Crusaders Sculpture in the Land of Israel

The collection of Crusader sculpture in the land of Israel is the fruit of research conducted by Dr. Zehava Jacoby, of blessed memory. In recognition of its importance, the collection was donated by the family of the late researcher to the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library, University of Haifa Library in June 2005.

Dr. Jacoby was a senior lecturer in the Department of Art History at the University of Haifa from 1973 to 1999. She specialized in the history of Romanesque and Crusader sculpture, devoting her time primarily to sculptures in Israel. She died suddenly in December 1999, without completing her life's work: writing a book identifying and documenting the remains of Crusader sculpture in Israel, for which 800 photographs had been made. Most of the photographs were by the photographer Ze'ev Radovan.

The University of Haifa Library set to work to preserve the original photographic collection and make it accessible. This collection joins a number of others that have been deposited with the Library in recent years, in an attempt to preserve the cultural heritage of the Land of Israel. The Library preserves these distinctive collections by creating a suitable infrastructure and enabling remote access for retrieval of material by various segments of the population involved in different areas of research.

The original photograph collection is currently located in the Library, and has been organized into albums. Each album is dedicated to a specific site, findings from museums, private collections, research institutes, religious buildings (churches, monasteries and mosques), etc., as they were photographed according to Dr Jacoby’s instructions. The Internet site is organized according to the original arrangement of the photographs in the albums.

Most of the collection has appeared as illustrative material accompanying publications of Dr. Jacoby and other researchers. Some photographs have never been published.

In Memoriam of Dr. Zehava Jacoby 1940-1999

Zehava (Sophia) Jacoby was born on 24 January 1940 in the Polish city of Lvov (Lemberg) to Yosef Feigenbaum, who perished in the Holocaust, and his wife Ella (nee Fabian).

During the war years she was hidden in the home of a Polish woman. She was baptized, and her name was changed to Barbara.

Her mother escaped from a train carrying people to an extermination camp, and joined the partisans.

From 1945 until her immigration to Israel in 1949, Zehava wandered with her mother from Poland to Germany, Italy and South America. In 1949, she was orphaned of her mother. Later, she married David Jacoby, and bore two daughters, Ella and Avital.

In 1964 she completed her B.A. in English Literature and Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew University. She studied in the Art History department for her M.A., which she completed in 1972.

In 1976 she received her doctorate from the Hebrew University, following approval of her thesis "The Sculpture of the Church and Monastery of Anzy-le-Duc: In the Framework of Romanesque Art in Burgundy"

In 1970 she began teaching at the University of Haifa in the Art History department. In the course of her academic work, she served as head of the department from 1978 to 1982. At the time of her death in 1999, she was a senior lecturer. A Symposium on "Medieval Art and Architecture" in memory of Dr. Zehava Jacoby was held by the Department of Art History of the University of Haifa on 12.12.2005.

Zehava Jacoby z"l Publications