Also the foreigners, that join themselves to the Lord, to minister unto Him, and to love Him... I will bring them to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer... for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. (Isaiah 56: 6-7)
Russian pilgrims on the way to Jericho. See more pictures
of Russian pilgrims - Women's hostel in Jerusalem (1899)
Russian Pilgrims at the Jordan River and here, here
During the times of the Jewish Temple, Jews made pilgrimages to Jerusalem three times a year -- on Passover, Sukkot and Shavuot.
Christians' pilgrimage to the Holy Land is also a long tradition as evident in these photographs from the Library of Congress collection.
Russian pilgrims overlooking
the Kidron Valley. Note the
Jerusalem Old City walls on the
top right (circa 1900)
Abyssinian (Ethiopian) Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem
French pilgrims praying at the first Station of the Cross
located in Turkish barracks in Jerusalem (1913)
Egyptian Coptic Christians bathing in Jordan River (1900)
Click on pictures to enlarge
Click on captions to see the original photo
The Library of Congress collection includes pictures of
Muslim pilgrims in Palestine going to Mecca (1900)
Today's posting is dedicated to the memory of
Aydel Batya bat Moshe Yitzhak
"Jacobite pilgrims from Chaldea" (circa 1900)
Chaldea was an area in Babylon, now southern
Iraq. The Jacobites are part of the Syriac
Orthodox Church and many spoke Aramaic.
Note the howling baby in the backpack0Add a comment
- MAY20
Jerusalem Day, Celebrating the Reunification of Jerusalem 45 Years Ago What happened during 19 years of Jordanian occupation?
Lewis Larsson was one of the founders of the American Colony's photographic department in Jerusalem in the early 20th century. His historic photo of the surrender of Jerusalem to the British in 1917 is perhaps his most famous picture.
Larsson's famous 1917 picture
of the surrender of Jerusalem
to two British sergeants
The American Colony closed some 30 years later. The photos were taken to California and eventually were donated to the Library of Congress. Imagine the surprise, therefore, when we discovered in the Library of Congress files color photos taken by Larsson in Jerusalem in the 1950s.
The Old City of Jerusalem was captured by the Jordan Legion in 1948. All Jewish inhabitants were expelled or taken as prisoners. Great Jewish institutions in the Jewish Quarter, such as the Hurva Synagogue, the Porat Yosef Yeshiva, and the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue were destroyed. For the 19 years of Jordanian occupation, Jews were forbidden from visiting the Western Wall.Larsson's photo of eastern Jerusalem during Jordan's occupation.
Taken from Mt. Olives. Note the Old City wall. (circa 1950)Enlargement showing the Rothschild Building in black frame.
Almost all other buildings below it are rubble
Larsson's photo shows the Jewish Quarter in rubble except for the Rothschild Building from the Beit HaMachseh compound.
As a reference point, note the truck entering the Dung Gate. Jewish funeral at Rothschild Building
(1903)
Hurva synagogue in ruins, 1948. Jordanian soldier
holding a Torah scroll. (Wikipedia)
In June 1967, during the Six-Day War, the Jordanian army opened artillery and small-arms fire on the Jewish side of Jerusalem. The Israeli army, engaged in a widescale war with Egypt on the Sinai front, rushed troops to Jerusalem. Led by paratroopers, the Israeli soldiers captured the Old City and reunited Jerusalem.
The IDF entering the Old City
through the Lions Gate, 1967
Within days, some of those paratroopers found themselves fighting against the Syrians on the Golan Heights.
Special film feature
We share with you a film made one month after the 1967 war by the late Dr. Martin Richter of Basel, Switzerland. The film, showing scenes of Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem and other locations, was edited by his son, Alexander Avidan and recently posted on YouTube.1View comments
The Jewish holiday of Shavuot-Pentecost will be celebrated next week. The holiday has several traditional names: Shavuot, the festival of weeks, marking seven weeks after Passover; Chag HaKatzir, the festival of reaping grains; and Chag HaBikkurim, the festival of first fruits. Shavuot, according to Jewish tradition, is the day the Children of Israel accepted the Torah at Mt. Sinai. It is also believed to be the day of King David's birth and death.
"Ruth the Moabitess" 
Ruth said, "Do not entreat me to
leave you, to return from following
you, for wherever you go, I will go...
Your people shall be my people, your
God my God"
The reading of the Book of Ruth is one of the traditions of the holiday. Ruth, a Moabite and widow of a Jewish man (and a princess according to commentators), gave up her life in Moab to join her Jewish mother-in-law, Naomi, in the Land of Israel. She insisted on adopting Naomi's God, Torah and religion.
A central element of the story of Ruth is her going to the fields where barley and wheat were being harvested so that she could collect charitable handouts. She gleans in the fields of Boaz, a judge and a relative of Ruth's dead husband (as such he has a levirate obligation to marry the widow). The union results in a child, Obed, the grandfather of King David. 
And Naomi and Ruth both went on
until they arrived at Bethlehem
Ruth came to a field that belonged
to Boaz who was of the family of
Naomi's deceased husband
The members of the American Colony were religious Christians who established their community in the Holy Land. They were steeped in the Bible and photographed countryside scenes that referred to biblical incidents and prohibitions.
Boaz said to his servant, who stood
over the reapers, "To whom does
this maiden belong?"
Boaz said to Ruth, "Do not go to
glean in another field...here you shall
stay with my maidens"
Boaz said to her at mealtime, "Come
here and partake of the bread..." He
ordered his servants "Pretend to
forget some of the bundles for her."We present a few of the dozens of photographs found in the Library of Congress' American Colony collection.
Ruth carried it to the city and Naomi
saw what she had gleaned
A major effort was made by the photographers to re-enact the story of Ruth. "Ruth," we believe, was a young member of the American Colony community; the remaining "cast" were villagers from the Bethlehem area who were actually harvesting, threshing and winnowing their crops. We have matched the pictures with corresponding verses from the Book of Ruth.
Ruth came to the threshing floor and
Boaz said, "Ready the shawl you are
wearing and hold it," and she held
it, and he measured out six measures
of barley....
See more of the pictures here.
Unfortunately, we don't know when the "Ruth and Boaz series" was created, but we estimate approximately 100 years ago.
Click on the pictures to enlarge, click on the caption to view the original. 0Add a comment
The Library of Congress' vast collection of the American Colony's photographs includes these stereographic pictures.
The "family" in this undated stereographic photo. (Two of the
men appear to be blind. Four of the men are smoking or
holding cigarettes.)
The caption reads "Family," and the date of the photo is sometime between "1898 and 1946." That certainly doesn't provide much information.
PEF picture, apparently with
some of the same people
A similar picture published by thePalestine Exploration Fund identifies the group as Yemenite Jews -- taken by the American Colony photographers, but apparently not included in the Library of Congress collection. According to the PEF, the picture appeared in a 1911 catalogue.
