The idea of a Zoo in the center of Tel Aviv seems almost fictional when one walks through the "Gan Ha'ir" shopping mall, which was built on the ruins of the Zoo.
The zoo was founded by Rabbi Dr. Mordecai Schornstein, which was the chief Rabbi of Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1938. During his voyage to what was then Palestine, Rabbi Schornstein , a true animal lover, purchased a number of animals in Italy upon making Aliya. He arrived in 1935 to Tel Aviv and opened a pet shop on Shenkin Street 15 and named it "Gan Hayot" ("a Zoo" in Hebrew). The birds and mammals in the store soon became a local attraction, and after the "Eastern Fair" of 1936, where Dr. Shornstein presented his animals, he founded his zoo on Hayarkon Street 65.
However, after a pair of lions and tigers was donated to the zoo, the zoo became a real annoyance to its neighbors. With pressure mounting by the zoo’s neighbors, a new compound was built for the zoo in the northern part of the city, which was at time mostly uninhabited. In November 1939, the zoo was relocated to its new location and was opened to the Public.
