The initiative to establish the Neve Tzedek neighborhood came from Jews living in highly overcrowded conditions in Jaffa and they dreamed of establishing a Jewish Neighborhood. In 1884, the brothers Shimon and Eliezer Rokach founded the first real estate company. They gathered 48 families from among the residents of Jaffa and organized a Cooperative Association “Ezrat Israel” and through the Association land was purchased from Mr. Aharon Chelouche in a great real estate deal for both sides: Mr. Chelouche was the owner of land outside of Jaffa proper, he agreed to sell 10 dunam (10,000m2) under conditions of very easy installment payments provided that the ground construction would commence quickly and within a year of the purchase.
Chelouche’s concept was correct, when people would see his plots under construction, previously just sandy dunes along the seaside, and now made suitable for habitation – their value would rise steadily. The developers, Shimon and Eliezer Rokach had seen that it was possible to establish a Jewish neighborhood outside the walls of Jerusalem and therefore gambled that it was also possible to build a new neighborhood outside of the boundaries of Jaffa.
Purchase and construction were done without the support of external factors and without donations from wealthy Jewish philanthropists, but by self-financing of the members of the Association and loans they guaranteed themselves. The fees were divided over a series of regular payments to be made monthly.
There were 48 members in the Association and therefore they planned 48 residential units on the land. In the first phase 10 attached dwellings were constructed in three rows, surrounded by walls to keep the neighborhood safe, every house had two rooms with kitchen and bathroom built inside the courtyard, as was customary at that time.
The innovation in this neighborhood was that the communal kitchen and the toilets were now built separately for each and every family, and there was no more common use of the neighbors’ yard.
In the center was an empty lot planned for the construction of public buildings: a synagogue and ‘mikveh’ (ritual bath) and also two wells.
A committee was elected to be responsible for the construction of the houses and the committee drafted the rules and regulations for the neighborhood yet to be built and the document was signed by the members before the commencement of construction.
In principle, all the settlers deposited each month a fixed amount of money prior to construction until completion, followed by a lottery deciding who was allocated to take possession of the finished houses.
In my opinion, this is the first “acquisition group” in the history of “The Yishuv”. The first home buyers called the new neighborhood “Neve Tzedek” based on a verse from Jeremiah “Neve Tzedek Holy Mountain”.
The home of Rokach was one of the first houses to be inhabited and later on the spaces between the houses developed into the streets Rokach and Stein.
The streets of Neve Tzedek and the houses were considered the most spacious and pleasant in the neighborhood of Jaffa and were hailed as being of “brightness that refreshes the bones and rejoices the body”.
Additional suburbs were built in the neighborhood of Neve Tzedek and eventually connected with other houses which grew eventually into Tel Aviv.
The Rokach House was the private residence of Shimon, and served as the meeting place for people of the neighborhood and the Association of which Rokach was the chairman.
A second floor was added to the House and under the added copper dome stood a large family dining table and here, every night, for 30 years, the residents of Neve Tzedek and community leaders assembled. Rokach’s family life, which included five children, and public life, went hand-in-hand together.
Rokach House was donated by his children to perpetuate Shimon Rokach’s memory, and the neighborhood was named in honor of Mr. Shimon Rokach. The house was abandoned and neglected for many years until 1982, when a granddaughter of Mr. Rokach assumed the task of renovating and restoring the House. The work was done by his granddaughter, the sculptor, Lea Majaro-Mintz, self-financed, without any public support, while maintaining the original character and appearance of the house. The remarkable results were awarded by the Council for Conservation of Heritage Sites in Israel and won the first prize from the Ford Foundation. The exhibits relate the closely connected history of the family and the neighborhood, and it is a place where the works of sculptor Lea Majaro-Mintz are on display. The house became a historic site and a very special gallery for his granddaughter:
Lea Majaro-Mintz is a painter and sculptor born in Jerusalem, she graduated from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and the Bar Ilan University. Since the 1960’s she began to sculpt mostly female figures in clay and bronze, the statues of women are not young, they are weary and heavy-set, they age with years, grow wrinkles and other organs are diminished. In 1999 Lea Majaro-Mintz lost her eyesight and she now paints intuitively abstract compositions, very colorful and many characters placed on the canvas are intertwined and float. Thus real estate and art are intertwined.