The two pictures produced by the stereo photo actually provide some additional answers.
19th century stereo camera 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.The left picture shows an object on the wall behind the "family" -- after enlarging the picture it's clearly a German postal box.
The German mailbox
100 years ago
But why would the Yemenite Jews be standing near a German post office?In fact, several European countries maintained post offices in Palestine under the "capitulations" agreements between the Ottoman Empire and European countries. Formulated to guarantee the welfare of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land, the capitulations, some dating back to the 16th century, established privileges for European subjects in Palestine.
More modern German mailbox Many members of Palestine's Jewish community were granted protection by European leaders such as Austrian Emperor Franz Josef or German Kaiser Wilhelm II.
The right photo of the stereo picture shows a European inside the door next to the Yemenite Jews.
European man in
white suitThe American Colony collection includes photographs of theRussian, Italian, Austrian, French, and German post offices in Jerusalem.
German post office in Jerusalem
Today's posting is dedicated in memory
of Dov Arye ben Chaim Menachem
who loved solving puzzles.
The capitulations ended in 1914 with the
outbreak of World War I. "Removing
French post box at the time of
abrogation of foreign capitulations."0Add a comment
Earlier this month we uncovered pictures in the Library of Congress files showing Bukhari Jewish life in Samarkand some 140 years ago. We posted pictures showing Jewish children in school, family life, a sukka, and more.
The wedding of Barukh and Khanna, circa 1870. The bride and
groom are beneath a tallit serving as the chuppa (canopy).
Channa is the tiny figure under a "burqua," according to the
original caption. The man in the center is extending a cup of wine
as part of the ceremony -- sheva brachot, according to the
caption. The two mothers, wearing turbans, are on the sides
of the bride and groom.
Today, we present photos from another group of pictures, the wedding of Barukh and Khanna in 1870.
The groom Barukh and the bride Khanna, two
separate portraits (c 1870)
Signing the ketuba, the marriage contract. The bride (peaking
out from under her burqua) and the groom are already under the
tallit, with their mothers on either side
Parts of the earlier narrative are reproduced here, as well as the newly found pictures.
Click on the pictures to enlarge, click on the caption to view the original.
A party for the women and girls on the
eve of the wedding. Click here to see
Barukh sitting with the men
Bukhari Jews, from what is today the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan, may be one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. According to some researchers, the community may date back to the days of the destruction of the First Temple and the Babylonian exile. Over the centuries, the community suffered from forced conversion to Islam and from Genghis Khan's pillage and destruction of the region. 
Enlargement of the Ketuba 
Earlier, the groom meeting with
Khanna and her parentsAround the time these pictures were taken the Bukhari Jews began to move to Israel. They established an early settlement in the Bukharan quarter of Jerusalem. Click here for a history of the Bukhari Jews.
Original caption: "A group of people escorting the bride and
groom (far left) to a house"
The Bukhari Jewish families discuss the
dowry prior to a wedding (circa 1870).
The caption identifies the two bundles
behind them as the dowry
Bonus pictures
Three more pictures, seemingly unrelated to Barukh and Khanna's wedding but dealing with the Jewish community, were found in the Library of Congress file.
Fed Ex office in Samarkand? The arrival of Jews from Bukhara to
the city of Kazalinsk (Qazaly). Man standing with loaded camels
in front of building (including two men riding in camel's seats)
Nationalities in the Turkestan krai. Jewish
women (sic). Banu ai. (circa 1870)
Original caption reads: "Prayer lessons at school." It is clear that
the teacher and students are Jewish. Note that almost all students
had prayerbooks, a fact that should not be taken for granted.
(circa 1870)
View pictures and essays on other Jewish communities:* Kifl, Iraq (Ezekiel's Tomb)
If you wish to dedicate a Daily Picture page, such as this one, in honor or memory, click here2View comments
This photograph from the Palestine Exploration Fund is one of the oldest known photographs of the Western Wall, or the "Kotel."
The Kotel in the 1860s. Note how narrow and confined
the alleyway was. (Palestine Exploration Fund)
It was taken by Frank Mason Good in the 1860s, around the same time he photographed the panorama view of Jerusalem in the title picture above.
Note the small and narrow confines of the Jewish prayer area. In the course of hundreds of years, efforts to purchase the surrounding areas were denied. Attempts to place benches or screens led to anti-Jewish riots, and the blowing of the shofar at the end of Yom Kippur was prohibited. Between 1949 and 1967 Jews were not permitted to pray at the site.
Only after the 1967 War Jews returned to the Old City of Jerusalem and the area enlarged.
The 110-year-old Kotel photo, hand colored
and re-photographed in color, probably
in the 1950s
We present here other photographs from the Library of Congress collection dating back over 100 years.
The Kotel circa 1900
Most of the pictures were taken by the American Colony Photo Department and its successor company run by Eric and Edith Matson. They returned to the United States in the 1940s with their 22,000 photos and negatives. They apparently republished hand-colored versions of several of the American Colony's classic photographs, such as this picture of women and a Yemenite man at the Western Wall (left and right).
"Jews wailing place" (circa 1860s)
View additional features on the Western Wall here, here and here.
"Devout Jewish women at the
Wailing Wall" (circa 1900)6View comments
Zichron Yaakov was one of the first new Jewish settlements in Palestine, established in 1882 by Zionist pioneers from Romania. In 1883, the community was adopted and sponsored by Baron Edmond de Rothschild of France and named for his father, Yaakov.
Zichron Yaakov synagogue (circa 1900) and here
Rothschild oversaw Zichron's planning, the building of residences for the settlers, and the launching of the Carmel Winery in 1885.
The synagogue "Ohel Yaakov" was built in 1886 in memory of Rothschild's father and is still used for daily services.
Zichron Holiday (circa 1900) Note the Turkish flags and
at least 10 rifle-bearing men. The banner in the middle, in
the shape of a Star of David within a circle, also bears
Rothschild's name, according to the Palestine
Exploration Fund. The PEF suggests that the men seated
are Rothschild's town administrators
In World War I, Zichron was the center of a Jewish spy ring that assisted the British war effort against the Turkish army in Palestine.
A Jewish photographer named Edelstein took pictures of residents of Zichron in the late 19th century, and they are preserved by the Palestine Exploration Fund.
The PEF photos include 100+ year-old pictures of Zichron'sorchestra, firefighters and barrel makers.
According to the Israel Firefighting Service, "the high concentration of alcohol in a new Carmel plant, run by inexperienced workers, was a ticking time-bomb." Fires broke out in 1896 and 1897.
