"National Passover Party" in Rehovot, 1900. The march of the students of
the Gymnasium (school) in Jaffa. (Harvard/Central Zionist Archives)
Passover in Israel is marked by two weeks of school holidays, tourist visits, hikes into nature preserves, and special programs at museums, amusement parks, and theaters.
So it was 100 years ago, as well.
Rehovot, south of Tel Aviv and established in 1890, was the site of a national fair during Passover in the early 20th century. Photographs and even an earlyfilm show Jews flocking to the town for amusement and sports competition. Note the Turkish flag in the video.
Three women riding on a camel at Passover celebration in Rehovot
(Harvard Library/Central Zionist Archives, 1912)
The same photo of three women riding on a camel appears elsewhere in the Harvard Library as "Visitors at the camel and donkey show in Rehovot," dated from the 1920s. The 1912 date is probably more accurate and explains the armed guard -- possibly Turkish. Rehovot was the target of attacks by Arab marauders in the early 20th century.- APR7
Who Ever Heard of a Jewish "Mukhtar*," and in Tiberias, no less. The story of the Varhaftig-Amitai family over the generations
Morris Amitay of the Washington DC area sent this picture of his Tiberias ancestors in 1917. He wrote:
The "Mukhtar" and the Varhaftig-Amitai family of Tiberias, 1917
*Mukhtar means "chosen" in Arabic and refers to the head of a
village in many Arab countries and Turkey.
The picture was taken in 1917 before the Turks fled Palestine and Allenby marched in. The old man in the middle was my father’s grandfather – and the “mukhtar” of the Ashkenazi community in Tiberias appointed by the Turks. His wife is alongside, and my dad’s sister is in front.
The “Alter Mukhtar” was Alter Pinchas Elazar, and the family name was gradually being changed at the time from Varhaftig to Amitai [later to Amitay]. His wife was Freidl and his granddaughter (my father’s sister) was Sara. In the back row from left to right is Yehoshua, Yona, Asher, Yitzhak and Leibl. Note the diversity of my father's uncles! A Turkish soldier, Chasid, two Turkish businessmen (fez and all), and one perhaps "Modern Orthodox."
Gravestone of Ya'akov Moshe Varhaftig in Tiberias (source:
Morris Amitay). Nava Safrai's family history explains that
he was a pharmacist who died in a cholera epidemic. He
saved many during the epidemic, Safrai writes.
One son, Amitay's grandfather, Ya'akov Moshe, passed away in 1902. A tombstone on his grave reads:
Here is buried the young Talmud scholar (avrech), our dear grandfather Ya'akov Moshe Varhaftig-Amitai, son of Alter Pinchas Eliezer, mukhtar, grandson of Avraham Peretz Moshe, died 2 Heshvan 5663 (November 2, 1902).
The "Alter Mukhtar" of Tiberias, Pinchas
Elazar Varhaftig-Amitai, 1916. (Source:
Morris Amitay)
Morris Amitay wrote that his father was proud of his "family's origins in 'Palestine' in 1777." Research done by one of Amitay's cousins reports, "The Varhaftigs originated from Slonim, (near Minsk and Vilnius) in Lithuania. They departed February, 1777 for
A wave of Hassidic "aliya" to Eretz Yisrael took place in the latter part of the 18th century and early 19th century, including the son of the "Karliner Rebbe." The Varhaftig family belonged to the Karliner Hassidic group, and one member of the family, Mordechai Wolf, traveled to Tzfat to visit a leading Karliner rabbi in 1837. A catastrophic earthquake hit, destroying much of Tzfat and killing Mordechai Wolf.
Alter Pinchas Amitai (born 1851) was appointed the "Mukhtar" (village elder) of Tiberias in 1891 by the Turks. According to Safrai, the "Alter Mukhtar" was forced from the position in 1915 by the Turks because of his forging documents to help Jews avoid the Turkish draft.
Note that one son in the 1917 family portrait was a Turkish soldier or policemen, perhaps precisely because of his father's experience with the Turkish authorities.
We also present an 1886 picture of Tiberias, part of our photo essay on Jewish life in the Galilee town. We uncovered this picture in the photo archives of the University of Dundee Medical School.
Postscript: Morris Amitay, a descendant of Tiberias Jews, was a senior aide to U.S. Senator Abe Ribicoff of Connecticut. The only other Jewish senator at the time was Jacob Javits of New York. Javits' mother, Ida Littman, was originally from Tzfat, not far from Tiberias. Amitay went on to head the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington.
Patients waiting outside of the Scottish Mission hospital in Tiberias, 1886. (Torrance Collection) 7View comments
- APR4
Celebrating Passover in Jerusalem 95 Years Ago with the Jewish Legion -- Part 1 -- Updating a previous posting
Updating earlier postings which appeared here and here.
The British army captured Jerusalem from the Turks in December 1917 and continued their Palestine campaign for another year until the capture of Damascus. Meanwhile, the Jewish Legion, consisting of Jewish volunteers, sat in Cairo chafing at the bit to join the fight in Palestine. They finally joined Allenby's forces in June 1918 and fought against the Turks in the Jordan River Valley.
The Jewish battalions of the Jewish Legion were manned by volunteers from Palestine, Europe, the United States and Canada, soldiers stirred by the call to action by Zionist leaders Zev Jabotinsky and Yosef Trumpeldor. Colonel John Henry Patterson, the unit's first commanding officer, described the Legion:
Jewish soldiers of the British army celebrating Passover in Jerusalem in 1919. (Harvard
Library/Central Zionist Archives) The photo is signed by Ya'akov Ben-Dov who moved to
Palestine in 1907 from Kiev. He was drafted into the Ottoman army during World War I and
served as a photographer in Jerusalem. Ben-Dov filmed Allenby's entry into Jerusalem in 1917
Recruiting poster for Jewish soldiers
(Library of Congress)"The Jewish Legion was the name for five battalions of Jewish volunteers established as the British Army's 38th through 42nd (Service) Battalions of the Royal Fusiliers. The initial unit, known as the Zion Mule Corps, was formed in 1914-1915 during World War I, when Britain was at war against the Ottoman Turks, as Zionists around the world saw an opportunity to promote the idea of a Jewish National Homeland."
Enlargement from the picture above. Who is the rabbi?
Read more about Colonel Patterson and the Jewish Legion at The Seven Lives of Colonel Patterson: How an Irish Lion Hunter Led the Jewish Legion to Victory.
Jewish soldiers -- their headgear and uniforms suggests they are from from various units -- celebrating
Passover at the British Jewish Soldiers Home in Jerusalem, 1919 (Harvard Library/Central Zionist Archives)
Father and daughter?
Note the soldier in the front, possibly an officer, with a child on his lap and a young boy behind him.
