Jerusalem Boulevard (Hebrew: Sderot Yerushalayim) ( he, שדרות ירושלים), is a long historical avenue that crosses the city of

Jaffa Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo ( he, יָפוֹ, ) and in Arabic Yafa ( ar, يَافَا) and also called Japho or Joppa, the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, is an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is known for its association with the b ...

parallel to the shoreline a few hundred meters to the west, from the border of

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

to Bat Yam in the south (Sderot HaAtsma'ut) to the

Yehezkel Kaufmann Yehezkel Kaufmann (Hebrew: יחזקאל קויפמן; also: Yeḥezqêl Qâufman; Yeḥezḳel Ḳoyfman; Jehezqël Kaufmann) (1889 – 9 October 1963) was an Israeli philosopher and Biblical scholar associated with the Hebrew University. His ...

Street in the north, where it continues as a boulevard to the beach.

History

British Mandate

Soon after being appointed governor in 1914, Hassan Bey, also known as Hassan Bek, adopted an ambitious development programme for Jaffa that included the construction of an avenue connecting the seaside city with the orange groves at its outskirts. In 1915, during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Hassan Bey paved the street using forced Jewish and Arab labor and named it Jamal Pasha Boulevard after his superior, the Ottoman governor of

Greater Syria Syria (Hieroglyphic Luwian: 𔒂𔒠 ''Sura/i''; gr, Συρία) or Sham ( ar, ٱلشَّام, ash-Shām) is the name of a historical region located east of the Mediterranean Sea in Western Asia, broadly synonymous with the Levant. Other s ...

. In 1915, Jewish engineer Gedalyahu Wilbushewitz, the brother of

Manya Shochat Manya Shochat (1880–1961) was a Russian-Jewish politician and the "mother" of the collective settlement in Palestine, the forerunner of the kibbutz movement. Biography Manya Wilbushewitch (also Mania, Wilbuszewicz/Wilbushewitz; later Shochat) ...

, was appointed Jaffa's director of public works by Sultan

Mehmed V Mehmed V Reşâd ( ota, محمد خامس, Meḥmed-i ḫâmis; tr, V. Mehmed or ; 2 November 1844 – 3 July 1918) reigned as the 35th and penultimate Ottoman Sultan (). He was the son of Sultan Abdulmejid I. He succeeded his half-brother ...

. Under Wilbushewitz' supervision the new thoroughfare was built and lined with trees: Washingtonia palm trees and

ficus ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending in ...

trees (

sycomore ''Ficus sycomorus'', called the sycamore fig or the fig-mulberry (because the leaves resemble those of the mulberry), sycamore, or sycomore, is a fig species that has been cultivated since ancient times. The term '' sycamore'' spelled with an A ...

and Chinese banyan), delivered by the Mikveh Yisrael agricultural school and planted by its students. In late 1917, British imperial troops occupied Jaffa and the avenue was renamed King George V Boulevard after the British monarch.

State of Israel

As of 2016, there were about 860 ficus trees along the length of Sderot Yerushalayim. For the construction of the Tel Aviv Light Rail, at least 29 of them will be removed and a further four will be relocated.

References

External links

Sderot Yerushalayim
on

Panoramio Panoramio was a geo-tagging, geo-located tagging, photo sharing Mashup (web application hybrid), mashup active between 2005 and 2016. Photos uploaded to the site were accessible as a layer in Google Earth and Google Maps. The site's goal was to a ...

{{Streets in Tel Aviv Streets in Tel Aviv