THE History

“We must soon acquire a sizable tract of land urgently, on which we will build our homes..”

Akiva Aryeh Weiss, Founder of ‘Ahuzat Bayit’

The Dream

The story of Tel Aviv began with Rothschild Boulevard and a simple gathering of like-minded individuals. These people shared a seemingly impossible dream: the dream of building the first Hebrew city, which would one day take its place among the greatest cities of the world. On April 11, 1909, this group, representing 66 families, came together to establish the Jewish neighborhood of Ahuzat Bayit north of Jaffa, on land that had been nothing but sand dunes.

The Seashell Lottery, April 11, 1909.
Avraham Soskin Collection.

At first, the families were at a loss about how to allocate the neighborhood’s plots fairly. It was then decided that this should be done by drawing lots, with the drawing overseen by Akiva Aryeh Weiss, an architect and the founder of the Ahuzat Bayit Committee. Working with the Jewish National Fund, Weiss had secured loans for the families who joined this initiative, persuading the public to participate with the following sign:

“We must soon acquire a sizable tract of land urgently, on which we will build our homes… And just as New York City marks the gateway to America, so must we improve our city, someday to become the New York of the Land of Israel.”

(Akiva Aryeh Weiss, Founder of ‘Ahuzat Bayit’)

The original Kiosk on the corner
of Rothschild Boulevard Herzl Street

For the draw, Weiss collected 66 white seashells from the nearby beach, on which he wrote the names of the 66 families, and 66 gray shells that he used for the plot numbers. Meir Dizengoff drew the plot at 16 Rothschild Boulevard, while Weiss himself won the plot at the corner of Herzl and Ahad Ha’am Streets.

Corner of Herzl & Rothschild,
looking south on Herzl st., 1910.

Over the years, the tale of this legendary draw has become part of the timeless Tel Aviv story.

Of course, this building was also to host the most momentous event in Israel’s history, an event that would see it renamed Independence House. There, on the afternoon of Friday, May 14, 1948, some 12 years after Dizengoff’s death, David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel. Following this declaration of independence, crowds flooded into Rothschild Boulevard and nearby Allenby Street, celebrating and dancing until dawn.

The preserved buildings

Dora & Moshe (Isaac) Heinko House

10 rothschild boulevard & corner of 7 herzl street

The Heinkos joined the Ahuzat Bayit Committee and built their home at the heart of the new neighborhood, opposite two Tel Aviv landmarks –the city’s very first kiosk and street light. While still in Russia, Moshe Heinko had been labeled a revolutionary and thrown into prison. That was where he met Dora, who smuggled fake ID documents into prison. Using these documents, the couple managed to escape to the Land of Israel in 1908 with their eldest daughter Shlomit. In 1909, the couple built their home in the Ahuzat Bayit neighborhood, which is where their two other daughters – Anna and Rita – were born.

During World War I, the couple were exiled to Egypt along with other Russian subjects residing in the Land of Israel. The family found themselves in financial straits in Egypt and Moshe Heinko decided to move to Buenos Aires to seek his fortune. As Dora refused to move there, the couple divorced and she settled in France with their daughters.

Heinko remarried in Buenos Aires and returned to Israel in the 1950s. Adopting a religious lifestyle and settling in Jerusalem’s Kiryat HaYovel neighborhood, he worked as a security guard at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust history museum. He died in 1966 and was buried in Givat Shaul, on Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem.

Certain authentic period items from the Heinko Home, which was built in 1910, still exist today. The building is an example of the Eclectic style, applied to the structure of a central space. A second story was added at a later stage. Both stories have now been restored, with more recent additions having been removed. 

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Rivka & Avraham Vogel House

12 rothschild Boulevard

Avraham Vogel was born in Odessa in the 1860s and immigrated to the Land of Israel with his wife Rivka in 1904. Vogel joined the Ahuzat Bayit Committee and it was his young son Moshe who was assigned the task of drawing shells during the lottery to determine land allocation within the new neighborhood.

Vogel worked for the Russian consul, taking care of the mail. His home garden, which he cultivated with Rivka, is remembered as being particularly impressive, featuring a round ornamental fish pond. The Vogels sent their sons to school in France and their son Yaakov would go on to become an engineer for the Tel Aviv Municipality. As Russian nationals, the couple was deported to Egypt during World War I. Upon their return after the war, Vogel accepted a clerk position in the Tel Aviv Municipality’s tax office. 

