Dash

Dash documents an apartment building slated for demolition. Within it reside an eclectic group of neighbors that have formed close and unexpecting relationships. Dash chronicles their lives in this building, while also preserving its quirks and history.

Dash, short for “drishat shalom” is the Hebrew saying for “send my greetings/regards/love to ____(someone).” When I see my grandmother’s neighbors they always say, “send dash to her”, and vice versa. 

My grandmother and her neighbors live in 5 HaPalmah Street, an old apartment building constructed in the 1960’s in a quiet neighborhood in Tel Aviv. Two generations of my family have called this place home, beginning with my great grandparents and now my 87 year old grandmother. 

The building is inhabited by a diverse and vibrant community. My grandma, a politically conservative woman who practices reiki and reads Torah, lives next door to a Palestinian woman who works at the National Library of Israel. On the floor above lives a Russian family whose son is  an awarded math champion, and their neighbors are a young tech couple. On the top floor live an Orthodox Jewish family next to and a gay couple, one of whom is deaf and blind. As a community they cultivate a shared garden and help out by getting groceries for one another. Despite their differences, they live harmoniously.

Tragically, 5 HaPalmah St. is slated for demolition to make way for new modern buildings. The tearing down of this building brings light to the all too familiar issue of the urban housing crisis and signifies an erasure of a community that was built on neighborly love and good deeds. If 5 HaPalmah is a microcosm of idealism, its destruction is a metaphor for the decay of community in contemporary society. 

By creating this project, I aim to preserve the building’s history, demonstrate the way in which people can put aside their differences to coexist and care for one another, and acknowledge  the global issue of gentrification and the housing crisis. From being neighbors who send “dash” to one another, this community will soon find themselves forced to dash away from their homes.