From Ihsan Turjman House to the Print Workshop
The building that houses the Jerusalem Print Workshop, one of the earliest buildings surrounding Ha-Nevi’im Street and the first in its lower section, was built on Saint Paul Street (now Shivtei Israel Street) on the corner of Ha-Nevi’im, opposite the Beit Mahanaim building and the Italian Hospital. Today, the building is designated as a “strict preservation-level” building.
The Building in Its Early Days
The building was constructed before 1876 in the Ottoman style and using Ottoman technology by Ihsan Hasan al-Turjman, a wealthy Arab who owned many buildings in the area, including the Turjman House (Museum on the Seam).
This is a grand and spacious two-story building with a tiled roof, its interior featuring groin vaults and other refined architectural details. It was designed as a liwan house – a house built around a large central hall – typical of the affluent class in the Levant. Originally, the building had only one floor and an inner courtyard and likely served as a hostel for pilgrims. At the end of the nineteenth century, the second story was added, along with its distinctive roof – a truncated tiled roof with a flat terrace at its center, known as a “widow’s walk terrace.” This name alludes to the ability to gaze far into the distance from the rooftop, evoking the image of the sailor’s wife watching in vain from the rooftop for her husband’s return. A roof of this kind is extremely rare in our region, existing only in the Jerusalem Print Workshop and in the building across from it, Beit Mahanaim (a historic preservation monument), which was built by Swiss banker and entrepreneur Johannes Frutiger. It appears that these observation terraces were built to take advantage of the unique view toward the Old City and the Temple Mount.
Turjman and his family lived on the upper floor, while a tile factory operated on the ground floor.
1930s to 1970s
In 1931, Rabbi Chaim Pesachowitz (1879–1956), known as “the Red Rabbi,” rented the upper floor of the building. With the help of his circle of friends he founded the midrash “Torah Vadaat” in his new home. On Saturdays, lectures were held there on religious and civil topics. In addition to the midrash, Rabbi Pesachowitz also founded a bank in his home – Bank Hathya Limited, which in 1938 was renamed Hathya Loan Company Limited.
Over the years, shops were built adjacent to the southern façade of the building, facing the intersection of Saint George and Ha-Nevi’im Streets. These structures were removed in the 1990s, and the stone pillars now standing in front of the building’s exterior staircase are remnants of those shops. One of the pillars originally bore the historic ceramic street sign, which was later replaced with a reconstructed sign created by Vera Davidson and Daphne Galia.
On the ground floor of the building, a man named Issachar Goldstein Talshir ran a café. On October 11, 1938, Goldstein was injured by an Arab assassin inside the café. This incident may have led Rabbi Pesachowitz to leave the house in 1939, as he wrote in his biography: “As the bloody events started, I was forced to leave my apartment because of its proximity to Arab positions, which posed a danger to those living there.” The bank was moved to Saint George Street and later to Ben Yehuda Street. Goldstein also relocated his café, apparently to King George Street, as it is known that he owned a café there during the 1940s.
After Pesachowitz moved out, the building was rented by the Evelina de Rothschild Girls’ School – located in the adjacent Beit Mahanaim since 1895 – and was used as student dormitories. Among the students who lived there was the [future] painter Rachel Shavit Bentwich (1929–2022).
In the 1950s, a man named Glaser, a Holocaust survivor, purchased the entire building from Amidar through a key money arrangement. He opened a sewing workshop called “Veritas” on the upper floor, producing children’s clothing and jeans, while on the ground floor there was a rubber manufacturing factory owned by Stolberg Wolfgit.
The Jerusalem Print Workshop
In 1975, the Jerusalem Print Workshop purchased the upper floor of the building, which at that time was neglected and dilapidated: There was no electricity, water, or sewage infrastructure; the ceiling of the upper floor was rotten and broken; and the stairwell leading up to it (now the acid room area) was blocked by a wall. After the purchase, the building’s roof was repaired, and many tiles were replaced.
Although the concept of “historic preservation” was not yet recognized in Israel at that time, the renovation work of the Workshop aimed to preserve the original architectural style and its various elements in their entirety.
During intersection expansion work in the 1990s, the shop structure on the northern façade was demolished, and new support columns for the balcony –then the Workshop’s only entrance – were designed by architect David Tolkovsky.
In 2010, the Jerusalem Foundation purchased the ground floor of the building in order to expand the Print Workshop. The expansion allowed for the addition of a new gallery exhibition space, which was inaugurated with a retrospective exhibition of works by Igael Tumarkin. The first floor also became home to the Workshop’s print collection and a dedicated library focused on the field of printmaking.
In 2018, the Workshop completed an extensive accessibility project, the main parts of which were the installation of an external elevator and the restoration of the original main entrance on the eastern façade to active use. In addition, the upper gallery space, named in memory of Nechama Rivlin Z”L, was renovated.
The Workshop Building in Works of Art
The work environment has always been a common theme in the history of art, particularly in painting and drawing. A still life arranged in the studio, a drawing of the surrounding space, self-portraits of the artist at work, the path leading to the studio – all of these, consciously or unconsciously, express the artist’s personality.
The transition from the private studio to the Print Workshop often marks a radical shift in the artist’s creative process. Instead of working in an intimate and familiar space, the artist now operates in a different environment, assisted by master printers in the preparation of the printing plates and the many trial printings. It is no surprise, then, that many artists seek to depict this unfamiliar setting, the
Sources:
“Building Preservation Report,” Building Preservation Department, Jerusalem Municipality [Hebrew].
The Official Newspaper of the Government of Palestine no. 791, June 25, 1938 [Hebrew].
HaTzofe newspaper, November 11, 1943 [Hebrew].
Kroyanker, David, Jerusalem: Ha-Nevi’im Street, Hachabashim Neighborhood and Musrara Neighborhood, Yad Ben Zvi, 2000 [Hebrew].
Pesachowitz, Chaim, Sefer Divrei Hefetz: Drashot for Shabbat and Holidays, Jerusalem, 1952–1953 [Hebrew].