"The fires led to the establishment of the first firefighting company in Palestine," according to the IFS. "On May 23, 1897, Baron Rothschild’s representative in Zichron Yaakov assembled the young men of the settlement and charged them with the task of setting up the “'Firefighters Company.' The group numbered 32 volunteers. Equipment was brought from Paris at the expense of the Baron and included pumps, hoses, ladders, axes and, of course, grand uniforms with shiny copper helmets and leather belts, as was the custom in the cities of Europe."
Zichron's fire brigade. (Palestine Exploration Fund)
If you wish to dedicate a Daily Picture page in honor or memory, click here
The Library of Congress photo collection contains dozens of1939 pictures of the vineyards of Zichron Yaakov and the Carmel winery.
Workers in the Zichron vineyards (1939) 
Vats of wine in Zichron (1939)
Today, Zichron Yaakov is an attractive, scenic, bustling town of around 20,000.1View comments
Israel Daily Picture (IDP) is thankful to the Library of Congress for making available online thousands of photographs from the American Colony/Matson collection taken in Palestine between 1898 and 1946. The collection also contains dozens of pictures from other photographers dating back to the 1860s. Some of the pictures were in advanced stages of disintegration when the Library digitalized them.
Funeral in Jerusalem. The IDP matched this photo to the next
one using the location and markings on the pictures. 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)
We encourage readers to browse the many photo galleries at the Library's site to view amazing pictures of history in the United States, Europe and the Middle East.
"Jewish Procession to Absalom's Pillar"
LoC: Photograph possibly shows a
Jewish funeral procession. (Source: L.
Ben-David, Israel's History - A Picture
a Day website, July 18, 2011)We are humbled and thankful that the Library uses Israel Daily Picture as a resource to update and correct captions and dates on some of their photos. The previous posting of a 1918 photo of Jewish children marching in Jerusalem on Lag B'Omer after visiting Simon the Just's tomb, is just one example. Here are others that cite Israel Daily Picture.
A Jewish Money Changer. LoC: Signs behind man read:
"Room for rent, store for rent, apartment for rent." Sign on
front of money box reads: "Leib Goldberger, Geld
Wexler (money changer) in Yiddish. (Source: L. Ben-David,
Israel's History - A Picture a Day website, December 20, 2011)
H/T: JB
Temporary vegetable market at Romema
Jerusalem. LoC: Photograph shows a
temporary market on the Jaffa Road in
Romema neighborhood of Jerusalem.
Building in background is 167 Jaffa
Road. (Source: L. Ben-David, Israel's
History - A Picture a Day website,
August 19, 2011)1View comments
- Have You Forwarded "Israel Daily Pictures" to
Your Friends, Family and Synagogue/Church Mailing List?
Subscribe to Israel Daily Pictures [IDP] by entering your email in the box on the right and click on the "Submit" button. It's free.
Editors, there are no copyright restrictions on the photographs published by the IDP. If you reprint the accompanying essays, please credit http://www.israeldailypicture.com/ . Have you featured the IDP in your publication?
Teachers and parents of students, the IDP is a great teaching aid to visually put Jewish history and the Bible into context.
The Library of Congress, the source for most of the IDP's pictures, uses the IDP to correct or update captions on some of its pictures, citing the IDP's research as the source.
The IDP's cooperation with other photograph collections in some of the most respected institutions means that the IDP will continue to uncover and publish lost photo treasures.
Among the IDP's published photographic treasures:- ancient pictures of the Kotel, Rachel's Tomb, Cave of the Patriarchs, Joseph's Tomb
- the visit of the Chief Rabbi of Palestine to the White House in 1924
- the earthquake, locust plague and warfare that hit the land in the early 1900s
- the German general who saved the Jews of Palestine from expulsion - or worse
- Zionist activity: the first kibbutzim, industries, and settlements in Eretz Yisrael
- ancient and beautiful synagogues in Jerusalem before their destruction
- Jewish communities in Alexandria, Aleppo, Samarkand, and Iraq
- the destruction of the Jewish community in Hebron in 1929
Jews of Samarkand (1870)
If you wish to dedicate a Daily Picture page in honor or memory, contactisrael.dailypix@gmail.comMore than 370,000 people have visited the site. Have your friends and family?1View comments
Bukharan Jews, from what is today the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan, may be one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. According to some researchers, the community may date back to the days of the destruction of the First Temple and the Babylonian exile. Over the centuries, the community suffered from forced conversion to Islam and from Genghis Khan's pillage and destruction of the region.
Jews sitting in their Samarkand Sukka (circa 1870) See
another view of the Sukka here
Click here for a history of the Bukharan Jews.
Bukhari Jews in a Sukka in Jerusalem
(circa 1900) and here
By the end of the 18th century the community was under pressure from several sources and was in danger of disappearing. It was discovered by a Moroccan rabbi, Joseph Maman, who, until his death in 1823, spent 30 years in Bukhara serving as the spiritual leader and transforming the community to a more observant lifestyle. In the mid-1800s, Bukharan Jews began moving to the Holy Land where they established a community outside of Jerusalem's Old City. [View a previous feature from this website on the Bukharan Quarter of Jerusalem].The photographs presented here are from a collection we recently discovered in the Library of Congress files and which offer an amazing peek at Jewish life in Samarkand in the mid-1800s. The pictures show preparations for a wedding between a boy and a girl who appear barely in their teens; the community's school and synagogue; and teachers and their pupils.
Bukhari Jewish families discuss the
dowry prior to a wedding (circa 1870).
The caption identifies the two bundles
behind them as the dowry
The groom meets the bride's parents
prior to the wedding. Note how young
the couple appears
Click on pictures to enlarge
Click on caption to view the original
Bringing the bride (far left) to the
groom's house
Jewish "Prayer House" in Samarkand 
Jewish school in Samarkand. Note the
school children on the left
Samarkand Jews reading Psalms and here
and here
Teacher and pupils in Samarkand
and here and here
Jewish women at a funeral. Note the use of a drum 0Add a comment
- MAY1
A 1913 Film of Eretz Yisrael. If a Picture is Worth a Thousand Words, a Film Is Worth a Million
The 11th Zionist Congress met in Vienna in August 1913. Four months earlier, in April, a film crew left Odessa by ship to prepare a film on the Life of the Jews of Palestine that would be shown at the Congress. The producer, Noah Sokolovsky, spent two months filming the cities, holy sites, and agricultural communities of Eretz Yisrael.The film was presented and then lost. In 1997, the original negative was found in France. The 80-minute film was restored and edited by Yaacov Gross. In 2000 the film was shown at several Jewish film festivals and was even reviewed in The New York Times.
Segments of the film were posted on YouTube 2009. In April 2012 Arik Rubin posted this one-hour YouTube clip. The film is narrated by Israeli entertainer Yehoram Gaon, and whether viewed in segments or in one continuous clip, it should not be missed. The Online Hebrew clip has no English subtitles.
