Page 325 - ISRAEL'S CRADLE

Jacob Pinkerfield (1897-1956)
Jacob Pinkerfield, architect, archeologist and researcher of the architecture of ancient synagogues.
He was born in Poland and stopped his architecture studies in 1920 in order to make Aliya. He was among a group of pioneers, contracted a fever and travelled abroad following his recovery in order to complete his studies. He returned to the Land of Israel in 1925 and worked as an architect at the Public Works Department of the Mandate Government. In 1931, he opened an independent architectural firm in Tel Aviv.
He planned many public buildings, focusing upon educational institutions. Hanna House in Tel Aviv, on Sderot Ben-Gurion (1934), which served as a dormitory for female pioneers and included an educational farm for agricultural work, is one of his most famous buildings. In 1994, the building was renovated and the later additions that impaired it were removed. He participated in archeological expeditions to Hamat Gader, Beit Alfa, Samaria and Ezion-Geber (Eilat).
After the establishment of the state, he engaged in the conservation of ancient structures and his life's work was researching synagogues. He documented synagogues in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Spain and Italy. In Sukkot 5717 (September 23, 1956), he participated in an archeological tour in Ramat Rachel. A Jordanian soldier opened fire on the participants and killed four of them, including Jacob Pinkerfield.
Yohanan (Oygen) Ratner, the first-place winner of the competition to build the National Institutions Building (for further details about him, see
pp. 67-77).
Yitzhak Reich, a native of Stanislau, Russia, studied architecture in the Superior Technical School of Vienna and made Aliya in 1926. He worked at the firm of Richard Kauffmann in Jerusalem. In the early Thirties, he worked at the Engineering Administration of the Tel Aviv Municipality, and served as the City Architect until his retirement in the mid-Fifties.
Yohanan (Oygen) Ratner (1891-1965)
Yitzhak Reich (1891-1970)
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