We invite readers to respond if they can identify any of the soldiers in the photos.
The following picture is dated Passover 1918. The uniforms and hats are even more varied and include Australian bush hats and Scottish tams.
Jewish soldiers from various British units celebrating Passover in
Jerusalem, 1918. (Harvard Library/Central Zionist Archives)
Hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of Jewish men from Canada and the United States volunteered to fight in the British Army's Jewish Legion to liberate the Holy Land.
Jewish soldiers in the British army in Jerusalem for Passover, 1919 (Harvard Library/Central Zionist Archives) 
The caption on this Wikipedia photo reads "Jewish Legion soldiers at the Western Wall after British
conquest, 1917." Was the photo taken in 1917 after the British captured the city in December, in
which case this was a group of Jewish soldiers from various units, or after June 1918 when the
Jewish Legion was first dispatched to Palestine?
View American volunteers from the British army's Jewish Brigade here and here and here 1View comments
- MAR27
"Austrian" or "Australian," What's the Difference? Plenty If You Were a Soldier Fighting in Palestine in WWI
World War I was not only waged in Europe, but across the Middle East as well. The armies of Turkey, Germany and Austria fought the British Empire's armies from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and India. TheAustrian soldiers in the picture above marched into Jerusalem in 1916.
Jewish soldiers in the Australian (sic) Battalion standing next to the Western Wall, 1916. (Harvard
Library/Central Zionist Archives) The soldiers were actually from Austria.
The photographer, Ya'akov Ben-Dov, moved to Palestine in 1907 from Kiev. He was
drafted into the Ottoman army during World War I and served as a photographer in Jerusalem
[Another copy of this Kotel photo -- damaged -- appears elsewhere in the Harvard Library collection with the correct caption of "Austrian" soldiers.]
Update, April 2: We received the following note from a librarian in Harvard Library's Judaica Division:We are in the process of updating the caption to read "Austrian soldiers" instead of "Australian soldiers". The caption should be updated within one or two days. Thank you very much for alerting us to this error.
The Australians arrived in Palestine with General Allenby's troops in 1917, and were famous for their daringcavalry charge that captured Be'er Sheva before German and Turkish troops could blow up the wells of the oasis.
Austrians marching into Jerusalem, 1916 (Library of Congress, American Colony Collection) 
Australian Light Horsemen in Jerusalem (1918) in a badly damaged Library of Congress photo 0Add a comment
- MAR26
Passover Nears. Time to Recall that a Biblical-Scale Plague Struck the Holy Land 99 Years Ago
A version of this posting appeared in January 2012.
The American Colony photographers took
hundreds of pictures of the locust plague
and the insects' metamorphosis from larvae to adult
World War I brought widespread devastation to the Middle East as German and Turkish armies fought British, Australian and New Zealand troops in battlefields from the Suez Canal in the south to Damascus in the north.
The war also meant a cut-off of aid and relief to the Jews of Palestine from Jewish philanthropists in Europe and the United States.
As many as 10,000 Jews were expelled from Jaffa-Tel Aviv in April 1917 by the Turks, and many perished from disease and hunger.But the famine that struck the residents of Palestine was also caused by a massive plague of locusts that swarmed into Eretz Yisrael in March 1915 and lasted until October. Accounts of the locusts and the subsequent starvation and pestilence recalled the plagues of Bible.
A New York Times account from April 1915 described deaths from starvation. By November 1915, the Times detailed a cable from theAmerican Counsel General in Jerusalem in which he described "fields covered by the locusts as far as the eye could reach." The diplomat reported on efforts made by the Turkish leader of Palestine to combat the locusts. A Jewish agronomist, "Dr. Aaron Aaronsohn, who is well known to the Department of Agriculture at Washington, was appointed High Commissioner" to the "Central Commission to Fight the Locusts."
A tree before the locusts arrived 
The same tree after the locusts finished
[Aaronsohn would go on to establish the anti-Turkish NILI spy ring in 1917. His sister Sarah was captured by the Turks for her involvement in the spy ring, and after torture, she committed suicide.]
American funds and food were essential for keeping the Jewish community in Palestine alive, and aid was delivered by U.S. Navy vessels.The American Colony in Jerusalem established soup kitchens to feed starving residents in Jerusalem. The colony's photographers documented more than 200 pictures of the locusts' devastation, efforts to combat them and the locusts' life cycle. An album of color (hand tinted) photographs is stored in the Library of Congress collection.
The Times reported, "Few crops or orchards escaped devastation. This was especially true on the Plain of Sharon, where the Jewish and German colonies, with their beautiful orange gardens, vineyards, and orchards, suffered most severely... In the lowlands there was a complete destruction of crops such as garden vegetables, melons, apricots and grapes ... upon whose supply the Jerusalem markets depend... few vegetables or fruits [were] to be had in the markets."
"Locusts stealing in like thieves through
the window"
Click on photos to enlarge.
Click on captions to view the original pictures.
Team waving flags tries to push a swarm of locusts into a
trap dug into the ground. The Turkish governor demanded
that every man deliver 20 kilo (44 pounds) of locusts
"In Jerusalem and Hebron," the report continued, "the heaviest loss from the onslaught of the locusts has been in connection with the olive groves and vineyards. Olive oil is a staple of food among the peasants and poorer classes....The grape, too, is a similar staple among all classes."
Garden of Gethsemane, Jerusalem, before the locusts 
Garden of Gethsemane, Jerusalem, after the locusts
"When the larvae appeared near Jerusalem," the Times related, residents were mobilized "for immediate organized resistance....Tin-lined boxes were sunk in the earth in the direction in which the locusts were advancing." Men, women and children were given flags and "the flaggers would drive the locusts together in a dense column toward the trap..."
Both the forces of war and nature combined to take a terrible toll on the residents of Palestine during World War I.
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- MAR24
Another Library of Congress Treasure: The Matza Factory in New York in 1858, but the Accompanying Article Is Full of Errors
The Library of Congress Archives has preserved several 150-year old engravings of Jewish customs in New York fromFrank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. [See Purim celebration]
Caption: "General view of preparations and baking matzot, the unleavened bread for the Passover" (Frank Leslie's
Illustrated Newspaper, New York, April 18, 1858, Library of Congress) Note the rabbi watching.
The story we bring today is unusual because of the writer's attempt to describe the New York Jewish community and the Passover holiday. The first element, rich in Faginesque imageries, would be considered anti-Semitic by today's standards. The second element, a description of the holiday customs, is woefully full of mistakes. Excerpts below:Any one taking a morning walk through Chatham street will meet enough men whose low stature, shining black eyes, crisp laky hair, stooping shoulders, and eager movements proclaim them of the Hebrew race, to convince him that Jews are prevalent in our city in large numbers. Exactly how many thousands of the Hebraic people have their present sojourning in New York we have no means of ascertaining, but the number is very considerable, and is on the rapid increase.
