Till We Have Built Jerusalem

Starred review from January 25, 2016
Buildings from a crucial era in modern Palestinian history evoke lost possibilities of cultural unity and harmony, in this scintillating study of politicized architecture. Hoffman (House of Windows) profiles three architects working in Palestine under British rule from 1918 to 1948: Erich Mendelsohn, a celebrated refugee from Nazi Germany; Austen St. Barbe Harrison, an ex-pat British civil servant; and the all-but-forgotten Spyro Houris, designer of elegant Jerusalem houses, whose obscure life reveals the multicultural world of Greek Orthodox Arabs. Hoffman’s lively portraits feature the usual melodrama between visionary architects and philistine, penny-pinching funders, heightened by the turmoil of a Palestine rife with violence between Arabs and Jews, shadows of war and exile, and demands that Jewish architects use only Jewish workers and suppliers. She sets their stories against the backdrop of present-day Jerusalem, which she pungently portrays as tacky, squalid, and wracked by religious hatred. Sadly, her subjects’ graceful building are often disfigured by menacing security barriers. Hoffman’s sensitive architectural appreciations show how these architects blended European Modernist styles with Ottoman and Arab motifs in a Utopian impulse towards an inclusive, cosmopolitan society. The result is both vivid architectural criticism and an illuminating meditation on why Jerusalem’s divisions now seem intractable. B&w illus. Agent: Miriam Altshuler.

January 15, 2016
Hoffman (My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness: A Poet's Life in the Palestinian Century, 2009, etc.) studies three very different architects responsible for the look of Jerusalem. The author's bond to Jerusalem is responsible for her quest in and around the Jaffa Road to find the versions and visions of the city initiated by these diverse men. She explains how they were drawn to build in this city and explores their difficulties, artistic foibles, and personal oddities that perhaps are what made them great. First is Erich Mendelsohn (1887-1953), an established international celebrity. He and his wife left Nazi Germany in the 1930s for Britain and eventually Palestine. There, he embraced the "oriental" Arab feel, designing buildings comfortable in their environment, with thick walls and small windows. In Jerusalem, he envisioned filling the entire ridge of Mount Scopus with a hospital, medical center, and university. The second figure in Hoffman's narrative is Austen St. Barbe Harrison (1891-1976), who left England as a young man, never to return. He, too, was captivated by the feel of the East, borrowing elements from the Islamic and Byzantine traditions, from alternating light and dark stripes to geometrically ornamented door panels. The last and most curious man in the book is the mysterious, elusive, and obscure Spyro Houris. His buildings are distinguished by stylized characteristics: ornate railings, crenellated parapets, and the magnificent ceramics of David Ohannessian. The author's frustrating search led her through archives, histories of Houris' clients, and even a possible partner, but she discovered very little about the man himself. Hoffman effectively brings out Jerusalem's diversity in the personages of the Jewish Mendelsohn, the Christian Harrison, and the Arab Houris. They worked in a period of political upheaval trying to build for committees that couldn't make up their minds and wouldn't provide sufficient funds. They are responsible for buildings atop layers of ancient civilizations, perhaps providing yet another tier in Jerusalem's archaeological history. Lovers of Jerusalem will feel right at home as Hoffman brings a small bit of its history to life.

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January 1, 2016

Essayist and film critic Hoffman (House of Windows: Portraits from a Jerusalem Neighborhood) uncovers the architectural heritage of her adopted hometown of Jerusalem by studying the city's early 20th-century architectural figures. These include renowned German architect Erich Mendelsohn; British expatriate Austen St. Barbe Harrison, Palestine's chief architect in the 1920s and 1930s; and finally, a little-known albeit once important figure in Jerusalem--an architect named Spyro Houris, whose Greco-Moorish influence is expressed in some of his building designs. This extensively documented historical narrative highlights influential yet understudied figures who shaped Jerusalem's architectural heritage, while also bringing to life those with whom the architects came into contact. The discussion of Harrison's friendship with painter David Bomberg, and the impact of the 1927 Jericho earthquake are among the many examples of the personal accounts it offers. Hoffman does not focus exclusively on these architects but rather re-creates the planning, building, and development of the city within the political context of the British mandate. Although her writing talents enable readers to imagine the places described, the book would have benefited greatly from a more extensive collection of photographs and reproductions. VERDICT This recommended volume is for students of architecture and those interested in Jerusalem in the 1920s and 1930s.--Herbert E. Shapiro, Lifelong Learning Soc., Florida Atlantic Univ., Boca Raton

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2016
Hoffman (My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness, 2009), a longtime resident of Jerusalem, combines history, architectural survey, and sociological analysis to examine the expansion and development of Jerusalem under the period of the British Palestinian Mandate (19181948). She views this development through the prism of the achievements of three architects. Erich Mendelsohn, a refugee from Nazi Germany, hoped to continue his celebrated career in the fertile ground of an expanding city, but he was frustrated by the stifling political turmoil. Likewise, Austen St. Barbe Harrison found his efforts to meld European and Islamic styles caught up in bureaucratic and cultural conflicts. Spyro Houris was an obscure, apparently Arabized Greek who challenged Hoffman's investigative skills. Although some writers claim that relations between Jews and Arabs were harmonious within the city before 1948, Hoffman shows a city plagued with constant friction and tension as factions within various communities jockey for advantage. This is a well-done survey of the period and of a city that continues to attract and sadden both visitors and residents.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)