- The Ottoman Imperial Archives includes this clipping from a 1906 New York newspaper.
The International River Jordan Water Company was launched by Col. Clifford E. Naudaud of Covington, Kentucky, in 1906. He secured "the sole right of shipping the water of the Jordan River from the banks of the stream in Palestine to all parts of the world for baptismal and other purposes," according to a Kentucky newspaper, The Bee, published in Earlington, KY.
Beneath the Turkish and American flags: Jordan water barrels on the way to the United States for baptism and
"Negro revival services." (Ottoman Imperial Archives)
From the Earlington Bee
Covington "had a great many obstacles to overcome," reads the caption above, including getting "the concession from the Sultan and then to convey the water seventy miles to the seaport across the mountains to Jaffa."
The water "will be shipped in casks bearing the seals of the Turkish Government and the American Consul," according to The Bee. "The water will be bottled in the United States in bonded warehouses."
Did the water ever arrive? Was there ever a second shipment? We don't know. But today "Holy Water from the Jordan" can be purchased on E-Bay for $6.25 to $12.95 per bottle. - MAR8
Mystery Photo from the Ottoman Imperial Archives -- Why Were These Greek Jewish Girls Welcoming the Turkish Sultan?
The picture was taken in the port city of Thessaloniki, also known as Salonika. The Ottoman Archives provides this caption: Ottoman Saloniki, Visiting (sic) of Sultan Mehmed V, Jewish Students, 1911.
The brutal murder of almost 60,000 Saloniki Jews in Auschwitz by the Nazis in World War II after the invasion of Greece leaves many with the impression that the Saloniki Jews were of Greek origins. In fact, the vast majority of Saloniki's Jews were descendants of Spanish Jews who fled the Iberian Peninsula in 1492. By 1519, the Jews were a majority of the town's population, and Saloniki Jews were a major economic force in the region, particularly Turkish-controlled areas. The Jews lived under Ottoman rule for centuries.
The Ottomans surrendered their sovereignty over Saloniki in 1913 after losing to Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro in the First Balkan War.
The surrender of Saloniki in 1912
So, indeed, the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed V, did visit the city in 1911 as his empire began to deteriorate around him. The Jews of the city turned out to welcome him.
In recent weeks, the Ottoman Imperial Archives has posted thousands of illustrations and photos Online. We will continue to focus on these pictures.
The Sultan's carriage in the parade 
The Sultan's carriage
A postcard commemorating the visit 0Add a comment
- The Ottoman Archives include illustrations of a Jewish woman and man, labeled in French captions as merchants.
A Jewish woman reseller and a Jewish agent or broker. This picture appears in several European archives
and is dated circa 1820. The word "Sensal" appears to be a combination of Persian/Arabic that entered
into European languages.
The woman stands in front of buildings with Islamic crescents and one building with a cross. Behind the man are ships, and in his hand is a document with what appears to be a Hebrew script. At his feet appear to be cargo items.0Add a comment
- MAR7
The Ottoman Empire Archives -- A New Source for the History of the Holy Land The Istanbouli Synagogue in Jerusalem
We thank the Ottoman Empire Archives for digitizing their photographs and drawings. We encourage all archivists and librarians to save their treasures and digitize them.
We recently posted rare photos from the Ottoman Archives showing the forced conscription of (apparently Jewish) residents and looting of Jerusalem homes by the Turkish army prior to World War I. We present here an illustration found in the archives drawn almost 100 years earlier, prior to the invention of photography.
The Istanbouli Synagogue in Jerusalem (circa 1836, Ottoman Imperial Archives) The illustration above appeared in the travelogue of a British writer, John Carne, who published Syria, The Holy Land, Asia Minor, &c. Illustrated in 1836 It is believed to show the Istanbouli Synagogue, established in Jerusalem's Old City in the 1760s by Turkish Jews.In 1898, the Emperor of Germany visited Palestine. The Jews of Jerusalem constructed a welcome arch to receive him. Upon enlarging the photograph, we were surprised to see the curtains from various synagogues' Torah arks adorning the walls of the arch, including one with the name of the Istanbouli Synagogue embroidered on it.
The Jewish arch built for the German Emperor (1898)
See more on the Jews and the Emperor here
The curtain with the name
"Istanbouli congregation"The picture below, apparently of the Istanbouli Synagogue in the late 19th century, was found in the massive Keystone-Mast Collection at the University of California, Riverside.
Inside a Jewish synagogue showing holy place and readers platform. Jerusalem.
(Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)The Library of Congress archives contains newer pictures taken in the 1930s by the American Colony Photographic Department.
