King Solomon requested from King Hiram of Sidon: 'Hew me cedar-trees out of Lebanon for thou knowest that there is not among us any that hath skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.' And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying: 'I have heard that which thou hast sent unto me; I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of cypress. My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon...' (I Kings 5)
Are these carved beams from the Jewish Temple?
(Israel Antiquities Authority)
To commemorate Tisha B'Av today, the day Jews around the world mourn the destruction of the two Jewish Temples in Jerusalem, The Times of Israelrepublished an article Did Ancient Beams Discarded in the Old City Come from the First and Second Temples?by Matti Friedman.
Friedman reveals: "Under a tarp in one little-visited corner of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem lies a pile of rotting timber that would hardly catch a visitor’s eye." He reports that some of the beams date back 2,000 and even 3,000 years.
More beams are in storage in the Jewish community of Ofra and in the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem. Friedman suggests that they were removed during renovations on the Temple Mount after the 1927 earthquake destroyed parts of the al Aqsa Mosque.
We publish here, perhaps for the first time, 85-year-old pictures of the beams recently digitalized and posted online by the Israel Antiquities Authority.
At least two photographers gained access to the excavation site -- one from the American Colony Photography and Robert Hamilton from the British Mandate Archeological Authority. This publication presented their photos in Eureka! Pictures Beneath the Temple Mount Now Online earlier this year. The feature included pictures of mosaics, chambers, and staircases that could date back to the Temple.
Chamber, column and staircase under
the al Aqsa mosque. "Ancient entrance
to the Temple," according to the Library
of Congress caption (1927)
Hamilton "photographed, sketched, excavated and analyzed" what he saw, according to Nadav Shragai, a scholar on Jerusalem sites, writing in Yisrael HaYom last year. But Hamilton promised the Islamic Authorities, the Waqf, that he would make "no mention of any findings that the Muslims would have found inconvenient" such as findings from the time of the Jewish Temples.
When the British left Palestine in 1948 the British Archeological Authority became the Israel Archeological Authority. The Rockefeller Museum and its archeological treasures came under Israeli control when the IDF reunited Jerusalem.
Could these pictures from the Israel Archeological Authority show the beams of the Jewish Temples?
"Principal beams" (IAA)
Click on pictures to enlarge.
"Principal beams"
Click on caption to view the original.
Carved wood panels 
Panels and other timbers -
Among the tragedies that befell the Jewish people during the month of Av was the 1929 massacre in Hebron. Never before seen photographs of the destruction were found in the Library of Congress archives' American Colony collection.
The destruction of the Avraham Avinu Synagogue in Hebron in 1929On Tisha B’Av, the day of calamities in Jewish history, we present the pictures.Today’s leaders of the Hebron Jewish community reported that they had never seen the photos before.
Click on the photos to enlarge.
Click on the captions to see the originals.
Background to the Hebron massacre. After the British army captured Palestine from the Turks in late 1917, the relationship between the British and the local Arab population was characterized by tension that sporadically erupted into insurrection over the next 30 years.
Enlargement of scroll showing
Deuteronomy 1: 17
The Arabs of Palestine were led by the powerful Husseini clan who controlled the office of the Mufti as well as the Mayor of Jerusalem. For decades the clan had opposed European colonialism, the growing power of foreign consulates in Jerusalem, Christian and Jewish immigration and land purchases. After the 1917 Balfour Declaration expressed support for “a national home for the Jewish people,” the Mufti, Haj Amin el Husseini, added “Zionists” to his enemies list. The clan leveraged its power and threats of violence to win over Turkish and British overlords, to challenge the Hashemite King Abdullah, and to hold off competing clans such as the Nashashibi, Abu Ghosh, and Khalidi clans.