The Israelitish race preserve to this day their peculiar characteristics as strongly marked, and their national prejudices is as full force as in the days of Darius, King of Persia. They exist among us, a distinct race, preserving an identity of their own... but whilst constantly intermingling in trade and business with the Gentiles, keeping themselves as separate from the uncircumcised dogs in all social and religious intercourse....They could not keep themselves more apart if they were walled out from the Christian world....
Weighing and kneading of the flour with the rabbi The eating of the unleavened bread for the seven days of the Passover is obligatory on all of the Jewish faith, and it is observed with the most punctilious exactitude by all, old and young, and no matter how poor or rich. During the seven days this unleavened bread is the only sort permitted to be used, no meat is allowed, and no drop of wine or spirits or fermented liquors. Fish and some kinds of vegetables are eaten sparingly....
Click on pictures to enlarge.
Click on captions to view the original pictures.
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- With Passover just a few weeks away, Jewish households around the world are purchasing or making their matzot (unleavened bread) for the festival.
One of Judaism's oldest customs, the baking of matza goes back to the Jewish exodus from Egypt. Ever since, Jews often went to great trouble to bake their cracker-like bread. Jewish communities in Europe and the Arab world faced "blood libels" for making their matza. Ancient synagogues in France built matza bakeries under their synagogues. Jews in Nazi concentration camps risked being shot to bake their Passover "bread." In the former Soviet Union, Jews baked their matza in secret, lest they be discovered and sent to the Gulag. During major wars, armies made sure to provide matza to their Jewish soldiers.
A matza factory in Haifa. The signs on the left read "For the purpose of the commandment of matza" -- a reminder to the workers to keep their intentions on the commandment. The signs on the right, in Hebrew and French,
read "No smoking" and "No Spitting" (from the "Cigarbox Collection" provided by Othniel Seiden )
No smoking or spitting 
Keep in mind the matza commandment 
Children baking matza in kindergarten in the Holy Land. The teacher is in the center, and it appears there
is a tiny oven in front of her (Harvard/Central Zionist Archives, circa 1920)A future feature: Matza baking in the "New World" 150 years ago
0Add a comment
AIPAC's Annual Policy Conference hosted the publisher of Israel Daily Picture, Lenny Ben-David, at its recent mega-event in Washington DC. In addition to three presentations by Ben-David, AIPAC also provided large interactive touch-screens where delegates were able to view more than 1,800 pictures from the Israel Daily Picture site.
Click to view the YouTube presentation.Special HT to the amazing production teams at AIPAC and Viva Creative.0Add a comment
- MAR14
Mystery Picture Solution: Sha'ar HaGai (Hebrew) Bab al-Wad (Arabic) -- Almost Every Visitor to Jerusalem Passes this Spot
Several readersimmediately recognized this location as the entrance way to the gorge between Israel's coastal plain and the Judean hills leading to Jerusalem.
Original caption: "Entering the Judean Hills, Wady Ali, old route
Jaffa to Jerusalem." (Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
Today, the location is called "Sha'ar HaGai" in Hebrew (Gate of the Valley). The name "Sha'ar HaGai" can be found in the Biblical book ofChronicles II (26:9) referring to the fortified towers and gates of Jerusalem built by King Uziyahu.
The Arabs referred to the site as "Bab al-Wad," (Gate of the Valley); the valley was called "Wadi Ali."
Throughout history, this natural gorge was the chokepoint for armies seeking to put Jerusalem under siege. In 1948-49, Arab armies laid siege to Jewish Jerusalem, and major battles took place from Latrun, near Sha'ar HaGai, all the way to the outskirts of Jerusalem.
The Library of Congress archives dates this
picture of the "entrance to the Judean Hills" as 1900
"Bab al-Wad" was a popular and mournful song memorializing the convoys which attempted to break through the siege during Israel's war of independence.
According to blogger Daniel Ventura, the rocky path to Jerusalem was "paved" in the 1860s and formally dedicated for the visit of Austrian Kaiser Franz Josef in 1869. The Turkish "Khan" -- wayside rest station (a precursor to a gas station) -- was built in 1873. Reader Rose Feldman wrote, "Sha'ar HaGai was the way station where horses were changed on the way to Jerusalem at the beginning of the 20th century."Ventura quotes a 19th century writer, Binyamin Ze'ev HaLevy Sapir, Jerusalem editor of The Lebanon newspaper, who reported in 1869, "The way from Jaffa to Jerusalem is almost well-finished, and two horse-drawn wagons come and go every day. The trip from Jaffa to Jerusalem takes 10 hours, and horses are switched at Bab al-Wad."The road today:
The highway today. Ruins of the Turkish Khan can still be seen alongside the road. (Google Earth) 1View comments
- MAR13
Mystery Photograph: Can You Identify Where this 100+ Year Old Picture Was Taken? Do You Have a Photo of the Location Today?
The picture appears to be of a way station in the Holy Land. Do you know where? Enter your answer
below in the "comment" section, or send it to Israel.dailypix@gmail.com9View comments
Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States (1901-1909), played a vital role in turning the United States into a global power. As president, he showed concern for the Jews of North Africa and Czarist Russia. After his presidency, he expressed strong support for the emergence of a Jewish state in Palestine.
Young Theodore (in circle) and the Roosevelt family "On the Nile, winter 1872-1873."
(Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Harvard College Library)
Roosevelt's first contact with the Jews of Palestine was as a teenager when his family toured the Middle East in 1872-1873. A perspicacious young man, Roosevelt wrote a diary of his trip which included his observations of the Jews' prayer at the Western Wall.
"In the afternoon we went to the Wailing Place of the Jews. Many of the women were in earnest, but most of the men were evidently shamming."
Women of the Wall. From 15-year old Teddy Roosevelt's diary (Theodore Roosevelt Center, Dickenson
State University, 1872)
The "Jews' Wailing Place" photographed around the same time as the Roosevelt visit (Bonfil, Getty Villa Exhibit)
(Typically, such early photographs at the Wall were posed.)As a young politician, Roosevelt served as police commissioner of New York City, a role that brought him into contact with the Jewish community of New York. One young immigrant, Otto Raphael, was encouraged by Roosevelt to become a New York policeman, and the two men maintained a close friendship until Roosevelt died. See Officer Otto Raphael: A Jewish Friend of Theodore Roosevelt by Nancy Schoenburg.
As president and a former secretary of the navy, Roosevelt was quick to resort to "gunboat diplomacy," especially in the Middle East. In Power, Faith and Fantasy, Amb. Michael B. Oren notes that as part of his negotiations over the rule of Morocco, the president "secured his country's customary concerns in the area, protecting North African Jews from oppression and American merchants from unfair restrictions and fees."
