Draft:Eyal Ofer Pavilion

The Eyal Ofer Pavilion is a wing of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art established in 1959. The pavilion is part of the city's cultural square and next to the Heichal HaTarbut and the Habima Theatre. . The pavilion was previously named after the Jewish-Polish cosmetics industrialist Helena Rubinstein. . In 2023 the name of the pavilion was changed and named after the Israeli businessman and philanthropist Eyal Ofer.

History
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art was established in 1932 in Dizengoff House on Rothschild Boulevard. With the growth of the museum, there was a need to build a dedicated building that would meet the needs for display and storage.

The chosen location for the new museum was part of an area allocated for Tel Aviv's "Culture Square" in the late 1920s and it also included the Culture Palace and Habima Theatre. In 1946 architectural design competition was announced for planning the entire complex. The jury included Mayor Israel Rokach, city engineer Jacob Ben-Sira, architect Genia Averbuch, and architect Munio Weinraub. The chosen proposal was that of the architects Zeev Rechter and Dov Karmi. The two architecture firms handed over the planning of the museum to their sons, Yaakov Rechter and Ram Karmi. Rechter planned the first phase of the project in which one of the pavilions was built. Karmi planned the expansion of the pavilion and the completion of the museum building as a whole.

The realization of the pavilion was made possible thanks to the contribution of businesswoman Helena Rubinstein, who was approached in the mid-1950s by museum director Eugen Kolb, Mayor Chaim Levanon and the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. The construction began in March 1957 and the inauguration of the pavilion was held on January 22, 1959.

In early 2019, the museum received a $5 million donation from the Eyal & Marilyn Ofer Family Foundation for a comprehensive renovation of the pavilion, to bring it to current museum requirements. . On completion of the building’s overhaul in March 2023, its name was changed to the Eyal Ofer Pavilion. The contribution of the Helena Rubinstein Foundation is also commemorated. However, The museum was criticized following changing of the pavilion name.