Telephone Directory

A fascinating insight into the soon-to-be nascent State of Israel. One gleans how diminutive was the population of Eretz Israel and how scarce the recent innovation of the telephone from the fact that this Directory carries listings for just three cities: Jerusalem, Jaffa-Tel Aviv and Haifa - while all other locales are generically categorized as “Other Exchanges.” The latter cachet includes what have since developed into major cities but at the time were considered outposts: Beersheba, Benei Beraq, Kefar Sava, Nathanya, Petah-Tiqva, Ramat Gan, Rehovot, etc. Rehovot possessed all of forty-two telephones, one of which was owned by “Weizmann, Dr. Ch.” (future first president of Israel). Others telephone owners of interest include, Jerusalem residents “Epstein, Rabbi Moshe M.” (rosh yeshiva of Slabodka-Hebron), “Kook, A. I. Chief Rabbi of the Holy Land,” and “Ben-Zevei, I.” (future second president of Israel). Geographically speaking, it would seem that under the then British Mandate, Palestine was well-connected to the neighboring British satraps of Egypt and Trans-Jordan as well as to the adjoining areas that had come under the French sphere of influence: “Lebanese Republic, Syrian Republic and State of Djebel Druze, Autonomous Sandjak of Alexendretta and Government of Lattaquie” (pp. 135-138). The Directory is full of commercial advertisements that are a fairly representative cross-section of commerce in the developing nation. Of amusing interest, see the Introduction: “How to use the Telephone...” Also of note, many Exchanges were “Closed on the Sabbath.”