Picture a Day

Introducing the "Cigarbox Collection" -- Donated by Dr. Othniel Seiden of Denver -- An Heirloom from his Father, Dr. Rudolph Avraham Seiden

2013-05-17T09:22:00.000+03:00

The pictures inside

The cigarbox

A version of this article appeared in The Jerusalem Post Magazine on May 17.

By Lenny Ben-David

The antique wood cigarbox was beautifully crafted, bound like a book and entitled "Gourmet's Delight" and "Grown in California." Opening the box in Efrat, Israel, I discovered it was filled with a stack of pictures from Palestine 90-100 years ago. Almost simultaneously I received an email from a doctor in Denver which began, "I am delighted that the pictures have found a new home!"

Grave of Maimonides (Rambam) in Tiberias (circa 1920). A version of this picture also appears in the Harvard
Library archives attributed to the Central Zionist Archives

When I discovered 22,000 newly digitalized antique pictures of Eretz Yisrael in the Library of Congress archives two years ago, I immediately recognized the pictures' hasbara value. The photos showed Jewish life in the land 150 years ago, well before Herzl and the establishment of the State of Israel.

Metal worker making collection boxes for the
Jewish National Fund (Seidon collection)

A modern day JNF box

But many of the pictures were not captioned nor were the dates or locations always correct. I began a painstaking process of research and enlarging photos to identify places, people and the chronological sequences. My analyses became essays which now total more than 300 photo analyses in the Israel Daily Picture blogsite. The www.israeldailypicture.com site has attracted some 800,000 visitors, and the Library of Congress has used some of these analyses to correct its captions.

Many of the photo essays appeared in The Jerusalem Post Magazine, and I’m in discussions with a publisher about a book.

Math lesson in Machane Yehuda (the shuk area of
Jerusalem). The drill: if a worker earns 17.5 Eretz
Yisrael pounds a day, how much would he receive
for six days?

The Library of Congress archives' largest collection came from the American Colony Photographic Department in Jerusalem. Other pictures on the site were taken by some of the first pioneers of photography in the 1850s and 1860s. I have also published essays based on the photos (only after securing permission) from the archives of Harvard, the New York Public Library, and a Scottish medical school archives that contained antique pictures of the Jews of Tiberias amidst anatomical photographs of limbs, operations, and disease.

The Cigarbox Collection

Arab village of Kalkilya. The small structure (right) is
apparently a well with a woman standing with a
jug on her head

Dr. Othniel Seiden of Denver is a fan of the Israel Daily Picture and offered his exceptional collection. A friend from Efrat was going to Denver and served as courier. I was very grateful, but asked one more favor from Dr. Seiden -- that he tell the story behind the collection. His recollection follows:

My father, Dr. Rudolph Avraham Seiden, was born in 1900 and was first involved in Palestine through a Zionist organization in Vienna called Die Blau Weiss or the "Blue White." As a teen, sometime around 1919, he started smuggling Jews out of Eastern Europe into Palestine through Blau Weiss. At that time, a whole family could travel to Palestine on a family visa. The organization established a front travel agency and hired a Greek ship in order to put together strangers as families and

Matzah factory in Haifa. Sign on the wall on the right reads
"No spitting, No smoking." Sign on the left reads "For the
mitzvah of matzah" so that workers devote themselves to
the making of matzah

arranged tours to Palestine for these "large family groups." When the tourists got to Palestine they "disappeared," and their return tickets were sold to people wanting to go to Europe from Palestine.

My father's intent was to move our family to Palestine, and in the mid-1920s he went there to check things out. He was the first chemist to take minerals out of the Dead Sea, and it was his intent to set up a factory to do that. Unfortunately he contracted malaria and had to go back to Vienna.

Workshop for making wagon wheels in the Mikve Yisrael agricultural school

He still longed to move us all to Palestine, and in the late 1920s my mother's family, the Abileahs, moved there. In the meantime, he worked in Vienna and held the first patent on tempered glass.

When Hitler came to power and the Austrian Nazi Party gained status, my father suddenly couldn't publish anymore and saw the writing on the wall. In 1934, when we were planning our move, my mother's family said that life in Palestine was very difficult, and if we had a chance to go to the U.S. we should do it. In 1935 we moved to the U.S. Many of the Abileahs are still in Israel. [Othniel's uncle Beni Abileah was a well-known Israeli diplomat.]

The children of Nahalal (circa 1925)

In 1980, I started an organization called "Doctors To The World" which took medical personnel to various areas in the world to do volunteer work in needy areas. We sent dentists into villages in Israel to serve mostly Israeli Arabs and anyone else needing help. That was when I took out Israeli citizenship so I could get a medical license in Israel.

Bedouin Arab family near Lake Hula and their reed huts

My father took only some of the photos. Many were either post cards or some other stock photos. Those that had an imprint on the back [some are stamped "Keren Hayesod Photo] I assume is that of the developing and processing individual.

When I asked for formal permission to publish the photos, Dr. Seiden responded: I give you full permission to use the photos I sent you in any way you feel fit, for educational purposes, or to lend and permit to be used by other media and organizations that will use them for educational or historical purposes.

Thank you Dr. Seiden. Yes, I should name it the “Seiden Collection,” but I will always consider them the “Cigarbox Pictures.”

