Alhambra Cinema (Israel)
The Alhambra Cinema is a former Palestinian-owned cinema on Jerusalem Boulevard in Jaffa, Israel, designed in the Art Deco style in 1937 by Lebanese architect Elias Al-Mor. Since 2012, the building is housing the "Ideal Center of Scientology for the Middle East", a main Scientology branch in the region. It was named after the Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain. It was active as an Arab cultural institution in Mandatory Palestine. It was again used as a cinema after the establishment of Israel, then as a theatre after 1963, but was eventually largely abandoned for decades  until its restoration in 2010-2012. History. The cinema opened in May 1937 and was one of the biggest and luxurious cinemas in Palestine. It became a cultural centre and hosted famous Arab artists such as Umm Kulthum, Farid al-Atrash and Leila Mourad. Local residents, both local Arabs and Jews originating from Arab countries, came to the shows together with their families. The cinema was owned and managed by Palestinian Arabs, among them Isa al-Safri, Muhammad Abduh Hilmi, Muhammad Musa al-Husayni, Muhammad Younis al-Husayni, Muhammad Ramadan Hammu, Hasan Arafeh, Abdul-Rahman Alhaj Ibrahim, and Mughnnam Mughnnam . Photos from 1937, during the Arab revolt in Palestine, show an Arab flag studded with light bulbs fitted as a permanent fixture at the top of the building's turret. After the 1948 war it became Israeli property and reopened under the name "Yafor". In 1963 it was taken over by the impresario Giora Godik who turned it into an independent theatre, again under the name "Alhambra". In the late 1970s the building was largely abandoned. Until 2007 a bank used the main entrance, which faces the boulevard, as a branch. Starting in 2010 the derelict building, affected by decades  of transformations, underwent careful restoration and refurbishment and in 2012 it was inaugurated as an Israeli and regional centre for Scientology.