The Most Expensive House in Israel

News outlets have reported that Sheldon Adelson, the American casino magnate and mega-donor to politicians, has closed a deal to purchase the seaside residence in the Israeli city of Herzliya that for decades has been the home of successive U.S. ambassadors. Evidently, in the wake of its move of the American embassy itself from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Washington has been keen to bolster its presence further in Israel’s capital; disposing of the residence is one means to that end. Adelson’s reported price, the largest sum ever paid for a home in Israel: $87 million.

As it happens, the same coastal property once drew another famous, upward-aspiring American owner—a fact I discovered by accident two years ago.

At the time, I was dipping into Israel’s state archives to learn more about Leon Uris, the renowned author of the bestselling 1958 book Exodus. My interest was not in that novel but rather in proposals made in the early 1960s to produce a film based on Israel’s 1960 capture of Adolf Eichmann, the notorious Nazi organizer of the Holocaust. Uris had proposed just such a film to Teddy Kollek, later to become mayor of Jerusalem but then serving as chief of staff to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Although nothing came of that particular initiative, I included the story in an article in Mosaic just a few months ago.