Gerard Behar Center, Arts center on Bezalel Street, Nachlaot, Jerusalem, Israel
The Gerard Behar Center, now called Beit Ha'Am, occupies a building at 11 Bezalel Street whose stone-clad facade and glass curtain wall date from a 1980s renovation by architect David Resnick. It holds two theatres: the 500-seat Gerard Behar Hall and the 170-seat Leo Model Hall. The complex also contains Jerusalem's central municipal library and a memorial room for the Eichmann trial.
Beit Ha'Am opened in 1961 on Bezalel Street, built by architect David Reznik after the 1948 war halted earlier plans. That year its theatre hosted the trial of Adolf Eichmann, who sat in a bulletproof glass booth; 474 of 756 seats went to the press. In 1983 the Jerusalem Foundation renovated it as the Gerard Behar Center, and in 2022 the name Beit Ha'Am returned.
The building is called Beit Ha'Am, Hebrew for "People's House", a name used from 1907 and restored in 2022. Its resident dance companies are Vertigo and Kolben Dance. Annual festivals have included the International Puppet Theater Festival and Hullegeb, a festival of Ethiopian-Israeli creativity.
The center stands at 11 Bezalel Street in the Nachlaot neighborhood, within the Bezalel–Ussishkin–Menora arts compound. Both theatres are wheelchair accessible. The Menora underground car park, opened in June 2020, serves the compound. Cafe Beit Ha'Am, opened in 2024, is dairy, kosher and closed on Shabbat and holidays.
The building's 1983 renovation encased it in Jerusalem stone and added a glass curtain wall at the front. The two resident companies are Kolben Dance and Vertigo, both based here. A memorial room dedicated to the Eichmann trial now occupies part of the complex.
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