1857 picture, original caption: "The Tomb of David. This building was formerly a Christian Church; it is of great
antiquity, and much venerated by the Muslims, who allow no Christian to enter the Tomb. There is also
in the building a room which is said to be that in which [Jesus' Last] Supper was instituted. (Robertson
Beato & Co photographers, Palestine Exploration Fund)
"Modernity meets antiquity" explains the discovery of most of the photographs that appear inwww.IsraelDailyPicture.com. As more and more archives and libraries digitalize the photographs in their collections, they put them online. The pictures presented on this site come from the Library of Congress, the Palestine Exploration Fund, Emory University, the Central Zionist Archives, New York Public Library, and even the archives at the medical school of the University of Dundee, Scotland.
King David's Tomb (circa 1900). The original caption
said it was a "Tabernacle."
The 156-year-old photo above predates those we presented two years ago from the Library of Congress' collection. We reproduce that feature below and add a comment on the rediscovered "holiness" of the site.
Tomb exterior (circa 1900)
A thousand-year-old Jewish tradition believes that King David is buried in a tomb on Mt. Zion. And that is one of the reasons the belief is questioned by some Bible scholars.
The Bible (Kings I, 2:10) states that David and his descendants were buried in the City of David, generally believed to be south of the Temple Mount, not on Mt. Zion to the West.
The Tomb interior (circa 1900)
The Jewish tradition has taken hold over the last millennium, and the tomb is revered by many Jews, as evident in the Library of Congress' 100 year old picture.
King David's Tomb was particularly important from 1948 until 1967 when the Western Wall, the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb were all under Jordanian control and forbidden to Jews. The Mt. Zion site was the closest Jews could get to the Western Wall.Adjacent to the Hagia Sion Abbey
(formerly the Dormition Abbey), the tomb is located beneath the room where, according to Christian belief, Jesus conducted his Last Supper.
Chamber of the Last Supper (circa 1900)
Comment from Reader "Lynne": The outcome of Israel's [1948] War of Independence was the main catalyst for the creation of a new map of Jewish pilgrimage sites. Places of only secondary importance before the war [such as King David's Tomb] now turned into central centers due to the realization of the importance of them. Previously, there was so much emphasis placed upon the re-establishment of the state of Israel (after having not been a nation for 2,000 years) and the re-establishment of the habitability of the land that the task of preserving the Biblical holy sites had not been a priority. Several categories of the sacred sites are discussed herein: sites in the possession of Jews before the 1948 war that were developed during the 1950s as central centers; sacred sites stolen by Muslims prior to the war, which were rightfully converted back into Jewish sacred sites during the 1950s; and new Jewish pilgrimage sites re-established after the establishment of the State of Israel. The research demonstrates how various official, semi-official, and popular powers took part in the re-establishing of the Jewish sacred space. [Source: Article by Doron Bar,Reconstructing the Past: The Creation of Jewish Sacred Space in the State of Israel, 1948–1967, Israel Studies - Volume 13, Number 3, Fall 2008, pp. 1-21]
We are again thankful to the Marks family for sharing pictures of their Jewish "Palestinian" family from the start of the 20th century, including the picture above of Rachel Churgin's graduating class.
Earlier this year we featured the Marks' pictures of Pvt. David Blick, an American who joined the British Jewish Legion to fight the German-Turkish army in Palestine. Blick was one of 500 Jewish Americans and Canadians who fought for the liberation of the Holy Land. According to Blick's biography, "While camped in the area of Rishon LeZion [see here photos related to the battle for Rishon in 1918], he met and later married Rachel Churgin of Yaffo. They were forced to leave Eretz Yisrael by the British."
Students from the Gymnasia visiting Rachel's Tomb (circa 1920,
Wiki Commons)
The Hebrew Gymnasia Herzliya was formed in 1905 and was the first Hebrew-language high school in modern history. We suggest that the date, 1900, written in the caption of Marks' photo of the school's first graduating class is mistaken by 10-15 years, considering that Rachel married David around 1919. [He was discharged from the British Army in 1920.]
The Gymnasia produced several of Israel's prominent leaders, such as Moshe Sharett, Israel's second prime minister.
Its first building, constructed in 1909, stood as a Tel Aviv landmark for half a century. It was torn down in 1959 to make way for the Shalom Tower.
Gymnasia Herzliya (circa 1920, Library of Congress)
View a film of the Gymnasia in 1913, starting at 8:45 in a rare hour-long film of Eretz Yisrael.
