Rehavia
Encyclopedia
Rehavia is an upscale Jerusalem neighborhood located between the city center and Talbiya
.
by the Palestine Land Development Company (PLDC). The area was known at the time as Ginzaria, a native Jerusalem plant. The Jewish National Fund
(JNF) bought the land and commissioned the German-Jewish architect Richard Kaufmann to design a garden neighborhood. The land was transferred back to the PLDC in exchange for lands in the Jezreel Valley
, but the JNF retained some real-estate in the neighborhood. The Gymnasia Rehavia
high school, Yeshurun Synagogue, and the Jewish Agency building were built on this land, overlooking the Old City. Rehavia was modeled after the garden cities
of Europe, with an emphasis on the International Style
popular at the time.
The first phase, called Rehavia Aleph, was bordered by King George Street to the east, Ramban
Street to the south, Ussishkin Street to the west, and Keren Kayemet Street to the north. To preserve the quiet character, the neighborhood association allowed commercial
businesses only on the two main roads at the neighborhood's edges. The roads open to traffic were deliberately built narrow, to keep them less busy and thus quieter. The main, tree-lined boulevard which bisected the neighborhood was open to pedestrian traffic only. Later expansion was primarily to the south, in the direction of Gaza Street.
The Prime Minister
's Official Residence is the "Agion House", at the corner of Balfour
and Smolenskin streets.
in 1936, he lived on Alharizi Street. Rehavia became known as a neighborhood of upper-class Ashkenazi Jews
, home to professors and intellectuals, particularly émigrés from Germany. Many of the country's early leaders lived in Rehavia: David Ben-Gurion
, Israel's first prime minister, who lived on Ben Maimon
street; Zionist leader Arthur Ruppin
; Menachem Ussishkin, head of the Jewish National Fund
; Golda Meir
, Israel's fourth prime minister; Daniel Auster
, the first Jewish mayor of Jerusalem, and philosophers Hugo Bergmann
and Gershon Scholem. Among the government ministers who made their home in Rehavia were Dov Yosef
and Yosef Burg
.
Street, and the Ratisbonne Monastery.
Gymnasia Rehavia, the country's second modern high school (after Gymnasia Herzliya in Tel Aviv
) was built on Keren Kayemet Street in 1928. Yitzhak Ben Zvi, who was to become the second president of Israel, and his future wife, Rachel Yanait, were teachers there.
In the center of historic Rehavia is Yad Ben-Zvi, a research institute established by Ben-Zvi. Jason
's Tomb was discovered during construction work on Alfasi Street.
, Ibn Ezra
and Rabbi Moses ben Nachman (Ramban)
.
Talbiya
Talbiya or Talbiyeh , officially Komemiyut, is an upscale neighborhood in Jerusalem, Israel, located between Rehavia and Katamon. It was built in the 1920s and 1930s on land purchased from the Greek Patriarchate...
.
History
Rehavia was established on a large plot of land purchased in 1921 from the Greek Orthodox ChurchGreek Orthodox Church
The Greek Orthodox Church is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity sharing a common cultural tradition whose liturgy is also traditionally conducted in Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament...
by the Palestine Land Development Company (PLDC). The area was known at the time as Ginzaria, a native Jerusalem plant. The Jewish National Fund
Jewish National Fund
The Jewish National Fund was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Palestine for Jewish settlement. The JNF is a quasi-governmental, non-profit organisation...
(JNF) bought the land and commissioned the German-Jewish architect Richard Kaufmann to design a garden neighborhood. The land was transferred back to the PLDC in exchange for lands in the Jezreel Valley
Jezreel Valley
-Etymology:The Jezreel Valley takes its name from the ancient city of Jezreel which was located on a low hill overlooking the southern edge of the valley, though some scholars think that the name of the city originates from the name of the clan which founded it, and whose existence is mentioned in...
, but the JNF retained some real-estate in the neighborhood. The Gymnasia Rehavia
Gymnasia Rehavia
Gymnasia Rehavia is a high school in the Rehavia neighborhood in Jerusalem, Israel.-History:Gymnasia Rehavia was the country’s second modern high school, after Gymnasia Herzliya in Tel Aviv. The school was first established in Jerusalem's Bukharan Quarter in 1909. The building on Keren Kayemet...
high school, Yeshurun Synagogue, and the Jewish Agency building were built on this land, overlooking the Old City. Rehavia was modeled after the garden cities
Garden city movement
The garden city movement is a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities surrounded by "greenbelts" , containing proportionate areas of residences, industry and...
of Europe, with an emphasis on the International Style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
popular at the time.
