Golden Gate [Shaar HaRachamim in Hebrew] of Jerusalem's Old City (Oregon State University Archives) See more on
the Golden Gate here
We continue with more photos and original captions from the Oregon State University Archives. View Part 1 here. The captions provide a fascinating commentary on historical understanding of areas in the Holy Land a century ago, including a comment about "Jewish Zionists." The pictures are dated as "circa 1910."
View the Oregon State University Archives' complete collection here.
The Archives' captions appear in blue below.
Golden Gate image (above] description from historic lecture booklet: "The Golden Gate is in the East wall of the Haram or temple area. Ezekiel, the prophet, says that it was shut in his day and must not be opened for any man, "for the Lord, the God of Israel hath entered in by it , therefore it shall be shut." Ezekiel 44:1,2. Traditionally, this is the Beautiful Gate of Acts 3:2, but that gate was evidently much nearer to the Temple. But actually dates from the fifth or perhaps the seventh, Christian century. It was restored in 1892; it is still architecturally interesting from the inside, where a staircase ascends to the roof."
Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount of Jerusalem (Oregon State University Archives)
"One of the handsome southern approaches to the mosque of Omar, a Mohammedan temple of religion. The mosque is on the higher level. In the immediate foregrounds is one of the famous fountains of the Temple area, and men may be seen at their religious ablutions. When one reaches the approach it is necessary to rent slippers. They are always kept on hand for the purpose of entering the Mosque and are retained until the visitor finished not only the Mosque of Omar, but also the Mosque el-Aksa on the south end of the area. This is an act of reverence just as we would remove our hats when going into a church."
The interior of the Dome of the Rock (Oregon State University Archives) Note how the crevices of the Rock are
deeper than those seen in other photos of the surface."This rock has been regarded as sacred from the earliest times. Long before the Hebrew occupation of Palestine [Editor's note:some 3,500 years ago], this striking formation led the ancients to view this as a Holy mount. Its length is about 58 feet, the breadth nearly 52 feet. It extends above the surrounding pavement from four to six and half feet. Here on Mount Moriah, which is called also Zion, Abraham was about to offer Isaac. Here by the threshing-floor of Araunsh, David saw the destroying angel. Here also Solomen [sic] built the temple, but this rock was not within it as it is within the Mosque. It is probable that the altar of sacrifice stood on the rock.The interior of the Mosque, which is an octagon with sides 66 feet 7 inches in length, is 174 feet in diameter. It is divided by its two series of supports into three concentric parts. The pillars were all taken from older buildings. An inscription in the oldest Arabic character, Cufic, records that "Adballah el-Iman el-Melik, prince of the faithful erected this dome in the year 72-692 A.D.["] It is in the Arabian style."
Safed [Tzfat in Hebrew], holy Jewish city in the Galilee (Oregon State University Archives)
See more on Safed here
"About ten miles northwest of the Sea of Galilee on a very high hill (2,749 feet) of the ancient province of Galilee, is situated the city of Safed, which is thought by some to be the city referred to by Jesus in His sermon on the mount (Matt 5:14).[Editor's note: There is little archaeological evidence of Safed's existence as a population center at the time of the Second Temple.]You remember the words of our Lord to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount? "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." He may have pointed to this very hill and this very city, now known as Safed, in northern Galilee. Although no place having this location is named in the Bible, it is probable that in Christ's day, a city was standing on this hill, for in the New Testament period, this land was densely populated. Safed stands as a landmark, seen in every direction, and well illustrated the words of Jesus regarding the prominence of his disciples in the world."
Christian pilgrims on their way from the Jordan River to Jerusalem (Oregon State University Archives)
"This picture is taken along the Jericho road looking west toward Jerusalem. The subject of the picture "Pilgrims" is one that has its place in all histories of religion. The present motley crowd is made up of a number of nationalities, but the majority are Russians. These have already been to the Jordon at their reputed places of the baptism of Jesus. and are now returning to the Holy City to partake in the festivities around the Holy Sepulchre which takes place at Easter."
Christian Street in Jerusalem's Old City (Oregon State University Archives)
Image description from historic lecture booklet: "Christian Street is a thoroughfare running north and south ending at David Street. It is by far the cleanest street in all Jerusalem. There is a new "Jerusalem" now being built by the Jewish Zionists, who are settling in Palestine in great numbers. They are establishing a university and are spending millions of dollars in modernizing the city and whole region."
The serpentine road between Jerusalem and Jaffa (Oregon State University Archives)
"A good macadamized road extends from Jaffa to Jerusalem. The section of road in the picture with its serpentine windings is six or eight miles from Jerusalem."
Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on captions to view the original picture.
View the Oregon State University Archives' complete collection here.- NOV27
Century-Old Photos Revealed by Oregon State University, Part 1. The Collection Includes an Interesting Historical Commentary
Rachel's Tomb (circa 1910) Note the camels and carriages. (Oregon State University Archives)
Oregon State University has an unusual collection of 100+ year old photographs of Palestine -- not necessarily unusual because of the photographs, which are exceptional, but also because of the historic narration provided to most of the pictures.
The "historic lecture booklet" referenced in many of the captions, explains Trevor Sandgathe, the Public Services Coordinator of OSU's Special Collections & Archives Research Center, "is a 60-page document containing captions for each of the images in this particular set of lantern slides. The booklet was for internal use and therefore unpublished."
Tiberias (circa 1910, Oregon State University Archives)
We provide here a first set of OSU's pictures and the original captions (in blue).
"Tiberias ... is on the western shore of the lake of Galilee about seven miles from its southern end. The lake lies 627 feet below the level of the Mediterranean; the city is on a plain a few feet above the lake. After the destruction of Jerusalem, Tiberias became the seat of many Jewish schools. Here the Mishna was complied [sic] and published about A.D. 220, and the Palestinian Talmud about 420. Here the vowel points were added to the Hebrew Bible about 600 A.D. Of its present population of 4,000 two-thirds are Jews."
"Leaving the temple area by the Cotton Gate, a turn to the left will bring one to the wailing place of the Jews which is a portion of the western wall of the temple area.
The Jews' Wailing Place- Outer Wall of Temple (circa 1910,
Oregon State University Archives)The figures leaning against the weather-beaten wall, shedding tears, present a touching scene. Some professionals come to mourn for others, whose business detains them, but one old woman was actually bathing the walls and flagstones below with hot tears. On a Friday afternoon or a Saturday morning, great throngs of Jews may be seen here all unconscious of the presence and clicking of cameras. This is as close to the temple area as the Jews ever go, for none of them wish to commit the enormous sin of treading upon the Holy of Hollies. As nearly as the Middle Ages, probably, the Jews came hither to wail. They are free to do so now, but in ages past they had to pay large sums for this privilege."
Jaffa Gate (prior to 1908 when a clock tower was built at the gate, post-1898
when the wall was breached to build this road (circa 1910,
Oregon State University Archives) More pictures of Jaffa Gate here"The Jaffa gate is the only gate on the western side of Jerusalem. It is so called because through it passes the road and the traffic to and from Jaffa.It is one of eight gates in the city wall, of which one, the golden Gate, had long been walled up. the Jaffa gate is called by the Moslem, Bab el-Khalil, that is Gate of the Friend (of God) - Abraham, because from this gate is the road to Hebron where Abraham lived.The scene is liveliest on Sunday, and on Friday --- the holy day of the Mohammedans. Then the Jaffa road appears as the principal promenade of the natives."
Responsible Archivists Preserve Their Photographic Treasures
"Beer-Sheba (the wall [sic] of seven) is the name of one of the oldest towns in Palestine. It is the most southern city of Palestine. Here are found seven wells, two large ones and five smaller ones called Abraham's wells.
Abraham's Well, Beer Sheba (circa 1910, Oregon State University Archives)
The wells of Beer Sheba were a strategic location during the battles of
World War I. Read more herePerhaps no other name is better known in Palestine than is Beer-Sheba. It was first assigned to Judah and afterwards to Simeon (Josh. 15:28, 19;2) On the return from Exile, Beer-Sheba was again peopled by Jews. In Roman times Beer-Sheba was a very large village with a garrison. It was the seat of a bishopric in the early Christian times before the country was conquered by the Muslims."
Next: Oregon State University Collection, Part 20Add a comment
Research by this publication indicates that in recent years libraries and archives around the world have begun to digitize the vintage photographs stored in their files and basements for many decades.
Prayers at the Western Wall. What's unusual about
the photo?
Besides the vast Library of Congress digitized collection that we have extensively focused on,Israel Daily Picture has also published historic digitized photos from -- New York Public Library
- Harvard Library
- Emory University Library
- Dundee (Scotland) Medical School Archives
- Private family collections, including the "Cigarbox Collection,"
- Oregon State University
- Getty Collection
- Chatham University Archives
- Palestine Exploration Fund
In future weeks we will present more essays and incredible photographs from the collections of a European church and two U.S. university archives. We are in the process of securing permission from the archivists and librarians before we publish them, and we are searching for more such collections.
A Jerusalem synagogue. What was its fate?
We thank the librarians and archivists who have already digitized their collections and granted us permission to post their photographs. As our million visitors can testify, the photographs will be viewed around the world.
