Keren Kayemet Street, at the corner of Ussishkin Street and Ibn-Ezra Street, Early 1950s.
Another Once Upon a Time in Jerusalem.
The building in the picture was owned by the family of the late Abba Eban, a distinguished diplomat, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Deputy Prime Minister, and Foreign Minister, considered one of the most brilliant and effective diplomats in Israeli history. Eban, born in Cape Town, South Africa, and his family lived in the building for many years. He was married to Suzy, the sister of Aura Herzog, the wife of Chaim Herzog, Israel’s sixth president.
Below the Eban family’s building were commercial spaces, which still exist today, including the famous pharmacy owned by the Tajer family, run by the legendary neighborhood pharmacist, who passed away a few years ago.
Chaim Herzog’s family lived in the adjacent building at 4 Ibn-Ezra Street. His father, Rabbi Yitzhak Isaac Herzog, served as the Chief Rabbi of Ireland, moved to Israel in 1937, and held the position of Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel for 25 years. His wife, Rabbanit Sarah Herzog, was a public figure who established the Emunah organization and chaired Herzog Hospital.
Their son, Chaim Herzog, became Israel’s sixth president, while his brother, Yaakov Herzog, was a diplomat and the Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office. Among their grandchildren is Isaac Herzog, Israel’s 11th president, who currently holds office.
Nearby, at 6 Ussishkin Street, lived Menachem Ussishkin, a leader of Zionism, a member of the Lovers of Zion movement, and a prominent figure in the Jewish Congresses. He chaired the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and built the building with the help of the neighborhood’s architect, Richard Kaufmann, in 1931. This followed the confiscation of Ussishkin’s magnificent home on Sheveti Israel Street by the British High Commissioner after the 1927 earthquake that shook the country and Jerusalem.
Across the street is still the Hebrew Gymnasia High School of Jerusalem.
Over the years, the residents of the building in the picture changed. The Eban family sold the building to a group of Jewish businessmen of Syrian and Bukharan descent, who made their fortunes from pearls, precious metals, finance, and real estate around the globe—families of the new financial elite in Jerusalem.
The new buyers added three additional floors to the building. Part of the building was purchased by attorney Yehuda Raveh and his wife, Tami, and the offices still house the Jerusalem branch of their law firm.
The commercial spaces also changed over the years. The fruit store was replaced by a butcher shop and other businesses, then by the elite Jerusalem barbershop of Roni Levi and his brother Yaniv, both well-known and beloved figures in the city.
Over the past twenty years, the Rehavia neighborhood has gradually changed. Much of Jerusalem’s old elite moved to the suburbs or Tel Aviv, following their children who left the city during a long-standing trend of secular and academic population emigration. In their place, Jews from around the world arrived, drawn by the neighborhood’s proximity to Sha’arei Hesed and the home of Rabbi Auerbach, as well as the neighborhood’s quiet beauty and greenery.
Today, English is heard throughout the neighborhood streets and playgrounds, alongside native Jerusalemite families. All live together in peace and harmony, with excellent neighborly relations—a 21st-century gathering of exiles, serving as a living testament to the deep-rooted fraternity among the people of Israel. A fraternity that some power-hungry politicians seek to harm, exploiting the fragile social fabric with despicable divide-and-rule tactics for their own survival.
Epilogue
In 1998, a small and modest real estate office replaced Roni Levi’s barbershop. Two days ago, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, we raised a toast with our team and their spouses, celebrating 30 years of blessed activity.
Three decades of settling the city and the land with local clients and thousands of Jewish families from all over the world, who have built their homes in the Holy City. The mitzvah of settling the land, fulfilled to the letter. How fortunate we are to have this merit. 🙏🏻
So if you’re in the area—
Come for coffee and be part of the city’s ongoing history. Old meets new: Ashkenazi aristocrats alongside pearl and textile merchants, diplomats and chief rabbis, Zionist pioneers and state founders, alongside foreign buyers purchasing sprawling vacation homes to use for just two weeks a year. All in an orderly mix of old versus new, secular elites versus new money, Rabbi Auerbach, one of the great sages, versus struggling students studying at the nearby Bezalel Academy.
A city of contrasts, of a fascinating human mosaic, of countless shades, and one real estate office that has been witnessing and accompanying the transformations of the area and its pulse for three solid decades.
Shabbat Shalom to those near and far ❤
May the hostages return home 🎗 along with the evacuated families and IDF soldiers, and may peace come to Israel.
