Ben Uri was founded along the lines of the Bezalel School, created nine years earlier in 1906 in Jerusalem.

It was named after Bezalel Ben Uri, the craftsman who designed and built the Ark of the Covenant.

[3] After electing a new board of trustees in October 2000, led by David Glasser, the charity was relaunched in 2001 with a new name, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum.

For many years based in Soho, since June 2002 the charity has moved to the St. John's Wood gallery in north London.

[4] Its permanent collection has about 1,300 artworks, and is seeking a site in central London to display them, as its present location is only large enough for temporary exhibitions including the series on the Whitechapel Boys; Cross Purposes, tracing the use of the Crucifixion motif during the 20th century and recent contemporary art; in June 2012 Dodo, re-discovering an artist from Berlin in the Weimar 1920s and 30s; followed in October by a survey of 40 years work by the American artist Judy Chicago.