The Neve Sha'anan neighborhood is a major transportation hub, with both the new and old Tel Aviv Central Bus Stations located there. It is named after the Bible The main street, Neve Sha'anan Street, is a pedestrian mall. Many foreign workers live or work in Neve Sha'anan. Levinsky park is the social heart of the neighborhood. The Levinsky market, which extends into numerous side streets, is a colorful market brimming with spices, herbs, and teas founded by Jews from Thessalonica, Greece. The Greek Jews were followed by an influx of Iranian Jews and immigrants from other countries where herbal remedies and spicy foods are common. Levinsky Street is named after Elchanan Leib Lewinsky, a member of the BiluZionist movement in Lithuania, who immigrated to Palestine in the early 1880s,In 1896, he was appointed manager of the southern and western Russian branches of the Carmel company, marketing wine produced in Palestine. The neighborhood was the site of a number of terrorist attacks. In July 2002, two Palestinian suicide bombers set off two explosions in rapid succession along a shopping strip in Neve Shaanan. Two of the three victims of the attack were immigrant laborers, who also made up a large portion of the 40 injured. In January 2003, 23 people—15 Israelis and 8 foreign nationals—were killed, and 120 wounded when two Palestinian suicide bombers blew themselves up on the pedestrian mall adjacent to the old central bus station. The mall was packed with shoppers and laborers returning home from work. In April 2006, during the Passover holiday, a Hamassuicide bomber blew himself up at the Rosh Ha'ir shwarma restaurant in Neve Sha'anan, killing 11 people and wounding 50.
Levinsky Garden Library
Located in Levinsky Park, the Garden Library consists of two open-air bookshelves. The library services the whole community, but was originally designed with the refugee and migrant population of the Neve Sha'anan neighborhood in mind. The library was established in 2009 by the non-governmental organization ARTEAM. In addition to the free books, the library space also offers after school programs for children, artistic classes and workshops, and language lessons The library offers approximately 3,500 books in 16 different languages. It is located at 98 Lewinsky St.. The bookshelves are illuminated for easier browsing at night.