Roosevelt returned to the Nile
(Theodore Roosevelt Center, 1909)
Roosevelt also issued a strong letter of rebuke to the Russian Czar in 1903 after the murder of 49 Jews during a pogrom in Kishinev.
Oren's opus on America and the Middle East also cites correspondence by Roosevelt in 1918 in which he wrote, "It seems to me that it is entirely proper to start a Zionist State around Jerusalem." In another letter, the former president stated, "[T]here can be no peace worth having" until Armenian and Arabs are granted independence "and the Jews given control of Palestine."0Add a comment
- MAR10
A Purim Treat from the Archives of the Library of Congress -- Celebrating Purim in New York 150 Years Ago
Nearly all of our vintage photographs are from the Middle East, especially from the Holy Land.
But in honor of the Jewish festival of Purim, joyously commemorated this week by Jews around the world, we bring our readers a print we found in theLibrary of Congress archives.
The Purim holiday commemorates the victory of Queen Esther and Mordechai over the evil Haman of Persia, saving the lives of the Jewish people.
The picture appeared in an American newspaper on April 1, 1865. The wood engraving is captioned, "The Hebrew Purim Ball at the Academy of Music, March 14." The picture contains a large sign, "Merry Purim," another sign listing the "Order of Dancing," and merrymakers wearing costumes and masks.
The picture was published in Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper, printed in New York, NY. The Academy of Music was built in 1854 and was located in Manhattan at Irving Place and East 14th Street.
We found another engraving from Frank Leslie's newspaper, also of the Academy of Music, in the Library of Congressarchives. It is dated 1880 and captioned "New York City--the Chanucka celebration by the Young Men's Hebrew Association, at the Academy of Music, December 16th--scene of the sixth tableau, 'the dedication of the temple.'"
"Chanucka celebration in New York City" 1880 Click on pictures to enlarge.1View comments
Israeli news announced this week that the aliya (immigration) of Russian "Subbotniks" will resume.
Khudera, Russian proselytes (Library of Congress, circa 1906).
Today, the Library of Congress caption reads, "Identified
by researcher as Russian converts to Judaism (Subbotniki)"
Identified and trained by theShavei Israel organization, the Subbotniks are descendants of a group of Russian Christians who assumed a Jewish lifestyle 200 years ago. They were persecuted by the Czars, Communists and Nazis.
The following feature appeared inIsrael Daily Picture two years ago.
The Library of Congress' American Colony photo collection is full of mysterious pictures, some of which have been presented on these pages. Here's one, captioned "Khudera, Russian Proselytes," with the date listed as "between 1898 and 1934." Who or what is "Khudera?"
In the 19th century, a Christian sect in Russia kept Saturday as their day of Sabbath, thus earning the name "Subbotniks." They read the Old Testament and had a loose identification with Judaism.
In the late 1800s, two emissaries from Eretz Yisrael (one, Meir Dizengoff, would become mayor of Tel Aviv) traveled to Europe to encourage Jews to move to the land of Israel. In Kovno they encountered a successful Subbotnik farmer named Dubrovin who peppered them with questions about the Bible and about farming and weather conditions in the Galilee. The respected sage of Kovno, Rabbi Yitzhak Elchanan Spektor, had befriended Dubrovin and after several years converted Dubrovin, now named Yoav, and his family to Judaism.Yoav Dubrovin (Dubrovin Farm Museum)
In 1903, Dubrovin moved to the land of Israel with his family of 13. In 1909, he established a very successful farm in Yesod HaMa'aleh in the upper Galilee.
So who are the "Russian Proselytes of Khudera?"
According to Yoav Dubrovin's biography, the family lived in Hadera before purchasing their farm in Yesod HaMa'aleh. Elsewhere in the Library of Congress collection there is reference to Jewish towns "Jewish coastal colonies: Herzlia, Ranana, Nathania, Khudeira. Herzlia" -- apparently what we call and spell as "Hadera."
The mystery photo is likely a Dubrovin family portrait (minus Yoav who was in his 70s at this time) and was probably taken around 1906. Yoav Dubrovin lived to the age of 104.
Yoav Dubrovin's son donated the farm to the Jewish National Fund in 1968, and today the farm house has been restored and is the centerpiece of the Dubrovin Farm Museum.0Add a comment
Turkish troops in the Jezreel Valley preparing to move against the British at the Suez Canal in 1914 (Library of Congress)
World War I, the "war to end all wars," included major battles in the Middle East that raged from the Suez Canal to Damascus. The orders of battle and the casualties on both sides compared in scope to the better-known war on the Western Front in Europe. Israel Daily Picture has featured in the past manyphotographs taken on both sides of the Eastern Front by the American Colony Photographic Department.
Recruiting poster for Jewish soldiers,
1918 (Library of Congress)
We have also featured photos and essays on the Jewish soldiers from Britain, Australia, the United States and Canada in the Jewish Legion.
Understandably, the British Imperial War Museums contain thousands of photographs from battles around the world, and we have featured several of the pictures from the IWM, as well as from the Australian and New Zealand Army sites.
Israeli tour guides, Tamar HaYardeni and Yishai Solomon, recently pointed us to the numerous photographs of the Jewish inhabitants of Palestine who the British soldiers met and photographed.
Recruits for the 40th (Palestine) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers in Jerusalem,
1,000 were recruited. Summer 1918. (Imperial War Museums)
Within months of capturing Jerusalem in December 1917, the British Army launched a recruitment drive in Palestine itself. The IWM photos here show recruits from Jerusalem and Jaffa on their way to an army training camp in mid-1918.
It appears that many of the recruits were Jewish -- Orthodox men in Jerusalem and secular men in Jaffa.
Recruits in Jerusalem, 1918 (Imperial War Museums) 
Assembling recruits for the 40th (Palestinian) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, at Jaffa, before their departure to
Helmieh for training. Summer 1918 (Imperial War Museums)0Add a comment
- FEB23
Visit Exhibits of Israel Daily Picture at AIPAC's Annual Policy Conference in Washington March 2-4, 2014
Visit us next week in the "AIPAC Village" during the Annual AIPAC Policy ConferenceThe "Stories behind the Pictures" will be presented byIsrael Daily Picture publisher Lenny Ben-David0Add a comment
-
The Tomb of Joseph in the valley between Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal outside of Shechem (Nablus)
Picture taken from Mt. Ebal (circa 1900). (Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)According to the Book of Joshua (24:32), “The bones of Joseph which the Children of Israel brought up from Egypt were buried in Shechem [Nablus] in the portion of the field that had been purchased by Jacob.”