View another film -- from 1918 -- here.
Travelogue and PR for the Zionist Congress
Sokolovsky's ship sailed from Odessa in April 1913 with 92 Jews destined for Eretz Yisrael. Some went for educational purposes, others went for health reasons, for employment, or to visit family during Passover. Two families consisting of 19 people made aliya, moved to the Holy Land.
The trip would take 11 days, stopping in Constantinople, Alexandria, and finally Jaffa.
Gymnasia school (circa 1925)
The residents of the Yishuv poured out into the streets wherever the film crew showed up. School holidays were declared, and the film showed hundreds of students from Tel Aviv's Gymnasia school and a Jaffa teachers school.
[Four years later, the Jews of Tel Aviv - Jaffa were expelled by the Turks, and many perished.]
In Petach Tikva, the "mother of the settlements," the clip showed the well-established orange industry, including camel caravans taking the crates of oranges to Jaffa port for export.
Sokolovksy and his crew filmed in Zichron Yaakov on the Sabbath and showed the residents leaving the synagogue after services. Zichron, the "Paris of Eretz Yisrael" and its wine industry were supported by Baron Rothschild. The vineyards of Zichron and Rishon Lezion that he sponsored are on the films.
Zichron Yaakov synagogue
The clip shows the building of the Technion in Haifa, expressing pride that 100 of the 130 construction workers were Jewish. Other locations visited included Hadera, Kinneret, Rosh Pinna, Jericho, Rishon Lezion, Nes Ziona, and Gedera.
A segment on Tiberias shows the town's two yeshivot, servicing the 2,000 Sephardi and 2000 Ashkenazi Hasidic Jews.An incredible segment of the agricultural work in Migdal shows a one-armed man plowing behind a horse (picture on the left). The man was Yosef Trumpledor, a veteran of the Russo-Japanese war who lost his arm in the fighting. In World War I he formed the Zion Mule Corps and fought in Gallipoli. In 1920, Trumpledor was killed defending the Tel Hai community in the Galilee.
Filming in JerusalemThe Odessa film-makers took the train to Jerusalem, filming along the way. In Jerusalem, they showed the throngs of Jews at the Western Wall on Passover and visiting the grave of Shimon HaTzaddik. Hundreds of school children marched for the camera, and the narrator added that 120 Jewish children had been saved from missionary schools.
The photographers stopped on the way to Hebron to film Jews at Rachel's Tomb and then filmed the Grave of the Patriarchs in Hebron -- only from the outside. The Muslims would not permit Jews to enter the shrine, and pious Jews could be seen praying next to an external wall. 1200 Jews lived in Hebron.
The last segment shows a festival held in Rehovot that attracted 6,000 Jews from around Palestine. A chartered train brought hundreds from Tel Aviv to Ramle and they continued to Rehovot by wagon, horse or on foot -- a 3-4 hour hike. In a precursor to today's "Maccabiah" athletic games, an athletic presentation was given by sportsmen from around Eretz Yisrael. The "festival of Hebrew youth" also attracted 40 Jewish athletes from Germany.
The film shows that Jewish life in Palestine in 1913 was vibrant and productive -- 35 years before the founding of Israel. Within a few short years, however, the winds of World War I would sweep across Palestine, plunging the Jews of the Yishuv into a period of starvation, pestilence, exile and hardship.1View comments
- APR30
Lag B'Omer Commemorated Next Week. How Was It Celebrated in Jerusalem 90 Years Ago? Updating an earlier posting. The Library of Congress is reading our postings
The Enigmatic Photograph from the Library of Congress:
A Jewish Children’s Parade a Long Time Ago 
Many questions: Who, Why, Where? A short version of this item appeared in theJerusalem Post Magazine in August 2011.Among the thousands of very old and recently digitalized pictures from a Library of Congress collection of photos from Palestine, there is this captivating picture.[Eight months ago we wrote:] All the Library of Congress caption tells us is that the picture was taken between 1910 and 1930 and that it is a “Group of children and adults in procession in street, some holding a banner with a Star of David.”Today, there is a 1918 date on the Library of Congress page and this new caption: "Jewish children and adults, one holding a Star of David banner, walking south on Nablus Road towards the grave of Shimon Hatzadik (Simon the Just), Jerusalem."A note on the updated LoC's picture file reads:Procession may have taken place on April 30, 1918, on Lag Ba'Omer, when visits were traditionally made to the tomb. British army tents in background, indicate year of 1918. (Source: L. Ben-David, Israel's History - A Picture a Day website, August 19, 2011) Title devised by Library staff. (Source: L. Ben-David, Israel's History - A Picture a Day website, August 19, 2011)
Who are the hundreds of children? Why are the boys and girls separated? Where are they marching to? Where is this picture taken? And why is there a tent compound on the left horizon?
Photo analysis and comparison to an aerial photograph from 1931 and contemporary pictures indicate
Enlargement of the army camp. Note the permanent
structure surrounded by tents.
In fact, the day was Tuesday, April 30, 1918. The procession is almost certainly an organized outing of several Jerusalem schools taking place on Lag Ba’Omer, four weeks after Passover. Traditionally, on Lag Ba’Omer Jews flock to the Galilee mountaintop of Meiron to the grave of Shimon Bar Yochai, one of the most famous scholars in the Talmud. But some 100 years ago, travel to Meiron would have taken days. Instead, the children took a hike to Shimon Hatzadik’s grave, a known custom 100 years ago in Jerusalem.
Shimon Hatzadik's tomb today (Israel
Daily Picture)
The parade route today (picture taken from the 8th floor
of the Olive Hotel) (IDP)“Anyone who could travel to Meiron on Lag Ba’Omer would go, and there take place miracles and wonders. But the residents of Jerusalem who couldn’t afford to travel to Meiron have as compensation the cave of Shimo Hatzadik located at the edge of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood north of the Old City.”
Today, Lag Ba’Omer is a day when Jewish children still go out to parks and forests to celebrate. In Jerusalem, many traditional Jews still visit Shimon’s grave.
Comparison of buildings from 1918 and today. Second stories
were added to the buildings over the years. (IDP)The houses around the grave where Jews lived 100 years ago were abandoned under threat of Arab pogroms in the 1920s and 1930s. The Hadassah convoy massacre in 1948, in which almost 80 Jews were killed, took place on the road beneath the building with the very prominent arches.In recent years, however, Jewish families have returned to the Shimon Hatzadik neighborhood.1View comments
- APR29
Another Mystery Photo: The Caption Reads "Scene at the Village Well, between 1898 and 1946" Let's Correct the Record
With more than 22,000 American Colony photographs in the Library of Congress, the fact that most of them are catalogued, digitalized, captioned and dated is a major tribute to the curators. The photos were taken between 1880 and 1946, but the American Colony photographers also collected older pictures, such as the one at the top of this page from the1860s.
