Meir Dizengoff
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Meir Dizengoff (Hebrew: מאיר דיזנגוף, Russian: Меер Янкелевич Дизенгоф, Meyer Yankelevich Dizengof; 1861, Akimovichi, Bessarabia - 1936, Tel Aviv, Israel) was an Israeli politician and mayor of Tel Aviv.
Meir Dizengoff was born in 1861 in a small village in a province of Bessarabia, and at an early age his family moved to Kishinev. In 1882 he volunteered in the Russian army. In this period the underground organization “Narodnaya Volya”, or ‘People’s Will’, was operating in Russia, and Dizengoff was drawn to it. After being arrested in 1885 and imprisoned for his illegal underground activities, he left the army. At that time he reached Zhitomir, in modern-day Ukraine, where he met Ziniah Berner and married her shortly afterwards. After his military service he moved to Odessa. There he joined the Hovevei Zion movement and met there with Pinsker, Echad Ha’am, and others, and was chosen as their representative in their conference in 1887.
During his studies of chemical engineering at the Sorbonne in Paris, he met Edmond de Rothschild who, recognizing his abilities, sent Dizengoff to Israel to start a glass factory to make glass bottles for the ‘Baron’s Wine’. In 1892 he established the factory in Tantura but it didn’t work, owing to impurities in the sand, and Dizengoff soon returned to Russia. His path crossed with Herzl and he soon became a devoted and ardent follower, even though earlier at the sixth Zionist Council he was strongly opposed to Herzl’s Uganda plan.
Because of his Zionist beliefs, he returned to Israel a second time in 1905. He settled in the ancient city of Yafo at the age of 44 and established the “Gulah” company, which bought land in Israel from the Arabs. He also became involved in the import business, and was importing machinery and automobiles. These automobiles replaced horse-drawn carriages as the transportation service for visitors arriving at Yafo port, who were traveling to Jerusalem or other towns. He also started, with other partners, a boat company which was named after him. One of his important posts during this period was his appointment as the Belgian Consul.
Immediately, when the residents organized themselves to begin the new neighborhood of Tel Aviv, lit. ‘hill of spring’, he joined the “Ahuzat Bayit” company which bought the land outside of Yafo and distributed it, in lots, to the early halutzim (Israeli pioneers).
Dizengoff was elected to head the committee in 1911, a position which he held until 1922. When Tel Aviv was granted city status he was elected to be the mayor, and in that position he remained until his death, except for a three year intermission from 1925-1928.
During World War I many people were expelled by the Turks from the city and its surroundings, and Dizengoff was appointed to liaise between the exiled inhabitants and the Turkish rulers. In this position he dealt with the aid sent to the exiles of Tel Aviv and received the nickname of “Reish Galuta”. He widely circulated and publicised the plight of the exiles, mainly via the newspapers, and succeeded in convincing the rulers to agree to a regular supply of food and provisions to the exiles.
Many groups and associations in Tel Aviv were started during Dizengoff's stint as mayor. The most important of them was probably the “Orient Fair” committee, which was founded in 1932 and had its first exhibition that year. At first the fair was held in the south of the city, and after its huge success the administration decided to build special buildings specifically for the purposes of the fair, located at the northern end of the city. In 1934 they staged a large international fair, and a second one two years later.
As the mayor of a city that he loved and pampered, Dizengoff was emphatically involved with the development of the city and encouraged its rapid expansion. Daily he would ride along the streets of “his” city, checking to make sure everything was doing all right. He also made sure to encourage a feeling of happiness and joy in the city, and always rode his horse at the head of the “Adloyada”, the annual Purim carnival.
After the death of his beloved wife, he donated his house to the city of Tel Aviv, so that they would use it as an art museum, and he influenced many important artists to donate their work to improve the museum.
In 1936, with the outbreak of the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, the Arabs closed the Yafo harbour with the intention of halting the rapid expansion of Jewish settlements in Israel. Dizengoff, though, pressured the government to give him permission to open a port in his new (only 27 years old at the time!) city of Tel Aviv, and before his death he managed to dedicate the first pier of Tel Aviv’s new port. He opened with the words “Ladies and gentlemen, I can still remember the day when Tel Aviv had no port.” He died on the 7th of Tishrei, 1936. In his memory, they opened “Meir’s Garden.”
A major street is also named after him, Dizengoff Street. (His name lives on in modern Israeli slang, as the verb “to Dizengoff”, l’hizdangeff, which has the meaning of ‘going out on the town’, from the urban, cosmopolitan atmosphere of Dizengoff Street). In the center of the street, they built a square which they named after his wife, Zinah, by calling it “Zinah Dizengoff Square”. Nowadays, the square is enhanced by the artistic creations and fountains of Jacob Agam.
His house was converted into “The Museum for the Generations of Tel Aviv”. In this house, now called Independence Hall, David Ben-Gurion declared the independence of the State of Israel, on May 14th, 1948.
[edit] External sources
| Preceded by: — |
Mayor of Tel Aviv 1921-1925 |
Succeeded by: David Bloch |
| Preceded by: David Bloch |
Mayor of Tel Aviv 1928-1936 |
Succeeded by: Israel Rokach |