Joseph's Tomb today is in the middle of Nablus, controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Jews' access to the shrine is
severely limited, and the tomb has been attacked and vandalized on several occasions. (Google Earth)
The very first posting in Israel Daily Picture in June 2011 featured century-old pictures of Joseph's Tomb that we found in the Library of Congress archives. Virtually every 19th and early 20th century collection we've viewed contains pictures of the tomb. The online Keystone-Mast collection at the University of California - Riverside archives adds many more photos of Joseph's Tomb for the public's view.
Joseph's Tomb and Mt. Gerizim behind it. (Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock,
University of California, Riverside, circa 1900)
Joseph's Tomb (circa 1900)
Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
Joseph's Tomb, alone in the valley.
Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
Turkish guard inside the tomb. The Library of Congress archives dates
this picture as 1900.Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum ofPhotography
at UCRARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
Hand-colored photographic slide of Joseph's Tomb, dated between 1880-1900. (Chatham University) 0Add a comment
- FEB12
U.S. Aid to the Jews of Palestine Was Essential 100 Years Ago, And Now a Report from a Rabbi on One of 13 U.S. Aid Ships
New material includes the report of Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum's efforts to stop the massacre of Armenians in one Turkish town.
During the first years of the 20th Century the Jewish population of Eretz Yisrael -- Palestine -- suffered terribly. A massive plague of locusts, famine and disease hit the community hard. Ottoman officials harassed, tortured, imprisoned and expelled Jews, especially "Zionist" activists.
An account of life in Palestine during the first world war was presented to the World Zionist Congress in 1921 by the London Zionist Organization. Here is an excerpt:In spite of all efforts made in Palestine to cope with the situation, the Jewish population would have succumbed had not financial help arrived from America. From the day when war [World War I] broke out [Jewish] Palestine had appealed to America for help.
America was at that time the one country which through its political and financial position was able to save [Jewish] Palestine permanently from going under. It was stimulated to do so by the deep interest in Palestine which of recent years had been awakened in American Jewry. ...
Telegram from Amb. Henry Morgenthau to philanthropist Jacob Schiff (Source: JDC Archives) Great assistance was given by the American ambassador, Henry Morgenthau, who had visited Palestine some months before the outbreak of the war, and had promised his support to the director of the Palestine Office, Dr. Ruppin. Thanks to the efforts of the Zionist Organization and of men like Jacob Schiff, to whom the Bank, the Palestine Office and the representatives of the Chovevi Zion had appealed,a large remittance of money — the first of many — was sent from America to Palestine. ...
[Editor's note: The financial assistance was delivered to the American consulate in Jerusalem and distributed to the Jewish community to ensure that it wasn't stolen by rapacious Turkish officials. When the United States entered the war, the American Consulate was shut.]
On October 6th, 1914, the American warship "[the USS] North Carolina" landed in the harbor of Jaffa, and the envoy of Ambassador Morgenthau, M. Wertheim, brought $50,000 dollars. Half of this sum had been given by Jacob Schiff, the other half by the Zionist Organization with Nathan Strauss.
USS North Carolina to the rescue
The arrival of this warship and of those that followed it was quite an event in the country. It raised the downcast spirits of the Jews, who saw that they were not abandoned, but could reckon on help from their brethren abroad. These ships also increased the prestige of the Jews in the eyes of the rest of the population and of the local administration. People saw that the Jews through their connections abroad were much more powerful than their numbers would have led one to expect.These American ships continued their good services on behalf of the Jewish Yishuv. They brought money from time to time, and hospitably took on board the expelled Jews and the other immigrants who fled from Palestine for fear of starvation and persecution.
Here is an additional report about a rabbi on one of those American ships, shared by his great-grandson Yitz.
The transmission of the money, which was a task requiring considerable address and scrupulous care, was carried out admirably. Besides money, food also came from America on a special ship, the "Vulcan.'' Altogether, from October, 1915, 3,522,930.03 francs were brought to Palestine in 13 American ships.
I have always heard that my great-grandfather Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum of Jerusalem and New York who was one of the founders of the Joint Distribution Committee as well as its founding Secretary at some point was on one of these boats. In order to travel on an American naval vessel even as an American citizen (which he was) he was required to and received some sort of official naval commission.
Rabbi Teitelbaum and a Jewish delegation to the
White House. The rabbi served as the translator for
a meeting between President Calvin Coolidge and
Avraham Kook, the Chief Rabbi of Palestine, in 1924
Three years ago while cleaning out his son's house I found postcard photographs of him arriving in various places from that ship. I do not know which ship he was on but family lore says at some point he ended up being in Turkey during the slaughter of the Armenians. He managed to stop the slaughter in the town he was at by convincing whoever was in charge that if the slaughter did not stop he as an American officer aboard an American naval vessel would order his battleship which was in the harbor to begin shelling their positions. Obviously he couldn't do this but whoever it was in control decided not to test him and stopped the slaughter. Supposedly when he returned to Jerusalem the Armenian prelate came to him and hugged him and kissed him for his actions.0Add a comment
Just this week our site received visitors from Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Dubai, the Palestinian Authority, Kuwait, and Qatar.
Our site also attracts viewers from Algeria, Jordan, Turkey and even Iran.
We welcome our Arab and Muslim visitors and encourage them to submit comments -- anonymously if they wish.
View our visitors here and in the right sidebar.
Thank you for visiting www.israeldailypicture.com0Add a comment
Why was this picture so valuable? Because it was one of the first photographs ever taken in Jerusalem -- 170 years ago.
The Kidron Valley and the ancient tombs carved into the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem (Christie's)
We flipped the picture horizontally after reader Krina Doekes Brandt pointed out the picture was reversed. HT
The photograph was taken in 1844 by a French photographer, Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (1804 - 1898), believed to be a student of Louis Daguerre who is credited with inventing photography in 1839.
The daguerreotype photos were found in a storeroom in Girault de Prangey's estate in the 1920s, but only in recent years, when libraries digitized them, did the photographs become well known. Girault de Prangey was a student of architecture and art who traveled in the Middle East between 1841 and 1844 and produced some 900 daguerreotypes.Responsible archivists and librarians digitize
the vintage photographs in their archives.
Panoramic photo of Jerusalem's Old City from the southeast. (1844) 
Panoramic picture of Jerusalem taken from the Mt. of Olives (1844, we flipped the image)
The Smithsonian Magazine published a feature on the photos this month, based on pictures published by Retronaut - "The photographic time machine." HT to Holylandphotos for pointing out the picture in the French National Library is reversed, with the al Aqsa Mosque appearing to the right of the Dome of the Rock. We flipped the photograph.
This photo is labeled "Damascus Gate."