Interior of the Istanbouli Synagogue, Jerusalem (Library of Congress, circa 1935) 
Ancient Torah scrolls in the Istanbouli Synagogue (Library of Congress, circa 1935) 0Add a comment
- Commemorating the centenary of World War I, we present the picture history of the battles in the Holy Land, with the soldiers from Turkey, Austria and German on one side and the British army with its contingents from Australia, New Zealand, and India on the other. We will also post pictures showing the Jewish soldiers and volunteers from Great Britain, Australia, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Palestine itself. The Jewish soldiers also provided incredible pictures of the Jewish communities they found in Palestine.
The Turkish Army preparing to attack the Suez Canal, 1914 (Library of Congress)
In January 1915, the German-led Turkish army attacked British forces along the Suez Canal. The British blunted the assault and took the hard-fought war into the Sinai Peninsula.
By March and April 1917, the British army attempted to push through Gaza and up the Mediterranean coast in battles that involved as many as 60,000 soldiers, British and French ships firing on Gaza from the Mediterranean, the use of poison gas, and the deployment of newly developed British tanks. The British suffered a disastrous defeat.
Remains of a British tank, 1917, Gaza
In a risky maneuver in October 1917, the British army flanked the Turkish army in Gaza by moving through the desert toward Be'er Sheva. The garrison and the crucial wells of Be'er Sheva were captured in a daring cavalry charge of Australian Light Horsemen described here.
The British pushed on toward Jerusalem, and the New Zealand troops were sent westward toward Jaffa. See photo album by Jewish soldier Charles Broomfield here.
The following are excerpts from THE STORY OF TWO CAMPAIGNS: OFFICIAL WAR HISTORY OF THE AUCKLAND MOUNTED RIFLES REGIMENT, 1914-1919, a collection of battle reports and diaries.The following morning [November 15, 1917] the village of Ayun Kara [near Rishon Lezion] was reported clear of the enemy, and, with a company of "Camels" on
the left and the 1st Light Horse on the right, the brigade moved forward towards Jaffa, meeting with no resistance. On the way they passed through the village of Richon le Zion, where for the first time they met Jews. One member of the community was a brother of Rabbi Goldstein, of Auckland. The joy of these people at being freed from the tyranny of the Turks was unbounded. They treated the New Zealanders most hospitably—an exceedingly pleasant experience after the tremendous effort they had just made, and the harsh hungry times spent in the south with its hostile Bedouins.
Synagogue in Rishon, 1917,
Jewish soldier in doorway,
British flag flyingJaffa was occupied without opposition, the Turks falling back to the line of the river Auja, a few miles further north. While this fighting had been taking place, great success had been achieved to the south. Ramleh, on the Jaffa-Jerusalem railway, was taken; and the enemy, whose receding line extended in a south-east direction from Jaffa, had reason to feel anxiety for Jerusalem itself.
Jewish soldiers from Australian and New Zealand Light Horsemen (Australian War Museum)In normal times Jaffa had a population of 60,000 people, including 30,000 Moslems, 10,000 Jews, and 10,000 Christians, but during the war its population had gone down considerably, and it had lost its prosperity, partly through there being no fuel for the engines which had been used to pump the water from the wells to irrigate the orchards. Within a few days of the British occupation, Jews and Christians, who had been expelled by the Turks, started to return, bringing their goods and chattels in all sorts of conveyances.
During the night the 53rd Division pushed up the Hebron road and occupied Bethlehem.
General Allenby's report goes on to say—"Towards dusk the British troops were reported to have passed Lifta, and to be within sight of the city. On this news being received, a sudden panic fell on the Turks west and south-west of the town, and at 5 o'clock civilians were surprised to see a Turkish transport column galloping furiously cityward along the Jaffa road. In passing they alarmed all units within sight or hearing, and the wearied infantry arose and fled, bootless and without rifles, never pausing to think or to fight.
Turks evacuate Jerusalem, 1917 "After four centuries of conquest the Turk was ridding the land of his presence in the bitterness of defeat, and a great enthusiasm arose among the Jews. There was a running to and fro; daughters called to their fathers and brothers PAGE 168concealed in outhouses, cellars and attics, from the police who sought them for arrest and deportation. 'The Turks are running,' they called; 'the day of deliverance is come.' The nightmare was fast passing away, but the Turk still lingered. In the evening he fired his guns continuously.
"At 2 o'clock in the morning of Sunday, December 9th, tired Turks began to troop through the Jaffa gate from the west and south-west, and anxious watchers, peering out through the windows to learn the meaning of the tramping were cheered by the sullen remark of an officer, 'Gitmaya mejburuz' (We've got to go), and from 2 to 7 that morning the Turks streamed through and out of the city, which echoed for the last time their shuffling tramp.
On this same day, 2082 years before, another race of conquerors, equally detested, were looking their last on the city which they could not hold, and inasmuch as the liberation of Jerusalem in 1917 will probably ameliorate the lot of the Jews more than that of any other community in Palestine, it was fitting that the flight of the Turks should have coincided with the national festival of the Hanukah, which commemorates the recapture of the Temple from the heathen Seleucivs by Judas Maccabæus in 165 B.C."
