Beit HIAS

The story

Beit HIAS is a complex of buildings put up in Beersheba in the 1950s by the HIAS organization. The place served as a residence for scientists, engineers and experts who worked on the development of Beersheba and the Negev — that is, it was built not for the residents of the city but for those who came to build it. Its first director was Menachem Kreutzer, and after him is named today the street that leads to the building's forecourt. Later Beit HIAS became the first hotel in Beersheba. In 1965 the Beersheba municipality, headed by David Tuviyahu, bought the building so that it would serve the Institute for Higher Education in the Negev, and in that same year the first academic year opened in it. After a number of years the institute was officially converted into a university — Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Today Beit HIAS is part of the university's Kiryat Tuviyahu campus, and goes on standing in the same place in which higher education in the city began.

• 1948
• Education
• People
• Beersheba