David Kroyanker
Israeli architectural historian (1939–2025)
title: "David Kroyanker" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1939-births", "2025-deaths", "israeli-architects", "israeli-people-of-german-jewish-descent", "israeli-people-of-polish-jewish-descent", "writers-from-jerusalem", "people-from-tel-aviv", "artists-from-jerusalem", "hebrew-university-secondary-school-alumni", "alumni-of-the-architectural-association-school-of-architecture"] description: "Israeli architectural historian (1939–2025)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kroyanker" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Israeli architectural historian (1939–2025) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | David Kroyanker |
| image | Daṿid Ḳroyanḳer.JPG |
| caption | Kroyanker in 2008 |
| native_name | דוד קרויונקר |
| birth_name | Daṿid Ḳroyanḳer |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine |
| death_date | |
| death_place | Tel-Aviv, Israel |
| nationality | Israeli |
| native_name_lang | he |
| spouse | Leora Farkash-Himzli |
| children | 2 daughters |
| parents | Gustav Krojanker |
| Edith Krojanker | |
| relatives | Ladislaus Farkas (father-in-law) |
| awards | The Teddy Kollek Award, 2006 |
| Yakir Yerushalayim, 2010 | |
| known_for | Jerusalem architectural historian |
| :: |
| name = David Kroyanker | image = Daṿid Ḳroyanḳer.JPG | alt = | caption = Kroyanker in 2008 | native_name = דוד קרויונקר | birth_name = Daṿid Ḳroyanḳer | birth_date = | birth_place = Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine | death_date = | death_place = Tel-Aviv, Israel | nationality = Israeli | native_name_lang = he | other_names = | spouse = Leora Farkash-Himzli | partner = | children = 2 daughters | parents = Gustav Krojanker Edith Krojanker | relatives = Ladislaus Farkas (father-in-law) | awards = The Teddy Kollek Award, 2006 Yakir Yerushalayim, 2010 | known_for = Jerusalem architectural historian | occupation =
David Kroyanker (; 1939 – 20 September 2025) was an Israeli architect and architectural historian of Jerusalem. He wrote dozens of popular books about Jerusalem neighborhoods, streets, and buildings, and urban planning.
Life and career
Kroyanker was born and raised in the Rehavia neighborhood of Jerusalem. His father died of cancer when Kroyanker was six years old.
He attended a high school located next to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and served in the Paratroopers Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces from 1958 to 1961. He returned to Israel to work as an architect for a firm headed by David Resnick in Jerusalem, and moved to the urban planning department of the Jerusalem Municipality under Meron Benvenisti in 1970. From 1973 to 1981 he worked in various planning departments in the municipality, including the Department of Urban Planning and the Special Projects Unit Planning Department.
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/TalitakumiS.jpg" caption="Talitha Kumi memorial."] ::
Specializing in building preservation and rehabilitation, Kroyanker set about documenting the historical and architectural record of Jerusalem in order to build public awareness and support for preservation efforts. Among the many campaigns that he was involved in to save historic buildings was the battle to save the Talitha Kumi school building in downtown Jerusalem. The school was ultimately torn down in 1980; Kroyanker was part of the team that designed a memorial to the bulldozed structure using pieces of the original facade.
To aid the public campaigns, Kroyanker wrote a series of booklets spotlighting the "architectural and historical value of the streets and buildings". These booklets were so well-received that he began documenting the history and architecture of Jerusalem for a large-format book series, producing a book every other year at his next post, the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, where he became an architectural historian and documenter in 1981. These six volumes, in turn, laid the foundation for an additional 15 large-format books.
As of 2010, Kroyanker has written more than 30 books on the neighborhoods and buildings of Jerusalem, 20 of which became mass-market bestsellers. His works are richly illustrated with historic photographs, maps, sketches, and original street and neighborhood plans. His wife, Leora, actively assisted him by editing and proofreading texts.
As a result of his research, Kroyanker has amassed the largest private archive in the world of literary and visual documentation related to Jerusalem architecture.{{cite web |url=http://www.nrg.co.il/online/54/ART2/369/779.html|title=אפילו קרויאנקר עוזב את ירושלים, למה? |trans-title=Even Kroyanker is Leaving Jerusalem, Why? |work=Maariv |date=20 May 2012 |accessdate=26 February 2013|first=Yoval |last=Heiman}} His files include historic photographs, drawings, documents, drawings, maps and newspaper clippings. The files are catalogued in three topic areas: neighborhoods, streets and buildings; architectural/planning (such as conservation, building styles, architectural details, and biographies of architects); and planning processes (including demolition, new construction and urban development). He has also curated exhibitions, lectured, and led tours on Jerusalem's architectural heritage.
Personal life and death
Kroyanker married Leora Farkash-Himsley, daughter of Ladislaus Farkas, in 1969. In 2012 the couple relocated to Tel Aviv.
Kroyanker died on 20 September 2025, after a lengthy illness. He was 86.
Views and critical response
Kroyanker was openly critical of the urban degeneration in Jerusalem caused by poverty and neglect. He was also critical of the Orthodox Jewish demographic whose lower socioeconomic level, he claimed, has created a lack of aesthetics in Orthodox neighborhoods and weakened the economy by forcing the exodus of cinemas and "attractive shops" from the downtown area, replacing them with bargain stores.
Kroyanker's research has been criticized for its "nostalgic tone"
Awards
- 2006 The Teddy Kollek Lifetime Achievement Award
- 2010 Yakir Yerushalayim Award
Selected bibliography
Books
- (with Julian Louis Meltzer and Dorothea Shefer-Vanson)
- (with Yael Guiladi)
- (with Dror Wahrman)
- {{cite book|title = ירושלים - המאבק על מבנה העיר וחזותה |trans-title=Jerusalem – The struggle over the city structure and its appearance|publisher = Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir|year = 1988|language = Hebrew}}
- 2nd edition published 2002
Articles
References
References
- Dvir, Noam. (11 October 2011). "A Yearning Free of Illusions". Haaretz.
- Shishon, Ehud. (8 June 2011). "האדריכל: בגובה העיניים עם דוד קרויאנקר". [[Maariv (newspaper).
- "קורות חיים". kroyanker.co.il.
- (2007). "Hear Her Voice: Twelve Jewish Women Who Changed the World". Devora Publishing.
- Livneh, Neri. (8 September 2005). "With Jerusalem, It's Love-Hate". Haaretz.
- Prince-Gibson, Eetta. (27 July 2009). "Jaffa Road - It's a long and winding road...". [[The Jerusalem Post]].
- Ran, Dr. Ami. (2003). "Documentation – An incentive for conservation". Architecture of Israel Quarterly.
- Hasson, Nir. (29 June 2012). "Jerusalem's leading lights bolt for the Tel Aviv coast in a flight of cultural freedom". The Jerusalem Post.
- (20 September 2025). "האדריכל וחוקר העיר ירושלים דוד קרויאנקר מת בגיל 86". Haaretz.
- "The Teddy Kollek Award". [[Jerusalem Foundation.
- Livneh, Neri. (11 May 2010). "David Kroyanker, when you see the city you helped shape, are you glad to be called a 'Treasured Jerusalemite'?". [[Haaretz]].
- "יקירי ירושלים לשנת תש''ע – 2010". Jerusalem Municipality.
- Riba, Naama. (December 24, 2019). "Jerusalem Architect Follows in Footsteps of His Friend Amos Oz in New Book". [[Haaretz]].
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