Balfour, Who Was That Street?

Carl posted a very comprehensive post on the Balfour Declaration, which is 90 years old now.

Last night, late afternoon, I caught the tail end of a "youth" program on Channel 1 TV. They were out interviewing people of all ages on Balfour Street asking them who/what Balfour was.

I'm sure you can guess the results. Nobody knew for sure, though one was "close," and most were so far off the mark that it was obvious that they had never learned anything about the British Mandate.

Decades ago there was a fascinating book published here in Israel called Street People by Helga Dudman. It told about the people and events behind the street names. We bought it for our parents as a gift before going to visit.

Israelis know neither Zionist history nor Biblical. I'm always amazed and horrified at the amount of Israelis, no foreign accents, who mispronounce שילה Shiloh. They say "shee lah." The word/name isn't familiar, even though it should be. Biblical Shiloh was the capital of the tribal nation for 369 years.

Balfour was just a one-shot deal.

But back to the TV program....
It was geared to teens in striking high schools, and its final message was:

Spend the strike time investigating the historical background
of the street names in your neighborhood.

Finally something good on TV!