Actually, it is the city wall just to the
right of the gate. The photographer
was fascinated with stonework on the
shrines in the Middle East. (1844)
Lions Gate of the Old City (1844) 
Jaffa Gate of the Old City (Christie's 1844) 
Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (1844)
H/T: AA
We found more than 200 photographs by Gerault de Prangey in the French National Library and on the websites of leading auction houses. The pictures included scenes from Jerusalem, Damascus, Cairo, and Lebanon. We present here pictures of Jerusalem from the Library's collection and from Christie's. According to the French Library, the pictures are in the public domain.Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on the caption to view the original picture.
The following is a quotation attributed to Girault de Prangey:
My long pilgrimage is coming to a close... after spending 55 days in the holy city [of Jerusalem] and its environs...I am sure you can share my natural delight in fulfilling a dream cherished since childhood.... And as I speak now of these places, how happy I am to realise that in a few months I will be able to share them with you as they are, as I bear with me their precious and unquestionably faithful trace that cannot be diminished by time or distance. For this we must thank most sincerely our compatriot Daguerre, destined to be known forever for his wondrous discovery.7View comments
- FEB3
Football (Soccer) in the Holy Land 80 Years Ago Was a Religious & Political Issue -- Version of an Earlier Posting
The neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo in northern Jerusalem is known for the dust-up between Israel and the U.S. Administration several years ago when Israel announced plans for expansion of the ultra-Orthodox housing project.
Original caption "Police intercede in Orthodox attempt to break up the Maccabee football game" (1930s)
Originally, Jerusalem's legendary mayor Teddy Kollek planned that the area, known as the Shuafat ridge, would house a 50,000-seat football stadium, sports facilities and tennis courts.
Aerial photo of the sports field, adjacent to the ultra-Orthodox Meah
She'arim neighborhood (1931). See a view of
the bleachers here, and the field here.
But access to the stadium would have to be through Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, and Sabbath protests and demonstrations were a certainty.
"Crowd of mixed Orthodox Jews who arrived on the scene en
masse to force the discontinuing of the Maccabee football game"
Eventually, the stadium was built in southern Jerusalem near Malcha, and the Shuafat ridge became part of a contiguous stretch of ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods.
The Sabbath tensions over public sports games on Saturdays were documented by the American Colony photographers some 80 years ago.
Some of the photographs identify the field as "near Bokharbia," meaning near the Bukhari Jewish neighborhood adjacent to Meah She'arim.
"Close-up of an Orthodox Jew in the crowd." View another close-up with
the police - here (1930s)
The decades-old issue of Sabbath observance in Jerusalem suggests that this dispute may indeed not be resolvable; rather, like other conflicts in the Middle East, the best one could hope for is that it would be manageable.0Add a comment
- JAN28
Where the Buffalo Roamed -- Israel's Hula Valley -- The Malarial Swamps that Were Drained -- and Now Being Reflooded
Herd of buffalo near the Hula swamps. The Golan Heights are in the background
(Library of Congress, circa 1900) See also here.
Old maps of the Holy Land showed three bodies of water along the banks of the Jordan River -- the Dead Sea in the south, Lake Hula in the north and the Sea of Galilee in the middle.
Buffalo wallowing in the Hula swamps. The Naftali ridge is
the background. See also here
Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
The Hula Valley region appears in writings dating back to Josephus, but the area was not the most hospitable to human habitation. The valley is 15.5 miles long from north to south and 4-5 miles wide. One third of the valley was lake, one third was land, and one third swamps/marshes. Malaria in the region was rampant.
According to State Lands and Rural Development in Mandatory Palestine, 1920-1948 by Warwick P. N. Tyler, a concession to the Hula Valley "was granted by the Ottoman Authorities in June 1914 to two Beiruti merchants 'for the drainage and reclamation of the Hula marshes.' The concession area ...consisted of state land..."
Original caption: "Land provided to the Arabs by government,
in place of area being drained. Hebrew settlement of Yesud HaMa'ala on
Hula Lake" (Library of Congress, 1940)
"When the concession was granted in 1914," historian Tyler continued, "the Arab population in the Hula Valley lived in 19 villages and numbered between three and four thousand. Most belonged to the Ghawarina people -- outcasts of society, the descendants of deserters from Ibrahim Pasha's Egyptian army which had captured the region in the 1830s, escaped slaves, fugitives from the law and refugees from family feuds."
In 1882, a Jewish community, Yesud HaMa'ala, was established on the shores of the Hula Lake on land purchased in 1872 by Yaakov Chai Abu from a Bedouin tribe. Some of Yesud HaMa'ala's first settlers were members of the Sobbotnik group of converts from Russia led by the fabled Yoav Dubrovin.
Weaving mats in a Bedouin village in the Hula
Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
Tyler wrote in a Middle East Studies article, "The Huleh [Hula] Concession and Jewish Settlement of the Huleh Valley, 1934-48, "In 1934 Jewish interests acquired the Hula concession to drain and reclaim Lake Huleh and its swamps in northern Galilee. During the previous 20 years, when the concession was in Arab hands, no significant drainage work had been undertaken. The Palestine Land Development Company agreed to pay the former concessionaires, the Salam family, £191,974 to acquire their rights."
The Arab tribe in the Hula Valley was known for their mat-weaving, pictured here. According to Tyler, they "were decimated and enfeebled by malaria and lived a wretched existence in reed houses and mud hovels."
Hula Arabs in their reed huts (The "Cigarbox" Collection)
In the 1930s, the British Mandatory government attempted to restrict Jewish land purchase "by draconian restrictions," Tyler wrote. "Any hope that a policy of [Arab] agricultural development would be implemented was dashed when Palestine was engulfed by racial strife in 1936-9."
During the 1948-1949 war and the invasion of Arab armies into the Jewish state, the Arab villagers fled.
In the 1950s, Israel undertook a national project to drain the Hula Valley to create new farmland. The damage to the region's ecological systems, however, led to a new plan to reflood part of the valley and to create wildlife preserves.
Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on the captions to view the original pictures.0Add a comment
Boys at the Western Wall, almost certainly posed by the photographer, Felix Bonfils, in the 1870s. Enlargement is
from the picture below. (Getty Research Institute). View a similar photo from the Library of Congress collection
Felix Bonfil's photograph (Getty)
Scores of century-old pictures of the Western Wall have appeared inIsrael Daily Picture. Known as the Wailing Wall, the Kotel HaMaaravi, or the Jews' Wailing Place, the prayer site was the focus of every photographer in Jerusalem.
Two years ago we posted a feature on "The Women of the Western Wall," and noted that there were no physical partitions between the men and the women visible in the pictures because of restrictions imposed by the Ottoman authorities
The girls at the Kotel. The graffiti on the wall suggests the picture was
taken after 1903. (Library of Congress) See a similar picture here
and demands by the Muslim Mufti of
The original picture with the girls.