Screen capture of the school. View the film here Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on captions to view the original pictures.Enter your email in the right column to subscribe -- it's free.2View comments
For Immediate Release
The Western Wall, 1859
Jerusalem -- Israel Daily Picture (IDP), an online album of antique photographs of the Holy Land, will reach a historic milestone this week when its millionth visitor arrives on the site, www.israeldailypicture.com.
IDP was first launched in 2011 and has now published more than 350 historic essays containing more than 1,000 antique pictures taken between the 1850s and 1946. We present samples of the photos on this page.
Austrian troops, Turkey's allies, marching into Jerusalem, World War I
The pictures were digitalized and posted to websites in recent years by the U.S. Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Emory University, Harvard, the University of Dundee Medical Archives, and others. In recent months, private individuals have also shared with IDP their private albums and family collections.
"There's an important, almost secret, message in many of these antique photographs," reveals IDP's founder and publisher, Lenny Ben-David. "The pictures show Jewish life in the Holy Land throughout the last 160 years -- since the invention of photography -- well before the founding of Zionism and the establishment of the State of Israel. Jews were always in Eretz Yisrael even after the fall of the Jewish Temple in 70 CE, and here is visual proof."
Jews fleeing Arab pogrom in Jerusalem's Old City, 1929
"Most of the photos were taken by the American Colony photographers who began their work in the late 19th century. Among their goals was to seek out and photograph Jews in Jerusalem and in the countryside," Ben-David explained. "The return of Jews to Palestine was seen by the Christian photographers in messianic terms. A recent exhibition and book by today's American Colony Hotel proprietors, however, virtually ignored the Jewish presence in historic Palestine."
Jewish children in Ben-Shemen (circa 1920)
The IDP exhibits photos of key events in the Middle East -- World War I and its clashes in Gaza, Be'er Sheva, Rishon LeZion, Jerusalem, and the Dead Sea; the establishment of Jewish communities in the Galilee; the arrival of the German Emperor in 1898; the role of the Jewish Legion in 1917; the development of industries and infrastructures by the Jewish population; Jewish holidays; Jewish children of the Old and NewYishuv; Jewish life in Jerusalem's Old City, and many more. The photographers also chronicled the lives and shrines of Arab and Christians.
British commander Allenby meeting Chief Rabbi in the
Old City after the Turkish surrender of Jerusalem 1917
[For further information see The Zionist Message Hidden within Antique Pictures of the Holy Land, by Lenny Ben-David,Published in the Jewish Political Studies Review]
IDP pictures are all published with permission of the collection owners.
To subscribe, enter your email (free) on the websitewww.israeldailypictures.com. Voluntary contributions are welcome via PayPal.
For journalists only: Publisher Lenny Ben-David is available for interviews at (US) 202.241.5241 (Israel) 972.542.168155 (Not Sabbath)
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- OCT20
The Walls & Gates of Jerusalem, Jaffa Gate -- More Pictures from the Emory University Collection, Part 4
When was this picture of the Jaffa Gate taken? Here are clues.
The Jaffa Gate, from the Emory collection. Several features in the photograph tell us when the picture
was taken. Note the tower, in particular.
For centuries, the entrances to Jerusalem were small and often built with sharp angles to make access difficult to attackers. Jerusalem consisted only of the Old City with little habitation beyond the walls, rebuilt in 1540 during the reign of the Ottoman ruler, Suleiman the Magnificent. Until the end of the 19th century, most wagons and carriages stopped outside of the gates and people and products went in through the gates.
Jaffa Gate photographed by Peter Bergheim, perhaps as
early as 1860 (Library of Congress collection)
William Seward (Abraham Lincoln's secretary of state) wrote in 1871 that the population of the Old City was 16,000, comprised of 8,000 Jews, 4,000 Mohammedans, and 4,000 Christians.
Original caption: "Interior of Jaffa Gate from near Hotel Mediterranean"
by Felix Bonfils (circa 1870). Note the moat on the left and the narrow
path. Mark Twain and his "Innocents Abroad" colleagues stayed in
the Hotel Mediterranean in 1867.
Two major architectural changes in the Jaffa Gate in 1898 and 1908 help historians date the early photographs of the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem. The first was the breaching of the wall in 1898 to permit German Emperor Wilhelm II to ride into the Old City without dismounting and with his escort of carriages. To built the roadway, a moat -- visible in pre-1898 photos -- had to be filled in.
Click on photos to enlarge.
Click on captions to view the original pictures.
In 1908 the Turkish authorities built a clock tower near the gate in honor of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
A photochrom picture of the Jaffa Gate (circa 1890). Note the wall of
the moat under the yellow arrow, indicating the photo was prior to 1898.
