Many of the streets here in Israel are named after famous Jews and Israelis. All the biggies have the big streets. Ben Gurion. Moshe Dayan. Menachem Begin. In Tel Aviv I live on a street called Levi Eshkol, named after the third prime minister of Israel a and the first who died in office when in 1969 he died of a heart attack. His successor, Yigal Alon also has a fairly large thoroughfare named after him. The cross street I live on is named after Marc Chagall, and there is a street behind me named after Arthur Rubinstein.
The street names are also repeated in different cities. I suppose there just are a limited number of names to choose from. There’s a Ben Gurion street in a lot of Israeli cities. According to ynet.com, the distinction for the most streets named after him goes to Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the founder of the Irgun with a total of fifty-seven.
Sometimes non-jews get the honor, but usually it’s for championing Jewish or Zionist causes. People like David Lloyd George, who was quoted to say things like “Of all the bigotries that savage the human temper there is none so stupid as the anti-Semitic” and “It will be long ere Canaan becomes once more a land flowing with milk and honey. The Jews alone can redeem it from the wilderness and restore its ancient glory.” Edmund Allenby, who defeated the Ottomans in Palestine. And Lord Arthur Balfour, who authored the Balfour Declaration of 1917. More about them later, but they all have streets that take their name in Tel Aviv. But sometimes the streets are named after simply admired people. Like Abraham Lincoln who also has a street named after him in Tel Aviv. It’s not a particularly big street—I mean he’s no Menachem Begin—but it’s there, sitting between Menachem Begin and Yehuda Halevi Streets. Although here his name is pronounced Lin-ko-lin.
Just as it is spelled. Link-ko-lin.
I was on Lin-ko-lin street one day, and somehow I got to talking to this guy, and I said something to the effect of “that’s not how you pronounce his name.”
The man scratched his head and said, “Avraham Lin-ko-lin?”
“No. It’s Abraham Lin-kun.”
“Avraham Lin-kun,” he repeated. Then he scratched his head again. “But he was Jewish, no?”
I think I said something like “maybe.” I didn’t have the heart to tell him that probably the moshiach would come before Americans would elect a Jewish president. I mean we like Jews, but we don’t like them that much.
Oh, by the way, many Israelis I’ve talked to seem amazed that I know this kind of information. Like I know who Levi Eshkol was. I have discovered that some Israelis are just as ignorant about history as many Americans are.
Ignorance of history must be a global problem. It needs to be stopped now.