We provide credits and links in all future postings. For now, we present two "coming attraction" teasers.Enter your email address in the right column and receive our postings by email.0Add a comment
- NOV24
The Chatham Library Photo Treasures Part 3, Jerusalem, Holy to All Religions. Responsible Archivists Are Digitizing their Vintage Pictures
Beneath Robinson's arch on the western wall of the Temple Mt. complex (Chatham University Archives, circa 1890)
The Chatham Library archives contains 110 photos of the Holy Land, but we have focused on the photos of Jerusalem. We present today the third part of our series.
Reconstruction model of the Arch
(Wikimedia Commons)
We express our admiration and gratitude to the archivists at Chatham University for digitizing these hand-colored slides dating back to about 1890.
The picture of Robinson's Arch published above is the base of a massive arch built by King Herod. Archaeologists believe it was the anchor for a large bridge or staircase from the top of the Temple Mount.
The Chatham collection also contains a map of Jerusalem.
Map of Jerusalem (Chatham University Archives, circa 1895). Note the "Railroad
Sta" on the bottom left. The Jerusalem Train Station was completed in 1892.
Note that few buildings were to be found outside of the Old City walls.
The Jerusalem Railroad station was completed in 1892, and can be located at the bottom left of the map. The map, therefore, was printed after 1892.
The reference to the train station can also date the following picture's caption. The photograph was taken near the location of the Mt Zion Hotel of today, itself the refurbished St. John's Eye Hospital established in 1882.
"Jerusalem - Road to the Station." The road starts at the Jaffa Gate and passes over the Hinom Valley
and Sultan's Pool (Chatham University Archives, circa 1895)
The Mosque of Omar (Chatham University Archives, circa 1890). The second mosque on the Temple Mount,
the al-Aqsa Mosque, is holier to Muslims than the Mosque of Omar, but 19th and early 20th century photographers
focused much more on "the Dome of the Rock" Mosque of Omar
Inside the Dome of the Rock, Mosque of Omar (Chatham University Archives, circa 1890). The photo
appears to be a colorization of a photo by Maison Bonfils. According to Jewish tradition, the rock is the
foundation stone of the Jewish Temples. See more here.
Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Chatham University Archives, circa 1890) 
Amidst the ancient Jewish graves are the tombs of "Absalom (from left to right), Zacharias
and James," in the Kidron Valley (Chatham University Archives, circa 1890)0Add a comment
The Labor Party of Israel elected its new leader yesterday, MK Yitzchak "Buji" Herzog, a veteran Israeli politician.
Rabbi Isaac Herzog addressing a graduation ceremony at a flying school
at Lydda (Lod) airport in 1939 (Library of Congress)
Many observers of Israeli politics know that he is the son of the late President of Israel, Chaim Herzog, and Aura Herzog, the sister of Suzy, Abba Eban's widow.
Buji Herzog's lineage is also documented in these pictures from the Library of Congress' archives. His grandfather, Rabbi Isaac Herzog, was the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Ireland and Palestine (and after 1948, the Chief Rabbi of Israel). Rabbi Herzog succeeded Rabbi Avraham I. Kook. Today's new Labor Party leader was born a year after grandfather died and was given his name.
MK Herzog's grandmother, Sarah Herzog, "The Rabbanit," is pictured here leading a 1939 women's demonstration against the British "White Paper" which severely restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine, thereby slamming the door to Jews attempting to leave burning Europe. She (in the dark suite) is pictured with other "leading ladies" of the Jewish "Yishuv," Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi (right) and Ita Yellin. Rachel was married to Yitzchak Ben-Zvi, Israel's second president. Ita was married to Prof. David Yellin, a leading educator.
Rabbanit Herzog in the dark suit, between Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi (r)
and Ita Yellin (Library of Congress, 1939)
See an earlier posting on "The Rabbanit's" 1939demonstration here.0Add a comment
- NOV21
The Chatham Library Photo Treasures Part 2, the Walls & Gates of Jerusalem Responsible Archivists Are Digitizing their Vintage Pictures
Panorama of Jerusalem and the walls of the city. Note how few buildings were outside the walls of the Old City.
(Chatham University Archives, circa 1890) Click on pictures to enlargeThe Chatham University is not the only library to digitize their vintage pictures from Palestine. In recent weeks we have discovered newly-scanned collections at several more libraries and even a European church. We will present the collections in future postings.
The Chatham University Archives placed all 110 colored slides from the"Holy Land Lantern Slides"online, and in this posting we present a selection to focus on the collection's pictures of Jerusalem's walls and gates.
Another Jerusalem Panorama taken from Mt Scopus (Chatham University Archives, circa 1890) 
Jaffa Gate (Chatham University Archives circa 1890)
This picture of Jaffa Gate has been featured in previous postings when we found it in other collections.
We also determined that the photo was taken prior to 1898 because of a glimpse of the moat wall on the right side of the picture.
The wall was torn down and the moat filled in so that the Germany emperor's carriage could enter.
View other historical (black and white) pictures of the Damascus Gate at our previous posting.
Damascus Gate (Chatham University Archives)
There are no pictures of the Zion, Dung and Herod Gates of the Old City. The "New Gate" of the Old City, an entrance built for access into the Christian Quarter, was constructed in 1889, after the photographs were taken.
The "lions" carved on both sides of the gate are actually panthers, the symbol of the Mamluk Sultan Baybars (1223-1277). The panthers were believed to have been part of a Mamluki structure and placed at the gate by Suleiman to commemorate the Ottoman victory over the Mamluks in 1517. View an earlier posting on Lions Gate here.
Lions Gate, also known as St. Stephen's Gate (Chatham University Archives)
See our previous feature on Sha'ar Harachamim and the graves beneath it here.
The sealed Sha'ar Harachamim, or the Golden Gate, taken from Gethsemane Garden (Chatham University Archives)
Click on photos to enlarge. Click on the caption to view the original picture.
Next: Inside Jerusalem0Add a comment
- NOV19
Another Photographic Treasure Trove Discovered: 120-Year-Old Colored Slides from Chatham University, Part 1
The Western Wall in Jerusalem (hand-colored, Chatham University Archives, circa 1890) The photo's
caption reads "Jesus' Waiting Place." A case of bad handwriting? Other photographers of the time captioned
their pictures, "Jews' Wailing Place."
In the need for library and archival preservation, modern technology is certainly a friend of antiquity. Vintage photographs, some stored for over a century in old libraries, are now being digitized and often posted Online. Such is the case with this treasure of "Holy Land Lantern Slides" we found in Chatham University's archives.
Chatham University, a 150-year-old women's undergraduate school in Pittsburgh, digitized their slides in 2009. According to Rachel M. Grove Rohrbaugh, the school's archivist and public service librarian, "most of the slides roughly date to circa 1880-1900. We don’t have specific information on the photographer(s) or how they were used here at Chatham, but they were likely used for instruction in world history or cultural studies."
View of Hinom Valley in Jerusalem (Chatham University Archives, circa 1880). The photo, probably taken from
near the Jaffa Gate, shows the Montefiore windmill, built in 1858, and the Mishkenot Sha'anaim homes beneath it.
Are the blades of the windmill blurry because they were moving? That could provide a date for the photo: The
mill stopped turning in 1876.
We thank Chatham University Library for permission to publish these well-preserved hand-painted lantern slides.
Kerosene lanterns designed to
project slides (YouTube)
In the 1880s, before movies or electricity, pictures such as these were projected in front of classes or audiences using a kerosene-lit lamp fitted with special lenses.
The slides were produced by optical manufacturers who sold the lanterns. The makers of the Chatham slides were identified by Chatham's archivist as T.H McAllister Co. and Williams, Brown, and Earle, of New York and Philadelphia respectively.
Joseph's Tomb in Nablus (Shchem) (Chatham University Archives, circa 1880) 
Inside the Jaffa Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. The moat on the right of the picture indicates the picture was
taken prior to the 1898 arrival of the German emperor. when the moat was filled in. What does the large sign
at the end of the road read? (Chatham University Archives)
An enlargement of the picture shows a sign, "Mission to the Jews," inside the Jaffa Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem.
German, Anglican, and Scottish Protestant church missionaries were very active in the Holy Land in the late 19th century.
At the time, this intersection of the Old City was probably one of the busiest ones in Jerusalem.
Click on the pictures to enlarge.
Click on the captions to view the originals.
Next: Part 2 of the Chatham Collection2View comments
E-zine #1 of the "Jews of Palestine" series
Editor's note: Israel Daily Picture now contains more than one thousand pictures and 350 photo essays on the Holy Land. We will continue to add more vintage photographs as more and more historic pictures are digitalized in the libraries and archives around the world.
