About twenty years ago Sean & I spent the school year living is Israel. We lived at 28A Rehov Kaf-Tet B'November. In English that's 28A 29th of November Street. If you live there now, please write. I'd love to know if the orange leather couch and the black leather chair are still there. They weren't beautiful, but they were the most comfortable furniture I've ever had.
It was difficult to explain our address to people in the US. I grew up on Long Island, the home of Levittown. Streets in developments were named by the developers. They often bore names of the developers' families. Other names were common as well. There were the bird sections (Robin, Bluejay, Sparrow), the tree sections (Oak, Birch, Maple), and the president section (Lincoln, Washington, Garfield). Names repeated in town after town, but (beyond the presidents) the names had little meaning. In New York City streets were numbered. Other names were left from colonial times- biblical names or name places from the homeland. There are some historical names (as with the presidents), but somehow there doesn't seem to be great significance in most cases.
In Canada, as in the US, streets often bear colonial names. Newer names come from the British monarchy or Canadian history. I live off Bathurst Street. Henry Bathurst, the third earl Bathurst, organized immigration to Canada after the War of 1812. How many people know that? As with the US, the historical significance is minimal and ignored.
Israel is different. We lived on Kaf-Tet B'November. Nearby was Rehov Jabotinsky, Rambam, Lamed-Hey (35), Eli Cohen, and Rachel Imeinu. History is significant. Everyone in every generation knew the significance of Kaf-Tet B'November. On November 29, 1967, the UN voted in the partition part to create two states in the British controlled territory. The day after independence was officially declared on 5 Iyar (aka May 14, 1948), the armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon invaded the new Jewish state. The state of Palestine was never declared. It's land was divided among Israel, Egypt, and Jordan.
History also predates the state, even as a colony. Zeev Jabotinsky was a Zionist orator pre-state. Rambam was a medieval philosopher and Jewish scholar. Lamed-Hey is 35 in Hebrew (the letters lamed=30 and hey=5). It stands for the convoy of 35 Haganah men who were trying to resupply the blockaded Gush Etzion kibbutizim in January of 1948. Eli Cohen was an Israeli spy who infiltrated Syria in the early 60's. Rachel Imeinu is our mother Rachel, our matriarch.
The street names, as with cities and other places in Israel, ring out with history from the earliest days of Avraham and Sarah right up until today. It is a history that is remembered on every drive, in every address written.
It is not of little significance that 65 years later, Abu Mazen chose to request a vote for observer status on November 29. It is a situation that could have been avoided had the Arab nations allowed the partition plan to take effect creating two states. What is they, as Israel, had instead declared a state, acknowledged Israel, and worked toward peace? We have no way to know what that history would have been, only that it would have been different.
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