Jerusalem. Any attempt to set up screens or bring chairs were met with protests and attacks. The Jewish worshippers honored a separation of sexes, for the most part.
"The Jews' Wailing Place" (circa 1900). Take a closer look below.
Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
The picture below, from the University of California - Riverside collection, appears to be a typical picture of the Kotel at the turn of the 20th century, but it's not.
Enlargement of the photo shows a group of children begging with their hands outstretched to men on the left, men whose hats suggest that they are visitors from overseas.
Children with their hands extended. The Jews of Jerusalem were remarkably poor under the Turkish rule, and
relied on charitable donations from Jews in Europe and North America.
More Children at the Kotel
Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
An earlier feature here showed hundreds of Jewish children in 1918 returning to the Old City from a field trip on the Jewish holiday of Lag B'Omer.
Are some of these the same children?
Jewish children's procession on Lag B'Omer 1918.
(Library of Congress)Click on pictures to enlarge.Click on caption to view the original picture.0Add a comment
The mystery ship. The back of the picture only says "Palestine" and "WX25115"
Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)The picture above appears in the University of California - Riverside's Museum of Photography.
No details are provided other than the word on the back, "Palestine." Every man is wearing a western style cap or hat. There appear to be no religious Jews on board, men vastly outnumber the few women in the photo, there are no suitcases or identifying clues other than a German language sign "Tragkraft" on the crane that translates "Lifting capacity 3,000 kilo." We estimate the picture to have been taken early in the 20th century.
Your suggestions are welcome!1View comments
The University of California - Riverside Museum of Photography contains 250,000 stereoscopic plates and 100,000 negatives, many of which are online, such as the one above. See more on the Keystone-Mast Collection.
A photograph of the photographer. Photographer using a stereoscopic camera. No date or location
in "Palestine" is provided. (circa 1900) (Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
19th century stereo camera 
An enlargement of the photographer-horseman
Anyone who has used a "View-Master" toy will recognize the 3D illusion created by the stereo camera. Already in the 19th century photographers were taking stereo pictures which were viewed on a special device. In effect, the two camera lenses captured the view and the slight angle differences of the right eye and the left eye.
Many of the photographs presented in www.israeldailypicture.com are half of a stereoscopic pair, cropped for easier presentation.0Add a comment
The oldest pictures of Jews at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City date from the 1850s, such as this photo taken by Mendel Diness. (With permission of Special Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University. 1859)
In his 1871 travelogue, Travels around the World, former U.S. Secretary of State William Seward described the prayers of the Jews at the Western Wall (Kotel) -- "pouring out their lamentations over the fall of their beloved city." He reported the Jewish population of the city was 8,000, twice the number of the Christian or Muslim residents.
Original caption: "A Bazaar in Jerusalem"
(Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography at UCR
ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
Many of the century-old photos of the Jews of the Holy Land were taken during their prayers at the Kotel. Far fewer were the less formal pictures of their everyday life in Jerusalem. We present such pictures here.
What did everyday life look like?
Close scrutiny of the "Bazaar in Jerusalem" shows Jewish men (and probably Jewish women in the foreground) shopping and walking past a parked camel in the shuk of the Old City. See the enlargement below.
We were intrigued by the sign above the store on the left, and we enlarged it. We discovered the sign, in Hebrew and Yiddish, was for a bedding store and read:
The sign. Interpretations are welcomed.
Smeared cotton (not clear what it was "shmeared" with)Readymade quilts or coversMattresses – Best Sorts
The last line are the names of the store's proprietors, but all that can be easily read is "Chaim Tzvi."
A Jewish money changer just inside the Jaffa Gate under
signs advertising cheese and butter products(with
Rabbi Kook's kashrut supervision) and a printer.
(Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
The Getty Research Institute labels this picture as a
"Jeblanier jeuf à Jérusalem," taken in 1890.
The Jewish merchant's profession is a "ferbantier"
-- a tinsmith or "blecher" in Yiddish. (Credit: Ken and
Jenny Jacobson Orientalist Photography Collection, Getty)A Jewish hat store right outside of the Jaffa Gate. This
picture is from an enlargement of an original - here.
(Library of Congress, note the Library's citation of
Israel Daily Picture to date the picture as pre-1898)
Orthodox Jews among the throngs inside Jaffa Gate, an
enlargement of an original - here.
(Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
The setting inside the Jaffa Gate would again appear in later pictures showing the evacuation of Jews from the Old City during Arab rioting in 1929 and 1936. (Note the tree in the pictures above and below.) In 1948, the Old City Jews were expelled through the Zion Gate.
Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on captions to view the original pictures.
Jewish evacuation from the Old City of Jerusalem, Jaffa Gate, during 1936 Arab rioting and attacks.
The soldiers are British. (Wikipedia Commons)0Add a comment
- JAN13
Remarkable Pictures of Extinct Jewish Communities, Part 3 The pictures from the University of California - Riverside Archives
We present Part 3 of a series of vintage pictures on the Jews of the Middle East. Like the communities in previous features -- Baghdad, Mosul, and Constantinople (Istanbul) -- the Jews of Cairo, Alexandria, and Damascus are on the verge of extinction.
Original caption: "Jew Tailor in his Booth on a Street in Old Cairo"
(Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography at UCR
ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
Some of the pictures presented here show both the poverty and the wealth of the various Jewish communities.
Egypt
Cairo: In 1948, the Cairo Jewish communitynumbered an estimated 55,000. Pogroms and imprisonment caused almost all of the Jews of Egypt to emigrate.
Zaoud-el Mara (Jewish Quarters) Alexandria,
Egypt. A Library of Congress photo dates
this picture from 1898.
Alexandria: According to a Jerusalem Post article from 2008, Alexandria "is said to have boasted a community of tens of thousands of Jews of both Ashkenazi and Mizrahi descent, but some were expelled as French or British citizens during the Suez Canal crisis of 1956. Others were expelled and/or imprisoned for up to three years during the Six Day War. Some, too, left on their own accord, feeling that there was a brighter future for them as Jews in countries like Israel, America and Australia."
There are believed to be around 40 Jews living in Egypt today.
Syria - Damascus
"Beautiful shaded court of a Jewish Home in Damascus, Syria."
Look at the details of the picture.
(Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography at UCR
ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
The Damascus Jewish community numbered an estimated 15,000-17,000 in 1918. Riots, government discrimination, and imprisonment caused almost all of Syrian Jewry to flee.
Today, perhaps a few dozen Jews live in Syria, but the savage civil war has also engulfed old Jewish neighborhoods and ancient synagogues.
At the start of the 20th century, several wealthy Jewish families lived in Damascus, and photographs of their homes are presented here.
