We Won't give up on Lev Smadar

Saving Samdar Cinema – an opportunity to revive Smadar as a Jerusalem home for culture, community, and social entrepreneurship Samdar Cinema is an old, legendary, beloved, and well-known Jerusalem cultural institution and landmark. It is an important and one-of-a-kind Israeli remnant of small cinemas that operate in the hearts of cities. Smadar was built in 1928 and was initially known as "Orient Cinema". It was taken over in the mid-1990s by the Lev cinema chain, which rented the property and operated the cinema. Smadar is a privately owned complex divided into three parts: 1) a cinema currently operated by the Lev cinema chain; 2) a restaurant currently not operating; and 3) a guest house, also currently inactive. Recently the property owner stated his intention to sell the complex, following Lev’s request to terminate the lease, with the cinema not being profitable. In the face of potentially losing this iconic liberal cultural institution, while highly aware of the importance of culture in attracting a liberal community, we, a group of Jerusalemites, have come together to revive Smadar and return it to its "golden age" days as a complex bustling with life and culture. Our vision in saving Samdar is to inject new life into the complex. We hope to revive Smadar with new cultural and community activities, adapted to families and attracting Jerusalem social and cultural entrepreneurs. For that, we need your partnership! The property owner and the national Lev chain have agreed to partner with the “Save Smadar” initiative. They agreed to renew the lease for a period of five years, and we agreed to contribute to the rental costs, in return for receiving the right to use the complex to develop the cultural, community, and social entrepreneurship center that we envision. The “Save Samdar” initiative will be housed in an association specializing in the development of cultural and community complexes, able to receive tax-exempt donations. Our initial urgent fundraising goal is NIS 120,000 which will allow us to cover our share of the rent for the first year. In the second phase, we will raise funds to cover our remaining share of the rent for the next four years, and to allow us to develop a budget for the new cultural and community activities at the site.