The Shavuot Holiday, Celebrating the Giving of the Torah

2013-05-14T13:55:00.001+03:00

Torah scrolls in the ark of the Istanbouli Synagogue in the Old City
of Jerusalem (circa 1930), "one of the oldest synagogues
in Jerusalem." The synagogues in the Old City were all
destroyed after the Jewish Quarter was captured in 1948.
(Library of Congress)

Jews around the world commemorate the holiday of Shavuot this week, the day on which tradition says the Torah was given to the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai.

The Torah -- also known as the Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses -- has been the foundation of the Jewish faith for 3,000 years, the basis for the monotheistic Christian and Islamic religions, and an inspiration for spiritual, moral and ethical values.

A Yemenite Jewish scribe and his
father, Shlomo Washadi (c 1935)

Samaritan high priest with
his sons and Pentateuch
scroll (c 1911)

The Torah scrolls are handwritten with quills by God-fearing scribes on the parchment made of the skins of kosher animals. One skipped or illegible letter of the 304,805 letters of the Torah makes the scroll invalid for reading in the synagogue service. A Torah damaged beyond repair is buried.

Doctors Herbert and David Torrance of the Scottish Mission hospital in Tiberias and the photographers of the American Colony
Photographic Department took several portraits of Jews and their Torah scrolls. They were also clearly fascinated by the scrolls and practice of the Samaritans, an ancient offshoot of Judaism who are not considered Jewish today.

Jewish rabbi or Samaritan priest with scroll

The Dundee Medical School archives in Scotland contains many anatomical pictures taken by the Torrances, but also fascinating pictures of the Galilee Jewish community. We published one photo captioned "Rabbi and Torah scroll." After we identified the picture as a Samaritan, the archives corrected their caption to "a Samaritan leader with his sect’s scroll."

A desecrated synagogue in Hebron
with Torahs strewn on the floor (1929)

The Library of Congress archives also include pictures of the Hebron Jewish community after they were decimated in a pogrom by Arab attackers. Among the photos are pictures of a destroyed synagogue and its Torah scrolls.

Enlargement of the scrolls on the floor

In Honor of the Jewish Holiday Shavuot, We Re-post -- The Book of Ruth Comes Alive in Antique Photos Taken 100 Years Ago

2013-05-14T09:55:00.000+03:00

"Ruth the Moabitess"

The Jewish holiday of Shavuot-Pentecost will be celebrated this 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 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.

And Naomi and Ruth both went on
until they arrived at Bethlehem

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.

Ruth came to a field that belonged
to Boaz who was of the family of
Naomi's deceased husband

Boaz said to his servant, who stood
over the reapers, "To whom does
this maiden belong?"

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 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 "Ruth" photographs found in the Library of Congress' American Colony collection.

Ruth carried it to the city and Naomi
saw what she had gleaned

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....

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.

See more of the pictures here.

Unfortunately, we don't know when the "Ruth and Boaz series" was photographed, but we estimate approximately 100 years ago.

Click on the pictures to enlarge, click on the caption to view the original.

"The Zionist Message Hidden within Antique Pictures of the Holy Land" -- Published by Jewish Political Studies Review

2013-05-09T23:09:00.001+03:00

Jerusalem's Old City

The journal article by Lenny Ben-David, the publisher of Israel Daily Picture, is based on the pictures of the Library of Congress archives and the American Colony photographers.

The Jewish Political Studies Review article discusses the importance of historical photographs for the study of Jewish life in the Holy Land in the 19th and 20th centuries. The following is the introduction to the article:

Harvesting at Jewish settlement

A 110-year-old trove of pictures taken by the Christian photographers of the American Colony in Jerusalem provides dramatic proof of thriving Jewish communities in Palestine. Hundreds of pictures show the ancient Jewish community of Jerusalem’s Old City and the Jewish pioneers and builders of new towns and settlements in the Galilee and along the Mediterranean coastline. The American Colony photographers recorded Jewish holy sites, holiday scenes and customs, and they had a special reason for focusing their lenses on Yemenite Jews.

Yemenite Jew

Students in Mikve Yisrael
agricultural school

The collection, housed in the U.S. Library of Congress, also contains photographs from the 1860s, the first years of photography.

These photographs provide a window rarely opened by historians—for several unfortunate reasons—to view the life of the Jews in the Holy Land. The photographs’ display and online publication effectively counter the biased narrative claiming that the Jewish state violently emerged ex novo in the mid-twentieth century.

News from Israel Daily Picture

2013-05-09T07:31:00.002+03:00

We reach 800,000 visitors this week!

Opening the cigarbox

From the "Cigarbox Collection"

We Unveil the
Cigarbox Collection" and reveal details on the donor.

Are you a subscriber yet? Enter your email in the box on the right.

Perhaps the Weirdest Picture of Jerusalem in the Library of Congress Archives

2013-05-08T06:59:00.000+03:00

The Temple Mt -- in St Louis, Mo. (1904, Library of Congress)
The caption reads "Walls of Jerusalem and Ferris Wheel"

Why is there a Ferris wheel on the Temple Mount in 1904?

Because this picture is not taken in Jerusalem, but at the St. Louis, Mo. World's Fair in the United States.

The Fair was dedicated to the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 (but was delayed until 1904).

The World's Fair attracted pavilions from all over the world and almost 20 million visitors. But, as explained in Wikipedia, "the grand, neo-Classical exhibition palaces were temporary structures, designed to last but a year or two. They were built with a material called 'staff',' a mixture of plaster of Paris and hemp fibers, on a wood frame."