Hebron synagogue and "jumbled
Torah scrolls" on the floor
[Haj Amin el Husseini fled Palestine to escape British jail and eventually found his way to Berlin where he assisted the Nazi war effort. He died of natural causes in Beirut in 1974.]On Yom Kippur 1928, Jews brought chairs and screens to prayers at the Western Wall. This purported change of the status quo was exploited by the Mufti to launch a jihad against the Jews. Husseini’s campaign continued and escalated after a Jewish demonstration at the Kotel on Tisha B’Av in August 1929. Rumors spread that Jews had attacked Jerusalem mosques and massacred Muslims. The fuse was lit for a major explosion. 
Synagogue desecrated
Starting on Friday, August 23, 1929 and lasting for a week, enraged Arab mobs attacked Jews in the Old City in Jerusalem, in Jerusalem suburbs Sanhedria, Motza, Bayit Vegan, Ramat Rachel, in outlying Jewish communities, and in the Galilee town of Tzfat. Small Jewish communities in Gaza, Ramla, Jenin, and Nablus were abandoned.
The attack in Hebron became a frenzied pogrom with the Arab mob stabbing, axing, decapitating and disemboweling 67 men, women and children. At least 133 Jews were killed across Palestine. In 1931, there was a short-lived attempt to reestablish the Jewish community in Hebron, but within a few years it was abandoned until the IDF recaptured Hebron in 1967.The British indulged the Arabs and responded by limiting Jewish immigration and land purchases.
Large common grave of Jewish victims. Later the grave
was destroyed
Today in Hebron: A recent service in the rebuilt
Avraham Avinu Synagogue0Add a comment
Jewish men sitting on the ground at the "Wailing Wall" (circa
1935). From the Library of Congress collection.A version of this article appeared in the Jerusalem Post Magazine, July 27, 2012The ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av --Tisha B'Av -- is the day in the Hebrew calendar when great calamities befell the Jewish people, including the destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem, the fall of the fortress Beitar in the Jewish rebellion against Rome in 136 CE, and the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. The day is commemorated with fasting, prayers and the reading of Lamentations. In Jerusalem, thousands pray at the Kotel, the Western Wall.
"Devout Jewish women" at the Wall (circa
1900). View another photo of devout
women hereThe American Colony photographers frequently focused their cameras on the worshipers at the "Wailing Place of the Jews." The Colony founders who came to Jerusalem in 1881 were devout Christians who saw the return of the Jews to the Holy Land as a sign of messianic times.Of the dozens of pictures at the Kotel there are several of elderly men and women sitting on the ground or on low stools, customs of mourning practiced on Tisha B'Av.
"A Jewish beggar reading at the Wailing Wall" (circa 1920).
Note others sitting on the ground. The day is almost
certainly Tisha B'Av and he is probably reading the
book of Lamentations.
Jews straining to see the Western Wall (circa 1929) 
"Jews' wailing place without mourners.
Deserted during 1929 riots."
See another view hereOther pictures presented here show the very narrow and confined area of the Kotel over the ages until Israel's army captured the Old City in 1967 and enlarged the Kotel plaza.
The tragedies that occurred to the Jewish nation are also evident in the pictures of the deserted plaza after Arab pogroms in 1929. The area was deserted, of course, during the 19 years of Jordanian rule of the Old City when Jews were forbidden to pray at the site.A story is told of Napoleon passing a synagogue and hearing congregants inside mourning. To his question who they are mourning, he was told they were weeping over the destruction of the Jewish Temple 1,800 years earlier. Napoleon responded, according to the legend, "If the Jews are still crying after so many hundreds of years, then I am certain the Temple will one day be rebuilt."Dedicated in memory of Chaim Menachem ben Levi2View comments
-
A version of this posting appeared in The Jerusalem PostMagazine on June 29, 2012
4th of July commemoration in Jerusalem with flags and toy guns
(circa 1905). Note the Swedish flag; some of the American
Colony members were originally Swedish. Hand-colored picture
The founders of the American Colony in Jerusalem in 1881 were proud of their American roots. The group of utopian, millennialist Christians were later joined by Swedish-American and Swedish believers.The American Colony set up clinics, orphanages, cottage industries and soup kitchens for the poor of Jerusalem, earning favor with the Turkish rulers of Palestine. Their concern for all citizens of Jerusalem was evident in the shelter and assistance they provided to destitute Yemenite Jews who arrived in Jerusalem in 1882.
