Herzog College: Leading the renaissance at Hechal Shlomo

• Published date: 07 January 2021
• Author: ALAN ROSENBAUM
• Date: 07 January 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The Hechal Shlomo project, championed by Herzog, was intended to serve as the spiritual center of the divided city of Jerusalem. A shofar was sounded, the guests sang "Hatikvah," Rabbi Herzog addressed the assemblage, and Sir Isaac Wolfson, the principal donor, dedicated the building in memory of his father, Solomon Wolfson. The building featured a vast auditorium, spacious offices for the rabbinical judges, a substantial library of Torah literature and a rooftop balcony offering a dramatic view of Jerusalem's Old City, which was then in Jordanian territory.

"Rabbi Herzog dreamed of creating a world center for Judaism," explains Rabbi Dr. Yehuda Brandes, president of Herzog College in Alon Shvut, which has become the principal occupant of Hechal Shlomo. "At that time, two new entities had come into existence – the State of Israel and the Chief Rabbinate. Both the Knesset and the Jewish Agency were near Hechal Shlomo, and Rabbi Herzog wanted the area to be like the National Mall in Washington, representing Jewish culture. From Hechal Shlomo, Torah would go out to the world."

Three things happened, explains Brandes, that diminished the destiny of Hechal Shlomo. First, a little more than a year after its completion, Rabbi Herzog passed away in July 1959. Then, in 1967, after the Six Day War, in the wake of the reunification of Jerusalem and the return of the Jewish presence to the Old City, the Supreme Rabbinical Court moved to the Old City. Finally, in 1992, with the election of Rabbi Israel Meir Lau as Chief Rabbi, the Chief Rabbinate fell under the control of haredi elements. Rabbi Lau moved the offices of the Chief Rabbinate from Hechal Shlomo to the city entrance, says Brandes, because the building had been primarily identified with the religious Zionist movement.

In the ensuing years, though various national religious Zionist organizations utilized the building as their headquarters, the building lost its luster and deteriorated, both physically and in its overall significance. The once-famous library gave most of its books to other libraries, and the building's Wolfson Museum of Jewish Art, which housed a rich collection of religious objects that had been brought by Jews from their native lands, was eclipsed by collections of other museums, such as those of the Israel Museum.

Finally, in 2013, Herzog College, one of Israel's leading teacher training and pedagogic colleges – named after Yaakov Herzog, diplomat, scholar, and son of the late Chief Rabbi...