for the Nahum Gutman mosaic on the ground floor, telling Tel Aviv's story from sand dunes to skyline.