Founders of the American Colony
circa 1905. The founders' adopted son
Jacob, born a Jew, is on the top left
When World War I broke out, the American Colony's photographers were able to work on both sides of the conflict.At the start of World War I and before the United States joined in the war effort,American aid to the Jews of Palestine was crucial for their survival. In October 1914, the U.S. Navy's North Carolina delivered $50,000 for the Jews' relief. In some cases the funds were administered through the American consul general in Jerusalem so that the money would not be confiscated by Turkish authorities.
4th of July pageant, with man and woman dressed as Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty (circa 1905). Hand-colored picture
The British army, under General Edmund Allenby, captured Jerusalem in December 1917. Seven months later, in 1918, Allenby was the guest of honor at the American Colony's July 4th celebrations.
Allenby at July 4, 1918 pageant 
Allenby (in uniform) at the American Colony reception
Click on the pictures to enlarge.
Click on the captions to see the original.
A British army troupe performing at the July 4 festivities
Does R.E. stand for Royal Engineers?
Who Are These Actors?
The battle for Palestine in World War I was a long and bloody campaign pitting Turkish, German, and Austrian troops against the forces of Britain, India, Australia and New Zealand. The war, fought with infantry, cavalry, artillery, planes and tanks, was waged from the Suez Canal to Damascus. A special effort was made by the British commander, Gen. Edmund Allenby, to capture Jerusalem by Christmas 1917.
This curious photograph appears in a photo album assembled by the American Colony photographers, apparently taken at a Jerusalem party hosted by the Colony on July 4, 1918. Allenby was in attendance. The caption, "R.E. Concert Party" almost certainly identifies the characters as soldiers of the Royal Engineers of the British army.
The actors are part of the British army's theater and concert group, known as a "concert party" or a "Pierrot troupe" that entertained the troops during the war. The woman is a female impersonator, and the figure second from the left appears to be an actor portraying a Faginesque Jew with a long beard and sidecurls, black hat, bottle of wine and candlesticks.
For more history on the "concert party" during World War I see the Australian War Memorial Research Centre.1View comments
- JUN30
The Amazing Portraits of Shlomo and Sonia Narinsky -- Jewish Photographers Exiled by the Turks, Swept Up by the Nazis
Turn a virtual corner in the Library of Congress' digitalized photo archives and you never know what you'll find. It happened many times since the launch of this site two years ago, and it just happened again.
"A Spanish Jew [Sephardi] of Jerusalem"
(Library of Congress, circa 1921)
Within the vast collection of the American Colony Photographic Department Collection (roughly 1890 - 1946) we discovered amazing picture and postcard portraits taken by Shlomo and Sonia Narinsky. The photographs were sold by the American Colony's souvenir store located inside Jerusalem's Old City near Jaffa Gate. 
"A Vernomito (sic) [Yemenite] Jew
in Jerusalem" (circa 1921)
Born in the Ukraine in 1885, Shlomo Narinsky studied art in Moscow, Paris and Berlin before moving to Palestine where he set up a studio.
In 1916, Shlomo and his wife were exiled to Egypt by the Turkish rulers.
They returned to the Land of Israel after the British captured the territory in 1918.
"An Orthodox Jew of Jerusalem"
In 1932, the Narinskys opened a studio in Paris, but Shlomo was arrested when the Nazis captured France. He was later exchanged for a German spy caught in Palestine after the intercession of David Ben-Gurion and Yitzchak Ben-Tzvi.
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, father of
modern Hebrew (Wikiversity,
circa 1912)
A rabbi and his grandson (Ynet News)
They returned to Israel, eventually moving to Haifa where Shlomo taught as a photography teacher. He died in 1960, relatively unknown.
Shlomo Narinsky was also trained as a painter, and some of his photographs almost reflect the post-impressionist Vincent Van Gogh's wheat field series.