Author Shalom Goldman writes in his book, "God's Sacred Tongue: Hebrew & the American Imagination,

"At the 1904 World's Fair, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, there was a massive model of Jerusalem's Old City. It sprawled over 10 acres of the fairgrounds and included grand models of the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. As Israeli scholar Rechav Rubin remarked: 'the most astonishing fact about the enterprise is that several hundred people, Moslems, Jews, and Christians, were brought from Jerusalem to St. Louis. There they lived and worked within the model, dressed in their colorful costumes... and had to entertain and guide the visitors through its streets and sites.'"

The Train to Jerusalem -- Readers' Reactions and a Special Bonus: The First Motion Picture Made in the Holy Land

2013-05-07T21:49:00.001+03:00

Jerusalem train station (circa 1900, Library of Congress)

Two fans of Israel Daily Picture made two very important points:

1. Ehud wrote, "You might note that the first train in the Holy Land was a Jewish initiative."

Ehud, you're right. Here's an abstract of the article you recommended. Already in 1838, Jewish financier Moses Montefiore raised the idea of a train. He lobbied the British prime minister and the Ottoman grand vizier in 1856. A year later he brought a British engineer to Palestine to survey a route. After his wife died in 1864, however, Montefiore gave up his dream.

But the idea was kept alive by a Jewish businessman from Jerusalem, Joseph Navon, who in 1885 lobbied the Ottoman authorities to build the train line and secured funds to finance the construction.

Enlargement from the picture above

2. Hillel wrote: When I looked at the station over the years, I noticed the 'Jerusalem' name on the second floor of the station's side is in English and Arabic and centered

The sign today (Credit: Jerusalem
History in Pictures)

below (apparently added later, judging from the appearance), in Hebrew. Now, I see the picture with the English and Arabic names, but none in Hebrew, and my deduction was proved correct.

Special feature: An earlier posting of the First Motion Picture taken in the Holy Land -- Filmed from a Train in Jerusalem

Scene from first movie

Railroad Station (1900)

Auguste Lumière and Louis Lumière were photographic inventors who began to experiment with motion pictures in the early 1890s.

The Frenchmen's first footage was recorded in March 1895. In 1897, they produced the first motion picture made in the Holy Land, a 51-second film from a train leaving Jerusalem station.

Click on the picture to see the film or view an annotated version of the film which answers the question, "Who were the residents of Jerusalem when the film was made?"

[Do not adjust the sound on your computer; this is a silent movie.]

Note in the background the windmill in the Jewish neighborhood of Yemin Moshe built by Moses Montefiore in 1860.

Keeping the Trains Running in Palestine Was Not So Easy

2013-05-03T15:15:00.001+03:00

Train being turned in the Jerusalem train station (circa 1900)

The first train to Jerusalem was inaugurated in 1892 during the Ottoman rule of Palestine. The steep climb from Jaffa through the mountains to Jerusalem was slow and dangerous. The sharp curves meant frequent derailments.

These pictures come from the Library of Congress' American Colony collection.

The rail system in the Holy Land was also a hodgepodge of different rail widths. The original rail to Jerusalem was 1 meter wide. Some rail lines from Cairo were standard gauge (1.435 meter); others were part of the Hejaz railroad (1.050 meter). And during Britain's campaign in Palestine against the Turks they introduced temporary narrow gauge (600 mm) rail lines from Jaffa and between Jerusalem and Ramallah.

Narrow gauge line in Jaffa, built on
a wider road bed. Jews were expelled
from Jaffa by the Turks in World War I
and rails were removed for use in the
Turkish war effort. This picture, therefore,
is almost certainly taken soon after the war.

Australian army engineers in two
light locomotives near Jerusalem (1918)

As the British pushed the Turks out of Palestine they rebuilt the rail lines destroyed by the Turks. In the case of the "temporary" Jerusalem-Ramallah line, they used narrow gauge rails. By 1920 they had rebuilt the Jaffa-Jerusalem line with standard gauge.

The re-dedication of the line was celebrated by the British High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel who apparently drove the locomotive between Jaffa and Lod.

British High Commissioner Sir
Herbert Samuel driving in the last
spike in Jaffa (1920)

Military, temporary light train between
Jerusalem and Ramallah, near the
Tomb of the Judges and view here (1918)

Samuel at the controls of the train
opening the Jaffa-Jerusalem route
(October 5, 1920)

Samuel responding to the crowds lining the train route

The Library of Congress captions this picture "A crowd of
men and women" and dates it as between 1925 and 1946. It
is almost certainly Samuel's dedication, probably at Lod,
in 1920. (All pictures are from the Library of Congress)

Email subscribers can view this entry at
www.israeldailypicture.com

Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on captions to view the original pictures.

Reposting: Jews Celebrate Lag B'Omer This Week. How was it commemorated 90 years ago?

2013-04-28T08:00:00.000+03:00

Meron and tomb of Shimon BarYochai

(circa 1930)

Today Jews around the world are celebrating Lag B'Omer, the end of a month-long mourning period when traditional Jews refrain from weddings or joyous gatherings. The mourning remembers the thousands of students of Rabbi Akiva, a reknowned spiritual leader at the time of the Talmud. They died in a great plague that ended on Lag B'Omer.