The first phase, called Rehavia Aleph, was bordered by King George Street to the east, Ramban
Ramban
Ramban, RaMBaN can refer to:* Nahmanides , Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman, Catalan rabbi, philosopher, physician, Kabbalist and biblical commentator* Ramban Synagogue in East Jerusalem* Cave of the Ramban in East Jerusalem...
Street to the south, Ussishkin Street to the west, and Keren Kayemet Street to the north. To preserve the quiet character, the neighborhood association allowed commercial
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
businesses only on the two main roads at the neighborhood's edges. The roads open to traffic were deliberately built narrow, to keep them less busy and thus quieter. The main, tree-lined boulevard which bisected the neighborhood was open to pedestrian traffic only. Later expansion was primarily to the south, in the direction of Gaza Street.
The Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Israel
The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful political figure in Israel . The prime minister is the country's chief executive. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem...
's Official Residence is the "Agion House", at the corner of Balfour
Arthur Balfour
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician and statesman...
and Smolenskin streets.
Demographics
When the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie was exiled from EthiopiaEthiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
in 1936, he lived on Alharizi Street. Rehavia became known as a neighborhood of upper-class Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...
, home to professors and intellectuals, particularly émigrés from Germany. Many of the country's early leaders lived in Rehavia: David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion
' was the first Prime Minister of Israel.Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946...
, Israel's first prime minister, who lived on Ben Maimon
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
street; Zionist leader Arthur Ruppin
Arthur Ruppin
Arthur Ruppin was a Zionist thinker and leader. He was also one of the founders of the city of Tel Aviv, and a pioneering sociologist credited as being "The Father Of Jewish Sociology", directing Berlin's Bureau for Jewish Statistics and Demography from 1902 to 1907...
; Menachem Ussishkin, head of the Jewish National Fund
Jewish National Fund
The Jewish National Fund was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Palestine for Jewish settlement. The JNF is a quasi-governmental, non-profit organisation...
; Golda Meir
Golda Meir
Golda Meir ; May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978) was a teacher, kibbutznik and politician who became the fourth Prime Minister of the State of Israel....
, Israel's fourth prime minister; Daniel Auster
Daniel Auster
right|thumb|Daniel AusterDaniel Auster was Mayor of Jerusalem in the final years of the British Mandate of Palestine, the first Jewish mayor of the city, and the first mayor of Jerusalem after Israeli independence.-Biography:...
, the first Jewish mayor of Jerusalem, and philosophers Hugo Bergmann
Hugo Bergmann
Samuel Hugo Bergman, or Samuel Bergman was a German and Israeli Jewish philosopher.-Biography:...
and Gershon Scholem. Among the government ministers who made their home in Rehavia were Dov Yosef
Dov Yosef
Dov Yosef was an Israeli politician and statesman. Yosef served in a variety of ministerial positions during the first two Knessets and was the country's second Minister of Justice, serving twice .-Background:...
and Yosef Burg
Yosef Burg
Yosef Shlomo Burg was an Israeli politician. In 1949, he was elected to the first Knesset, and served in many ministerial positions for the next 40 years. He was one of the founders of the National Religious Party.-Biography:...
.
Landmarks
Landmark buildings in Rehavia include the headquarters of the Jewish Agency for Israel, the windmill on RambanRamban
Ramban, RaMBaN can refer to:* Nahmanides , Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman, Catalan rabbi, philosopher, physician, Kabbalist and biblical commentator* Ramban Synagogue in East Jerusalem* Cave of the Ramban in East Jerusalem...
Street, and the Ratisbonne Monastery.
Gymnasia Rehavia, the country's second modern high school (after Gymnasia Herzliya in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
) was built on Keren Kayemet Street in 1928. Yitzhak Ben Zvi, who was to become the second president of Israel, and his future wife, Rachel Yanait, were teachers there.
In the center of historic Rehavia is Yad Ben-Zvi, a research institute established by Ben-Zvi. Jason
Jason (high priest)
Jason of the Oniad family, brother to Onias III, was a High Priest in the Temple in Jerusalem.Jason became high priest in 175 BCE after the accession of Antiochus Epiphanes to the throne of the Seleucid Empire....
