The Salman Schocken Library – Jerusalem

Erich Mendelsohn designed a house and a library for Salman Schocken on two properties facing each other in the villa neighbourhood of Rehavia in Jerusalem. The architect had been acquainted with Salman Schocken over a long period: he had designed three Schocken department stores in Nuremberg, Stuttgart and Chemnitz.
Schocken built the library for his own personal collection that was accessible to researchers from its very beginnings. Mendelsohn drafted a cubic, sealed structure with a cut stone exterior. Two rows of windows and the entrance define the facade of the building facing the street. While the north side is determined by the vertical windows of the stairwell, the otherwise closed façade of the south side has a marked glass bay window. This not only gives the exterior a certain dynamic but also directs focussed light into the reading room.

The Schocken Institute is today home to the Salman Schocken Library, the Saul Liebermann Collection, the Yerushalimsky Archiv and the Schocken Archiv.