The British captured Jerusalem in 1917, and the tower was knocked down in 1922.
We can now determine that the Emory University collection photo was taken after 1908 when the tower was erected.
Once the Jaffa Gate walls were breached, the entrance became a major thoroughfare, especially as an entrance to the Turkish army base and prison in the Old City, known as the "Kishle."
The shops outside the gate were torn down prior to the German Emperor's visit.
Traffic jam inside Jaffa Gate, 1898. The Turkish military escort, was possibly part of the German Emperor's entourage.
Close inspection on the left of the photo shows an American flag hanging outside of the Grand or Central Hotel,
formerly the Mediterranean Hotel.A Jewish shop immediately outside of Jaffa Gate 
Another view of Jaffa Gate before 1898. See
adjacent photo enlargement of the shops
An photo enlargement of the Jaffa Gate and the shops (from the picture taken before 1898) shows a Jewish millinery shop with a Hebrew sign selling various headgear for religious Jews, some of whom are standing outside of the shop.
The Library of Congress caption notes:
Photograph taken before October 1898 visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II to Jerusalem when a breach was made in the wall near the Jaffa Gate. (Source: L. Ben-David, Israel's History - A picture a day, Oct. 30, 2012.)0Add a comment
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We present part 3 of the digitalized photos of the Underwood & Underwood stereoscope collection, Palestine through the Stereoscope, from Emory University's Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology.
Damascus Gate 1. (Emory Collection, circa 1905) Note shops on
the right. Was this the first "strip mall?"
In this feature we present the pictures of Jerusalem's walls and gates. By comparing the photos to the photo essays presented here over the last two years we are able to date the pictures.
Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on captions to view the original pictures.
Damascus Gate 1: The shops on the right of the square belonged to a Jewish banker name Chaim Aharon Valero (circa 1905). The domes of the Hurva and Tiferet Yisrael synagogues are on the horizon on the left of the picture. Both were destroyed by the Jordanian Legion in 1948. Read more about Valero here.
Damascus Gate 2. photographed by Mendel Diness.
Note how barren the area outside of the wall was. (Fine
Arts Library, Harvard University, circa 1856)
Damascus Gate 2: Mendel Diness, a Jewish watchmaker, became Jerusalem's first Jewish photographer and is credited with photographing the Damascus Gate in the 1850s. Later he left Palestine and became a Christian preacher in the United States named Mendenhall John Dennis. Read more about Diness/Dennis and his photo collection found in a Minnesota garage sale.
Damascus Gate 3 Construction of the row of
Valero's shops outside the gate.
(Library of Congress, circa 1900)
Damascus Gate 3: The picture shows the construction of Valero's shops. In the 1930s, the British authorities ruled that the area should be zoned for use as "open spaces" and they demolished the shops in 1937. The Valeros were not compensated. View pictures of thedemolition here.
Next: The Jaffa Gate1View comments
- Earlier this week we published our first digital photos of the Underwood & Underwood stereoscope collection, Palestine through the Stereoscope, from Emory University's Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology.
Rachel's Tomb between Bethlehem and Jerusalem (circa 1900). The
anniversary of the Matriarch's death (yahrzeit) is commemorated
next week (11 Cheshvan). Published with permission.
Today, we present more pictures we found in the 100+ year old photographic collection.
The original photos are "stereographic," but we present just "one" of the nearly identical images to save space.
Many of the photos, taken between 1895- 1905, are accompanied by a travelogue describing the sites written by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut (1843 - 1930), an American Methodist clergyman. It was published in 1913.
Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on captions to view the original pictures.
The Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron (Emory University's Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology)
See also "The King's Pool, Ancient Reservoir in Hebron"
Jerusalem's Kidron Valley and Mt. of Olives
Kidron Valley, Jerusalem, Jewish cemetery at the foot of Mt. of Olives, and the Tombs of the Prophets
(circa 1900). Editor's note: The original caption refers to the "King's Dale," mentioned in the Bible as
עמק המלך. Today, the area is under development as the "King's Garden."
Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee
The Sea of Galilee (circa 1900). The small inhabited area at the top of the picture is the walled city of
Tiberias. The white buildings at the bottom are Tiberias' hot baths; the domed building is the tomb of Meir
Ba'al Haness (the Miracle Maker)
"A great many of the people here [in Tiberias] today are Hebrews."
Next: The Walls and Gates of Jerusalem
Women purchasing fish from a fisherman on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias. The scarves on
the women's heads -- or the lack of them -- suggests that most of the women and girls are Jewish.
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
David the King of Israel Lives On -- Updated - picture a day
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