We present today an "E-zine" experiment, an electronic magazine "Jews of Palestine" in which we group the publication around specific topics.Today's topic focuses on America's role in the life of the Jews of Palestine. Future E-zines will focus on World War I in Palestine, the synagogues of Jerusalem, Yemenite immigrants of the 19th century, the Gates of Jerusalem, Jewish holidays and festivals, Jewish industry, the building of the Jewish state, and more. The series will show the Jewish life in Eretz Yisrael years before Theodore Herzl's Zionist manifesto and well before the founding of the State of Israel.Here is our first edition. Please let us know your opinion in the comment section below.America and Palestine's Jews
Photographic History of American Involvement in the Holy Land 1850-1948The secret identity of American preacher Mendenhall John Dennis (Mendel Diness of Jerusalem)
In 1988, John Barnier visited a garage sale in St. Paul, Minnesota. There he found and purchased eight boxes of old photographic glass plates. Fortunately, Barnier is an expert in the history of photographic printing.
He had little idea that he had uncovered a historic treasure. Later, he viewed the plates and saw that they included old pictures of Jerusalem. He contacted the Harvard Semitic Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, known for its large collection of old photographs from the Middle East.
On some of the plates they found the initials MJD. Until then the name Mendel Diness was barely known by scholars. It was assumed that with the exception of one or two photos his collection was lost. Click to see moreAmerican volunteers helped the British liberate the Holy Land from the Turks
The history of the Jewish Legion that fought in Palestine in World War I is relatively unknown.
Many of the soldiers were recruited from the ranks of the disbanded Zion Mule Corps, Palestinian Jews exiled by the Turks in April 1917 who were recruited in Egypt, or from Diaspora Jewry recruited in Canada and the United States.
As many as 500 Jewish Legion soldiers came from North America; many of them were originally from Poland or Russia. One Legionnaire was Pvt. Click to see more
Who knew Calvin Coolidge met the Chief Rabbi of Palestine in the White House?
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935) was a renowned Talmud scholar, Kabbalist and philosopher. He is considered today as the spiritual father of religious Zionism, breaking away from his ultra-Orthodox colleagues who were often opposed to the largely secular Zionist movement. Born in what is today Latvia, Rabbi Kook moved to Palestine in 1904 to take the post of the Chief Rabbi of Click to read moreClick on pictures to enlargeMark Twain in the Holy Land, 1867, and the Innocents Abroad
Are these Photographs of Mark Twain's Companions from The Innocents Abroad?
"The Pilgrims and the Sinners" in the Holy Land
Mark Twain was a relatively unknown writer in 1867 when he visited Palestine in the company of 64 "pilgrims and sinners" and wrote these words:
Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods the spell of a curse that has withered its fields and fettered its energies.... Click to read moreCelebrating July 4th in the Holy Land 1918
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. Click to read more
Why was an American flag flying on a Jerusalem steamroller 100 years ago?
The Library of Congress archives includes two photographs of a steam roller on the streets of Jerusalem.No explanation was given for the American flag; nor was a definitive date provided. Click to read moreU.S. Aid to the Jews of "Palestine" Was Essential 100 Years Ago
Click picture to enlarge 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 Click to read moreCongressional Visits to Israel Are Not New. Pictures of a Senate Delegation in 1936, a Critical Year
April 1936 was the start of a vicious anti-Semitic and violent "Arab Revolt" in Palestine that would last through 1939.
The murderous attacks against Jews, Jewish communities and Jewish property were widespread throughout Palestine. British government offices, banks and railroads were also attacked.
Coming so soon after the 1929 massacres of Jews in Palestine and under the looming shadow of the Nazi threat, the attacks against Palestine's Jews alarmed friends of the Zionist Click to read moreWhat Lincoln Would Have Seen in Jerusalem
Abraham Lincoln "said he wanted to visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footprints of the Saviour. He was saying there was no city he so much desired to see as Jerusalem," Mary Todd Lincoln told the Springfield, Ill. pastor who presided at Abraham Lincoln's funeral. She explained that the 16th president told her of his desire before he was fatally shot in Ford's Theater on April 14, 1865.
Truth or Mary Todd Lincoln's imagination? We can only Click to read more0Add a comment
- NOV14
The Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem's Old City, the Leading Sephardic Seminary Was Destroyed and Rebuilt
The original caption read: "Clearing of lower end of Tyropean Valley, near Dung Gate (1935)." The photo shows the
Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City before its destruction in 1948. The Porat Yosef Yeshiva is in the
center of the picture with the white dome. Today this area is the entrance way to the Western Wall plaza.
(Library of Congress, circa 1935, captions added by Israel Daily Picture)
Several ultra-Orthodox rabbinical seminaries in Israel can claim to be the leading Ashkenazic yeshiva-- the massive Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem with its 6,000 students, Ponevezh Yeshiva in B'nai Brak, or the Hevron Yeshiva in Jerusalem, once the famous Slabodka seminary in Europe which relocated to Hebron until the 1929 massacre of Jews there.
A puzzling picture from the Library of Congress collection showing
the "Temple area. Jerusalem. The Dome of the Rock and the western
Temple wall." Presumably the wide white lines are photographic
editor's tape. At the corner made by the tape is the Porat Yosef dome. The
Library of Congress dates the picture "between 1898 and 1946," but
Porat Yosef was not built until 1923. 1946 is the year the American
Colony Photographic Department closed.
But there are few challengers in the haredi Sephardic community to the pre-eminence of the Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem. The site for the seminary was purchased 100 years ago; the cornerstone was laid in 1914, and the building was inaugurated in 1923. The building contained study halls, a synagogue, classrooms and apartments.
It was all destroyed by the Jordanian army in 1948, along with all of the synagogues and homes in Jewish Quarter. The photos of the war in the Old City and the destruction of the Jewish Quarter were taken byLife Magazine's John Phillips.
After the 1967 war, the Porat Yosef seminary was rebuilt and overlooks the Western Wall Plaza.
The destruction of Porat Yosef Yeshiva (John Phillips, Life Magazine 1948) 0Add a comment
Book of Kings II, Chapter 7: ... Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate [of besieged Samaria]; and they said one to another: 'Why sit we here until we die? ... If we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Arameans...And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Arameans; and when they came to the outermost part of the camp of the Arameans, behold, there was no man there."
Lepers, presumably in Jerusalem, (Library of Congress, circa 1900)
For thousands of years the scourge of leprosy has struck fear among humanity. In the Bible it was considered a severe punishment. Leprosy was called a "living death," and its victims were often exiled from cities or imprisoned in leper colonies.
In the 19th century, Christian missionaries, well-versed in the Bible, saw lepers in the Holy Land as candidates for their holy mission, and photographers, perhaps seeing a commercial demand, viewed the lepers through the lenses of their cameras. The pictures here were taken by the photographers of the American Colony.
Group of leper women (circa 1900)
Today, scientists know that leprosy is caused by a bacteria and is rarely contagious, particularly if the patient is receiving treatment. It is transmitted by the transfer of body fluids and is treatable with antibiotics. While the disease has been "beaten back," it still exists in developing countries.
In 1887, Hansen’s Hospital, known as the “Lepers Home," was built on the then-remote outskirts of Jerusalem, according to writer Ruth Wexler. It was designed by the German architect Conrad Schick and operated by the Moravian Church.
"Hansen Hospital, an architectural treasure, is now situated in the midst of an affluent neighborhood," Wexler wrote. "During the 122 years of its existence around 600 people spent their lives within its walls. In the year 2000, the last leprosy in-patients moved out."
A group of leper men (circa 1900)
Despite medical advances, the leprosy stigma divided patients from society. Going against the norm was Rabbi Aryeh Levin (1885-1969), a revered Jerusalem rabbi.
Hansen's Hospital, across from the Jerusalem Theater.
(Judy Lash Balint, 2005)
"He was a frequent visitor at hospitals for lepers," Simcha Raz wrote in A Tzaddik in Our Time. "Reb Aryeh began this holy practice after he had found a woman weeping bitterly by the Western Wall. Reb Aryeh asked her, 'what made her cry so intensely.' She told him that her child had no cure, and was locked up in the leper hospital in Jerusalem. He immediately decided to visit the young child, and when he arrived all the patients burst into tears. It had been years since they had the privilege to see any visitor from the outside world."
Today, the hospital is undergoing renovation to become a cultural center and gallery for arts, media, design and technology.0Add a comment
1857 picture, original caption: "The Tomb of David. This building was formerly a Christian Church; it is of great
antiquity, and much venerated by the Muslims, who allow no Christian to enter the Tomb. There is also
in the building a room which is said to be that in which [Jesus' Last] Supper was instituted. (Robertson
Beato & Co photographers, Palestine Exploration Fund)
"Modernity meets antiquity" explains the discovery of most of the photographs that appear inwww.IsraelDailyPicture.com. As more and more archives and libraries digitalize the photographs in their collections, they put them online. The pictures presented on this site come from the Library of Congress, the Palestine Exploration Fund, Emory University, the Central Zionist Archives, New York Public Library, and even the archives at the medical school of the University of Dundee, Scotland.
King David's Tomb (circa 1900). The original caption
said it was a "Tabernacle."
The 156-year-old photo above predates those we presented two years ago from the Library of Congress' collection. We reproduce that feature below and add a comment on the rediscovered "holiness" of the site.
Tomb exterior (circa 1900)
A thousand-year-old Jewish tradition believes that King David is buried in a tomb on Mt. Zion. And that is one of the reasons the belief is questioned by some Bible scholars.
The Bible (Kings I, 2:10) states that David and his descendants were buried in the City of David, generally believed to be south of the Temple Mount, not on Mt. Zion to the West.