Dancing at the Meron tomb (Central Zionist Archives,
Harvard Library, 1925)

The tomb on the hill (enlarged)

In Israel, Lag B'Omer is celebrated with bonfires, hikes along nature trails, and gatherings at the tombs of of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in the Galilee town of Meron and of Shimon the Just (Hatzaddik) in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Bar Yochai, a student of Rabbi Akiva's, was known for his opposition to the Roman rule in the Land of Israel. He and his son were forced to flee to the Galilee where they hid in a cave for 12 years. Lag B'Omer is the day of his death, but it is actually celebrated in recognition of the Torah teachings he gave over to his students.

Hundreds of thousands of celebrants are expected to visit Shimon Bar Yochai's tomb in Meron by Wednesday night.

Shimon Hatzaddik was a High Priest of the second Temple in Jerusalem for 40 years.

Jewish women praying at the Shimon

Hatzaddik tomb (Central Zionist

Archives, Harvard Library, c. 1930)

Jews gathered at Shimon Hatzaddik's tomb in Sheikh Jarrah,
Jerusalem (Central Zionist Archives, Harvard Library,
c. 1930)

According to Jewish tradition, Shimon clothed himself in his High Priest's vestments to receive Alexander the Great as he marched toward Jerusalem. Alexander stepped from his chariot and bowed to Shimon, who, he said, had appeared to him in a dream predicting his victories.

Children's Lag B'Omer procession
near Shimon Hatzaddik's tomb (1918)

Shimon Hatzaddik's tomb today

Many traditional Jews who cannot travel to Meron in the Galilee celebrate Lag B'Omer at Shimon Hatzaddik's tomb located in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in northern Jerusalem.

Jewish homes around the tomb had to be evacuated in the 1948 fighting. In recent years Jewish families have returned to the neighborhood.

Today's feature is dedicated to M & Y on the occasion of their 45th anniversary

This 1,000-Year-Old Minaret Was Destroyed in Aleppo Syria Last Week

2013-04-28T00:23:00.002+03:00

The minaret of the Great Mosque in Aleppo,
circa 1910. (Library of Congress, American Colony
collection)

The horrific bloodshed in Syria continues without any restraint. More than 80,000 civilians have been killed, and unknown numbers are missing and wounded. More than one million civilians are refugees.

With few signs of international action to stop the terrible harm to flesh and blood, we add another reminder here of the catastrophe: the great destruction to the mortar and stone of Syria's magnificent historical heritage. The minaret was built almost 1,000 years ago as part of Aleppo's Great Mosque.

In fighting between President Assad's army and Syrian rebels last week the ancient minaret was destroyed.

The destroyed minaret, photo taken last week by
Associated Press

View other historical features on the ancient cities of Syria

Homs and Hama in Syria

Tribute to the People of Syria

Damascus Revolt 1895

Damascus Revolt 1925

Ancient Aleppo

The "Cigarbox Collection" Part 3 -- the Arabs of Palestine, and a Clarification

2013-04-26T18:08:00.001+03:00

A Bedouin family near the Hula Lake. Homes were made from reeds. The
lake was partially drained in the late 1800s. Later Jewish efforts drained the
malarial swamps. (circa 1920)

An Arab street in Haifa, ironically called "al Yahud" (the
Jews) street, according to a note on the picture's back (c 1920)

The village of Kalkilya. Enlarging the photo shows a woman
with a jug on her head, suggesting the structure is a well

Among the photographs we received in the "Cigarbox Collection" are several pictures of Arab life in Palestine approximately 100 years ago.

Days before our formal "opening" of the collection, we continue to provide previews.

Today's pictures come from the Arab communities in Kalkilya, Haifa and the Hula Valley.

Mishmar Ha'emek from the 1920s
(Keren Hayesod)

Clarification

We previously posted this picture from the Cigarbox Collection. Some of the pictures, such as this one, bear a stamp on the back saying "Photo Keren Hayesod." The Central Zionist Archives contains some 50,000 pictures from the organization which was established in 1920.

We discovered this picture in the Harvard Library files, but it was dated "1948-1946." We suggest that the photograph, part of other pictures in the Cigarbox Collection, was taken in 1926, soon after Mishmar Ha'emek's establishment.

More Treasures from the "Cigarbox Collection" -- Part 2

2013-04-23T00:56:00.000+03:00

The cigarbox collection

We continue to scan and research the treasure trove of photographs donated to Israel Daily Picture, pictures taken by the donor's father in the Land of Israel in the first decades of the 20th century. We hope to unveil the collection and the donor's account in his own words in the near future.

Meanwhile, we present two more special pictures and a response to yesterday's picture from Yizraela, an octogenarian from Nahalal, who is an expert on the early days of the community and its photographs.

Kibbutz Mishmar Haemek in the Jezreel Valley (circa 1926) with Mt Tabor in the background.
The community was evacuated briefly during the 1929 Arab riots. In the 1948 war it was attacked by
Arab artillery and aircraft.

Young women doing laundry. A notation on the back of the photo says that they are Yemenites. Are they Jewish? The talit prayer shawl in the tub suggests that they are. (circa 1920)

The talit

Yizraela Bloch (named for the "Jezreel" Valley where she was born) is the photo archivist of Nahalal. The spry octogenarian was shown yesterday's photo of the children of Nahalal and asked if one of the boys could be Moshe Dayan.