Enlarging the photos disclosed
several interesting details.
The matron of the home?
Children of the home?
Grand Mosque and Damascus from the Jewish
Quarters, Syria. Three women on a balcony
overlooking city.
Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum
of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, University
of California, Riverside)
Court of a Wealthy Jew’s Home in Old
Damascus, Syria. See also here.
Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on the caption to view the original photo.
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- JAN9
The Ancient Synagogues of Jerusalem, Destroyed in 1948 The pictures from the University of California - Riverside Archives
This picture of the two domes of the Hurva and Tiferet Yisrael Synagogues in Jerusalem's Old City has been featured in our postings before after we found them in various collections.
"The Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem with its two synagogues. Palestine."
The Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue (left) and the Hurva Synagogue (1900)
(Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock,
University of California, Riverside) See also Two domes (Library of Congress)
But we never came across a photo with such clarity, suggesting that the archives at UC-Riverside contains the original photos taken by the Underwood & Underwood Co. in 1900. UC-R's files also allow huge and detailed on-screen enlargements of the photos. We thank the heads of the library for permission to republish their photos, and we abide by their request to limit the photos' sizes on these pages.
The Keystone-Mast collection at UC-R also contains other photos of the exterior and interior of the Tiferet Yisrael and the Hurva Synagogues in the Old City in the middle of the 19th century.
William H. Seward, who served as President Abraham Lincoln's secretary of state, visited Jerusalem in 1859 and 1870. He wrote atravelogue after his second trip, and he described attending Friday night services at the "Wailing Wall" and in one of the two impressive synagogues. Seward's description appears below.
The UC-R photo bears no caption or date on this picture of the
Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue (Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California
Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
Avraham Shlomo Zalman Hatzoref arrived inEretz Yisrael 200 years ago and was responsible for building the Hurva synagogue. Ashkenazic Jews had been banned from the Old City in the early 19th century after defaulting on a loan. Hatzoref, a student of the Gaon of Vilna and a builder in Jerusalem, arranged for the cancellation of the Ashkenazi community's large debt to local Arabs. In anger, local Arabs killed him in 1851. (Hatzoref is recognized by the State of Israel as the first victim of modern Arab terrorism.)
The two prominent synagogue domes shared the panoramic view of Jerusalem with the domes of the Dome of the Rock and al Aqsa Mosque for almost 80 years. In the course of the 1948 war, the Jordanian army blew up both buildings and destroyed the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.
We present below interior pictures of the two synagogues from the UC-R and Library of Congress collections.
The interior of the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue
(circa 1900) (Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum
of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
Interior of the Hurva Synagogue (circa
1900) (Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of
Photography at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
Note the curtains covering the Ark containing the Torah scrolls. When the German Emperor arrived in Jerusalem in 1898, the Jewish community constructed a welcome arch, photographed by the American Colony photographic department. The curtains from the synagogues and the Torah crowns were taken down to decorate the arch.
Interior of the Hurva Synagogue (circa 1898, American Colony Photograph Department, Library of Congress).
Note the curtain, enlarged below
The inscription on the Hurva curtain reads: [In
memory of] "The woman Raiza daughter of sir
Mordechai from Bucharest, [who died in] the
Hebrew year ת"ר [which corresponds to 1839-40]"
The last line cannot be deciphered, and suggestions
are welcome.
The Hurva interior in the 1930s. The curtain is
dedicated in memory of Hanna Feiga Greerman, the
daughter of Mordechai. The bima inscription reads
"Generous gift of Yisrael Aharon son of Nachman
known as Mr. Harry Fischel and his wife Sheina
daughter of Shimon [?] of New York." Fischel
died in January 1948.
Click on photos to enlarge. Click on captions
to view the original pictures.
Secretary of State William Seward's Friday Prayer
Was it in the Hurva or the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue?
Excerpt from Travels around the World
... [After leaving the Wailing Wall] a meek, gentle Jew, in a long, plain brown dress, his light, glossy hair falling inringlets on either side of his face, came to us, and, respectfully accosting Mr. Seward, expressed a desire that hewould visit the new synagogue, where the Sabbath service was about to open at sunset. Mr. Seward assented.
A crowd of "the peculiar people" attended and showed us the way to thenew house of prayer, which we are informed was recently built by a richcountryman of our own whose name we did not learn. It is called theAmerican Synagogue. It is a very lofty edifice, surmounted by a circulardome. Just underneath it a circular gallery is devoted exclusively to thewomen. Aisles run between the rows of columns which support the galleryand dome. On the plain stone pavement, rows of movable, wooden bencheswith backs are free to all who come.
William H. Seward, Lincoln's Secretary of State
At the side of the synagogue, opposite the door, is an elevated desk on aplatform accessible only by movable steps, and resembling more a pulpitthan a chancel. It was adorned with red-damask curtains, and behind thema Hebrew inscription. Directly in the centre of the room, between the doorand this platform, is a dais six feet high and ten feet square, surrounded bya brass railing, carpeted; and containing cushioned seats. We assume thatthis dais, high above the heads of the worshippers, and on the sameelevation with the platform appropriated to prayer, is assigned to the rabbis.
We took seats on one of the benches against the wall; presently an elderlyperson, speaking English imperfectly, invited Mr. Seward to change his seat;he hesitated, but, on being informed by [Deputy U.S. Consul General] Mr. Finkelstein that the person who gave theinvitation was the president of the synagogue, Mr. Seward rose, and the whole party, accompanying him, wereconducted up the steps and were comfortably seated on the dais, in the "chief seat in the synagogue." On this daiswas a tall, branching, silver candlestick with seven arms.The congregation now gathered in, the women filling the gallery, and the men, in varied costumes, and wearing hats ofall shapes and colors, sitting or standing as they pleased. The lighting of many silver lamps, judiciously arranged, gavenotice that the sixth day's sun had set, and that the holy day had begun. Instantly, the worshippers, all standing, andas many as could turning to the wall, began the utterance of prayer, bending backward and forward, repeating thewords in a chanting tone, which each read from a book, in a low voice like the reciting of prayers after the clergyman inthe Episcopal service. It seemed to us a service without prescribed form or order. When it had continued some time,thinking that Mr. Seward might be impatient to leave, the chief men requested that he would remain a few moments,until a prayer should be offered for the President of the United States, and another for himself. Now a remarkablerabbi, clad in a long, rich, flowing sacerdotal dress, walked up the aisle; a table was lifted from the floor to the platform,and, by a steep ladder which was held by two assistant priests, the rabbi ascended the platform. A large folio Hebrewmanuscript was laid on the table before him....4View comments
Monday, August 10, 2015
Celebrating Passover in the Holy Land 100 Years Ago
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