The Tomb interior (circa 1900)
The Jewish tradition has taken hold over the last millennium, and the tomb is revered by many Jews, as evident in the Library of Congress' 100 year old picture.
King David's Tomb was particularly important from 1948 until 1967 when the Western Wall, the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb were all under Jordanian control and forbidden to Jews. The Mt. Zion site was the closest Jews could get to the Western Wall.Adjacent to the Hagia Sion Abbey
(formerly the Dormition Abbey), the tomb is located beneath the room where, according to Christian belief, Jesus conducted his Last Supper.
Chamber of the Last Supper (circa 1900)
Comment from Reader "Lynne": The outcome of Israel's [1948] War of Independence was the main catalyst for the creation of a new map of Jewish pilgrimage sites. Places of only secondary importance before the war [such as King David's Tomb] now turned into central centers due to the realization of the importance of them. Previously, there was so much emphasis placed upon the re-establishment of the state of Israel (after having not been a nation for 2,000 years) and the re-establishment of the habitability of the land that the task of preserving the Biblical holy sites had not been a priority. Several categories of the sacred sites are discussed herein: sites in the possession of Jews before the 1948 war that were developed during the 1950s as central centers; sacred sites stolen by Muslims prior to the war, which were rightfully converted back into Jewish sacred sites during the 1950s; and new Jewish pilgrimage sites re-established after the establishment of the State of Israel. The research demonstrates how various official, semi-official, and popular powers took part in the re-establishing of the Jewish sacred space. [Source: Article by Doron Bar,Reconstructing the Past: The Creation of Jewish Sacred Space in the State of Israel, 1948–1967, Israel Studies - Volume 13, Number 3, Fall 2008, pp. 1-21]0Add a comment
We are again thankful to the Marks family for sharing pictures of their Jewish "Palestinian" family from the start of the 20th century, including the picture above of Rachel Churgin's graduating class.
Earlier this year we featured the Marks' pictures of Pvt. David Blick, an American who joined the British Jewish Legion to fight the German-Turkish army in Palestine. Blick was one of 500 Jewish Americans and Canadians who fought for the liberation of the Holy Land. According to Blick's biography, "While camped in the area of Rishon LeZion [see here photos related to the battle for Rishon in 1918], he met and later married Rachel Churgin of Yaffo. They were forced to leave Eretz Yisrael by the British."
Students from the Gymnasia visiting Rachel's Tomb (circa 1920,
Wiki Commons)
The Hebrew Gymnasia Herzliya was formed in 1905 and was the first Hebrew-language high school in modern history. We suggest that the date, 1900, written in the caption of Marks' photo of the school's first graduating class is mistaken by 10-15 years, considering that Rachel married David around 1919. [He was discharged from the British Army in 1920.]
The Gymnasia produced several of Israel's prominent leaders, such as Moshe Sharett, Israel's second prime minister.
Its first building, constructed in 1909, stood as a Tel Aviv landmark for half a century. It was torn down in 1959 to make way for the Shalom Tower.
Gymnasia Herzliya (circa 1920, Library of Congress)
View a film of the Gymnasia in 1913, starting at 8:45 in a rare hour-long film of Eretz Yisrael.
Screen capture of the school. View the film here Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on captions to view the original pictures.Enter your email in the right column to subscribe -- it's free.2View comments
For Immediate Release
The Western Wall, 1859
Jerusalem -- Israel Daily Picture (IDP), an online album of antique photographs of the Holy Land, will reach a historic milestone this week when its millionth visitor arrives on the site, www.israeldailypicture.com.
IDP was first launched in 2011 and has now published more than 350 historic essays containing more than 1,000 antique pictures taken between the 1850s and 1946. We present samples of the photos on this page.
Austrian troops, Turkey's allies, marching into Jerusalem, World War I
The pictures were digitalized and posted to websites in recent years by the U.S. Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Emory University, Harvard, the University of Dundee Medical Archives, and others. In recent months, private individuals have also shared with IDP their private albums and family collections.
"There's an important, almost secret, message in many of these antique photographs," reveals IDP's founder and publisher, Lenny Ben-David. "The pictures show Jewish life in the Holy Land throughout the last 160 years -- since the invention of photography -- well before the founding of Zionism and the establishment of the State of Israel. Jews were always in Eretz Yisrael even after the fall of the Jewish Temple in 70 CE, and here is visual proof."
Jews fleeing Arab pogrom in Jerusalem's Old City, 1929
"Most of the photos were taken by the American Colony photographers who began their work in the late 19th century. Among their goals was to seek out and photograph Jews in Jerusalem and in the countryside," Ben-David explained. "The return of Jews to Palestine was seen by the Christian photographers in messianic terms. A recent exhibition and book by today's American Colony Hotel proprietors, however, virtually ignored the Jewish presence in historic Palestine."
Jewish children in Ben-Shemen (circa 1920)
The IDP exhibits photos of key events in the Middle East -- World War I and its clashes in Gaza, Be'er Sheva, Rishon LeZion, Jerusalem, and the Dead Sea; the establishment of Jewish communities in the Galilee; the arrival of the German Emperor in 1898; the role of the Jewish Legion in 1917; the development of industries and infrastructures by the Jewish population; Jewish holidays; Jewish children of the Old and NewYishuv; Jewish life in Jerusalem's Old City, and many more. The photographers also chronicled the lives and shrines of Arab and Christians.
British commander Allenby meeting Chief Rabbi in the
Old City after the Turkish surrender of Jerusalem 1917
[For further information see The Zionist Message Hidden within Antique Pictures of the Holy Land, by Lenny Ben-David,Published in the Jewish Political Studies Review]
IDP pictures are all published with permission of the collection owners.
To subscribe, enter your email (free) on the websitewww.israeldailypictures.com. Voluntary contributions are welcome via PayPal.
For journalists only: Publisher Lenny Ben-David is available for interviews at (US) 202.241.5241 (Israel) 972.542.168155 (Not Sabbath)
Twitter: @lennybendavid Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lenny.bendavid1View comments
- OCT20
The Walls & Gates of Jerusalem, Jaffa Gate -- More Pictures from the Emory University Collection, Part 4
When was this picture of the Jaffa Gate taken? Here are clues.
The Jaffa Gate, from the Emory collection. Several features in the photograph tell us when the picture
was taken. Note the tower, in particular.
For centuries, the entrances to Jerusalem were small and often built with sharp angles to make access difficult to attackers. Jerusalem consisted only of the Old City with little habitation beyond the walls, rebuilt in 1540 during the reign of the Ottoman ruler, Suleiman the Magnificent. Until the end of the 19th century, most wagons and carriages stopped outside of the gates and people and products went in through the gates.
Jaffa Gate photographed by Peter Bergheim, perhaps as
early as 1860 (Library of Congress collection)
William Seward (Abraham Lincoln's secretary of state) wrote in 1871 that the population of the Old City was 16,000, comprised of 8,000 Jews, 4,000 Mohammedans, and 4,000 Christians.
Original caption: "Interior of Jaffa Gate from near Hotel Mediterranean"
by Felix Bonfils (circa 1870). Note the moat on the left and the narrow
path. Mark Twain and his "Innocents Abroad" colleagues stayed in
the Hotel Mediterranean in 1867.
Two major architectural changes in the Jaffa Gate in 1898 and 1908 help historians date the early photographs of the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem. The first was the breaching of the wall in 1898 to permit German Emperor Wilhelm II to ride into the Old City without dismounting and with his escort of carriages. To built the roadway, a moat -- visible in pre-1898 photos -- had to be filled in.
Click on photos to enlarge.
Click on captions to view the original pictures.
In 1908 the Turkish authorities built a clock tower near the gate in honor of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
A photochrom picture of the Jaffa Gate (circa 1890). Note the wall of
the moat under the yellow arrow, indicating the photo was prior to 1898.
The British captured Jerusalem in 1917, and the tower was knocked down in 1922.
We can now determine that the Emory University collection photo was taken after 1908 when the tower was erected.
Once the Jaffa Gate walls were breached, the entrance became a major thoroughfare, especially as an entrance to the Turkish army base and prison in the Old City, known as the "Kishle."
The shops outside the gate were torn down prior to the German Emperor's visit.
Traffic jam inside Jaffa Gate, 1898. The Turkish military escort, was possibly part of the German Emperor's entourage.
Close inspection on the left of the photo shows an American flag hanging outside of the Grand or Central Hotel,
formerly the Mediterranean Hotel.A Jewish shop immediately outside of Jaffa Gate 
Another view of Jaffa Gate before 1898. See
adjacent photo enlargement of the shops
An photo enlargement of the Jaffa Gate and the shops (from the picture taken before 1898) shows a Jewish millinery shop with a Hebrew sign selling various headgear for religious Jews, some of whom are standing outside of the shop.
The Library of Congress caption notes:
Photograph taken before October 1898 visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II to Jerusalem when a breach was made in the wall near the Jaffa Gate. (Source: L. Ben-David, Israel's History - A picture a day, Oct. 30, 2012.)0Add a comment
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We present part 3 of the digitalized photos of the Underwood & Underwood stereoscope collection, Palestine through the Stereoscope, from Emory University's Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology.