Rivka Vogel died in 1937. Two years later, on a Saturday night (April 29, 1939), Avraham Vogel was brutally murdered in his kitchen – a case that has remained unsolved to this day. During the British Mandate period, the Etzel underground movement scrawled graffiti on the front of the house, quoting Ze’ev Jabotinsky: “The God who created iron did not want slaves.”

The original 1910 home is an integral part of the urban development of Ahuzat Bayit and Rothschild Boulevard. The changes the house underwent over time were typical of most houses along the boulevard, which started out as single-story residential structures surrounded by gardens. The preservation project has restored the house in its entirety.

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Yona & Yechiel Yechieli House

9 herzl street

David Weissbrod was born in Vilnius in 1870. In his youth he became a follower of the Hovevei Zion Movement and was one of its operatives in Vilnius. He was a delegate to several Zionist Congresses and, in addition to his public work, also owned a sock manufacturing business. He married Menuha, who came from Kaunas and together they had five children. In order to give their children a Hebrew education, the family immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1906, with the five junior Weissbrods being among the very first students in the Hebrew school in Jaffa.

The Weissbrod (Livni) family was one of Ahuzat Bayit’s 66 founding families and very active in Tel Aviv public life. David was a member of the City Council and one of the driving forces behind the construction of the Great Synagogue on Allenby Street, where he served as a gabbai. When he died in 1929, he was buried in Trumpeldor Cemetery. He was outlived by his wife Menuha, who died in 1962 and is buried beside him.

The front wing of the Weissbrod House, looking out onto Lilienblum Street, was built in two stages: the ground floor and then the upper floor. A rear wing was added later, but this was demolished over the years. The preservation works included a complete reconstruction of the building. 

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Shifra & Mordechai ben Hillel-HaCohen house

23 Lilienblum street & corner of 11 Herzl street

Ben Hillel Hacohen was born in Mogilev, Belarus, in 1856. His elder brother Isaac was the grandfather of the late Yitzhak Rabin. In 1882, he married Shifra Batya, daughter of timber merchant Natan Netta Pevsner, and together they developed a sizable timber business. At the same time, Ben Hillel Hacohen was active in the Zionist movement and a regular contributor to Hebrew, Russian, and Yiddish newspapers.

Ben Hillel Hacohen traveled to the Land of Israel in 1889 and 1891, and even bought land there. In 1897, he was a delegate to the first Zionist Congress in Basel, accompanied by Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg (Ahad Ha’am). In 1905, Ben Hillel Hacohen and Pevsner opened a branch in Haifa and founded the Atid cooking oil company, which was later renamed Shemen. In 1907, after having participated in the eighth Zionist Congress in the Hague, he immigrated with his family to the Land of Israel, becoming one of Ahuzat Bayit’s 66 founding families. He even served as a member of the City Council from the very beginning.

Later on, the family moved to Jerusalem. Hanna, their daughter, married Zionist leader Dr. Arthur Ruppin. Their second daughter Rosa married Shlomo (Ginsberg) Ginossar, son of Ahad Ha’am. Ben Hillel Hacohen died in 1936, followed by his wife Shifra in 1950. They are both buried in the Binyamina cemetery.

The Ben Hillel Hacohen House was built in three stages, each with its own distinct style. The west wing was built first, then the east wing came, and finally a commercial storefront was added to the western portion fronting Herzl Street. The preservation project restored the façades and rear wings.

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Menuha & David Livni (Weisbord) house

25 Lilienblum Street

David Weissbrod was born in Vilnius in 1870. In his youth he became a follower of the Hovevei Zion Movement and was one of its operatives in Vilnius. He was a delegate to several Zionist Congresses and, in addition to his public work, also owned a sock manufacturing business. He married Menuha, who came from Kaunas and together they had five children. In order to give their children a Hebrew education, the family immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1906, with the five junior Weissbrods being among the very first students in the Hebrew school in Jaffa.

The Weissbrod (Livni) family was one of Ahuzat Bayit’s 66 founding families and very active in Tel Aviv public life. David was a member of the City Council and one of the driving forces behind the construction of the Great Synagogue on Allenby Street, where he served as a gabbai. When he died in 1929, he was buried in Trumpeldor Cemetery. He was outlived by his wife Menuha, who died in 1962 and is buried beside him.

The front wing of the Weissbrod House, looking out onto Lilienblum Street, was built in two stages: the ground floor and then the upper floor. A rear wing was added later, but this was demolished over the years. The preservation works included a complete reconstruction of the building.

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