Description
Book SynopsisThis book analyzes the construction of the first Hebrew University, which the author identifies as central to Zionist goals, and details the challenged faced by the well-known architects and planners related to power struggles, donorsâ wishes, and architectural concerns.
Trade ReviewThe Planning and Building of the Hebrew University, 1919–1948: Facing the Temple Mount traces, for the first time, the history of the construction of this highly significant Zionist enterprise. . . The book also reveals comparatively unknown architects and their contribution to the campus. * Israel Book Review *
From Mount Scopus, just outside Jerusalem, the Hebrew University was intended to overlook Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock. There could hardly be a more resonant setting for a university campus as this ‘Third Temple.’ And there could hardly be a richer cast of planners and architects involved in the first three decades of the university’s life as idea and built form: from Patrick Geddes and Frank Mears to Erich Mendelsohn and Richard Kaufmann. The story of the university and its buildings, from its first glimmerings in Zionist ideology through its manifold contradictions and paradoxes over the next three decades, is finely told in Diana Dolev’s book The Planning and Building of the Hebrew University, 1919–1948: Facing the Temple Mount. This fascinating account is scrupulously researched and well-detailed. It offers a curious parallel history—of mythological forms and new visions—to that of Palestine in the first half of the twentieth century. -- Mark Crinson, University of Manchester
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Jerusalem and the Mount Scopus Site Chapter 2: Patrick Geddes and Frank Mears: The First Master-Plan, 1919–1920 Chapter 3: Fritz Kornberg: Necessary Necessary Beginnings, 1923–1925 Chapter 4: Frank Mears and Benjamin Chaikin: First Three New Buildings, 1926–1929 Chapter 5: Julian Clarence Levi: The Donor’s Vision for the Jewish Studies Building, 1929 Chapter 6: Benjamin Chaikin: The Neoclassic Open-Air Theater, 1933 Chapter 7: Erich Mendelsohn: Secular Spirituality, 1934–1941 Chapter 8: Carl Rubin and Jacob Jawicz: The Museum of Jewish Antiquities, 1941 Chapter 9: Joseph Douglas Weiss: The Completion of the Jewish Studies Building, 1936–1940 Chapter 10: Richard Kauffmann: The University City, 1944–1948
