ABSTRACT
The awakening of the Zionist movement at the beginning of the twentieth century generated immigration waves of European Jews to Palestine under the British Mandate (1920–1948), particularly after the rise of the nazi regime in Germany. The work of women architects in the country had begun in 1921 with the emigration of architect Lotte Cohn from Berlin. During the 1930s, fifteen women architects had already been active in the country. The accelerated growth of the Jewish population during the “nation building” phase created a surge of building and afforded local architects challenging opportunities. Women architects planned neighborhoods, urban projects, and large-scale public buildings, enhancing the social and cultural fabric of the nascent Jewish community. Owing to their common roots in Europe and similar characteristics, it is possible to describe this group of women architects as a unique phenomenon. Unlike women architects in Europe, who worked in more conservative professional and social circles, women architects in Mandatory Palestine could take an active role in planning the Jewish community’s institutions, fostering and promoting the ideas of modern architecture in the country. Regrettably, their work has been largely excluded from the historiography, despite their outstanding achievements. They deserve to be fully reclaimed.