Damascus Gate 1. (Emory Collection, circa 1905) Note shops on
the right. Was this the first "strip mall?"
In this feature we present the pictures of Jerusalem's walls and gates. By comparing the photos to the photo essays presented here over the last two years we are able to date the pictures.
Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on captions to view the original pictures.
Damascus Gate 1: The shops on the right of the square belonged to a Jewish banker name Chaim Aharon Valero (circa 1905). The domes of the Hurva and Tiferet Yisrael synagogues are on the horizon on the left of the picture. Both were destroyed by the Jordanian Legion in 1948. Read more about Valero here.
Damascus Gate 2. photographed by Mendel Diness.
Note how barren the area outside of the wall was. (Fine
Arts Library, Harvard University, circa 1856)
Damascus Gate 2: Mendel Diness, a Jewish watchmaker, became Jerusalem's first Jewish photographer and is credited with photographing the Damascus Gate in the 1850s. Later he left Palestine and became a Christian preacher in the United States named Mendenhall John Dennis. Read more about Diness/Dennis and his photo collection found in a Minnesota garage sale.
Damascus Gate 3 Construction of the row of
Valero's shops outside the gate.
(Library of Congress, circa 1900)
Damascus Gate 3: The picture shows the construction of Valero's shops. In the 1930s, the British authorities ruled that the area should be zoned for use as "open spaces" and they demolished the shops in 1937. The Valeros were not compensated. View pictures of thedemolition here.
Next: The Jaffa Gate1View comments
- Earlier this week we published our first digital photos of the Underwood & Underwood stereoscope collection, Palestine through the Stereoscope, from Emory University's Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology.
Rachel's Tomb between Bethlehem and Jerusalem (circa 1900). The
anniversary of the Matriarch's death (yahrzeit) is commemorated
next week (11 Cheshvan). Published with permission.
Today, we present more pictures we found in the 100+ year old photographic collection.
The original photos are "stereographic," but we present just "one" of the nearly identical images to save space.
Many of the photos, taken between 1895- 1905, are accompanied by a travelogue describing the sites written by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut (1843 - 1930), an American Methodist clergyman. It was published in 1913.
Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on captions to view the original pictures.
The Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron (Emory University's Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology)
See also "The King's Pool, Ancient Reservoir in Hebron"
Jerusalem's Kidron Valley and Mt. of Olives
Kidron Valley, Jerusalem, Jewish cemetery at the foot of Mt. of Olives, and the Tombs of the Prophets
(circa 1900). Editor's note: The original caption refers to the "King's Dale," mentioned in the Bible as
עמק המלך. Today, the area is under development as the "King's Garden."
Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee
The Sea of Galilee (circa 1900). The small inhabited area at the top of the picture is the walled city of
Tiberias. The white buildings at the bottom are Tiberias' hot baths; the domed building is the tomb of Meir
Ba'al Haness (the Miracle Maker)
"A great many of the people here [in Tiberias] today are Hebrews."
Next: The Walls and Gates of Jerusalem
Women purchasing fish from a fisherman on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias. The scarves on
the women's heads -- or the lack of them -- suggests that most of the women and girls are Jewish.1View comments
- OCT9
Seeing Double? A New Trove of Antique Pictures Uncovered at Emory University -- "Stereographic" Photos 100+ Years Old
Prayers at the Western Wall (Stereograph photos courtesy of the Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of
Theology, Emory University, circa 1900). Note the lack of chairs, benches or dividers because of the
Muslim/Turkish restrictions. Yet men and women generally maintained separate prayer areas.
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 created a 3D illusion.
19th century stereo camera
The photography company of Underwood & Underwood specialized in publishing stereoscope collections, such as Palestine through the Stereoscope which was sold with a stereoscope, and 200 stereoscopic slides. The photos were taken inJerusalem, Bethlehem, the River Jordan, Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, and the Dead Sea between 1895 and 1904, and the accompanying tour book was published in 1914.
A stereoscopic collection
We found the digitalized photos from the Underwood collection in the Emory University'sPitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology. We are thankful to M. Patrick Graham, Ph.D., Professor of Theological Bibliography and Director of the Pitts Theology Library, for permission to reproduce the photos.
"Inside a Jewish synagogue," almost certainly the Instanbouli Synagogue in Jerusalem's Old City (courtesy of
the Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology, Emory University, circa 1900). Compare this
picture to the American Colony photograph with its caption, "One of the oldest in Jerusalem." Almost all of
the Old City's synagogues were razed when the Jordan army captured the Jewish Quarter.This publication has featured several pictures of Jewish money changers in Jerusalem. But the stereograph of this Old City money changer is unique. The sign above the door is in Hebrew/Yiddish and presumably gives the names of the proprietors. But in clearer print are the words בהכשר הרב קוק -- "with the [kosher] approval of Rabbi Kook."
The sign helps us date the picture. Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook arrived in the Holy Land in 1904, so the picture was taken after his arrival and prior to his 1914 departure. During World War I he was in exile in England and Switzerland and returned after the war.
Many of the Underwood photos are identical or similar to the pictures from the Library of Congress' American Colony collection that appear on this site. But some have never been published as part of a history of Jewish life in Palestine in the 19th century.
Money changer inside Jerusalem's Old City Jaffa Gate (circa 1905)
Over the next weeks we will be publishing more of the Emory University collection.1View comments
As we post this feature, the funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is taking place in Jerusalem with more than half a million mourners.
A procession -- but to where?
To mark the sad event, we are reposting a two year old feature. The pictures here were photographed more than 100 years ago in Jerusalem. What was the occasion?
"A Jewish procession to Absalom's Pillar" is the caption on the Library of Congress' photo, which as dated sometime between 1898 and 1946. That's a huge window of time. The procession is walking down a ramp from the southeast corner of the Old City wall into the Kidron Valley. Presumably the hundreds of Jews came out of the Old City through the Dung Gate or the Zion Gate.
Why was there a procession to the tomb of King David's rebellious son, Absalom? It's not a very popular destination for Jerusalemites today. Some historians relate that there was a custom to take children to the shrine and throw rocks at it to remind the children to behave. Were there so many mischievous children? The long dresses on many of the people in the procession suggest many women were also involved.
An enlarged segment of the procession picture
Luckily, the Library of Congress site provides a TIFF download that permits enlarging the photo and provides incredible detail. And the enlargement shows that the procession consisted almost entirely of ultra-Orthodox men wearing their long caftans.
Also fortuitous was discovering another picture elsewhere in the massive Library of Congress collection entitled "Various types, etc. Jewish funeral." It shows a funeral party at the bottom of the Kidron Valley moving up the Mount of Olives. It may very well be the "flip side" of the same procession, with two photographers on either side of the valley. The shadows suggest that the time of day -- morning, with the sun shining in the east -- was nearly the same. The second picture, however, does include women walking up the ramp from the Valley. And yes, the women are Jewish. Despite the dark scarves on their heads, they are neither nuns nor Muslims.
The funeral near Absalom's Pillar 
Women heading back to the Old City
Lastly, while the Library curators recorded a number, 4340, on the first negative, they missed that the second photo, dated between 1900 and 1920, had the number 4343, suggesting that the two were part of a series.This match was pointed out to the curators who will finally pair the two photos after almost 100 years.
Today, this notation appears on the caption: LoC: "May be related to LC-M32-14232 which has "4340" on negative.(Source: L. Ben-David, Israel's History - A Picture a Day
website, August 19, 2011)
If you want to receive A Picture a Day delivered to your computer, just sign up in the "Email" box in the right sidebar.
===================================================Reposting: The Library of Congress' photo collection also includes this 1903 (1908?) photo of the "Funeral services for a Jewish Rabbi, Jerusalem."
Is it possible to determine where in Jerusalem the photograph was taken? Most definitely.
1903 funeral in the Old City of Jerusalem The building is the Rothschild building in the Batei Machaseh compound in the Old City of Jerusalem, donated by Baron Wilhelm Karl de Rothschild of Frankfurt. The building still bears the Rothschild family's coat of arms.
The compound was built between 1860 and 1890 to provide housing for Jerusalem's poor. An old lintel stone nearby reads "Shelter home for the poor on Mt. Zion."0Add a comment
- Most of this sites' photographs are found online in the U.S. Library of Congress archives. This notice appears on the Archives' site today:
We will continue to present historic photographs of the Holy Land from private collections that have been shared with us.
Do you have antique pictures of your ancestors in Palestine 100 years ago in your albums and attics that you would like to share?1View comments
- Ruling the British Mandate in Palestine was no easy task.
British troops on patrol at the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem (1938, Library of
Congress archives)
In the 1930s the "Arab Revolt" was a full scale insurrection which had to be crushed. Arab terrorism, roadside bombs, and assassination immersed Palestine into tohuwabohu. Armored vehicles were deployed, thousands of soldiers were brought in, and military aircraft were used to bomb the Arab terrorists.
Particularly after World War II, when the scale of the Holocaust was revealed and Jews were still languishing in Europe, Jewish militias stepped up their attacks on the British authority keeping Jews out of Palestine.
Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on the caption to see the original pictures.
Aftermath of Jewish militia bombing of British
Intelligence HQ at the King David Hotel (1946)
Burned out bus in Haifa (1938)
We were very interested when Paul O. recommended we look at a 1946 British recruitment film encouraging young British World War II veterans to join the British police. How would the recruiters describe the conditions and political turmoil?
For the most part the life in Palestine was presented as idyllic. British officers came home to spend time with their wives and children, and sports activities were available. Scattered within the film were hints of the turmoil, but some of the most strenuous training appeared to be learning how to direct traffic with authoritative hand signals.
According to the Colonial Film website, "The film is intended to recommend the life of a Palestine policeman as a fulfilling career option during ‘peacetime.'"
British police drill at their fort. (1946)
Click here to view the film
\1View comments
- SEP27
A New Source of Historical Films and Photos: The British Imperial War Museum; Presenting General Allenby Entering Jerusalem in 1917
Photographers accompanied the Imperial British Army forces throughout the battles of World War I in Palestine, starting at the Suez Canal in 1915 and continuing through the capture of Damascus in 1918.
The website for British army films taken in Palestine 
Turkish Camel Corps in Be'er Sheva (1917, Library of
Congress archives)
The grand scale of the fighting in Palestine is not fully recognized today even by historians, with attention often focused on the European front. One statistic may put the fighting into perspective: The British army suffered more than half a million casualties; the Turks even more.
The Israel Daily Picture site has presented hundreds of pictures of the fighting between the British Imperial Forces and the Turkish and German forces on the battlefields of Sinai, Gaza, Be'er Sheva, and Jerusalem. Most of the photographs, such as those on this page, were found in the U.S. Library of Congress' American Colony collection.
Click on a picture to enlarge. Click on the caption to view the original picture.
Austrian army enters Jerusalem (1916) 
Turkish troops preparing to attack the Suez Canal 1915
We present below a film from the British Imperial War Museum of British Commander Edmund Allenby's entrance into Jerusalem on December 11, 1917.
According to the synopsis accompanying the film:
General Allenby walking through the Jaffa Gate into the Old City of Jerusalem. Click HERE to view the video
The General entered Jerusalem on 11 December, accompanied by his staff (T. E. Lawrence ["Lawrence of Arabia"] among them), French and Italian officers, and various other international representatives. At the Jaffa gate he was greeted by a guard of Commonwealth and Allied troops; dismounting, he and his comrades entered the city on foot, as instructed. Allenby had been less than fifteen minutes in the city. After 400 years of Ottoman rule, Jerusalem had passed into British hands.
Next: A British Police Recruiting Film for the Palestinian Police Force, 1946: An Incredible Piece of Propaganda0Add a comment
- SEP22
Imagine What the Jewish Temple Looked Like -- Here's a Model Built by Conrad Schick, a Jerusalem Christian, 140 Years Ago
As Jews celebrate the Sukkot holiday around the world, their liturgy reflects the huge role the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem played on this pilgrimage holiday.
"Model of Solomon's Temple and environs" constructed by Dr. Conrad Schick (circa 1870). The photo was probably
taken around 1900 and colorized by photographer Eric Matson some 60 years later [The model is more representative
of Jerusalem in the days of Herod, and not in the days of Solomon.]
"Bring us to Zion, Your city, in glad song, and to Jerusalem the site of your Temple, with eternal gladness." -- From the Musaf service during Sukkot.
Conrad Schick 1822-1901
Jerusalem also attracted many Christians, including Conrad Schick, a German missionary who arrived in 1846. Schick was a self-taught architect, cartographer and archaeologist, and very well-respected by all faiths in Jerusalem. The mark he left on Jerusalem lasts until today, particularly in the buildings and neighborhoods he designed such as the Me'ah She'arim neighborhood and the Bikur Cholim and Sha'are Zedek hospitals. His own home still stands on Hanivi'im (Prophets) Street.
Click on photos to enlarge. Click on captions to view the original picture.
The "German" hospital (1939), now
Bikur Cholim hospital
Schick was also well known for his models of archaeological sites. A respected archaeologist, he would show up at various construction sites and digs to inspect ancient finds. The Muslim authorities permitted him relatively free access to the Temple Mount when they requested his help in renovations. Schick and his student, Jacob Eliahu Spafford, the adopted Jewish-born son of the American Colony founders, are credited with discovering the Silwan Tunnel tablet, credited to King Hezekiah.
Schick's house today
(Magister, Wikipedia)
Below are some of the models Schick built, photographed by the American Colony Photographic Department.
Schick's model of the Tabernacle that served the Israelites in the desert and in Shilo (circa 1900) 
Shick's model of Herod's Temple (circa 1900) 
Shick's model of "Hadrian's Temple and environs" 1View comments
As soon as the Yom Kippur fast day is over many Jews start preparations for the Sukkot (Tabernacles) holiday. It usually involves building a sukka, a temporary structure -- sometimes just a hut -- with a thatched roof, in which Jews eat and often sleep during the seven day holiday.
Bukharan family in their sukka (circa 1900). Note the man on the right holding the citron and palm branch.
(Library of Congress collection) Compare this sukka to one photographed in Samarkand 40 years earlier
The photographers of the American Colony Photographic Department took photos of sukkot structures over a 40 year period, preserving pictures of Bukharan, Yemenite and Ashkenazi sukkot.
Ashkenazi family (circa 1900) in the sukka
beneath the chandelier and picures
Several photographs include the Jewish celebrants holding four species of plants traditionally held during prayers on the Sukkot holiday -- a citron fruit and willow, myrtle and palm branches.
Even though the sukka is a temporary structure, some families moved their furniture and finery into the sukka, as is evident in some of the pictures.
Bukhari Jews, shown in pictures from around 1900, were part of an ancient community from what is today the Central Asian country Uzbekistan. They started moving to the Holy Land in the mid-1800s.
A Yemenite Jew named Yehia
holding the 4 species in the sukka
(1939)
Yehia, the Yemenite Jew pictured here, was almost certainly part of a large migration of Jews who arrived in Jerusalem in the 1880s, well before the famous "Magic Carpet" operation that brought tens of thousands to the new state of Israel during 1949 and 1950.
A more elaborate sukka in the Goldsmidt house (1934)
in Jerusalem. Note the tapestry on the walls
with Arabic script
Exterior of the Goldsmidt sukka in Jerusalem (1934) 
A Sephardi Jew named Avram relaxing in
his Sukka with a friend (1939)
The picture of an elaborate dinner was taken in a very large Jerusalem sukka belonging to the Goldsmidt family. Tapestries and fabrics hang on the wall of the sukka. Close examination shows that the fabric contains Arabic words, even some hung upside down. Several experts were asked this week to comment on the Arabic. One senior Israeli Arab affairs correspondent wrote, "It is apparently some quotes that I can read but do not amount to anything coherent, written in Kufi style of Arabic... [I] would not be surprised if these are Kuranic verses."
Presumably the Goldsmidts and their guests didn't know about the Arabic phrases either.
A reader helped identify the Goldsmidts' building. "The Goldsmidts were friends of ours who lived on Ben-Maimon Street [in Jerusalem]. They had a restaurant [and that explains the diners in the sukka]. Our wedding reception was there. There's a plaque on 54 King George Street that says "Goldsmidt Building."We invite readers to unravel the mystery of the tapestries, translate the phrases, and provide a contemporary picture of the Goldsmidts' building.Click on the photos to enlarge. Click on the captions to see the originals.0Add a comment
- SEP13
Reposting - Yom Kippur 100 Years Ago -- Or More: Photographic Treasures from the Library of Congress from Jerusalem, New York and a French Battlefield
Jews at the Kotel on Yom Kippur (circa 1904) See analysis of the graffiti on the wall for dating this picture. The graffiti on
the Wall are memorial notices (not as one reader suggested applied to the photo later).
Tomorrow Jews around the world will commemorate Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. For many Jews in the Land of Israel over the centuries the day meant praying at the Western Wall, the remnant of King Herod's retaining wall of the Temple complex destroyed in 70 AD.
We present here an update to last year's Yom Kippur posting.Several readers commented on the intermingling of men and women in these historic pictures.
It was not by choice.The Turkish and British rulers of Jerusalem imposed restrictions on the Jewish worshippers, prohibiting chairs, forbidding screens to divide the men and women, and even banning the blowing of the shofar at the end of the Yom Kippur service.View this video, Echoes of a Shofar, to see the story of young men who defied British authorities between 1930 and 1947 and blew the shofar at the Kotel.
Another view of the Western Wall on Yom Kippur. Note the various groups of worshippers: The
Ashkenazic Hassidim wearing the fur shtreimel hats in the foreground, the Sephardic Jews
wearing the fezzes in the center, and the women in the back wearing white shawls. (circa 1904)For the 19 years that Jordan administered the Old City, 1948-1967, no Jews were permitted to pray at the Kotel. The Library of Congress collection contains many pictures of Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall over the last 150 years.
After the 1967 war, the Western Wall plaza was enlarged and large areas of King Herod's wall have been exposed. Archaeologists have also uncovered major subterranean tunnels -- hundreds of meters long -- that are now open to visitors to Jerusalem.Receive a Daily Picture by subscribing in the right sidebar and clicking "submit."Click on the photos to enlarge.Click on the captions to see the originals.
