| Bezalel
son of Ur
Bezalel of the tribe of Judah was the biblical artist to whom the
building of the the mishkan (Tabernacle) was attributed: “The
Lord said to Moses, 'See, I have chosen Bezalel, son of Uri, son of
Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with a divine spirit
of skill and understanding and knowledge in every craft: in the production
of embroidery, in making things of gold, silver or bronze, in cutting
and mounting precious stones, in carving wood, and in every craft.'”
[1]
When sculptor/professor Boris Schatz founded the Bezalel Center for
Handicrafts in Jerusalem in 1906, he named it after the biblical Bezalel.
Schatz, who had headed the Royal Academy of Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria,
sought to train Jerusalemites in the handicrafts, to find visual expression
for the spiritual and national renaissance taking place in Palestine,
and to create a synthesis of western, eastern, Jewish and European artistic
traditions.
Next to the Center for Handicrafts Schatz established a museum of arts,
archaeology and folklore where he employed hundreds of craftsmen. This
museum was eventually separated from the school and in time became Jerusalem’s
Israel Museum.
In 1929 the Bezalel School the Arts was closed down as a result of
financial difficulties that had begun during WWI. Schatz set out to
recruit funds for the institution, which reopened in 1935 under the
name “New Bezalel School for Arts and Crafts” (headed by
the Berlin printmaker, Josef Budko). A large number well-known art teachers
arrived during the large wave of immigration from Germany during this
period.
The School for Arts and Crafts was elevated to the status of institute
of higher academic learning in 1969, and its name was changed to “Bezalel
– Academy for Arts and Design.” One could now earn here
a Bachelor of Arts degree.
In 2002 Bezalel initiated a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts (M.F.A)
program in collaboration with the Hebrew University, as well as an independent
Industrial Design Master’s Degree (M.Des).
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