The children of Nahalal and their teacher

She responded: "Moshe Dayan couldn't be one of the children in the picture because you can see the water tower that was built in 1924 in the background. The building in the foreground was the kindergarten and behind it the first grade class room. In 1924 Moshe Dayan would have been older than the kids in the picture." [Dayan was born in 1915.]

Confirming the unique nature of the "Cigarbox collection," Yizraela was very interested in the photograph which she doesn't have in the archive collection. She was also surprised that she didn't know the kindergarten teacher in the photo.

Our special thanks to NSP for interviewing Yizraela.

Coming Soon: The "Cigarbox Collection" -- a Family Heirloom of Incredible Pictures

2013-04-21T22:15:00.000+03:00

A book? No, a cigarbox

An avid reader of this site has allowed Israel Daily Picture to become "home" to his incredible collection of pictures of the Land of Israel assembled almost 100 years ago by his father. We received the collection in an old cigarbox this week and are in the process of digitalizing the high resolution pictures, translating German captions, and identifying those pictures without captions.

The contents of the cigarbox

More on the collection and the generous owner of the collection will be provided soon.

Meanwhile, here are several preview samples:

The children of Nahalal (circa 1920s). It is possible that one of these boys was Moshe Dayan who was born in 1915?

.A matzah factory in Haifa. The signs on the left read "For the purpose of the commandment of matzah" --
a reminder to the workers to keep their intentions on the commandment. The signs on the right, in Hebrew and
French, read "No smoking" and "No Spitting"

Smoking and spitting are prohibited

"For the matzah mitzva"

World War II Comes to Palestine, Italian POWs in the Land of Israel

2013-04-21T01:27:00.000+03:00

Italian prisoners of war under British guard arrive by train in Palestine 1940
(Library of Congress)

World War II's Jewish history focuses on the terrible Holocaust in Europe with relatively small footnotes about the Nazi persecution of Jews in North Africa, Haj Amin el-Husseini's conspiracies in Berlin, and the Italian air force bombing of Tel Aviv in September 1940.

POWs lining up for food

The Holocaust's genocide could also have included the 500,000 Jews of Palestine if the British army had not stopped German General Rommel's Afrika Korps blitzkrieg across northern Africa in November 1942 in the battle of Alamein. According to the British Independent, German historians discovered that the "Nazis stationed a unit of SS troops in Athens, tasked with following invading frontline troops in Palestine and then rounding up and murdering about 500,000 European Jews who had taken refuge there." The SS would have been aided by Arab collaborators promised by el-Husseini.

POW's food line

Palestine played a different role in 1940, early in the war. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, allied with Germany, ordered his troops stationed in Cyrenaica (Libya) to attack British forces in Egypt and capture the Suez Canal. Out-numbered British and Australian forces blocked the attack and pushed back the Italian army. It was a crushing defeat for Italy, and more than 100,000 soldiers were captured.

Where were the Italian POWs taken?

The American Colony's photographs from the Library of Congress' collection showed that thousands of Italian POWs were taken to Palestine by train, presumably from Egypt.

The photographs were taken at the Wadi Sarer train station in December 1940. The station, inside Israel, is an old Ottoman building that has been abandoned.

Wadi Sarer train station in the background

POWs on the march

The old train station was a recent photographic subject for photographer Gunther Hartnagel. We have been unable to make contact with Mr. Hartnagel to obtain permission to use his photographs, but they can be viewed here.

Introducing David Blick of Brooklyn, Private in the Jewish Legion, Palestine, April 8, 1918 - March 18, 1920

2013-04-12T18:02:00.000+03:00

Private David Blick, Jewish Legion

David Blick was born in Odessa in 1893. In 1913 he left Russia, briefly lived in France, and then moved to the United States. In New York he enlisted in the British army's Jewish Legion and was assigned to the Royal Fusiliers.

We thank Yakov Marks and his wife, Rena Chaya Brownstein Marks, for providing these pictures of her maternal grandfather, David Blick. Yakov noted, "While camped in the

David and Rachel Blick standing on
what appears to be a boat (in
Haifa harbor?)

area of Rishon LeZion, David met and later married Rachel Churgin of Yaffo. They were forced to leave Eretz Yisrael by the British."

Here is David Blicks' autobiographical account that he provided to the Album of the Jewish Legion:

I was born in Odessa Russia on February 23, 1896. I attended both a yeshiva and gymnasium in that city. Early in 1913 I left Russia and settled in Paris, France for a year and a half. In July, [1915?] I migrated to United States. For the first three years I lived in the city of Boston and I was an active member of the Poale Zion Party.

Early in 1918 I joined the Jewish Legion and served in Eretz Yisrael with the 39th Battalion Royal Fusiliers. During my service in Israel I met and married my wife Rachel Churgin.

In February 1920 I left Israel first for England and then in the United States. I have lived in the United States since 1920....

Pvt. David Blick's Jewish Legion unit in Eretz Yisrael

More photographs from the Blick/Marks family album

The Royal Fusiliers on the way to action

Blick's unit.

David Blick's army discharge papers

Click on pictures to enlarge.

