Shimon Rokach is the founding father of the Neve Tzedek neighbourhood in Tel-Aviv. Having been sent from Jerusalem to work for the family business in Jaffa by his father, Shimon decided to set up the first Jewish neighbourhood beyond Jaffa's walls in 1887, just as had occured with the founding of Yemin Moshe outside of Jerusalem's walls sometime earlier. Rokach's house was the first of 10 houses built as part of this new Jewish settlement outside of Jaffa. Even though the founding of Tel-Aviv as the first Jewish city is considered by many to have taken place in 1909 with the establishment of "Ahuzat Bayit", it can be strongly argued that it all began 22 years earlier in Neve Tzedek, where indeed the first town hall was set up in Rokach's house itself. The new neighbourhood, known as "Little Paris" attracted many intellectuals such as the author Shay Agnon and the artist Nahum Gutman. Rokach's contributions to the development of the city were many and continued through his son Israel who served as Mayor of Tel-Aviv for 17 years between 1936 and 1953.
After the neighbourhood fell into temporary decline during the 60s and 70s, in 1983 Rokach's granddaughter and artist, Leah Majaro-Mintz, decided to invest her money into the restoration of the decaying building in order to return it to its former glory, which she succeeding in doing worderfully well. In fact, today, the house is pretty much an art gallery, teeming with sculptures of naked females; i mean, there seems to be an arse or pair of breasts staring at you from every corner of the building - it's like an Alfred Hitchcock thriller or something. This women clearly has some sort of unhealthy obsession with the female form. Her grandfather would probably turn in his grave!Anyway, in Rokach House I guess I've filled in another piece of the Tel-Aviv puzzle. It's definately bootylicious.
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