Bezalel

Below, I share with you a short but interesting video of the history of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem. Besides being a prestigious academy, and one of the accredited 4 institutions of higher education for teaching Architecture in Israel, I have personal links to Bezalel. For one, my son Aaron studied Visual Communication at Bezalel, and thereby started his flourishing and inspiring career. My prior connection, to which I refer here, is that I rented and lived in a studio apartment in the academy campus. during the last period of my life as a bachelor.

A long stone wall with two openings, runs the length of one of the sides of the street. The wall surrounds the original Bezalel Academy complex, which includes the residences of the founders, the Schatz family. Back then, when I rented the flat, the street had narrow sidewalks and much car traffic, a bustling downtown street. Today, Bezalel street, in the center of Jerusalem, is a pleasant pedestrian street, with shops and cafes.

Click below for viewing a short video of the street December 2020:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zCRo5eS3MQWEKi5RDQNhQ_K85cmUQ5wD/view?usp=sharing

In the summer of 1981 I was looking to rent a flat in downtown Jerusalem. I saw a newspaper add of a place at Bezalel St. no. 3, I made an appointment and went to take a look.

Upon opening the wooden door at Bezalel 3, I suddenly passed a threshold from the din of center of Jerusalem into a serene, charming world – the Schatz family homes’ courtyard. I found myself in a sheltered, silent, shady, inviting, courtyard that derives its character from its stone floors and stone walls, trees, vines and bushes, an old well, a family of beautiful Siamese cats, and last but not least, Louise and Zohara Schatz, the landladies (you hear about them in the video I am sharing below). The two sisters – in – law widows introduced themselves and welcomed me in, and I immediately realized I had had the fortune of falling in the hands of a pair of fascinating, extraordinary ladies. They led me to the apartment, lost at the end of the elongated courtyard. The back wall of the courtyard has two doors and a window.

Between the two doors was a sculpted, expressive bust of a bearded man – a copy of the head of Boris Schat’s famous “Mattathias The Hasmonean”. The left door, they explained, is the entrance to the Schatz family’s spacious art studio where Zohara at that time was producing her art. The blue door next to the studio was the entrance to the the charming abode they were offering to rent out. The compact apartment consisted in a simply but tastefully furnished living / sleeping space, a kitchen, and a bathroom, not more nor less than what I needed. In all, 4 apartments opened on to the courtyard. The two larger ones were the homes of Louise and Zohara, and the remaining two they rented out to tenants. I immediately realized that this was my dream home, and was ready to give them a down payment. They told me they had arranged to see other candidates, took my phone number, and promised to call the next day to inform me of their decision. Before leaving them, I asked them to please wish me good look. Apparently they took this request seriously, and the next day they called with their decision to choose me as their tenant. Louise and Zohara spent most of their days in their homes, and often came out to the courtyard and were happy to mingle. More than my landladies and artist aristocrats of the Schatz family, they were very pleasant neighbors and fascinating friends for me. I spent about a year in this very unique paradise in the heart of Jerusalem, and with mixed feelings left to a larger flat with Vicky when we got married. During my stay there, I received many guests, including Marianne and Enrique Wallenberg, family friends from Colombia. When they came to visit me, Enrique, himself an artist, was captivated by the place and immediately took out his paper pad and pencil, and sketched the following drawing, which we have hanging in our family room.

Here is the link to the video: https://youtu.be/X225kjuQfk0