Arab "sorting his wheat." Note the farmer's stance, angle
of his tool and the sky, and compare to Van Gogh's
painting. See also Narinsky's "Fishermen at Jaffa"
Click on the picture to enlarge.
Van Gogh -- Harvesting wheat in the Alpilles
Valley (1888)
Click on the caption to view the original picture. And don't forget to subscribe by entering your email address in the right sidebar box.5View comments
John David Whiting, born in 1888 in Jerusalem, grew up within the American Colony community the Old City. The Library of Congress records that he was a "tour guide, businessman, writer and photographer." He served as American Vice-Consul of Jerusalem from 1908-1910 and from 1915-1917.
John Whiting prior to 1917
Letter from "Lawrence of
Arabia" to Whiting. Click
to enlarge
Fluent in Arabic, he was also a British intelligence agent.
At the request of the Turkish leadership, Whiting photographed the terrible locust plague that struck Palestine in 1915, a task that allowed him to travel throughout the country on the eve of World War I. A letter from T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") to "My dear Whiting" after the British capture of Jerusalem thanks Whiting for his activity in support of the
British, including providing hospital care for soldiers: "Thank you for all you and yours did for me, when I blew in with my Battalion that first evening looking for places to guard etc!!"
From Whiting's photo diary: "Orthodox Jews returning from
Western Wall first day of Passover, March 26, 1937."
The picture was taken inside the Jaffa Gate. One man
covered his eyes to avoid being photographed.
Around the same time Whiting was filming locusts in Palestine, an acclaimed Jewish agronomist Aaron Aaronson was traveling around the countryside doing his agricultural research. Aaronson was the founder of the pro-British NILI spy network working against the Turks. Historians have not found a link - yet - between the two men.
In 1936 and 1937, Whiting traveled throughout the Middle East in Palestine, Transjordan, Lebanon and Syria. An album with 242 photos is in the Library of Congress archives, and several pictures from his "Diary" are reproduced here.
"Auto with brooms to sweep away tacks thrown by strikers."
(1936)
Whiting's trip coincided with the "Arab Revolt," and some of the pictures reflect the conflict.
Searches "immediately after bomb throwing at
Spinney's market. Searching all passing through
Jaffa Gate breach" (1936). Also here
Packing a stone from Solomon's Quarries for shipment
to the United States (1937)
Aftermath of flood in Syria, 1937. Mouaddamiyeh.
Covered corpse, and searching for more.
Jewish residents "Playing ball, Tel Aviv sands," March 1937 
"Tel Aviv. December 1936. Modern grocery shop (Feast
of Lights decorations)"1View comments
- With more than 300 photo essays published, and in preparation for a book, we would like to know which are your favorite photos and essays.
Write your favorites in the comment section below
Here are some of our favorites over the last two years:
Rabbi Kook
* Rabbi Kook, Chief Rabbi of Palestine, meets President Coolidge in the White House in 1924.
* The Jews of Jerusalem welcome the GermanEmperor in 1898.
The Emperor arrives
* The expulsion of the Jews of the Old City of Jerusalem in 1929, 1936, and 1948.
Expulsion 1929
* The first pictures of the Western Wall in the 1850s.
First pictures of the Kotel
* The German general who saved the Jews of Palestine from massacre in 1917.
German General
* The surrender of Jerusalem to British sergeants in World War I.
Surrender of Jerusalem
Enter your favorite photo essay in the comment section below
Why are these children marching?
* The mysterious picture of Jewish children marching - where, why, and when?
* First photographs of Rachel's Tomb, Tomb of the Patriarchs andTomb of Joseph.
Rachel's Tomb 
From Jew to Christian preacher
* The first Jewish photographer in Jerusalem. Why did he and his photographs disappear?
Contents of the Cigarbox
* The "Cigarbox collection" of photos returns to the Land of Israel.
Australian light cavalry
* The Australians capture Be'er Sheva in 1917.
Old Yemenite Jew
* The arrival of Yemenite Jewsin the 1800s-- "The Gadites"
* The secret photos taken under the Temple Mt in Jerusalem.
