Gabriel Rabinovich
Г. Б. РАБИНОВИЧ
Gabriel “Gava” Rabinovich (1899–1962)
also: G. RabinovitchГавриил Борисович РАБИНОВИЧ (1899–1962). Русский текст – внизу страницы
Architect
Born in Polotsk, in Vitebsk province, Russia, on 8 June, 1899; died in Tel Aviv, on March 16, 1962. Had wife Rosa (Rosetta) Isakovna; daughter Isa (Isabel Sharon), born on 18 November 1927; son Boris, born on 9 December 1931.
Rena Krasno, author of the memoir Strangers Always, was his niece; she passed his architectural drawings and photographs to the Hoover Archives. According to her memoir, Uncle Gava was well-educated, wrote plays, told great jokes and doted on his wife. "Gava, endowed with a large bulbous nose, regales all and sundry with hilarious, often bawdy, tales told in a wide range of accents – Georgian, Tartar, Yiddish, Chinese." (Strangers Always)
In 1927, as a "penniless architect" and already married, Rabinovich created his earliest known project – the conversion of a residential building on Ward Road into the new Ohel Moshe Synagogue. The rebuilding required the removal of the second floor and the addition of pillars to support the roof. A mezzanine was constructed so women could pray separately from men. (Rena Krasno, Russian Jews in Shanghai) The synagogue opened in October 1928.
In 1930–1931 Rabinovich joined E. Hazzard and E. S. J. Phillips at Elliott Hazzard, as Chief Architect. During that period, the company designed and constructed the office of Shanghai Power Co. on Nanking Road; Rabinovich supervised the project. During his time with Elliott Hazzard, the firm also designed Lieu Ong Kee Building, on Szechuen Road, and Brookside Apartments, on Avenue Haig.
In 1933–1935, he worked for the Republic Land Investment Co. 五和洋行, which was implementing a massive development scheme on North Szechuen Road and siting three multistory buildings there. The flagship of the project – the New Asia Hotel – was designed by the company's chief architect S. A. Sayer, with no involvement of Poy Gum Lee (in spite of common claims); Rabinovich designed the other two apartment buildings – the Bridge House and Derring Apartments – which opened on 15 January 1935. During the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, the Bridge House became the infamous military prison and its apartments were converted to cells.
Rabinovich designed Doumer Apartments, Koffman Apartments (for Mrs. Vera L. Koffman), and "several other small streamline moderne buildings in the French Concession". He was also the author of modernist apartments at 1274 Avenue Joffre and 27 Avenue Petain, which are still extant. Among the works that do not survive are the modernist residence on Route Magniny, a house on Route Paul Henry and (possibly) one Spanish-style and one modernist residence, both on Route de Sieyes.
Rabinovich was a board member of the Russian Jewish Club and a member of the Jewish Company of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps. He acted as a secretary of the committee for the construction of the New Ashkenazi Synagogue, on Route Tenant de la Tour, designed by his colleague Emmanuel Gran. According to the testimony of his daughter Isabel, Rabinovich participated in all the activities of the Russian Artistic and Literary Circle and was a dedicated member of ORT (Society for the Encouragement of Handicrafts). He contributed to the welfare of the European Jewish refugees in Shanghai in the 1940s.
In 1949, the Rabinovich family moved to Israel. The architect’s final project was the design of the Synagogue and Communal Center for Yigud Yotsei Sin (the Jewish Communities of China), in Tel Aviv. Partially funded with the proceeds from the sale of the Gran-designed Ashkenazi Synagogue in Shanghai, it opened in September 1961. Rabinovich died of a heart disease at the age of 63.
Ohel Moshe Synagogue, Ward Road
1928
Bridge House Apartments, North Szechuen Road
1934
Derring Apartments, Tsungming Road
1934
Residence, Hungjao Road
1934
residence, route de Sieyes
1934
Koffman Apartments, Route Ferguson
1935
Apartments, Avenue Joffre
c. 1939
Apartments, Avenue Petain
c. 1940
Residence, Route Sieyes
?
residence, rue Paul henry
1940s
Doumer Apartments, route Doumer
1941
Residence, Muirhead Road
1940
Ohel Moishe Synagogue (1928)
Bridge House (1935)
Derring Apartments (1935)
Koffman Apartments (1935)
Doumer Apartments (1937–1941)
List of known works by Gabriel "Gava" Rabinovich
Ohel Moshe Synagogue, 62 Ward Road (1928), now 62 Changyang Road 长阳路62号
Bridge House Apartments, 85 North Szechuen Road (1934), now 85 North Sichuan Road 四川北路85号
Derring Apartments 德邻公寓, 82 Tsungming Road (1934), now 82 Chongming Road 崇明路82号 and 71 North Sichuan Road 四川北路71号
Residence, Hungjao Road (1934), today's Hongqiao Road 虹桥路 – location being confirmed
Residence in Spanish style, Route de Sieyes (1934), today's Yongjia Road 永嘉路 – location being confirmed
Residence in modernist style, Route de Sieyes (?), today's Yongjia Road 永嘉路 – location being confirmed
Koffman Apartments 国富门公寓, Route Ferguson (1935), now 230–232 Wukang Road 武康路230号, 232号
Apartments, 1274 Avenue Joffre (c.1939), now 1274 Middle Huaihai Road 淮海中路1274号
Apartments, 27 Avenue Petain (c.1940), now 27 Hengshan Road 衡山路27号
Koffman Apartments 国富门公寓, Route Ferguson (1935), now 230–232 Wukang Road 武康路230号, 232号
Doumer Apartments 杜美公寓, Route Doumer, built by A. V. Kooklin (1937–1941), now No. 43 Lane 56 Donghu Road 东湖路56弄43号
Residence, 21 Route Magniny (1947), now Kangping Road 康平路 – has not survived
Residence, Route Paul Henry (1940s), now Xinle Road 新乐路 – has not survived
Гавриил Борисович РАБИНОВИЧ (1899–1962) – нажмите, чтобы прочитать
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Also:
Tess Johnston, Permanently Temporary: From Berlin to Shanghai in Half a Century (2010).
Tess Johnston, Shanghai Art Deco (2006).
Rena Krasno, Strangers Always: A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai (1992).
Rena Krasno, “History of Russian Jews in Shanghai,” in Malek, ed., Jews in China (2003).