's Tomb was discovered during construction work on Alfasi Street.
Street names
Most of Rehavia's streets are named after Jewish scholars and poets from the Golden Age of Jewish culture in Spain. Among them are Abarbanel, Ben MaimonMaimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
, Ibn Ezra
Ibn Ezra
Ibn Ezra was a prominent Jewish family from Spain spanning many centuries.The name ibn Ezra may refer to:* Abraham ibn Ezra , a Rabbi who lived in the eleventh and twelfth centuries...
and Rabbi Moses ben Nachman (Ramban)
Nahmanides
Nahmanides, also known as Rabbi Moses ben Naḥman Girondi, Bonastruc ça Porta and by his acronym Ramban, , was a leading medieval Jewish scholar, Catalan rabbi, philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentator.-Name:"Nahmanides" is a Greek-influenced formation meaning "son of Naḥman"...
.
Notable residents
- Aron BrandAron BrandAron Brand-Auraban , born in Ozorków, Poland, was an Israeli pediatric cardiologist. He served as chairman of the Israel Medical Association in Jerusalem, Israel, and founded the Jerusalem Academy of Medicine....
- Avraham BurgAvraham BurgAvraham "Avrum" Burg is an Israeli author; he was formerly a member of the Knesset, a chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel and a Speaker of the Knesset.-Biography:...
- Emanuel FeldmanEmanuel FeldmanEmanuel Feldman is an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth Jacob of Atlanta, Georgia. During his nearly 40 years as a congregational rabbi, he nurtured the growth of the Orthodox community in Atlanta from a community small enough to support two small synagogues to a...
- David FlusserDavid FlusserDavid Flusser was a professor of Early Christianity and Judaism of the Second Temple Period at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.- Biography :...
- Moshe Goshen-GottsteinMoshe Goshen-GottsteinMoshe Goshen-Gottstein was a German-born professor of Semitic linguistics and biblical philology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and director of the lexicographical institute and Biblical research institute of Bar-Ilan University.-Biography:Moshe Goshen-Gottstein was born in Berlin...
- Moshe GreenbergMoshe GreenbergMoshe Greenberg was an American Jewish rabbi, Bible scholar, and professor emeritus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.-Biography:...
- Teddy KollekTeddy KollekTheodor "Teddy" Kollek was mayor of Jerusalem from 1965 to 1993, and founder of the Jerusalem Foundation. Kollek was re-elected five times, in 1969, 1973, 1978, 1983 and 1989...
- Else Lasker-SchulerElse Lasker-SchülerElse Lasker-Schüler was a Jewish German poet and playwright famous for her bohemian lifestyle in Berlin. She was one of the few women affiliated with the Expressionist movement. Lasker-Schüler fled Nazi Germany and lived out the rest of her life in Jerusalem.-Biography:Schüler was born in...
- Golda MeirGolda MeirGolda Meir ; May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978) was a teacher, kibbutznik and politician who became the fourth Prime Minister of the State of Israel....
- Benjamin NetanyahuBenjamin NetanyahuBenjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is the current Prime Minister of Israel. He serves also as the Chairman of the Likud Party, as a Knesset member, as the Health Minister of Israel, as the Pensioner Affairs Minister of Israel and as the Economic Strategy Minister of Israel.Netanyahu is the first and, to...
(born 1949), Prime Minister of Israel - Chaim PotokChaim PotokChaim Potok was an American Jewish author and rabbi. Potok is most famous for his first book The Chosen, a 1967 novel which was listed on The New York Times’ best seller list for 39 weeks and sold more than 3,400,000 copies.-Biography :Herman Harold Potok was born in The Bronx, New York City, to...
(1929–2002), author and rabbi - Berel WeinBerel WeinBerel Wein is an American-born Orthodox rabbi, scholar, lecturer, and writer. He is regarded as an expert on Jewish history and has popularized the subject through more than 1,000 audio tapes, a four-volume book series, newspaper articles and international lectures...
, rabbi and writer - Miriam Yalan-ShteklisMiriam Yalan-ShteklisMiriam Yalan-Shteklis was an Israeli writer and poet famous for her children's books. Her surname, Yalan, was an acronym based on her father’s name, Yehuda Leib Nissan.-Biography:...
(1900–84), writer and poet