Under Al Aqsa mosque 
Jaffa Gate
* The gates of Jerusalem's Old City.
Hebron synagogue
* Photos after the 1929 massacre in Hebron.
* The Christian doctor in Tiberiaswho treated and photographed Jewish patients.
Doctor and elderly Jews
* The first Jewish communities outside of Jerusalem, and the new Jewish settlements in the Galilee.
Yemin Moshe 
Jerusalem child
* The little children of the Land of Israel.
* The Book of Ruth Re-enacted.
"Ruth" 100 years ago
Enter your favorite photo essay in the comment section below
Are you a subscriber? Just enter your email in the box in the right column8View comments
We will continue to scan and publish more photographs from the incredible collection we call the "Cigarbox Collection. " The pictures were taken and collected by the Austrian chemist Dr. Rudolph Avraham Seiden some 90 years ago.
The "Cigarbox Collection"
His son, Dr. Othniel Seiden, sent us the collection for study and publication.
This week we received a letter from Dr. Othniel Seidon:
I'm delighted beyond words with what you have done with my father's "Cigar Box Photos." The quality of reproduction and the research you have put into them is far beyond my expectations. Thank you for giving them such a wonderful home so they won't just be lost. -- Othniel Seiden.Dr. Seiden, we thank you, and we're honored to give tribute to you and your father who was a "Blue & White" pioneer, helping Jews reach the Land of Israel.0Add a comment
Last month we unveiled the "Cigarbox Collection" of Dr. Othniel Seidon. We introduced the picture of the barefoot Orthodox boy from the Machane Yehuda neighborhood in Jerusalem.
Math lesson in Machane Yehuda (Cigarbox
Collection)
Our original caption read: "The drill -- if a worker earns 17.5 Eretz Yisrael pounds a day, how much would he earn for six days?"
In a letter to the editor of the Jerusalem Post Magazine where this feature also appeared, David Amini pointed out that the "math lesson is actually talking about grushim (see the gimmel) instead of lirot. If the worker had earned 105 lirot a week in those days, he would retire after a year. He is really earning only 105 grushim a week, which is the equivalent of 1.05 pounds.0Add a comment
- JUN13
Mystery Picture: Was This a Factory in Lodz Poland? No, It Was in Tel Aviv, Palestine in the 1920s
A Lodz factory? That's what the caption on the back suggested (Cigarbox Collection, Keren Hayesod, circa 1925)
The article below reflects corrections suggested by "Anonymous" in the comments below.
Some of the pictures in the "Cigarbox Collection" have captions written on the back. They're written in pencil in German, and some are badly faded. But it's possible to read "factory, Lodz" on the back on the picture above.
The collection contains one picture from Lebanon and another from Damascus, but why would there be a photo from Poland in the middle of the the pictures from the Land of Israel?
Research revealed that the factory was in Palestine, and the workers were Jewish refugees from Lodz. The textile factory was named "Lodzia" and was first located in Tel Aviv, then Holon. The picture above was taken in the "Red House," so named because of the red brick used in its construction.
Laying the cornerstone for the expansion of Lodzia, 1929.
(Eliasaf Robinson Tel Aviv Collection, Stanford University)
The Red House before its renovation, 2010
(Judy Weiss, Tchochkes)
The factory in Holon was the subject for a series of photographs taken in 1939 by the American Colony Photographic Department archived in the U.S. Library of Congress.
The entrance to the factory (Library of
Congress, 1939)
Finishing socks and stockings (Library of Congress) 
Stocking "cotton" room (Library of Congress) 
Ironing stockings (Library of Congress)
Lodzia texiles merged with the Gibor Sabrina firm and still produces undergarments which it sells through a chain of stores. Most manufacturing, however, is done in a subsidiary in Romania or by subcontractors in China, India, Jordan and Turkey. Annual sales surpass $60 million.
