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‘Madam of Israeli Architecture’: Documentary on One of Most Prolific Female Architects to Be Released Across US
Ada Karmi-Melamede sketching in a scene from “Ada – My Mother The Architect.” Photo: Provided
A documentary being released in theaters across the US profiles one of the most accomplished female architects in the world, and the impossible choices she was forced to make when it came to her career, country, and children.
“Ada — My Mother The Architect” is directed by Academy Award-winning producer Yael Melamede and tells the story of her mother, Israeli architect Ada Karmi-Melamede. The documentary gives a rare glimpse into the career and personal life of the very private but uber talented architect whose most famous designs include Jerusalem’s Supreme Court, Ben Gurion International Airport, the Open University in Ra’anana, Reichman University in Herzliya, and the Neot Hovav Museum and City Council in the Negev, among many other institutions.
Karmi-Melamede, a winner of the 2007 Israel Prize for Architecture, is described by others in the documentary as the “madam of Israeli architecture,” “a master, sculptor of light,” “a groundbreaking architect,” and “one of the most prolific and profound woman architects in the world today.” She was one of the few female students at the Architectural Association in London in the 1950s.
In the 1970s, Karmi-Melamede moved to New York from Israel, following her husband’s career. She spent nearly 15 years teaching at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture and was one of the few female faculty members at Columbia at the time. While teaching, she also contributed to major urban projects in New York, including a master plan for Con Edison, a study for the proposed Second Avenue Subway and a 1978 housing competition on Roosevelt Island. She did all that while raising three young children in New York.
In the early 1980s, after being denied tenure at Columbia, Karmi-Melamede returned to Israel to design the Supreme Court building. The project kept her in Israel for seven years, far away from her family, and as her career took off unexpectedly, she remained at a distance from her children and husband. “Ada – My Mother The Architect” expands on the decisions Karmi-Melamede made when it came to her career and motherhood, while highlighting the mother-daughter bond between the architect and her daughter behind the camera.
Karmi-Melamede’s father and brother were also architects. Melamede, the film’s director, was an architect before turning to a career in filmmaking.
“Ada is a particularly poignant figure for our time,” said the director about her mother. “She has spent the last four decades working in Israel, dedicated to a socially oriented architecture that reflects the values of the idealistic and socialist country she grew up with, while the values around her – professional and politically – have radically changed.”
“She became one of the most prolific female architects of her generation, yet almost nothing is known about her outside of Israel,” added the filmmaker, who co-founded the independent production company SALTY Features. “In the process, she navigated difficult personal choices and ignored the gendered norms of her time.”
Karmi-Melamede is in her 80s and has been working in the Jewish state since 1983, while her children continue to live outside of Israel. She also leads a firm of architects who are “decades her junior,” according to Melamede.
“She has spent her life thinking about architecture as a public good,” said the filmmaker. “But now, because of economic pressures, technological changes, and globalization, her dreams for placemaking make her deeply concerned about the profession’s future in Israel and around the world. Ada offers a unique model for practicing aspirational architecture and being an engaged and concerned citizen in a country she no longer recognizes.”
“The film began with questions about ‘place’ and ‘home.’ The Israeli story is often relegated to a binary lens, but the reality is far more complicated. As many of us are shaken by the fragility of the democracies we call home, Ada gives us ways to think about preserving despite the challenges.”
“Ada — My Mother The Architect” will be screened in select theaters in New York City; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Madison and Stanford, Connecticut; Dallas, Texas, at the Berkshire International Film Festival in Massachusetts; and the Winnipeg International Jewish Film Festival in Canada.
Watch the trailer below.
The post ‘Madam of Israeli Architecture’: Documentary on One of Most Prolific Female Architects to Be Released Across US first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.