Architects and Planners
Collections of architects and planners include holdings from various settings. The Historical Archives of the University of Jerusalem hold the collections of German-Jewish planners Ariel Kahane (Berlin 1907-Jerusalem 1986) and Shalom Reichman (Warms 1935- Jerusalem 1992). Ariel Kahane was a senior state planner during early statehood, who played a key role in shaping the Israeli New Towns programme. Professor Shalom Reichman, a Professor of Geography at the Hebrew University, was a pioneer of Israeli geography and planning.
The archive at the Architecture Department of the Technion holds collections of German-Jewish architects and planners Paul Engelmann (Olomouc 1891 - Tel Aviv 1965), Gedalyau Wilbushevitz (Grodno 1865 - Palestine 1943) and Max Lev (Loeb) (Kassel 1901 - Haifa 1962). Paul Engelmann, arguably Adolf Loos’ closest pupil, was educated in Vienna and close to modernist circles, including Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Kraus. His small, yet incredibly rich, archive at the Technion is evidence of his close apprenticeship with Adolf Loos and his attempts to promote Loos’ legacy in Palestine after emigration in 1934. Wilbushevitz received his education at the TU Berlin-Charlottenburg and after emigration planned major public landmarks in the city of Haifa. The drafts, sketches and personal documents of Max Lev (Loeb) document his careers in Darmstadt, Cologne and then in Haifa. Largely, these collection further illuminate the contribution of German-Jewish modernist architects and planners to early nation building efforts in the fields of architecture, town and country planning.
Ruth Enis
Location: Technion Haifa
Arranged & Described by: Neta Feniger
Further information: Ruth Enis Finding Aid
Ruth Enis is a pioneering Israeli landscape architect, teacher and historian. Professor Ruth Enis was born in Cernauti, Romania in 1928. In 1937, she emigrated to British Mandate Palestine with her family. During a family visit to Europe in 1939, World War II broke out and young Enis was unable to leave the continent again, and was deported to a labour camp in the Ukraine. Only in 1943 did she return to Palestine, where in 1954 she was one of the first women to receive a B.Arch from the faculty of Architecture at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. After an extended professional stay in The Hague between 1958-1965, where she acted as chief landscape architect of the city (1960-1964), she opened a private landscape architecture practice in Haifa with projects across Israel. In 1970, she began her academic career, teaching at the Technion, developing a curriculum for a landscape architecture program at this school, and heading this program for many years.
The materials in this collection reflect Enis’ work as a scholar, teacher, and as a practitioner of landscape architecture. It displays her work as a professor of landscape architecture in the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion, her devotion to research and teaching the history of landscape architecture in general and in Israel in particular. Her most important historical studies are on landscape in Kibbutzim, and on a large number of Israeli graduates from the Ahlem Agriculture and Horticulture School in Germany and their vital impact on the Zionist creation of designed landscapes. The collection also holds Enis’ professional work as a landscape designer, revealing her involvement in the creation of the Israeli landscape, especially her planning of school yards and Kibbutzim landscapes.
Kahane-Reichman
Location: Geography Department, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Arranged & Described by: Yodan Fleitman, Michael Cidor
Further information: Finding Aid
This combined collection (23 boxes) includes the collection of professor of geography Shalom Reichman (Warms 1935- Jerusalem1992) and the crypto-collection of the architect-planner Ariel (Anselm) Kahane (Berlin 1907-Jeruslaem 1986). It reflects the lifelong work of Kahane (Berlin 1907-Jeruslaem 1986), a senior state planner in the post-Independence era, as well as parts of the professional work of Reichman (Warms 1935- Jerusalem1992), who pioneered historical research on Kahane and his generation of planners. The bulk of this collection is the crypto-collection of Kahane. Holdings include primary textual and visual materials concerning Kahane’s planning work as a public servant in both the British Mandate planning administration and the Israeli government, spanning from the mid-1930s until the late 1960s. These include rare materials from the early 1950s in connection with the Israeli New Towns campaign and Jerusalem prior to 1967, as well as records concerning Kahane’s work as a special UN consultant to Turkey on planning in the early 1960s. Reichman’s collection reflects his public work in various ministerial and governmental capacities related to the shaping of national planning policy in the 1970s and 1980s. Considered in tandem, this joint collection provides a rare insight into to the development Israeli spatial thought from the 1940s until the 1980s.
Watch the conference (in Hebrew) on the exposition of the Kahane-Reichman collection:
Gideon Kaminka
Location: Technion Haifa
Arranged & Described by: Shira Wilkof
Further information: Finding Aid
Dr. Arch. Gideon Kaminka (1904 Vienna – 1985 Tel Aviv) was a prominent Haifa-based architect, local politician and activist within the Central-European émigré-community in Palestine/Israel. The son of Aharon Kaminka, a well-known Orthodox Rabi, Kaminka the son was trained at the TU Vienna, and he emigrated to Palestine in 1933. He designed public, commercial and offices buildings, as well as private houses, with a special focus on the Haifa German-speaking community and their community facilities. For 28 years, from 1950, he served as a member of the city council, as a representative of an independent Liberal Party.
The collection includes substantial architectural material concerning his projects in Haifa as well as materials concerning his political activities, advocacy and social activities within the German-speaking émigré community.
Max Loeb (Lev)
Location: Technion Haifa
Arranged & Described by: Shira Wilkof
Further information: Max Loeb (Lev) finding aid
The materials in this collection (5 boxes) reflect the activities of Max Loeb (Lev) (Kassel 1901-Haifa 1962), a German-émigré Israeli modernist architect. Holdings include materials concerning Lev’s diverse architectural commissions in Palestine/Israel spanning from the late 1920s until his death in 1962. The collection contains textual and architectural materials, in addition to photograph albums and a large collection of photographs documenting his projects. The collection provides a unique insight into the rich architectural oeuvre of arguably one of the leading exponents of Modern architectural style in Mandate Palestine, who seems to have been left out of the scholarly canon of early statehood Jewish modernist architects in Israel.
Unger-Englemann
Location: Technion Haifa
Arranged & Described by: Shira Wilkof
Further information: Unger-Engelman Finding Aid
The materials in this collection reflect the individual and collective work of two of the modernist pioneer Adolf Loos’ close disciples, Paul Engelmann and Yehuda K. Unger, in connection with promoting his heritage in Palestine and beyond. The collection provides a unique insight into their architectural collaborations with Loos after their emigration to Palestine in the 1930s as well as their attempts to instill Loos’ concepts within the emerging local architectural community in the 1940s. Furthermore, it reveals the active contribution of these two individuals in shaping the historical knowledge about Loos in later decades. In addition, holdings include a small quantity of materials related to Unger and Engelmann’s individual professional careers as architects.
Gedalyau Wilbushevitz
Location: Technion Haifa
Arranged & Described by: Shira Wilkof
Further information: Finding Aid
Wilbushevitz (1865-1943) was an early Zionist engineer, builder, and activist. He received his education in engineering at the TU Berlin-Charlottenburg and after his emigration to Palestine in 1892, he built major public landmarks in the city of Haifa, including the central train station, the power station and several hospitals. Wilbushevitz was a Zionist industrial pioneer and a well-known public figure within the Jewish community in Palestine. The collection includes various architectural materials concerning his projects.