"Village elders at the well" were actually Jewish dignitaries
attending the British High Commissioner's first meeting
after two years of British military rule. (1920)
Can anyone identify the three?
But sometimes, the curators just don't know, as was the case with this picture. In one copy of the photo the caption reads "Village Elders at the Well."
Samuel's arrival in Jaffa in June 1920
Well, we know exactly when and where the photograph was taken: July 7, 1920 in the garden of the Government House where the new British High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel, introduced himself and read a proclamation announcing the end of military rule in Palestine. Earlier postings of Israel Daily Picture presented pictures of Samuel's landing in Jaffa two weeks earlier and the reception at Government House.
Other Jewish dignitaries at the High
Commissioner's proclamation: Eliezer Ben-
Yehuda stands behind (from left) Rabbi
Moshe Leib Bernstein, Rabbi Yosef
Chaim Sonnenfeld, the chief rabbi of
Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox community,
Rabbi Yerucham Diskin, and Rabbi
Baruch Reuven Jungreis
The July 7 reception brought together dignitaries from the Jewish, Moslem and Christian communities, and it is evident that the three "village elders" in the mystery photo were part of the audience. The man on the right with the bowler hat is holding a copy of the proclamation distributed to the audience. The "elder" on the left appears in the foreground of a picture of Samuel greeting the Sheikh of Be'er Sheva.
Samuel and the Sheikh of Be'er Sheva
in the doorway. In the foreground we
can see the "elder" rabbi's turban
Samuel delivering his proclamation at
Government House
Samuel's proclamation laid out Great Britain's plan for local government for Arab and Jews as well as economic development for Palestine. Samuel presented details of the plans in his first year report to his government in 1921, a report that provides important historical context to the Arab-Jewish conflict over the last 90 years. Samuel reported:
Samuel's reception with Jews, Arab and
Christian leaders mingling with British
officialsIt is obvious to every passing traveler, and well-known to every European resident, that the country was before the War, and is now, undeveloped and under-populated. The methods of agriculture are, for the most part, primitive; the area of land now cultivated could yield a far greater product. There are in addition large cultivable areas that are left untilled. The summits and slopes of the hills are admirably suited to the growth of trees, but there are no forests. Miles of sand dunes that could be redeemed, are untouched, a danger, by their encroachment, to the neighbouring tillage. The Jordan and the Yarmuk offer an abundance of water-power; but it is unused....[Prior to 1880, Jews] came to pray and to die in the Holy Land, and to be buried in its soil. After the persecutions in Russia forty years ago [1880], the movement of the Jews to Palestine assumed larger proportions. Jewish agricultural colonies were founded. They developed the culture of oranges and gave importance to the Jaffa orange trade. They cultivated the vine, and manufactured and exported wine. They drained swamps. They planted eucalyptus trees. They practised, with modern methods, all the processes of agriculture. There are at the present time 64 of these settlements, large and small, with a population of some 15,000. Every traveller in Palestine who visits them is impressed by the contrast between these pleasant villages, with the beautiful stretches of prosperous cultivation about them and the primitive conditions of life and work by which they are surrounded.]
Click on the photos to enlarge.
Click on the captions to see the originals.
Subscribe to receive the Israel Daily Picture via email. Enter your email address in the box in the right sidebar. It's free.1View comments
The caption reads "Ashkenazi
(German Jews)." Were they
really actors? (1876)
The 19th century photographers in the Middle East loved to take portraits of the local population in their native surroundings and native costumes.
The original picture of "Polish Jews" (Courtesy
of the Palestine Exploration Fund)
Hundreds of photos in the Library of Congress collection show Jewish men and women (andhere), Arab men and women, the Maronite patriarch, Bedouins, Samaritans, Armenian monks, Druse, etc. in their native and ritual clothing.
Many "candid" photographs of the ultra-Orthodox Jews show them attempting to hide their faces, in some cases because it was the Sabbath. Perhaps that is why this 1876 photo by the Palestine Exploration Fund employed actors dresses as ultra-Orthodox Jews. [At least one looks authentic, no?]
A group portrait of "real" Jews (1900) We thank our reader "Yoni" for submitting the following comment, adding to his startling revelation that the photo of the "Ashkenazi Jews" was fake.
The photo "Ashkeanzi Jews" was taken by Sergeant Henry Phillips, R.E, the photographer of the Palestine Exploration Fund’s expedition led by explorer Lieutenant Charles Warren R.E.
There are other versions of this picture with the "actors" dressed differently and in different locations, such as the photo published in Warren's "Underground Jerusalem."
Armenian priests or are they actors?
Are they the same people in the
"Ashkenazi picture?" (Courtesy of
the Palestinian Exploration Fund)
As for the hotels; The Mediterranean hotel had three different locations (see Gibson and Chapman 1995). Between 1849-1866 it was located at the south eastern side of the Hezekiah pool, Between 1866-1870 it moved to El-Wad street (currently known as Sharon House or Beit Witenberg) and in 1870- 1885 it moved towards the Jaffa Gate and occupied the same building as the Petra Hotel today. Therefore, the Ashkenazi Jews photo was taken in the second location in 1867, when the Warren expedition was based there.
Twain stayed at the same
hotel in Jerusalem in 1867
The full story will be available with the publication of the Book.
As Yoni pointed out, Mark Twain and his colleagues stayed at the same Mediterranean Hotel in the Old City of Jerusalem as the Palestine Exploration Fund's explorers.
A question for Yoni: Were the actors' pictures taken in 1876, as per the Library of Congress caption, or in 1867 when Warren undertook his expedition to Jerusalem? Both Twain and Warren may have been at the same Mediterranean Hotel at the same time. Click here to see possible pictures of Twain's colleagues in Jerusalem.
An Yoni's response: The Original photo was taken in 1867 by Sargent Howard Philips and the Library of Congress date mentioned is in reference to the publication of Warren's "Underground Jerusalem in 1876. as in the bibliography:
Illus. in: Underground Jerusalem: an account / Charles Warren. London : Richard Bentley and Son, publishers in Ordinary to her Majesty the Queen, 1876, oppos. p. 359.
It does seem that the photographer did not have people of faith to represent the diversity of Jewish, and Christian Orthodox in the city and therefore used actors /extras, and dressed them in the different costumes. I would not call this a "Fraud" but rather creative posing to tell the story.4View comments
This vintage photograph from the Library of Congress collection focuses on the Dome of the Rock mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
The Temple Mount and mosques. And something else
(circa 1860 - 1890)
The caption reads "General view of the Haram or [Mount] Moriah. El Aksa - Omar - Church of St. Anne."
But there's something else in the photo.
The photo doesn't bear the name of the photographer, nor is it certain when the photo was taken. The Library of Congress dates the picture in a 30 year period "between 1860 and 1890."
