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Three directors headed the Zionist Archive for over seventy years. From right to left: Dr. Georg Herlitz, Dr. Alex Bein and Dr. Michael Heymann
storehouses throughout the city. This distress coupled with the shortage in suitable scientific manpower impacted its policy regarding the purchase of materials. On the one hand, special collections were received during this period including the Zenzipper Collection that documents the history of Zionism in Russia; the "Youth Aliyah" (1933-1948); the Youth and the Pioneer Department of the Jewish Agency (1938-1965); completions of the PICA archive, the offices of Keren Hayesod abroad, the Nahum Wilbushevitz Archive and more. On the other hand, Heymann had refused to receive large collections on several occasions because his demand to receive the necessary resources to handle them was not met.
As stated, the Archive continued its regular operations, including the intake of materials, and the lack of space had only worsened. At the end of the Seventies, the Archive's materials were scattered over many storehouses throughout Jerusalem. When it became clear that the chances of establishing an Archive City were remote, the Zionist Executive adopted the basic decision to strive towards a permanent residence. Out of the five possibilities, they chose the current alternative, a lot that was then owned by the Binyenei Hauma Company. At that point, the two men who promoted the idea in practice, had joined forces: Dr. Heymann and Moshe Haskel, the then Director of Finances in the Zionist Executive. Both were catalysts, who constantly pushed the system to move forward in implementing the plan. Dr. Heymann, who admired Mr. Haskel for his contributions to the building of the Archive, repaid him with personal statements in a speech he made on the day of the building's inauguration and Mr. Haskel for his part, took upon himself to serve as the Chairman of the Archive's first Administrative Committee.
Moshe Zarhy, the building's architect, and Dr. Heymann travelled together for educational tours in Europe and the United States in order to learn from the experience of overseas archives. The insights they acquired were implemented in the Archive's building in Jerusalem, two of which are particularly prominent: (a) The peripheral shaft, whose function is to disconnect the underground part of the archive from its surroundings; and (b) The functional division of the building and its adaptation to the movements of the employees, visitors and materials in the archive. These two systems have functioned well throughout all the years of the building.
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