About Beita

Beita Today

Beita – The Center for Art and Design in the City serves as an active home for the promotion of artistic initiatives in the field of visual art. The center has a contemporary art gallery, art incubators for artists working in the city—including the “Beita Version” incubator for artists in their early stages—design and art courses, art tours, and permanent hosting of the Muslala Wood Workshop. The center operates under the Visual Arts Department of the Jerusalem Municipality.
Beita was established in 2014 in a historically conserved building, in the historic Saidoff complex on Jaffa Street, on the light rail route and near the Machane Yehuda Market.

The Story Behind the Building

The Saidoff houses were built in 1911 between the Beit Ya’akov neighborhood and the old Sha’arei Tzedek Hospital by Yitzhak Saidoff, a wealthy Jew from Bukhara who aimed to provide housing for local residents. The structure was designed as a courtyard neighborhood in the Bukharan architectural style, common in the early 20th century, combining residential apartments, shops, and small workshops.

The ground floor faced Jaffa Street and featured a row of shops and workshops with wide, decorated entrance gates. Behind the shops were apartments for shop owners and their families, overlooking an inner courtyard shaded by a large willow tree, with two water cisterns and a shared restroom facility. A stone staircase on the side of the building led to the second floor, which housed spacious apartments with balconies and a synagogue.

Over the years, the building’s physical condition deteriorated, and its residents were evacuated. Temporary structures were erected in the courtyard, occupied by artists and craftsmen, including the legendary Zohar Mosaic Factory (1939) and the Gottlieb Bomtz factory for tiles and blocks. In time, small carpentry shops, workshops, and artists’ studios emerged, fostering a dynamic, informal art scene.

In the early 2000s, the Saidoff building underwent extensive preservation and renovation as part of a real estate project to create a luxury residential and commercial complex. The temporary structures in the courtyard were demolished, replaced by a 23-story residential tower.

The Saidoff building tells the story of the city — reflecting its social, economic, and urban transformations.