Rabbi  Meir Ben Uri  was born in Riga, the capital of Latvia in 1908

as Maximilian Wasbutzky to his parents Moshe and  Rosa.

His father dealt in the export and import business. He was named

after his maternal grandfather Meir  Hacohen  Kron, who began

the tradition of artistic creativity in the family. He was an artisan

of the fine metals.  Mother Rosa had studied painting at an academy in Petrogard ( Leningard ), and design for embroidery  and copper works in Munich, Germany.

Rosa was a member of the Jewish Artists' Union in Latvia and participated in several exhibitions. She died in Siberia in 1942.
Ben Uri's studies began in an innovative (for those days) kindergarten according  to the Montessori Method,  which develops the creative potential of the child, and continued his education in Munich and Berlin, Germany and in Copenhagen, Denemark.  After graduating secondary school in Berlin, he studied engineering and architecture in a technion, majoring in city planning while simultaneously studying art and sculpture at an art academy.   
At the end of the 1920s, when he was both a member and group leader in the Zionist Movement, he chose the name Ben Uri as his new surname. It expressed his destiny in Jewish art and architecture as expressed in the Torah about Bezalel Ben Uri
"And I have filled him with the spirit of G-d, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship. To devise skilful works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass. And in cutting of stones for setting, and in carving of wood, to work in all manner of workmanship".  (Exodos 31:3-5)    (  the JPS 1917 Edition  )
Ben Uri studied music in his youth – about six years piano, as well as flute, recorder and  balalaika.  Immediately  upon the completion of his academic learning. As a certified architect, he made aliyah to Palestina in 1934 and settled in Haifa. He began work as an architect while being a student of Hermann  Struck   . Struck had arrived in Palestina after having previously achieved  renown – generally as an artist, specifically in engraving and lithography.  He was one of the leaders of the Mizrahi Movement; and therefore drew Ben Uri, from among his other students, closest to himself.  He was personally involved in Ben Uri's  art and architectural work until his death in 1944 – as teacher, and educator toward Ben Uri's mission as a jewish artist adhered to the commandments in the Land of Israel.
The many areas encompassed by Ben Uri's endeavor included planning  and designing   settlements, public institutions, education institutions, ( among the most famous are the Yeshiva of K'far Haro'eh, whose ceiling he painted,  and the Yeshivat  Kerem B'Yavneh,  and K'far Hanoar Hadaty),   statue and monument planning; restoration of holy places; design of synagogues – including the Eastern Wall, Holy Ark and accessories and religious vessels. In addition he designed sacred  objects for the community  ( the Religious Kibbutz  Movement),  and  for the Jewish home.  All of this he attempted while he coped with the various issues related to Jewish attitudes concerning the religious experience. 
Ben Uri proposed to rebuild the Holy Ark from Reggio Amilia in Kiryat Shmuel. The Holy Ark with other synagogue Furniture arrived in 120 parts, without precise construction plan and accurate identification of all the parts. Ben Uri , working like an archaeologist, drew up a plan of the Ark, directed the reconstruction of the holy ark etc. Ben Uri discovered found a hidden aperture in the third of the four marble stairs leading up to the Ark. 
Ben Uri set to music and composed canons and various musical compositions for the synagogue, for singing around the family dinner table at holidays and appointed days and Beginning in the early 1920s, he developed the notion of the horizontal animated film; and about twenty-five films were put together and drawn by him in the period between 1924 and 1970. He also illustrated books. He made about 120 engravings according to different techniques' most of which in the atelier of Hermann Struck. He made hundreds of sketches, pencil drawings,aquarelles and 250 oil painting:   Principally themes in those works are;   Biblical, legends of Hazal , Israel's landscapes and people whom  he met.
 In a series of innovative research into the language of construction in the Bible relating to Noah's Ark, the Tabernacle and his vessels, he set forth the thesis that the words,measures and letters contained  within the language of the Scripture conceal the secret of the engineer plans for these vessels and structures.
Ben Uri wrote over 250 articles on different topics which covered the wide span of his creative work and his pursuits. The motto which guided the whole of his endeavor he put on the wall of his home, which  latter was transformed unto a museum: 
 "  Teach me good discernment and knowledge; for I have believed Thy commandments."  (Psalms 119:66)    (JPS 1917 Edition  )
The architect Rabbi Me'ir Ben Uri (of blessed memory) passed away in May 1983.

 

 

Museum Ben Uri, Haifa, Kiryat Shmuel,  15 Bar Ilan St.  –                                              

Yair  Ben Uri  Tel:0506-220-251   Email:  yba67bu@gmail.com