Kiryat Hayovel’s Monster
The monster in Kiryat Yovel, or “the golem” which was the official name of the statue in 1972.
In 1971, the French-American avant-garde artist Nikki Dove San Pal was invited by Martin Weil, the general director of the Israel Museum, to create a sculpture for Jerusalem.
The statue was part of a series of sculptures that were made for Jerusalem in the 70s-80s by top sculptors from around the world. They were commissioned by the Jerusalem Foundation and the Jerusalem Municipality to add a touch of life, style, and culture to the developing city and embellish the gray neighborhoods that were built in the western part of the city after the War of Liberation.
The artist was brought to Kiryat Yovel, which was then a gray working-class neighborhood with long rows of poor-quality, unappealing buildings with several entrances, and no elevators.
When the statue was presented to the Jerusalem City Council for approval, the council members opposed its construction.
The late Teddy Kolek, the mythical mayor of Jerusalem, was furious. He presented the statue to the members of the council in a charming way, and with a French accent and managed to get their approval.
In the end, the monster was erected and became an iconic landmark and a meeting place for children from the neighborhood and nearby neighborhoods. Its strategic location turned the intersection where it laid into the ‘monster’s intersection.’
The official name of the garden is Rabinovitch Garden, named after the family that contributed to its establishment. The city and the infrastructure deteriorated in the nineties, and so did the condition of the poor monster, until it became a safety hazard, and the garden surrounding it was neglected.
In the 2000s, Kiryat Yovel, which in the meantime had become a middle-class neighborhood, went through a difficult period of changes. There were clashes between the old secular population and the new one that came from the ultra-Orthodox Beit Vagan neighborhood. The monster became a symbol of secular struggle when the first secular neighborhood pub opened on Shabbat near the garden.
From today’s perspective, the monster or other statues would probably not have been erected due to the cultural clash between various currents, many objections, and power interests. At best, a small plasticine statue would be erected so that no one would get upset.
Today, Kiryat Yovel is becoming a neighborhood of high tower buildings as part of the urban renewal trend that is changing the city. Small, humble buildings and streets are quietly turning into complexes offering hundreds of housing units. So, some say that the monster is no longer the statue, but the tall buildings that surround it.
The neighborhood is expected to provide thousands of new housing units in the next decade, the two light rail lines will meet at the monster intersection. The innocence and naivety that characterized the neighborhood during the first decades are being replaced by huge towers, boulevards lined with shops, and a diverse population.
This is our Jerusalem, new next to old, global secular culture versus ultra-orthodox conservatism, a quiet neighborhood that was conquered by huge towers, a neighborhood pub that is open on Saturdays, and one Teddy Kollek
Shabbat of peace to the far and near from Jerusalem
Photographer – unknown
