The House where the State of Israel was Founded
The Dizengoff House, located at 16 Rothschild Boulevard, is one of the first houses built in Tel Aviv. It was the home of the city's first and legendary mayor, Meir Dizengoff, and his wife Zina. In 1948, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel in it, and for that reason it is also called the "House of Independence".
Dizengoff, who was one of the founders of the Ahuzat Bait neighborhood from which the city of Tel Aviv grew, headed the neighborhood committee between 1911-1921. When it became a municipal authority in 1921, he was elected to the position of mayor, where he served until 1925 and then from 1928 until his death in 1936.
The house was built in 1910 and originally contained one floor. In the late 1920s, a second floor was added to it, designed in a Eclectic-Oriental style. The house was used for meetings and gatherings of leaders of the city and the Jewish community in Israel at that time, and actually served as the first city hall of Tel Aviv. Receptions, various events and concerts were also held in the house, and the Dizengoff couple turned it into a social-cultural meeting place in the style of a "European Salon".
After his wife Zina passed away in 1930, Dizengoff established an art museum in her memory, purchasing some of the works displayed with his own money. For this purpose, the house was expanded, and the museum was inaugurated in 1932 in the presence of the British High Commissioner. At the same time, the Belgian consulate and a bank also operated there, while Dizengoff himself continued to live on the third floor. Upon his death in 1936, Dizengoff, who was childless, bequeathed the house and museum to the children and residents of Tel Aviv.
The house continued to be used as an art museum. On Friday, May 14, 1948, the Provisional State Council convened there, and at 4:00pm Ben-Gurion announced the establishment of the State of Israel. The frantic preparations for the ceremony only began right before it. A small wooden stage was quickly built in the main hall and some of the chairs were borrowed from nearby cafes…
In the early 1970s, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art was moved to its current location on Shaul Hamelech Boulevard. The house continued to serve as a museum of the Bible and stood neglected and relatively desolate, despite its great historical significance. In 2012, the house began to go through a long and thorough renovation process to become the Independence Hall, which will commemorate the ceremony of declaring the state of Israel.
(Anecdote authored by: עמיר)
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