USSISHKIN

Menachem Osishkin was already almost 60 years old when he built his new house in the 'Amin-Nasif neighborhood, in 1922. In fact, he built a house, but he did not stay in it for more than a few days in a row. The house was designed by the architect Alexander Levy, who also built the neighbouring building at 11 Allenby Street, but became famous mainly for the 'Pagoda House' on Nachmani Street, near King Albert Square. The house stands out with pointed arches reminiscent of the Arab Jaffa houses and it combines, as was customary in the heyday of the eclectic style in Tel Aviv, also classical western elements.

Osishkin, who was up to his neck in the Zionist idea, spent many months travelling in Europe and America, where he encouraged the Jewish settlement, raised funds and encouraged it to come to Israel. A year after the establishment of the house in Tel Aviv, he was appointed to the position of chairman of the Jewish Foundation and moved the main activity in Israel to Jerusalem. In general, Usishkin was a Jerusalemite in his identity and he never really got to know Tel Aviv.

Actually, Rachel Bodenheimer, Usishkin's daughter, is the one who lived in the Usishkin House and managed his affairs, until she herself moved to Jerusalem. When the intervention of a lawyer was required, she recruited her brother Shmuel Usishkin. In the 1930s, Menachem Usishkin commissioned the architect Yosef Minor to design and add a third floor to the house that was being built.

Archaeologist David Usishkin, the grandson of Menachem Osishkin, writes about the house in his book 'The History of the Usishkin Family': "At the time of its construction, the building still stood in an area of sand... Most of the building was rented to tenants, with the exception of one apartment. Rachel and Shimon Bodenheimer lived here for a certain period. In a later period, Zina Brock and Rosa Jacobson, Esther Usishkin's sisters, lived here until their deaths, and members of the Usishkin family who lived in Jerusalem would visit them from time to time. Various tenants lived in the building, and with the entry into force of the tenant protection laws, the building began to deteriorate. The apartments on the ground floor became shops or kiosks. With the decline of the entire area, the level of tenants deteriorated and activity of prostitution and the like took a prominent place in the building and in the courtyard of the house."

The building remained in the family's ownership until 1993 when David Usishkin sold it to a group of investors.

BEIT USSISHKIN  52 YARKON ST.  | corner of Allenby 7 |