Rehavia Gymnasium

31°46′37″N 35°12′49″E / 31.776964°N 35.21351°E / 31.776964; 35.21351InformationEstablished1909 (1909)LanguageHebrewWebsitejer-gym.co.il

Rehavia Gymnasium or the Jerusalem Rehavia Gymnasium,^[1] by its Hebrew name Gymnasia Rehavia (Hebrew: גמנסיה רחביה, romanized: Gimnazya Rehavya), is a high school in the Rehavia neighborhood in West Jerusalem.

History

The high school's initial name was the Hebrew Gymnasium in Jerusalem.^[2]

Gymnasia Rehavia was Jerusalem's first and the country’s second modern Jewish high school or gymnasium, after the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium in Tel Aviv. The school was first established in Jerusalem's Bukharan Quarter in 1909,^[1][3] by members of the loosely organized group of artists who named themselves "The New Jerusalem", for lack of an appropriate school framework in Jerusalem for their children.^[4][5] The building on Keren Kayemet Street in the Rehavia neighborhood was built in 1928. Among the founders were Dr. Naftali and Hannah Weitz, Yehoshua Barzilay, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, later the second president of Israel, his wife Rachel Yanait and the artist Ira Jan. The latter three were also among its first teachers.^[6][7]

In July 2009, the high school celebrated its centennial at an event attended by generations of alumni, many of whom are leading figures in Israeli society today.^[8]

Notable alumni

References