Villa Lea, Heritage site in Rehavia, Jerusalem, Israel.

Villa Lea, also known as Beit Avkarios, is a building at 6 Ben Maimon Boulevard in Rehavia, Jerusalem. Completed on 1 May 1934, it was designed by architects Raphael and Dan Ben Dor in the International Style, with several separate blocks clad in reddish stone. Its gate was built in Art Deco style, and the name "Villa Lea" appears on the facade in Latin Gothic letters.

Villa Lea was built for Dr. Nasib Abcarius Bey, a Greek Orthodox lawyer born in Egypt who arrived in Jerusalem in 1920 and ran one of the era's successful practices. He married Lea Tennenbaum in Egypt in 1930 and had the house finished on 1 May 1934, designed by architects Raphael and Dan Ben-Dor. In May 1936 it was rented to Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie, who had fled the Italian invasion; Lea sold it to a Palestinian Christian family in 1942.

The name is written on the facade in Latin Gothic letters as "Villa Lea", after Leah Tennenbaum, the Jerusalem-born wife of lawyer Nasib Abcarius; they married in Egypt in 1930, when he was 56 and she 26. The couple's two daughters grew up here. In July 1936 the Rehavia residents' register listed "Haile Selassie, Ben Maimon Street 6, profession: King of Abyssinia".

The villa sits in the Rehavia neighborhood, which is walkable and gives a good sense of the architecture from that time. It helps to contact local information points or cultural organizations in Jerusalem to learn how you can view the exterior or join guided visits.

The name "Villa Lea" appears on the facade in Latin letters in a Gothic style, spelling the name of Nasib Abcarius's wife, Lea Tennenbaum, whom he married in Egypt in 1930 when he was 56 and she was 26.