In the background of the picture, on the horizon to the right of the spire, is a large building. It is the uncompleted Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue in the Old City's Jewish Quarter. Construction of the synagogue began in 1857, but because of lack of funds, a domed roof could not be completed.
Enlargement of the unfinished synagogue
-- and another dome to the right
Two domes -- The Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue (left) and
the Hurva Synagogue (1900)
In 1870, the Austrian emperor, Franz Josef, visited Jerusalem. According to legend, upon seeing the synagogue, the emperor asked why it had no roof. A host from the Jewish community responded, "My lord, the synagogue has taken off its hat in your honor."
Franz Josef contributed funds to help complete the roof, and the building was dedicated in 1872.
But we can also ascertain that the photo was taken after 1864. To the right of the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue, on the horizon and slightly obscured by a cloud, is the dome of the famous Hurva Synagogue, completed in 1864.
The featured photo was taken, therefore, between 1864 and 1872. We can also surmise that the photo of Jerusalem at the top of this blog was also taken in this time period for only the Hurva dome appears.
Destroyed Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue
in 1948 (Wikipedia)
Both synagogues were destroyed by the Jordanians during and after the 1948 war.
Hurva in ruins, 1948. Jordanian soldier
holding a Torah scroll. (Wikipedia)
The Hurva was rebuilt and rededicated in 2010.
Discussions have been held recently about rebuilding the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue.1View comments
-
We want to thank a reader named "Yoni" who commented on our special Gallery of the Old Yishuv. The following is his amazing revelation:
Were these "Ashkenazi Jews" really actors?
The picture named "Ashkenazi Jews" (1876) was taken in the Mediterranean Hotel courtyard located on Hagai St. in the Muslim quarter of the Old City.
The keys holder is seen in back on the right hand side and show the place for 22 keys. The "Ashkenazi Jews" in the photo are actors dressed up as such, and in another picture taken in the same location they are dressed as Christian characters from Jerusalem.
The hotel is described in Charles Warren book "Underground Jerusalem" and housed the P.E.F expedition in 1867 as well as the famous writer Samuel Clements (Mark Twain) on his tour in 1867 well documented in the travel book "Innocents Abroad."
The location of the hotel was found several years ago By Yoni Shapira, and in collaboration with archeologist Dr. Shimon Gibson and Dr. Rupert Chapman the story will be published by the P.E.F. later this year in a book called "Tourists, Travelers and Hotels in Nineteenth-Century Jerusalem."
Thank you, Yoni. Indeed, some of the photograph's subjects don't quite look "kosher."
We present below two photographs from the Library of Congress collection with references to the Mediterranean Hotel, taken in the same time period as the "Ashkenazi Jews."
We hope they help you in your research. 
Interior of Jaffa Gate from near Hotel Mediterranean
(Felix Bonfils, photographer, between 1870 and 1880)
Note the narrow Jaffa Gate some 20 years before the Turks
reconstructed the entrance
"Pool of Hezekiah, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Hospice
of the Knights of St. John, from the Mediterranean Hotel"
(P. Bergheim, photographer, between 1860 and 1880)2View comments
- APR24
A Special Gallery for Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel Celebrates 64 Years since Independence(But Jews Have Always Lived in the Holy Land)
The State of Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948, the fifth day of the Jewish month Iyar.
Jews of Jerusalem circa 1890
But Eretz Yisrael has been the homeland for the Jewish people since the days of Abraham. Even after the destruction of the second Temple in 70 CE, Jews continued living in the land, as evidenced by the writing of the Jerusalem Talmud over the next 400 years.
Zionism, the modern Jewish nationalist movement is some 130 years old, but the longing for the Land of Israel is as ancient as the Jewish prayers to return to Zion, as old as the 13th century Spanish rabbi, Nachmanides, who moved to Jerusalem, as devout as the students of the Vilna Gaon who left Europe in the early 19th century, and as passionate as the Yemenite Jews who walked to the Holy Land in the 1880s.
A Yemenite Jew looking over his village of Silwan outside
of Jerusalem's Old City walls (1901)
These "Zionists" comprised the "Old Yishuv," the pious Jews and their descendants who lived in the holy cities of Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and Tiberias. Many lived in the ancient city of Jaffa along the coast, but they were expelled by the Turks in 1917.
Ashkenazi Jews (1876)
An "Arab Jew from Yemen"
(1900). View another portrait
Orthodox boy in Jerusalem (1934)
Degania, the first kibbutz, on
the shore of the Sea of Galilee
(circa 1920)
And the New Yishuv
In the late 19th century, Jewish nationalists began theiraliya to the Land of Israel. The Zionists established national governing institutions and built cities, farming communities, universities, ports and industries.
The photographers of the American Colony focused on many of these enterprises. Their collection is housed in the Library of Congress, the source of these vintage photos.
An early Jewish settlement
(circa 1920)
Ein Gev pioneers, including Teddy
Kollek (2nd from the right), later
mayor of Jerusalem (circa 1937)
New Tel Aviv street (circa 1920s)
The building of the new city of Tel Aviv, north of Jaffa, was the jewel on the Zionists' crown.
Already in the 1880s Yemenite Jews started to move north from Jaffa to build homes.
In 1909, a Zionist housing enterprise was launched in the sand dunes north of Jaffa with 66 families drawing lots to allocate property for new homes. After the Turkish expulsion in 1917 and the defeat of the Turks by the British in 1917-1918 Jews moved back to the Tel Aviv area.
Removing sand dunes at
Tel Aviv (circa 1920)
By 1925, 34,000 Jews were living in Tel Aviv.
Jewish mason building
Tel Aviv (circa 1920)
Twenty-three years later, in May 1948 and with Jerusalem under siege, Tel Aviv served as the capital of the newly proclaimed State of Israel. The members of the "Old Yishuv" in Jerusalem's Old City were evacuated or taken prisoner by the Jordanian Legion. The members of the "New Yishuv" served on the defense line of the new state, with the rural kibbutzim and moshavim bearing the brunt of Arab attacks.2View comments
- APR17
The Turks Defeated the British in Gaza 95 Years ago, April 17, 1917. Republishing an earlier posting
In the early 1900s, the British Empire relied on the Suez Canal to maintain communications and trade with India, Australia and New Zealand. And that was precisely why Germany encouraged Turkey to challenge British rule over Egypt and British control of the Suez Canal.
Turks prepare to attack the Suez
Canal, 1915
In early 1915, the Turkish army in Palestine crossed the Sinai and attacked British troops along the Suez.
The British army beat back the attacks, took the war north into Sinai and pushed the Turkish army back to a defense line stretching from Gaza, located on the Mediterranean, to Be'er Sheva, some 40 miles inland.