Photos of Yom Kippur in New York 105 Years AgoThe Library of Congress Archives also contain historic photos of Jewish celebration of the High Holidays in New York. Some of them were posted here before Rosh Hashanna. Here are two more:
Original caption: Men and boys standing in
front of synagogue on Yom Kippur (Bain
News Service, circa 1907)
Worshippers in front of synagogue (Bain
News Service, 1907)
And a Picture of Jews in the Prussian Army Worshipping on Yom Kippur 140 Years Ago
We were a little surprised to find this picture of a lithograph in the Library of Congress archives. The caption reads, "Service on the Day of Atonement by the Israelite soldiers of the Army before Metz 1870." No other information is provided.Kestenbaum & Company, an auctioneer in Judaica, describes the lithograph in their catalogue:This lithograph depicts the Kol Nidre service performed on Yom Kippur 1870 for Jewish soldiers in the Prussian army stationed near Metz (Alsace region) during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.
The Germans had occupied Metz by August of 1870, however were unable to capture the town's formidable fortress, where the remaining French troops had sought refuge. During the siege, Yom Kippur was marked while hostilities still continued, as depicted in the lithograph.Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut, a scholar and Reform Jewish leader who passed away at age 99 earlier this year, provided more facts about the picture. In fact, he called it a "fraud."In Eight Decades: The Selected Writings of W. Gunther Plaut. In a chapter entitled "The Yom Kippur that Never Was, A Pious Pictoral Fraud" he wrote:Of all the things in my grandfather's house, I remember most vividly a large print. It was entitled "Service on the Day of Atonement by the Israelite soldiers before Metz 1870." Later I was to learn that this print hung in many Jewish homes.... It was reproduced on postcards, on cloth, and on silk scarves. The basic theme was the same: in an open field before Metz, hundreds of Jewish soldiers were shown at prayer.
Rabbi Plaut cites a participant in the service who reported:
A considerable difficulty arose in relation to the place for the services. Open air services were deemed impossible for Tuesday night because of the darkness and were ruled out for Wednesday because of the obvious reasons [it was a battlefield].... My immediate neighbour was willing to grant me the use of his room so that the service took place in our two adjoining rooms.
Another participant in the unusual Yom Kippur service reported, according to Plaut:Of the 71 Jewish soldiers in the Corps some 60 had appeared. Amongst them were several physicians, a few members of the military government, all of them joyously moved to celebrate Yom Kippur. The place of prayer consisted of two small rooms.
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- SEP3
New Year's Greeting to Our Jewish Readers May you be inscribed and photographed in the Book of Life
Israel Daily Picture normally focuses on pictures of the Holy Land in the Library of Congress archives' American Colony collection.
Tashlich prayer on the Brooklyn Bridge, 1909.
The Near Year prayer is traditionally said at a body
of water where the worshipper "casts" his/her sins
In honor of Rosh Hashanna, we present pictures of the holiday in New York City, taken in the early 1900s by George Bain and also housed in the Library of Congress archives.
Jewish boy in prayer shawl on Rosh Hashanna (1911)
Tashlich prayer on the Brooklyn bridge (1919)
Jews praying on the Jewish New Year (circa 1905)
Rosh Hashanna worshippers (1907) 
Tashlich on the Brooklyn Bridge (1909) 
Going to prayers (circa 1910) 
Going to synagogue (circa 1910)
Selling New Year's cards, East Side, New York City (1910) 
"New Year's Parade" (1912)
Jewish New Year's nap, East Side (1912) 2View comments
- SEP2
Happy New Year! Jews Will Blow the Shofar (Ram's Horn) in Synagogues on Thursday and Friday (Re-posting)
"Blow the Shofar at the New Moon...Because It Is a Decree for Israel, a Judgment Day for the God of Jacob" - Psalms 81
Yemenite Jew blowing the shofar (circa 1935)
Jews around the world prepare for Rosh Hashanna this week, the festive New Year holiday when the shofar -- ram's horn -- is blown in synagogues.
The American Colony photographers recorded a dozen pictures of Jewish elders blowing the shofar in Jerusalem some 80 years ago. The horn was also blown in Jerusalem to announce the commencement of the Sabbath. During the month prior to Rosh Hashana, the shofar was blown at daily morning prayers to encourage piety before the High Holidays. 
Ashkenazi Jew in Jerusalem blowing the shofar to announce the Sabbath 
Yemenite Rabbi Avram, donning tfillin for his
daily prayers, blowing the shofar
View the American Colony Photographers' collection of shofar blowers in Jerusalem here.
Click on the pictures to enlarge.Click on captions to view the original picture.Receive Israel Daily Picture on your computer or iPhone by subscribing. Just enter your email in the box in the right sidebar of the Internet site www.israeldailypicture.com2View comments
- AUG14
Another Photographic Treasure Found in a Far-Flung Antique Collection -- From a Jewish "Kiwi" Soldier's Album
Israel Daily Picture was founded two years ago after we discovered 22,000 newly digitalized antique pictures of the Holy Land in the Library of Congress.
A school house in Rishon LeZion with students and teachers. The picture was taken by Trooper Charles Thomas Broomfield of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles after the November 14, 1917 battle of Ayun Kara and the liberation of Rishon LeZion. Rishon was founded on July 31, 1882 by Russian Jews who had purchased 835 acres from the Arab village of Ayun Kara. In the course of publishing more than 300 photo essays we discovered additional pictures in far-flung archives such as the
medical archives in the Dundee Scotland Medical School, or from the "Cigar Box Collection."
Elderly Jews from Safed (1930, Dundee Collection) We also thank the New York Public Library, Harvard, Getty, and Eastman collections for allowing us to view their antique and digitalized archives. Families have also shared with us their grandparents' photos found in their attics.One of the most unusual collections we came across recently are the photos taken by a New Zealand Jewish soldier, Charles Thomas Broomfield, of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles. The photos were donated by his granddaughter Judy Cato to the NZMR Association. She provided the following biography:
Trooper Broomfield (1917) in colorized
photographCharles Thomas Broomfield was born in the Coromandel area [of New Zealand], second son in a family of seven. Charles was twenty years old when he signed up for service on 27th November 1916. At that time he was working as an engine driver in Whangarei. Charles was part of the 26th Reinforcements, Mounted Rifles.Charles embarked from New Zealand on 31st May 1917 aboard the Union Steamship Moeraki. He was one of 262 New Zealand service men headed for Suez, Egypt. The Regiments transhipped at Sydney onto the Port Lincoln.They arrived at the Port of Suez on the 6th August after a stopover in Colombo, India.From Charles' records it is established that he joined the action in Egypt/Palestine about 28th September 1917 as part of the Mounted gunners section and was in action throughout the Middle East. He returned to New Zealand on the Kaikoura on 6th March 1919 after spending 1 year 324 days overseas. On return to New Zealand Charles lived with his parents in Whangarei . He married in 1923 and worked and raised a family in the Whangarei area. Charles died in Whangarei in 1949.The New Zealand Mounted Rifles provides this history of the battle of Ayun Kara and the special relationship that developed between Broomfield's unit and the Jewish community of Rishon LeZion and recorded inBroomfield's camera:After the action at Ayun Kara on November 14th 1917 the NZMR passed through the settlement of Rishon LeZion the following morning. The people and the settlement was to have a strong influence on the New Zealanders. The Jewish village was the first taste of something closer to the environment of home.
The Synagogue of Rishon LeZion, presumably
with Broomfield standing at the left. Compare to
this picture of the synagogue from 1898
Another picture of the children of Rishon LeZion. The boy
in the foreground appears in the third of row of the
schoolhouse picture above
NZMR troopers and people of Rishon LeZion turn out for a
memorial service on the first anniversary for the New Zealand
soldiers who died at the nearby battle of Ayun Kara. "A short
time after this service, the men's bodies were re-interned at
the Ramleh Cemetery. The memorial site of Ayun Kara
was forgotten and years later no one was sure of where
the actual site had been, the memorial obelisk had
disappeared. Destroyed by whom and when, nobody knows."
Since crossing the arid Sinai Desert and its confrontation with a hostile Turkish enemy and, more often than not, a treacherous contact with Arab Bedu tribesmen - The Auckland Mounted Rifles agreed it was a joy to meet a people who had just been freed from Turkish tyranny. It was a land worked into agriculture and planted with fruit trees and vineyards. Not only were the men taken with the settlement conditions, the horses too were impressed and ate heartily of green feed, and enjoyed the soil firm under foot.
A few weeks later the Regiment remembered the village, the official history "Two Campaigns" reported: "On January 12, the brigade moved north to Rishon LeZion, the Jewish village near to Ayun Kara, and there tents were provided, and training and football again became the normal life."
The NZMR history notes, "The date 14th November 1917 is the greatest day of action carried out by the Mounteds. The attack on the strongly fortified Turkish trenches near the town of Rishon LeZion in present day Israel is a story of guile, courage and great daring against a superior force."
