Rehavia Gymnasium
Rehavia Gymnasium or the Jerusalem Rehavia Gymnasium, by its Hebrew name Gymnasia Rehavia, is a high school in the Rehavia neighborhood in West Jerusalem.
History
The high school's initial name was the Hebrew Gymnasium in Jerusalem.Gymnasia Rehavia was Jerusalem's first and the country’s second modern Jewish high school or gymnasium, after the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium in Tel Aviv. The school was first established in Jerusalem's Bukharan Quarter in 1909, by members of the loosely organized group of artists who named themselves "The New Jerusalem", for lack of an appropriate school framework in Jerusalem for their children. The building on Keren Kayemet Street in the Rehavia neighborhood was built in 1928. Among the founders were Dr. Naftali and Hannah Weitz, Yehoshua Barzilay, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, later the second president of Israel, his wife Rachel Yanait and the artist Ira Jan. The latter three were also among its first teachers.
In July 2009, the high school celebrated its centennial at an event attended by generations of alumni, many of whom are leading figures in Israeli society today.
Notable alumni
- Shmuel Agmon, mathematician
- Naomi Ben-Ami, government official
- Yitzhak Danziger, sculptor
- Trude Dothan, archaeologist specialised in Philistine culture
- Avraham "Avi" Gabbay, businessman and politician
- Gil Hovav, TV presenter, culinary journalist, restaurant critic, and author
- Ephraim Katzir, biophysicist, politician, 4th President of Israel
- Dan Meridor, politician and government minister
- Sallai Meridor, politician and diplomat
- Miriam Naor, President of the Supreme Court
- Uzi Narkiss, IDF general
- Yoni Netanyahu, commander of Sayeret Matkal; killed during Operation Entebbe
- Amos Oz, writer, novelist, journalist, and academic
- Reuven Rivlin, politician, lawyer, 10th President of Israel
- Eli Salzberger, law professor
- Gideon Schocken, major general, former head of the Manpower Directorate
- Nahman Shai, journalist and politician
- Chemi Shalev, journalist
- Aaron Valero, Israeli physician and educator
- Matan Vilnai, politician and a former Major General
- Yigael Yadin, archeologist, politician, and Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces
- A. B. Yehoshua, novelist, essayist and playwright
- Rehavam Ze'evi, general and politician