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Rebuilding Jerusalem

Broadcast Date: April 5, 1984

Beginning with commissions for a rabbinical college and a master plan for the courtyard area surrounding the Western Wall, Moshe Safdie starts to develop a reputation in his homeland. An ability to connect past and present in a meaningful way quickly win him more work. In this CBC Easter special, Safdie reflects on the challenges and consequences of building in Jerusalem, noting that to build successfully in this very sacred and historic area requires humility and an ability to handle politics and controversy.

Rebuilding Jerusalem

• Two months after Expo opened, the Six Day War broke out in Israel. According to the New Yorker, the morning the war began Safdie called the Israeli Consulate in Canada to sign up. The war was over before he was conscripted.
• Following the Six Day War, the Jewish Quarter of the old city of Jerusalem came under Israeli rule. Prior to that it had been under Jordanian jurisdiction.
• The Western Wall is Judaism's holiest site.

• In 1970 Safdie opened an office in Jerusalem and began working on projects there.
• According to Time magazine, by 1974 Safdie had 13 projects in Israel worth more than $300 million, prompting one colleague to call him "the greatest builder in Israel since King Herod."

• In 1976 Safdie was commissioned to build the Yad Vashem Children's Holocaust Memorial. Visitors to this powerful memorial descend from daylight to enter a darkened underground chamber in which the light of a single candle is reflected infinitely in all directions.
• Safdie was later commissioned to build the Yad Vashem Transport Memorial and then their new historical museum, scheduled to open in 2005.

• According to the New Yorker, the Punjab chief minister was moved to tears by his experience of the Children's Memorial at Yad Vashem. He asked to meet the architect, and when Safdie visited the next day he was offered the commission for the Sikh heritage museum, a building of tremendous significance.
• The Khalsa Heritage Memorial celebrates 500 years of Sikh history, and is being built on 75 acres in the holy city of Anandpur Sahib. It is supposed to be completed in 2005.

• Safdie grew up in a secular household. When he received his first commission to build a yeshiva, a school for rabbis in Jerusalem, he had to confront his feelings about designing a religious building. At this point, Safdie says, "being a Jew suddenly became much more complicated than whether you went to synagogue or not." Safdie shares some of his thoughts about architecture, religion and his roots in this tour of Israel.

• Other significant projects in Israel include numerous schools, private residences, kibbutz housing and the vast Mamilla Centre, a 28 acre mixed-use complex in the former no man's land between Israel and Jordan.
• Safdie is also responsible for the master plan of the new city of Modi'in. Construction began in 1993, and in 2001 Modi'in was declared a city. As of 2004, this satellite residential city had a population of 51,000. It is expected to reach a population of 200,000 in the future.

• In 1975 Safdie was commissioned to create a master plan for a new city of 200,000 in Senegal. The proposed city was to be named Keur Farah Pahlavi after the Shah of Iran's wife. Supported by the World Band, it was a joint venture between Senegal and Iran to exchange phosphates for oil. It was cancelled when the Khomeini regime withdrew its support.

Rebuilding Jerusalem

Medium: Television

Program: CBC Television Special

Broadcast Date: April 5, 1984

Guest(s): Moshe Safdie

Narrator: Michael Kirby

Duration: 5:21

Last updated:
June 29, 2009