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The Missionary Doctor and the Jews, Medicine in Tiberias 100 Years Ago

2013-04-07T00:22:00.001+03:00

Dr. Herbert Torrance visits Tiberias residents

The University of Dundee medical school in Scotland has posted the photos taken by two missionary doctors who established a hospital in Tiberias. Below is the university's own description:

The Torrance collection, which includes thousands of photographs and color slides of Israel, Palestine and medical illnesses, has now been fully updated on our online catalogue. The photographs were taken by David Torrance and his son Herbert Torrance who established a hospital in Tiberius in 1885 which lasted for over a hundred years helping the local communities.

Jewish patient in bed (circa 1930)

In recent months we posted several photo essays on the hospital, including incredible pictures dating back over 100 years.

But we were intrigued by a Christian Mission -- albeit a hospital -- in the midst of the very traditional Jewish residents of Tiberias.

We found an answer on a Hebrew Internet site by Avshalom Shachar called "נופים ותרבויות --Vistas and Cultures."

The Jews initially banned [cherem] the hospital, and rabbis prohibited their disciples from being aided in the place because of its missionary nature. However, the outbreak of cholera in the city in 1902 caused hundreds of casualties (including the doctor's wife) and led many Jews to seek out the services of the hospital and Dr. Torrance who, despite his wife's death, continued to treat patients diligently and earned great respect.

When Dr. Torrance died in 1923, the rabbi of Tiberias eulogized him: "Tiberias was blessed with three things: the Sea of Galilee, the Tiberias hot springs, and Dr. Torrance."

Today's posting is dedicated to Dr. A.K. with wishes for a speedy recovery -- Your "Kids"

Jewish and Arab boy, bladder stone cases (1933)

Muslim, Jew and Christian with bladder stones (1929)

The Jewish Legion, Part 3, The Liberators

2013-03-29T16:30:00.002+03:00

The caption on this Wikipedia photo reads "Jewish Legion soldiers at the Western Wall after British conquest, 1917." Was the
photo taken in 1917 after the British captured the city in December, in which case this was a group of Jewish soldiers from various
units, or after June 1918 when the Jewish Legion was first dispatched to Palestine?

Jewish soldiers liberating the Kotel 50 years
later (Rubinger, Government Press Office)

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, with some sources claiming the majority of them were from Canada. Many of them were originally from Poland or Russia.

The original caption reads "Jewish League Fort Edward Nova Scotia 1918." We
believe the photo was taken on Yom Kippur a year earlier in September 1917,
one month after the "draft" of soldiers for the Jewish Legion began in Canada.
By September 1918 the Jewish Legion was already in Palestine.

Leon Cheifetz, Legionnaire

One Legionnaire was Leon Cheifetz from Montreal who enlisted before the age of 18. Cheifetz assembled an album with dozens of pictures and biographies of many of the Canadians who fought with him.

A group of Jewish Legionnaires in Ben Shemen from
the Cheifetz album

Unfortunately, the huge Library of Congress collection of Palestine pictures has few photographs of the Legionnaires.

The pictures in this series of essays come from various other collections, and we hope to receive more from the descendants of soldiers who served in the Legion.

More on the Jewish Legion in Palestine, 1917 - 1919, The Virtually Unknown Commander, Lazar Margolin

2013-03-27T20:44:00.000+02:00

Colonel Margolin riding into the Jewish village of Ben Shemen
(Wikipedia, public domain)

In our last posting on the Jewish Legion we published this photo of the "Jewish Legion entering a Jewish village in the Land of Israel." We have subsequently discovered more information about the photograph.

The picture shows Colonel Eliezer "Lazar" Margolin riding into Ben Shemen. Margolin, a Russian-Palestinian-Australian, was a decorated officer who succeeded John H. Patterson as the commander of the Jewish Legion.

Colonel E. Margolin
(Harvard-Central
Zionist Archives)

Margolin was born in Russia in 1874 and moved to a small farm in Rechovot Palestine with his parents when he was 17. He was proficient in Hebrew, Arabic, marksmanship and riding. Years later he was known as a figure who "rides his horse like a Bedouin, and shoots like an Englishman."

Margolin's parents died, leaving him destitute. He left for Australia in 1902 to find his fortune but not before he swore on this parents graves that he would be

February 22, 1918, The 38th battalion of the Jewish Legion
marches in the streets of London before leaving for the
Middle East. British Jews lined the route to cheer.

back to fight the Turkish occupiers. He joined the Australian army in 1911 and fought with valor in Gallipoli (1915) and France (1916-17) where he was wounded. In 1918, Lieutenant-Colonel Margolin took command of the Jewish Legion and participated in the Palestine campaign against the Turks.

Just a few months after the Balfour Declaration in November 1917, a Jewish battalion of the Jewish Legion marched in London. Zev Jabotinsky, who had encouraged Margolin to take the command post, described the scene: "Tens of thousands of Jews crowded the streets, the windows, the balconies, the roofs. Blue-white flags were over every shop door; there were women crying for joy and old Jews with fluttering beards murmuring the prayer of thanksgiving: 'Blessed are Thou, O Lord our God, Who hast permitted us to live to see this day."

[After publication of our first posting on the Jewish Legion in Palestine during World War I, we had several fascinating responses from readers who had old family pictures of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers who served in the Legion. We invite them to scan the photos and send them for publication. Please make sure to provide details with the pictures.]

