An official ceremony will be held in February to rename East 43rd Street between Vanderbilt and Madison Avenues in midtown Manhattan “David Ben Gurion Place” as part of the year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Ben Gurion. The street was the site in 1942 of the historic Biltmore Conference at the old Biltmore Hotel where Ben Gurion and other Zionist leaders formally established the goal of a Jewish State.
Mayor Edward Koch signed a bill into law last month renaming the street. The bill was introduced by New York City Council members Stanley Michels and Carol Greitzer. Present at the bill signing ceremonies with Koch were Moshe Yegar, Israel’s Consul General in New York; Jack Spitzer, chairman of the David Ben Gurion Centennial Committee in the U.S.; and Dr. Benjamin Hirsch, the Committee’s executive director.
The street naming is one of many civic, governmental and academic events and tributes to Ben Gurion sponsored by the Centennial Committee, plans also include a number of academic symposiums in major universities throughout the country and a gala at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in May 1987.
President Chaim Herzog of Israel is the worldwide chairman of the David Ben Gurion Centennial Committee. Its honorary U.S. chairman is President Reagan.
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