Great Mosque of Gaza (circa 1880) 
The Mosque after the fighting (1917)
In March and April 1917 the British army attempted to push through Gaza in battles that involved as many as 60,000 soldiers. British and French ships fired on Gaza from the Mediterranean. The British used poison gas and deployed newly developed British tanks.
And the British suffered a disastrous defeat.
Ruins of Gaza, believed to be after the 1917 battles
British trenches in Gaza. After the
defeat, the British army switched to more
mobile tactics.
British tanks destroyed in the Gaza fighting
The British campaign for Jerusalem would be stalled for six months. It would be led by a new commander, a large number of reinforcements, and a new strategy that took the war in a new direction, east toward Be'er Sheva.
British Prisoners of War,
captured in Gaza 1917
Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on the captions to view the originals.
Footnote: History records Jews living in Gaza for thousands of years. [View the mosaic depicting King David from a 6th century synagogue in Gaza.]
Mosaic of King David
(Israel Museum)
Ottoman tax records showed dozens of Jewish families in Gaza in the Middle Ages. One of the most famous Gazan Jews was Rabbi Israel Ben Moses Najara (16th Century) who composed prayers and Sabbath zmirot (songs) popular to this day. He was buried in Gaza.
Jewish families fled Gaza in the 1929 pogroms. Population records still showed Jews living in Gaza until 1945.
Kfar Darom, named for a community mentioned in the Talmud, was a Jewish kibbutz established in the Gaza Strip in 1930 that was abandoned in the 1948 war. Kfar Darom was reestablished in 1970 but evacuated by Israel in the 2005 "disengagement."0Add a comment
"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.
Thank you Yitz and Menachem. I'm not sure I can identify Rabbi Kook in the photo under any of the top hats. If you have more photos please send them! Please let us know who in the picture is your great-grandfather.
Was your grandfather Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum who 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.3View comments
Part 2
Rabbi Kook, Chief Rabbi of Palestine
(Central Zionist Archives,
Harvard Library)
Rabbi 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.
See previous posting on Rabbi Kook's meeting with President Coolidge in the White House.
Rabbi 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 New York Times'
coverage
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..."
"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..."
British High Commissioner Herbert Samuel and Rabbi Kook
visiting a Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem (1925). In the
white suit is the mysterious Mendel Kremer, the subject of a
future posting. (Central Zionist Archives, Harvard)
H/T Challah Hu Akbar6View comments
- APR10
Newly found pictures show Deir Yassin's commanding position on the road to Jerusalem Republishing one of our first postings, on the anniversary of the battle of Deir Yassin
The Arab village of Deir Yassin is the subject of one of the biggest controversies of Israel's 1948-49 War of Independence. The village, situated on the road immediately outside of Jerusalem, was part of the Arab vise putting Jerusalem under siege.
View from the trenches looking west toward
the Kastel stronghold and Tel Aviv beyond, 1917. The
caption on a similar photo reads "Kastel and Jaffa Road
from Deir Yesin Redoubt."
American Colony collection caption (1931): "Deir Yasin Turkish war trenches. West of Jerusalem,
commanding the Jaffa road." See jagged defense lines on the mountain topsIsrael's detractors portray the village as a pastoral, innocent victim of Jewish atrocities and ethnic cleansing in April 1948. Jewish fighters (Israel had not yet been founded) claim that Arab combatants were in the village. New research and Arab interviews confirm today that the civilian casualties of Deir Yassin were far fewer than claimed by Arab spokesmen.
The aerial pictures from the Library of Congress collection were taken in 1931, and possibly earlier, and show the village's strategic location. They show Deir Yassin commanding the road between Jerusalem and Jaffa - Tel Aviv as well as the Turkish-built trenches and fortified defense lines.
Another view of the trenches of Deir Yassin.
Labeled "1917?" but probably also taken in 1931
Click the pictures to enlarge, click on the caption to see the originals.0Add a comment
- APR3
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, One of the Most Influential Rabbis of the 20th Century. Did He Visit the White House 88 Years Ago?
Part One
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 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.
Evidence suggests that 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. 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."
Part Two: Rabbi Kook with Winston Churchill, the High Commissioner, Lord Balfour, and a Jewish Spy
Rabbi Kook leaving a meeting with Winston
Churchill and Emir Abdullah (1921)
Click on the photos to enlarge.
Click on the captions to see the originals.
Subscribe to receive the Israel Daily Picture via email. Enter your email address in the box in the right sidebar. It's free.1View comments
- MAR31
April 1 -- The Anniversary of Hebrew University's Opening in 1925. Republishing an Earlier Posting
The establishment of the Hebrew University on Mt. Scopus was clearly a momentous event in the minds of Zionist leaders who had dreamt of such a Jewish university since the 1880s. It was also important to the American Colony Photo Department whose collection is housed today at the Library of Congress. Their photographers shot pictures of many of the university's events.
Laying the Hebrew University foundation stone, 1918
[Many of the photographs and negatives of the American Colony collection were deteriorating when the Library digitalized them, and the images were preserved. Some of the photographs presented here show the deterioration and decay.]
The first photograph commemorates the laying of the foundation stone of the Hebrew University on July 24, 1918, just eight months after British forces captured Jerusalem in a major and bloody campaign.
On March 28, 1921, Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill visited Jerusalem and planted a tree at the Mt Scopus location of the future university. Standing behind him are the Sephardi Chief Rabbi Jacob Meir and the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. Click here to see a previous posting on Churchill's visit to Jerusalem. 
Churchill and rabbis
On April 1, 1925 a ceremony was held on Mt. Scopus to announce the official opening of the university. Lord Balfour and Chaim Weizmann, a Zionist leader who would later become Israel's first president, were among the leaders to speak at the gathering. Lord Balfour, who, serving as British Foreign Secretary, drafted the Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917. The document declared, "His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."
Balfour addressing the crowd with
the Judean Desert behind him
In the picture (right) Balfour is speaking, Weizmann is behind him on the right and the chief rabbis are behind him on the left.. Another historic picture of the event can be found here. The speaker is British High Commissioner Herbert Samuel.
University Opening, from left to right: Lord Balfour
at the podium, next to him British High Commissioner
Herbert Samuel, University Chancellor Judah Magnes,
and Chaim Weizman
Foreign delegates to the university
opening, including Balfour and Samuel
Preparing the Hebew University
amphitheater for the opening, 19250Add a comment
- MAR29
Mystery Rabbi at the American ConsulateGetting a Little Closer to Identifying Him. Can You Help?
The Library of Congress photograph collection contains many mystery photos. Captions are often wrong or just plain missing. That's not surprising considering that the 22,000 photos took a very circuitous journey from the American Colony Photographic Department to the basement of the YMCA in Jerusalem, to the United States and a California old age home, to the Library of Congress in the 1970s and eventually to the Library's digitalized library online.
