Another Once Upon a time in Jerusalem,
This time – Ossishkin Street from the intersection with Ben Maimon Street, 1934.
In the middle of the picture, on the left, the intersection of Ossishkin Street with Ramban Street.
To the left on Ben Maimon Street 46 and the corner of Ossishkin is the Jacob’s house, which was a senior official of the British Mandate and Deputy Governor of Jerusalem, and was inaugurated in 1933.
On July 22, 1946, Jacob was killed in the bombing at the King David Hotel.
In 1950, the Israeli government decided to turn the building into the Prime Minister’s residence. The government had other options after the War of Liberation, but Ben-Gurion refused to live in houses defined as “abandoned property.”
Nechama, his widow, received compensation in the form of an apartment in the Talbiya neighborhood, and the house was purchased by the Israeli government for 20,000 liras…
(Today the house is worth a little more).
The building served as the residence of Israeli Prime Ministers – David Ben-Gurion for 2 terms, Levi Eshkol for 2 terms, and Golda Meir, with the famous “security kitchen” that gathered at the house.
The house served as the Prime Minister’s residence until the election of Yitzhak Rabin in 1974, and then the Prime Minister’s residence moved to a house on Balfour Street (the Agion House).
Today, the house has been renovated and preserved after many delays and funding problems for the renovation, and opened to the public in 2016 as the Levi Eshkol House. The house serves as a center for Yad Levi Eshkol’s activities.
Today, Ossishkin Street no longer looks like the one in the picture –
The dirt road has been replaced by an asphalt road and new sidewalks have been built for a year and a half without interruption and without completion in sight 😢,
The small houses and the pastoral neighborhood have grown and sprouted new floors, and the King David Hotel no longer brings milk in aluminum pails.
This is Jerusalem – a history of constant formation, old versus new, British mandate and resistance, and a house in Rehavia for 20,000 liras.
Who’s buying?
Have a good month, filled with joy, and a peaceful Sabbath To the near and far from Jerusalem ❤
Photo by: Zoltan Kluger