In May 1921, Margolin commanded the "First Jewish Battalion of Judea" police unit, and he faced a terrible challenge (as described in the biography of Margolin's predecessor, Col. David Patterson):

Colonel Margolin's SOS to British headquarters for arms to defend the Jaffa Jews had been turned down. So, with his approval, fellow Legionnaires broke into the munitions depot, seized weapons, rushed to Jaffa where former Legionnaires joined them, and killed 16 Arabs and drove off hundreds. The Arabs had killed 27 Jews and wounded 106.

The British declared martial law, and Margolin submitted his resignation. High Commissioner Herbert Samuel gave him two choices: to face a court-martial...or to leave Palestine immediately. Margolin chose to leave and returned to Australia.

For more information on Colonel Eliezer Margolin see:

Australian Dictionary of Biography - Eliezer Margolin

An Anzac - Zionist Hero, The Life of Lt. Col. Eliezer Margolin, by Rodney Gouttman

Wishing All Our Jewish Readers a Happy Passover Are You a Subscriber Yet?

2013-03-25T14:06:00.001+02:00

Children baking matzah in kindergarten in Palestine. The teacher is in the center and it appears there's a
tiny oven in front of her (Harvard/Central Zionist Archives, circa 1920)

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The Jewish Legion Celebrates Passover in Palestine in World War I

2013-03-25T00:10:00.000+02:00

The British army captured Jerusalem from the Turks in December 1917 and continued their Palestine campaign for another year until the capture of Damascus. Meanwhile, the Jewish Legion, consisting of Jewish volunteers, sat in Cairo chafing at the bit to join the fight in Palestine. They finally joined Allenby's forces in June 1918 and fought against the Turks in the Jordan River Valley.

The Jewish Battalion, a Passover Seder in Jerusalem, 1919. (Harvard, Central Zionist Archives) The photo is signed by
Ya'akov Ben-Dov who moved to Palestine in 1907 from Kiev. He was drafted into the Ottoman army during World War I and
served as a photographer in Jerusalem. Ben-Dov filmed Allenby's entry into Jerusalem in 1917.

The Jewish battalions of the Jewish Legion were manned by volunteers from Palestine, Europe, the United States and Canada, soldiers stirred by the call to action by Zionist leaders Zev Jabotinsky and Yosef Trumpeldor. Colonel John Henry Patterson, the unit's first commanding officer, described the Legion:

Recruiting poster for Jewish soldiers

"The Jewish Legion was the name for five battalions of Jewish volunteers established as the British Army's 38th through 42nd (Service) Battalions of the Royal Fusiliers. The initial unit, known as the Zion Mule Corps, was formed in 1914-1915 during World War I, when Britain was at war against the Ottoman Turks, as Zionists around the world saw an opportunity to promote the idea of a Jewish National Homeland."

Soldiers from the Jewish Battalion on Passover in Jerusalem. The
caption in the Harvard/Central Zionist Archives lists the date as
1918. The Hebrew inscription behind the soldiers reads "Pesach
Jerusalem 5678" which corresponds to 1917-1918.

The photograph of the soldiers sitting in Jerusalem is something of a mystery.

It is dated 1918, but the Jewish Legion was still based in Cairo in the spring of 1918. Examining the head gear of the soldiers suggests the group consisted of Jewish fighters from various units -- British, Australian cavalry, and Scottish -- who assembled to participate in the Passover seder in Jerusalem prior to the Jewish Legion arriving in Palestine.

16-year-old volunteer Yitzak Jacov Liss
from "Diary of a Young Soldier" by
Jeanne Samuels

More information on the Jewish Legion is available in We Are Coming, Unafraid: The Jewish Legions and the Promised Land in the First World War by Dr. Michael Keren, professor of Political Science, and Dr. Shlomit Keren, professor of History and Israel Studies, at the University of Calgary. They present personal diaries, letters and memoirs of soldiers who fought in the Jewish Legions. "In the First World War, many small nationalities joined the war in order to ensure self-determination when it was over. This was also the case with the Jewish battalions,” writes Shlomit Keren.

"Jewish Legion enters a Jewish village in the Land of Israel" from
"We Are Coming, Unafraid"

Indeed, the Jewish Legion ignited the spirit for the Jewish self-defense forces in Palestine that evolved eventually into the Israel Defense Forces.

Read more about Colonel Patterson and the Jewish Legion at The Seven Lives of Colonel Patterson: How an Irish Lion Hunter Led the Jewish Legion to Victory.

View a previous posting on Yemenite Passover Seder in Jerusalem

Photographing Biblical Prohibitions in the Holy Land -- continued

2013-03-17T23:23:00.000+02:00

"Thou shall not plow with
an ox and an ass together."
לא תַחֲרֹשׁ בְּשׁוֹר וּבַחֲמֹר יַחְדָּו
Deuteronomy 20 (circa 1890)
-- from an earlier posting

We noted previously that the American Colony photographers took many pictures of plowing practices of the Arab community in Palestine. The photographers were good Christians, and their pictures were probably meant to show Biblical prohibitions such as animal threshing wheat while muzzled or mismatched animals under a yoke pulling a plow.

View the earlier feature here.

Recently, we discovered in the medical archives of the Dundee University in Scotland the picture below with the same subjects -- an ox and a donkey pulling a plow. The picture was taken by the head of the Scots Mission Hospital in Tiberias, Herbert Torrance, who was both a doctor and a Christian missionary who undoubtedly also knew his Bible well.