"American Consulate group" (1898-1946)
This blog has been able to solve some of the photographic enigmas.
Second file, with the additional infor-
mation, "Heiser, American Consul,
fourth from left"
So we looked at the picture above as a new challenge. While the American seal is evident above the door on the left, there is no information about the group's identity or the year the picture was taken. The only data provided was that the picture, now badly deteriorated, was taken between 1898 and 1946.
Who is the rabbi?
Consul-General
Oscar HeizerBut a search of the Library digital files uncovered a second file, also deteriorated and with a broad range of dates, but with a name in the caption: "Heiser (sic), American Consul, fourth from left."
Presumably, that's Oscar S. Heizer who served as Consul General in Jerusalem between 1923 and 1928.
Earthquake damage in Jerusalem 1927
Heizer held important diplomatic positions in the Middle East at the beginning of the 20th century, including consul in Trebizond, Turkey in 1915 from where he reported on Ottoman atrocities against Armenians in letters to the American ambassador in Constantinople, Henry Morgenthau.
In July 1927, Heizer sent cables reporting on the wide devastation in Palestine caused by a major earthquake. One of cables listed the casualties: "Twenty-five were killed and 38 injured in the Jerusalem district, At Ramleh-19 killed, 28 wounded. At Nablus-15 killed, 250 wounded. At Ramallah District-3 killed. At Hebron-3 killed."Again, who is
the rabbi?So now we have the name and dates of the American consul-general. But who is the rabbi, who, we suspect from his well-tailored suit, was visiting from the United States sometime between 1923 and 1928? Was he involved in distribution of charity funds to the "Old Yishuv" in Palestine? During World War I, the American consulate played a very important role in distributing the "Haluka" funds, bypassing rapacious Turkish officials.1View comments
The Samaritan population in the Land of Israel numbered more than a million people 1,500 years ago, according to some estimates. This ancient people lived in northern Israel and claimed to have been descendants of those tribes of Israel which were not sent out into the Babylonian exile. One line of Samaritans traces their lineage back to Aaron the priest, and they consider their "holy mountain" to be Mt. Gerizim outside of Nablus (Shechem) -- not Jerusalem.
Samarian high priest Yitzhak ben Amram
ben Shalma ben Tabia (circa 1900). View
other pictures of priests here and here
Samaritan family (1899) The Samaritans worship the God of Abraham, revere a scroll comparable to the five books of Moses, and maintain Passover customs, including the sacrifice of the Pascal Lamb. The photographers of the American Colonyphotographed dozens of pictures of the Samaritans' sacrificial service.
Jews ceased the Passover sacrifice with the destruction of the second Temple.
Samaritan synagogue in Shechem
(1899). Also view here
Already in Talmudic days, Jewish authorities rejected the Samaritans' claims to be part of the Jewish people. The Cutim, according to rabbinic authorities, arrived in the Land of Israel around 720 BCE with the Assyrians from Cuth, believed to be located in today's Iraq.
Over the millennia, the Samaritans almost disappeared. Persecuted, massacred and forcibly converted by Byzantine Christians and by Islamic authorities, the Samaritans' community today numbers fewer than 1,000 who are located on Mount Gerizim near Nablus (Shechem) and in Holon, Israel.
Baking matza on Mt. Gerizim
(circa 1900)
This year, the Samaritans will celebrate their Passover on May 4, 2012.
Preparing a lamb (1900) 
"The prepared carcasses
ready for the oven" (1900)
According to Samaritan officials, the community totals 751 persons. Here is the breakdown with the first figure showing the number near Nablus (Shechem) and the second number showing the number living in Holon.
Praying on Mt. Gerizim (1900)
On January 1, 2012, the Community numbered 751 persons [353 in Kiryat Luza-Mount Gerizim, Samaria; 398 primarily in Holon in the State of Israel: 396 males [190:206] and 355 females [170: 185]. These included 350 married persons [158:192], 215 unmarried males [104:111], 153 unmarried females [70:83]; 7 widowed men [4:3]; 23 widowed women [15:8]; 2 Divorced Men [0:2]; 1 Divorced Woman [0:1].
Color photographs of a recent Passover sacrifice on Mt. Gerizim can be viewed here.
Monday, August 10, 2015
Shavuot, One of the Jewish Pilgrimage Festivals. View Christian Pilgrimages 100 Years Ago
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The Deterioration of Family Values R7
ReplyDeleteBy YJ Draiman
Since World War 2 when women were encouraged to join the work force en mass, to replace the men who went to war and keep the economy and the war effort going.
There has been a deterioration of family values and a breakdown of the family unit, a trend where a mother was not at home to take care of her children, monitor their behavior, help with the homework and discipline when and where necessary.
The advancement in technology has harmed family values. The Media and Television has totally destroyed any comprehension of values in our society. We have become a materialistic society – No holds barred.
The lack of discipline and total disregard for authority and respect is clear to anyone who has watched the past 50 years and seen our society’s values deteriorate.
One example alone is that 50 years ago a teacher was happy to go to school to teach, a teacher was respected and looked up-to, a teacher could discipline. Today teachers fear for their lives they are petrified by their students, discipline is restricted both to teachers and parents alike.
This scenario caries on to other social interactions of society today, and the situation is getting worse and worse every year.
Society is dressing more provocative and morals are almost non-existent. Modesty is a thing of the past.
You will notice that many families who come from other countries have a very strong family values, tradition, good education, respect and the children excel in their studies. That is because they have not had the chance to be influenced by our overly liberal society.
The education of our children begins at home and continues in school – the parents and the school must take a proactive approach to teach our children values and respect.
In today’s society a teacher is not permitted to discipline a student, the teachers will be sued, not to mention that teachers fears for their safety.
Parents in today’s society are also restricted as to how to discipline their children; in many cases parents are getting sued. In many cases children would never dream of treating their parents with such disrespect 50 years ago. Today some parents are afraid of their own children.
Abuse has been and will be with society to eternity that does not give society the right to prohibit discipline; a few acts of abuse should not cause society to prohibit proper discipline.
When an individual or individuals utilize a vehicle to commit a crime cause the death of others, does society prohibit vehicles altogether, no, a vehicle is very important for our everyday life.
Well, the discipline of our children by parents and teachers is extremely important for our society and the preservation of humanity.
It seems that our society is so busy chasing the dollar, fame and glory, that anything goes all values goes out the window. We should be an example of honesty, integrity and respect to our children.
Are Americans patriotic and proud enough to defend, protect and bring family values back to America? Is America ready to fight for honesty integrity and justice in our society, eliminate corruption and fraud, waste and self serving programs?
Re-invigorate our economy, rebuild our industrial base and decrease our dependence on foreign economies and resources.
YJ Draiman, Los Angeles, CA.