Eshkol lived in the residence on two occasions, as Minister of Finance (1954–1955) and as Prime Minister (1963–1969). Sadly he was also the first Prime Minister of Israel to die in office and he passed away from a heart attack at this house on 26th February 1969. From the time of his death his widow, Miriam - his third wife and his junior by 35 years - devoted herself to perpetuating his memory. Although there is an Eshkol Park in Be'ersheva, the Eshkol region in the Negev, the Eshkol Power Station in the northern industrial zone of Ashdod and a Ramat Eshkol neighbourhood in Jerusalem, Miriam Eshkol wanted something to remind people of who Levi Eshkol was and what he did for the country.
Over time the building deteriorated and when Yitzhak Rabin became Prime Minister for the first time in 1974, he and his wife Leah moved to what they considered more appropriate surroundings on nearby Balfour Street. In 1977 the government gifted the house to the Eshkol Foundation, headed by Miriam Eshkol, to commemorate the life and legacy of Israel's third Prime Minister. But for the next 39 years it stood empty due to lack of funding, finally surrendering its grandeur to overgrown dry weeds and graffiti-covered walls.
In 2015 the Eshkol Foundation, together with the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) and the Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage, finally began work on the house. The SPNI was offered the upper floor of the house in return for helping to finance the restoration of the building. Several private donors also contributed to the cost.
Today the ground floor's restored rooms are filled with photographs and memorabilia which tell Levi Eshkol's life story. The living room is classic 1960s austerity, whilst the bookshelves in the library contain decades-old volumes, though they were not part of Eshkol's personal library. The table in the breakfast nook is set with bone china cups and saucers and a facsimile of a half-century old copy of Maariv, a national Hebrew-language daily newspaper. In the kitchen there is a period four-burner stove with saucepans and a kettle on top. The stove is adjacent to a doorway that leads to an underground bunker. Leaders of the country spent time in the bunker during periods of security tension such as the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War. At present it is being used to store the boxes holding Miriam Eshkol's personal archive.
The 12-seat dining-room table, above, which is an exact copy of the one that was in the Eshkol home and was used for emergency meetings, shares floor space with Eshkol's personal desk and chair, which had been in his study. On the desk are two old-fashioned telephones with dials. One is a red phone, which was the hot line. The other is a regular black phone.
In 1964 Eshkol was the first Israeli Prime Minister to be invited to pay an official visit to Washington, thus laying the groundwork for relations between Israel and the US. Photos of Eshkol with world leaders - including Richard Nixon, Harold Wilson, Charles de Gaulle, Konrad Adenauer and others, as well as Israeli political figures who were legends in their time - adorn the walls of the house.
Unfortunately Miriam Eshkol died less than a month before the opening of Levi Eshkol House, 47 years after her husband. Miriam, Eshkol's third wife, met him when she was a tenant in the housing unit in the yard. Miriam looked after Elisheva, Eshkol's second wife, when she fell ill and until Elisheva's death in 1959. Miriam and Eshkol married in 1964. She worked tirelessly for many years to establish a visitors' centre to memorialise her husband. She believed that the government should take on the responsibility for the restoration but budgetary, bureaucratic and administrative difficulties delayed the project. The recently remodelled house means that her wishes have finally been achieved.
* This post has been shared on My Corner of the World, Little Things Thursday, All Seasons, Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Sharon's Souvenirs, Our World Tuesday, Travel Tuesday and Tuesday's Treasures.
