David Kroyanker

David Kroyanker (; 1939 – 20 September 2025) was an Israeli architect and architectural historian of Jerusalem. He wrote dozens of popular books about Jerusalem neighborhoods, streets, and buildings, and urban planning.

Life and career Kroyanker was born and raised in the Rehavia neighborhood of Jerusalem. His father died of cancer when Kroyanker was six years old.

He attended a high school located next to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and served in the Paratroopers Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces from 1958 to 1961. He returned to Israel to work as an architect for a firm headed by David Resnick in Jerusalem, and moved to the urban planning department of the Jerusalem Municipality under Meron Benvenisti in 1970.

To aid the public campaigns, Kroyanker wrote a series of booklets spotlighting the "architectural and historical value of the streets and buildings". These booklets were so well-received that he began documenting the history and architecture of Jerusalem for a large-format book series, producing a book every other year at his next post, the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, where he became an architectural historian and documenter in 1981. These six volumes, in turn, laid the foundation for an additional 15 large-format books.

As of 2010, Kroyanker has written more than 30 books on the neighborhoods and buildings of Jerusalem, 20 of which became mass-market bestsellers. His files include historic photographs, drawings, documents, drawings, maps and newspaper clippings. The files are catalogued in three topic areas: neighborhoods, streets and buildings; architectural/planning (such as conservation, building styles, architectural details, and biographies of architects); and planning processes (including demolition, new construction and urban development). In 2012 the couple relocated to Tel Aviv.

Views and critical response Kroyanker was openly critical of the urban degeneration in Jerusalem caused by poverty and neglect.

Awards 2006 The Teddy Kollek Lifetime Achievement Award 2010 Yakir Yerushalayim Award

Selected bibliography

Books (with Julian Louis Meltzer and Dorothea Shefer-Vanson) (with Yael Guiladi)

(with Dror Wahrman)

2nd edition published 2002

Articles