My Beloved Dolphinarium

She looks to the sea.

Tel Aviv, Israel, March 9, 2016 - Last night a terrorist attack happened across the street at my beloved Dolphinarium. A Palestinian man made a dash up the promenade from Jaffa, towards the Dolphinarium, stabbing and slashing people as he went. After killing, Taylor Force, a graduate student and Army Vet from the U.S., and wounding 10 others, he was confronted by a busker who slowed him down with a blow to the head with his guitar. The cops caught up and killed the terrorist near the beach.

I was, literally, right there and missed the attack by a minute, maybe two. Wearing headphones, and rocking out to Imagine Dragons on my nightly walk on the promenade, I was oblivious to the massacre that was happening right behind me.

In September 2018, the Dolphinarium is being demolished to make way for a new development.

And for Tel Avivians, tonight's blood stains on the boardwalk bring up the memories of the gruesome 2001 suicide bombing at the Dolphinarium during the second intifada in which 25 people, mostly Russian teenagers, were killed. It is not the first, and probably won’t be the last terrorist attack on the peaceful sea creature with its motionless head, clumsily flopped to the beach like a dragon slain with a knife through the palate. No, this is nothing new.

The Dolphinarium is a powerful image for me, and I think of it as one of the more meaningful structures in Israel - including historical and biblical structures, so I hope they don’t tear it down. Why? I know, this creepy Cold War-era concrete beauty is an acquired taste. Its ghoulish grimace, rotting beams and sea-blasted graffiti presume it to be a failure as a community space. No, it's not Masada. But, people died here because they lived in Israel; and their sacrifice is as tragic as Masada.

I am drawn to the contrast between the whimsical name “Dolphinarium” (what could be more innocent than dolphins?) and its menacing lipstick smile, looking outwards to the sea. Dolphinarium looks to the world that condemns her for being too badass, and she doesn't blink.