- Rehavia
Rehavia (also Rechavia) ( _he. רחביה) is an upscale
Jerusalem neighborhood located between the city center andTalbiya .History
Rehavia was established in the late 1920s on real estate previously owned by the
Greek Orthodox Church purchased by theIsrael Land Development Company in 1922. The ILDC hiredarchitect Ricard Kaufmann , a GermanJew , to design the neighborhood as a "garden neighborhood" to be modeled after the garden cities of Europe, with an emphasis on the International Style popular at the time. [http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/1990_1999/1999/7/Focus+on+Israel-+Jerusalem+-+Architecture+in+the+B.htm?DisplayMode=print]The first phase, called Rehavia A, was bordered by
King George Street to the east,Ramban Street to the south,Ussishkin Street to the west, andKeren Kayemet Street to the north. To preserve the quiet character, the neighborhood association allowedcommercial 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.When the Ethiopian emperor
Haile Selassie was exiled fromEthiopia in 1936, he lived onAlharizi Street. Rehavia became known as a neighborhood of upper-classAshkenazi 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 onBen Maimon street; [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/968877.html ] Zionist leaderArthur Ruppin ;Menachem Ussishkin , head of theJewish National Fund ;Golda Meir , Israel's fourth prime minister;Daniel Auster , the first Jewish mayor of Jerusalem, and philosophersHugo Bergmann andGershon Scholem . [http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/1990_1999/1999/7/Focus+on+Israel-+Jerusalem+-+Architecture+in+the+B.htm?DisplayMode=print] Among the government ministers who made their home in Rehavia wereDov Joseph andYosef Burg .Landmarks
Landmarks buildings in Rehavia include the headquarters of the
Jewish Agency for Israel , the windmill onRamban Street, and theRatisbonne Monastery. Gymnasia Rehavia, the country's second modern high school (afterGymnasia Herzliya inTel 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. [http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/1990_1999/1999/7/Focus+on+Israel-+Jerusalem+-+Architecture+in+the+B.htm?DisplayMode=print] 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.treet names
Most of Rehavia's streets are named after Jewish scholars and poets from the
Golden Age of Jewish culture in Spain . Among them areAbarbanel , Ben Maimon,Ibn Ezra andRamban . [ [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/792509.html A walk across Jerusalem history - Haaretz - Israel News ] ]References
Notable residents
*
Chaim Potok
*Aron Brand
*David Flusser
*Moshe Goshen-Gottstein
*Avraham Burg
*Moshe Greenberg
*Else Lasker-Schuler
*Miriam Yalan-Shteklis
*Teddy Kollek
*Benjamin Netanyahu
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.