Map of the Turkish and New Zealander positions. Click
on the map to enlarge
Additional information on the battle of Ayun Kara can be foundhere:
"The Action at Ayun Kara on the 14th November 1917 was carried out by the New Zealand Mounted Rifles on heavily entrenched Turkish defences. This successful rout of the enemy is remembered for its daring frontal rush by mounted troops and tactical movements in support by the brigades riflemen and machine gunners."
The following is a school essay describing the battle written by a boy from Rishon, Aviram Hochberg, in 1918. He assumed the New Zealanders were "English" soldiers:
From Broomfield's album. Are these children of Rishon
LeZion on their way to the memorial service?"A quarter of an hour passed and we shall see all the Turkish armies climbing the mountains above the village, fortifying themselves in their defence trenches. At the ninth hour exactly the first shots were heard from the side of the Turks. There were more after any minute that passed.
Suddenly the English started firing and their bullets crossed above our heads making a buzz and whistle that the death (angel) is a coming. At the first hour of the battle we were terrified and exited, but soon we were used to the shooting and we shall climb a high balcony from where we see the spectacle of war. Once in a few minutes we could hear the thunder of English guns and shortly afterwards seeing it exploding over the Turkish soldiers. All sounds of war turned into terrible furious anger of God, smoke, blood and clouds of smoke. After tough fighting we saw the Turks leave their first positions and retreat. Line after line they were running down the mountain's crest with shells exploding between their lines, many falling dead and the remaining running exhausted to find shelter at the Orange groves.
Rishon residents on the way to the memorial service? Another picture
from the Broomfield album.Now on the position the Turks had retreated from, we already see the English stand shooting their machine guns bullets of death with no break on the escaping Turks. An hours passed, and another one, and all Turks left the ridge of mountains, running north. At the third hour after noon the first of the English got in the village. We all hurried in joy to meet our saviors to which we waited for three years. They soon left the village, heading further to push the enemy back. Shooting went non stop, until darkness fell. After the shooting [ceased] the country was covered with English (New Zealanders) and much were we happy. I went for a night sleep with my heart full with joy and hope for the future, but then I could not fall asleep for the cry and moan of the casualties could be heard even from distance, begging for help.The next morning some of our village we went the field of death to collect the wounded. What a terrible scene it was! The mountains that were always covered with green grass and beautiful flowers, where shepherds were herding their sheep, were now covered with the dead, wounded and blood here and there. Dead Horses, rifles lying on the ground and crater everywhere from the shells. Smell of gun powder and dynamite everywhere. The wounded were collected and we shall send them on the camels of the English to the hospital that was [opened] in Rishon."1View comments
- AUG9
On the Yahrzeit of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, One of the Most Influential Rabbis of the 20th Century, We Recall his White House Visit
The following is a collection of postings and photographs of Rabbi Kook.
The caption reads "Rabbi Dr. Abraham I. Kook, 4/15/24"
Where was this picture taken?
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935) was a renowned Talmud scholar, Kabbalist and philosopher. He is considered today as the spiritual father of religious Zionism, breaking away from his ultra-Orthodox colleagues who were often opposed to the largely secular Zionist movement.
Born in what is today Latvia, Rabbi Kook moved to Palestine in 1904 to take the post of the Chief Rabbi of Jaffa. He appears in many of the historic pictures taken by the American Colony photographers, usually as a bystander, without being identified. One photograph, from the Library of Congress' larger collection, identifies the rabbi, but the surroundings do not appear to be in the Land of Israel and actually look incredibly like a street scene in the United States.
In fact, the picture was taken in Washington DC before or after Rabbi Kook met with President Calvin Coolidge in the White House.
It's a historic fact that Coolidge was in Washington on April 15, 1924, the same day Rabbi Kook's photo was taken. On that day Coolidge threw out the first ball at a Washington Senators baseball game where Walter Johnson shutout the Athletics. Coolidge also spoke at the dedication of the "Arizona Stone" in the Washington Monument.
Coolidge and Johnson, April 15, 1924
The picture of the rabbi appears in a larger set of unaccredited pictures taken that week of well-known Washington politicians including Coolidge, the White House press corps, Senate leaders William Borah and Burton Wheeler, the Federal Oil Reserve Board, and more.
But why did Coolidge meet Rabbi Kook, and what was the rabbi doing in Washington?
According to an article by Joshua Hoffman in Orot in 1991, Rabbi Kook, then Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi in Palestine, headed a delegation of rabbis to the United States in March 1924 to raise funds for yeshivot in Europe and Eretz Yisrael. He was joined by Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein (pictured left), the head of the Slabodka yeshiva in Lithuania, and Rabbi Avraham Dov Baer Kahana Shapiro, the Rabbi of Kovno and president of the Rabbinical Association of Lithuania. The three rabbis were brought to America by the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering through the War, better known as the Central Relief Committee (CRC).
Rabbi M. M. Epstein,
apparently on a ship
According to Hoffman, "The rabbis had originally planned to stay in America for about three months. However, because their fund-raising efforts were not as successful as had been hoped, they remained for eight months. In the end, they raised a little over $300,000, far short of the one million dollar goal which the CRC had set."
Hoffman described the April 15 conversation between the president and the rabbi: "Rav Kook thanked the President for his government's support of the Balfour Declaration, and told him that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land will benefit not only the Jews themselves, but all mankind throughout the world.... The President responded that the American government will be glad to assist Jews whenever possible."
Readers Send a Picture from Rabbi Kook's Meeting at the White House
"Yitz" and "Menachem" sent the following comment and photograph:
The caption reads "Central Relief Committee at the White House"
"I actually have an original of photo of Rabbi Kook and his committee including my Great-Grandfather who served as a translator outside the White House after meeting the President. I had never seen this image until recently when I found it among his son's possessions when I cleaned out his apartment."
Their grandfather, Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, played an important role in the meeting, according to this account.
At the meeting, Rav Kook thanked the President for his government’s support of the Balfour Declaration, and told him that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land will benefit not only the Jews themselves, but all mankind throughout the world. He quoted the Talmudic sages as saying that no solemn peace can be expected unless the Jews return to the Holy Land, and therefore their return is a blessing for all the nations of the earth. Rav Kook also expressed the gratitude of Jews throughout the world towards the American government for aiding in relief work during the war. He said that America has always shown an example of liberty and freedom to all, as written on the Liberty Bell, and that he hoped that the country will continue to uphold these principles and render its assistance whenever possible.
The speech, written in Hebrew, was delivered in English by Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, executive secretary of the CRC. Rav Kook answered “Amen,” and explained that since he wasn’t fluent in English, he had Rabbi Teitelbaum read his message. By answering “Amen,” he indicated that he consented to every word that had been read. The President responded that the American government will be glad to assist Jews whenever possible. Before leaving Washington, Rabbis Kook and Teitelbaum held a meeting of local rabbis and community leaders to raise money for the Torah Fund.
Click on the photos to enlarge.
Rabbi Kook leaving a meeting with Winston
Churchill and Emir Abdullah (1921)
Click on the captions to see the originals.
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The New York Times' Report on Rabbi Kook's 1924 Visit to the United States and CanadaRabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the Chief of Rabbi of Palestine, began his journey to America in March 1924. Joined by two prominent rabbis from Lithuania, the delegation was met in New York with great respect and ceremony.
The New York Times'
coverageRabbi Kook's boat was met in the New York Harbor by hundreds of Jewish leaders. The rabbis were escorted to a meeting with New York's Mayor John F. Hylan by a "squadron" of police motorcycles and a 50-car procession.
The Mayor welcomed "the distinguished Jews from the old world.... We are privileged," he continued, "to greet teachers and spiritual leaders whose intellectual achievements are in themselves worthy of special recognition."
The Canadian Jewish Chronicle reported on May 2, 1924 on the rabbis' pending visit to Montreal:
"Rabbi Kook and his companions have undertaken the long and fatiguing journey to the United States and Canada to deliver in person a message to their co-religionists [that] unless the Jewish schools and seminaries in Eastern Europe and Palestine continue to receive ... the support of the American Jews, hundreds of ...educational institutions will have to be closed in 1,300 Jewish communities in the war-stricken lands of Europe. A half a million children... will grow up without religious and secular education..."
British High Commissioner Herbert Samuel and Rabbi Kook
visiting a Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem (1925). In the
white suit is the mysterious Mendel Kremer,
known as a German and the British spy
(Central Zionist Archives, Harvard)"Rabbi Kook of Palestine... is a man of rare mental attainments. He is a renowned theologian, poet, philosopher and humanitarian. At the age of 18 he had already several books on ethical and philosophical topis to his credit for which he received a doctorate degree from the Berne University. From his youth Rabbi Kook was enamored with the Holy Land. At the outbreak of the world war Rabbi Kook happened to be in Switzerland. Owing to his pro-ally sentiments, the Germans refused him permission to return to Palestine... When General Allenby liberated Palestine, Rabbi Kook returned to Palestine and was immediately elected Chief Rabbi of the Holy Land and officially installed in this high office by the High Commission, Sir Herbert Samuel..."
Monday, August 10, 2015
Golden Gate [Shaar HaRachamim in Hebrew] of Jerusalem's Old City (Oregon State University Archives)
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