The story
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Imagine standing right where you are, but the pavement beneath your feet is gone. Instead of the shade of these trees, there is nothing but shifting dunes and a dry gully in the sand. It is April 11, 1909. A group of people has gathered here for a lottery to decide who will own which plot of land in this new neighborhood. Among them are Meir and Zina Dizengoff, who won lot number forty-three. This moment was the beginning of what we now call Rothschild Boulevard, but at the very start, it was known as Rehov HaAm, or the People’s Street. Later, it was renamed to honor the philanthropist Baron Edmond James de Rothschild.
The trees you see today were not here in those first days. Records say they were planted about a year after the city was founded. Along with the greenery came the first signs of a modern city. The story goes that this boulevard had the city’s very first street light. There was also a hexagonal kiosk built in 1910 at the corner of Herzl Street. It was a place where people would gather to drink gazoz, which was a bubbly, flavored soda.
As you walk, look at the architecture surrounding you. These white, clean-lined buildings are part of why UNESCO proclaimed the historic zone of the city a World Heritage site in 2003. Between the 1930s and 1948, about four thousand buildings were constructed in this International Style. The municipality actually calls this boulevard the best walk for seeing this White City.
Some of these buildings held the weight of history. At number thirty-two, a structure built in 1921 once served as the city’s hotel. And at number sixteen, the story of a nation changed. This was the home of Meir and Zina Dizengoff. On April 2, 1932, the Tel Aviv Museum was officially inaugurated right inside their house. Years later, on May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion stood in that same museum hall and read the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming the birth of the State of Israel.
Even the monuments tell a story of time passing. The Founders’ Monument, which you can find nearby on the boulevard, was erected in 1949. But the boulevard is also a place for modern voices. On July 14, 2011, a woman named Daphne Leef pitched a tent right here on the boulevard to protest housing costs, sparking a movement that filled these paths with people.
Today, the boulevard stretches all the way from Herzl Street in the south to HaBima Square in the north. It is a place of bike lanes, public art, and wide pedestrian paths. As you continue your walk, take a moment to notice one of the public benches or a piece of art along the way. Think about how this path transformed from a simple dry gully in the sand into the heart of a city.
That was Rothschild Boulevard, Tel Aviv. Avsha tells a story like this about wherever you are — any street, in your language.
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