The factory floor served as a poster gallery during renovations. Compare the picture to the opening picture
above and note the pillars, arches and windows. (Judy Weiss, Tchochkes)3View comments
Jewels were always the currency of travelers. Gemstones were more reliable than currency and lighter than gold bullion. Even today, some investors are smitten with a "refugee mentality," financial experts recently told The Wall Street Journal. "If the world gets a computer virus," one explained, "and suddenly you need to move $10 million in 48 hours, gold will set off metal detectors and too much cash gets cumbersome, but you slip on a $5 million ring and a $5 million necklace and you've got no problems."
Assembling rings (circa 1925, Cigarbox collection)
Tragically, that scenario repeated itself throughout Jewish history. According to some accounts, prior to the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 a rumor spread that many Jews swallowed diamonds and gold in order to take their wealth with them. Thieves killed many and sliced open their stomachs in their search for treasure. The Holocaust is fraught with tales of Jews attempting to use gems to buy their escape.
Diamond polishing (1930, Library
of Congress)
Diamond cutting on lathes (1939, Library of Congress) 
Inspecting diamonds (1939,
Library of Congress)
Since the 15th century, diamond cutting was a traditional Jewish craft, Wikipediareports. That's when a Jewish diamond cutter in Belgium invented the scaif, an essential tool for polishing. The first diamond polishing plant was opened in a Jewish town in Eretz Yisrael by Dutch refugee experts. By 1944 the industry employed 3,300 workers in 33 factories in Palestine.
Today, Israel is one of the world centers for preparation and sale of diamonds.
Today's posting is dedicated to Stella and Jordan -- Happy Anniversary and many, many more
and to Keren B, the jewelry maker and designer1View comments
- Robert F. Kennedy
Nov. 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968
We leave our regular historical features to pay tribute to Robert Kennedy who was murdered on this day in 1968.
Several special features about Kennedy make this posting very appropriate for this site today:
1. Kennedy visited the Holy Land prior to Israel's establishment as a young newspaper correspondent and described Israel's armed struggle and economic development.
2. Several historic photographs of Kennedy's 1948 visit to Palestine were provided by the Kennedy family.
Kennedy "firing a slingshot" outside of the King David Hotel in
Jerusalem, March 1948 (from the Kennedy family)
3. Kennedy, as a young college graduate, wrote several feature articles for The Boston Post on his visit. The newspaper went out of business in 1956 and for many years the articles were virtually lost.
Several years ago, The Israel Daily Picture's
publisher, Lenny Ben-David, found the articles, published them, and posted them on the "Robert Kennedy and Israel" website.
Kennedy on King David Street, north of the hotel. Note the
armored British vehicle and British checkpoint behind him
Read the full-length articles by RFK here.
4. Kennedy's family points out that he was murdered by a
Palestinian Arab terrorist, Sirhan Sirhan, who was angry about Kennedy's strong support for Israel. The assassination took place on the first anniversary of Israel's victory in the Six Day War, and the timing was no accident, the family insists.
Bobby Kennedy deplaning from a RAF plane at Lod airport
5. Kennedy visited the Middle East in March 1948 and departed Palestine before Israel's declaration of independence on May 14 and Ben-Gurion’s announcement of the name of the new country. RFK, therefore, does not refer to “Israel” or to “Israelis” in his articles.
Read several excerpts of Robert Kennedy's articles:
The Jews point with pride to the fact that over 500,000 Arabs in the 12 years between 1932 and 1944, came into Palestine to take advantage of living conditions existing in no other Arab state. This is the only country in the Near and Middle East where an Arab middle class is in existence.It is an unfortunate fact that because there are such well founded arguments on either side each grows more and more bitter toward the other. Confidence in their right increases in proportion to the hatred and mistrust for the other side for not acknowledging it.The Jewish people in Palestine who believe in and have been working toward this national state have become an immensely proud and determined people. It is already a truly great modern example of the birth of a nation with the primary ingredients of dignity and self-respect.
Read the full-length articles by RFK here.
Monday, August 10, 2015
A Tisha B'Av Special: Are These the Beams of the Temple? Is this the Gift from King Hiram of Sidon to King Solomon?
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