Haim Heller was born in 1906 in the town of Zaleszczyki, Galiicia (a spa town on the banks of the Dnister River (. He was the eldest son of Eliezer (a descendent of a famous rabbinical family from the dynasty of Rabbi Yom Tov Lipman Heller, the author of 'Tosefet Yom Tov') and brother to Aryeh-Leon (1912) and Malca. Haim's father died when he was 10 years old. His father was drafted into the Austrian Army and most probably was killed during the First World War. Haim studied in a 'cheder' and later in the yeshiva and he was expected to become a great Rabbi. In his youth he opened a store to sell the art work of artists from 'Bezalel'. (When he left the town he turned the store over to his brother Aryeh and his sister Malca). In 1923 he travelled to Vienna, Austria in the hope of studying art in the Academy, however due to his lack of formal education, he was not accepted. In 1925 he joined the training group 'Trumpeldor' and received agricultural training in the Zionist Organization's farm in Vienna. He was sent to Trieste, Italy and from there made aliyah to the Land of Israel. At first he joined a training program that worked in Gedera and Rehovot and later worked in building infrastructure in the area of Afula. He took part in paving the Tiberias-Tzemach road. Haim contracted typhus, which weakened him greatly, and afterwards he moved to Jerusalem where he worked as a stone mason. He took part in building the home of Shai Agnon in Talpiot and the YMHA building. (He worked on the engravings of fruits of Israel that appear above the lintel of the entrance to the building). In 1926 he was accepted to The Bezalel Art Academy. He studied there for three years in the Arts and Crafts Department with Ze'ev Raban, Prof. Boris Shatz, Litvinovsky, Abel Pann, Schor and others. He completed his studies in 1929. After completing his studies he worked as a draftsman and technician in the office of the architect Lev, in Haifa. In 1933 he travelled to Bukovina, Romania to marry Frieda Aryeh, whom he met before moving to Israel. The couple had two sons; Shimshon (1935-2006) an architect and city planner and David (1936-2017) a doctor of botany. The family lived in a ground floor apartment on #5 King George Street and in 1957 they moved to Alfasi Street in Rehavia, Jerusalem. Haim started working in the Department of Public Works in the British Mandate, in 1935, building architectural models. He built models for the British Police (Tegart Fort), took part in building the models for the Rockefeller Museum in the Old City, Jerusalem and the renovation of the Damascus Gate. He joined the urban planning office of the architect William Kandel where he prepared the master plan for the city of Jerusalem. He built models from plaster, wood and carton. Most of the models were photographed by the photographer Alfred Branheim, a friend of his. In 1937 Haim's mother, sister Malca and brother Aryeh moved to Israel. Aryeh studied drawing and sculpture in Bezalel Academy. The two brothers opened up a private studio to build models in 1940. Some of the employees were students from the Bezalel Academy. For example; the architect Ricard kaufman, Yosef Klarwein, Leopold Krakauer and Asher Hiram. In 1948, during the War of Independence, Haim and his brother Aryeh served in the unit 'Mishmar Ha'am". At the end of the war they took part in the establishment of the Central Office for Planning and Assistance moving Mandatory archival materials to the various official government offices. Haim worked in the Kiryah in Tel Aviv in the Department of Planning which was directed by the architect Aryeh Sharon. He was the Head of the Department of Maps and Models. Later on he was moved to Jerusalem to the Planning Division within the Ministry of Interior which was directed by the architect Dishevsky. He worked here until his retirement. The two brothers, Haim and Aryeh worked together in the Ministry of Interior until their retirement in the 1970's. Until 1980 the two brothers continued building models in their private studio. The two Heller brothers built hundreds of models of public buildings, new ones as well as restoration of historic buildings (Megiddo, Mazada-requested by Yigael Yadin, the Temple in the times of Herod, an urban model of the city of Jerusalem, Ben Shemen Youth Village, Dagon silo and a commercial center in Haifa, Binyanei Ha'uma Convention Center, Habima Theater in Tel Aviv, the Moslem cemetery in Mamila, Jerusalem and more. Haim Heller passed away in 1991 at the age of 85. Aryeh Heller married Hana and the couple had two children: Moshe (1959) and Aliza Levin. This photo collection was given to the archives at Yad Ben-Zvi by David Heller (z"l), the son of Haim and Frieda Heller. There are pictures of architectural models of sites in Israel as well as models of urban planning and public buildings (Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Hadassah Mt. Scopus, Ben Shemen Youth Village, Dagon Silo in the Haifa port and others), and also models of archeological reconstructions (Mazada, Megiddo and others).
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