"Plowing with an ox and an ass" (April, 1929, Torrance Collection, University of Dundee)

2013-03-17T01:38:00.000+02:00

Now approaching our 750,000th visitor!

Solomon's Pools -- (Continued) -- Jerusalem's 'Swimming Hole'

2013-03-14T16:48:00.000+02:00

"Solomon's pools becomes a picnic and swimming resort. Group of bathers"
(Library of Congress)

Some 20 years ago, Tel Aviv's Mayor Shlomo Lahat "gave" one of his beaches to Jerusalem's mayor Teddy Kollek. Ostensibly, "Jerusalem Beach" is the closest beach to Jerusalem and those citizens who want to drive the 40 kilometers to swim and splash.

But Jerusalem has had huge swimming pools nearby for 2,000 years, and the photographers of the American Colony filmed the Jerusalem residents who flocked to Solomon's Pools in the 1940s.

Solomon's Pools -- Picnic and Swimming Resort
and here (circa 1940, Library of Congress)

Cars arriving from Jerusalem and concession stand
(Library of Congress)

From 1948 until 1967 the area was occupied by Jordan, and Israelis could not travel to Solomon's Pools. The area, of course, was open to local Arab residents.

After the 1967 War, the area was reopened and Jerusalemites and residents of the local Jewish communities would visit the pools for picnics and to swim.

After the Oslo Agreements, Solomon's Pools were granted to the Palestinian Authority. Since the mid-1990s, Jewish groups have been able to visit only with special permission and escort by Israel's army. Foreign tourists can reach the site without restrictions from Palestinian-controlled Bethlehem.

Recommended reading (in Hebrew) סיפורן של אמות המים לירושלים The Story of the Water Supply to Jerusalem from "All About Jerusalem," Israeli Tour Guide Course. Photographs by Tamar Hayardeni and Ron Peled whose comments and photos have appeared in these postings in the past.

Are You a Fan of Novelist Daniel Silva? Make Sure to Read The Fallen Angel with Our Pictures Nearby

2013-03-11T15:41:00.000+02:00

Bestselling novelist Daniel Silva has written a dozen books based on the exploits of Gabriel Allon, a fictional Israeli spy.

Under the al Aqsa Mosque, behind the sealed
Hulda Gate. Note the staircase that apparently
led to the surface and the Temple plaza
(circa 1927)

His latest page-turner, The Fallen Angel (Harper Collins), takes place in Rome and Jerusalem.

Newly-released photo from Israel Archaeological Authority
archives. Stairs and passage under the Temple Mount (circa 1927)

The cave under the "foundation stone" and the Dome
of the Rock on the Temple Mount. Woodcut in explorer
Col. Charles Wilson's book, 1881

Silva's books are always well-researched, and if you've read The Fallen Angel or plan to read it, keep these links containing rare pictures of subterranean Jerusalem close by. On this page is a sampling of the pictures.

View postings and photographs at Israel Daily Picture's

Solomon's Pools South of Jerusalem. 150 Years of Photos

2013-03-10T15:08:00.000+02:00

Solomon's Pools. The photo from the Library of Congress archives is dated
between 1860 and 1880. No photographer is credited for the photo. The photo
and handwritten caption are similar to photos by Felix Bonfils (1831-1885).

Solomon seemed to have had a lot of property around Jerusalem.

Solomon's Temple, of course, was located on the Temple Mount and was actually built by King Solomon. After its destruction at the hands of the Babylonians, it was covered by rubble, then two versions of the Second Jewish Temple, a Roman pagan shrine, a church and a Muslim shrine.

Around Jerusalem one can see other ancient sites with Solomon's name

Solomon's Quarries,

Solomon's pools, north of Efrat, south of Bethlehem and east of
Route 60. (Google Earth)
Solomon's Prayer Place,
Solomon's Stables,
and Solomon's Pools

Other than the First Temple, none of them had any real association with King Solomon.

By the time of the Second Temple in the Hasmonean/Roman period, the man-made reservoirs at "Solomon's Pools" south of Jerusalem were vital for providing water for the burgeoning population of Jerusalem and the many tens of thousands who made pilgrimages to Jerusalem on festivals.

Solomon's pools (circa 1900) in a rare
colored photochrom picture

The local springs and cisterns in Jerusalem could not possibly provide enough water for all their needs as well as for the sacrificial service and hygiene required in the Temple and the city. The springs to the south could provide a bountiful supply despite their location some 30-40 kilometers away, but a massive engineering project of aqueducts was required to convey the water from near what is today Efrat, south of Bethlehem. The water flowed from pools slightly higher than Jerusalem through the many kilometers of aqueduct built with a relatively tiny 0.08 degree angle of decline!

Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on captions to view the original pictures.

Water from the Biyar Spring
flows into one of Solomon's
Pools (circa 1935)

Water flowing through the mountains via
ancient aqueduct to Solomon's Pools
(circa 1939)

The water aqueduct system begins some 10 km south of Solomon's Pools at the Arrub Spring, and included a collection pool at the Biyar Spring west of Efrat. From there the water in the aqueduct flowed north to the first of the pools 4.7 kilometers.

The pools are massive reservoirs built to hold water from the south and the Eitam spring to the east. The largest is 177 meters long, 60 meters wide, and 15 meters deep. Parts of the ancient aqueduct system are still visible.

Tomorrow: -- Solomon's Pools in the 20th Century