British General Allenby enters Jerusalem's Old City, 1917 On December 11th the Commander-in-Chief, followed by representatives of the Allies, made his formal entry into Jerusalem. The historic Jaffa gate was opened after years of disuse for the purpose, and he was thus enabled to pass into the Holy City without making use of the gap in the wall made for the Emperor William in 1898. The General entered the city on foot—and left it on foot.
0Add a comment
- FEB23
Visit Israel Daily Picture's Exhibit at the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington March 1-3, 2015
Visit us next week in the "AIPAC Village" during theAIPAC Policy Conference
"World War I in the Holy Land" will be presented byIsrael Daily Picture publisher Lenny Ben-David0Add a comment
- NOV7
WW100: Centenary of World War I -- Historic Pictures of the Armies that Fought in the Holy Land
We have often stressed in these posting the huge dimensions of World War I in Palestine. The armies, battles and casualties were often on the same scale as those on the "Western Front" in Europe. The war raged from the Suez Canal to Damascus and Iraq.
A memorial erected by the Jews of Rishon LeZion
in memory of the New Zealand soldiers who died
in the battle of Ayun Kara on November 14, 1917
(Victoria University of Wellington Library)
The 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement that carved up the Middle East after the war is being ripped to shreds in the regional fighting today.
Commemorating the centenary of World War I, we present the picture history of the Palestine battles, the soldiers from Turkey, Austria and German on one side and the British army with its contingents from Australia, New Zealand, and India. We will also post pictures showing the Jewish soldiers and volunteers from Great Britain, Australia, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Palestine itself. The Jewish soldiers also provided incredible pictures of the Jewish communities they found in Palestine.
More on the New Zealand soldiers, Broomfield, and the Jews of Rishon LeZion can be found here. We provide a fascinating quote from Broomfield's diary:
A school house in Rishon LeZion with Jewish students and teachers. The picture was taken by
Trooper Charles Thomas Broomfield of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles after the
November 14, 1917 battle of Ayun Kara and the liberation of Rishon LeZion.
Rishon was founded on July 31, 1882 by Russian Jews who purchased 835 acres
from the Arab village of Ayun Kara. Find more Broomfield pictures here.
The people and the settlement [Rishon] was to have a strong influence on the New Zealanders. The Jewish village was the first taste of something closer to the environment of home. Since crossing the arid Sinai Desert and its confrontation with a hostile Turkish enemy and, more often than not, a treacherous contact with Arab Bedu tribesmen - The Auckland Mounted Rifles agreed it was a joy to meet a people who had just been freed from Turkish tyranny. It was a land worked into agriculture and planted with fruit trees and vineyards.
"Mounted rifle troops and horses stopped to the side of a road through the mountains of Palestine." The photo
appears to be at the Sha'ar Haggai/Bab el Wad junction between Jaffa and Jerusalem.
(National Library of New Zealand)
"Mounted New Zealand World War I troops in Palestine, moving towards the Jordan River. Photographs taken
during World War I of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces in Jerusalem, and the Auckland Mounted
Rifles in Egypt, Sinai and Palestine. Ref: 1/2-066833-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand"0Add a comment
USS North Carolina (Photographic History of
the U.S. Navy)Versions of this article appear in today's Jerusalem Post Magazine and the Jerusalem Center for Public AffairswebsiteOne hundred years ago the Jews of Palestine suffered terribly from hunger, disease and oppression. The territory was ruled with an iron fist by the Ottoman (Turkish) army. The Middle East teetered on the brink of World War I, and in 1914 Turkey abolished the “capitulation” agreements with European powers which granted them elements of sovereignty over their subjects in the Ottoman Empire. For many Jews of Eretz Yisraeltheir French, British and Russian protectors were gone. The financial assistance they received from their European Jewish brethren evaporated.In late 1914, the war in the Middle East began with Turkey massing troops in Palestine and the Sinai to move against the British along the Suez Canal. The Turkish army prepared for the attack by forcibly conscripting locals, including Jews, and by looting (so-called “levies”) supplies, food and animals from residents of Palestine.
The forced conscription and looting of Jerusalem homes. (1914, Ottoman Imperial Archives) 
Hassan Bey, the "Tyrant" (Library
of Congress)
In a report on the Jews of Palestine in World War I, the Zionist Organization of London related in 1921, “The harshest and most cruel of all the Turkish officials was the Commandant of the Jaffa district, Hassan Bey.”The report described how “it would suddenly come into his head to summon respectable householders … with an order to bring him some object from their homes which had caught his fancy or of which he had heard — an electric clock, a carpet, etc. Groundless arrests, insults, tortures, bastinadoes [clubs] — these were things every householder had to fear.” [In April 1917, on the eve of Passover, the Turks ordered the expulsion of approximately 8,000 Jews from Jaffa. An unknown number died. The expulsion of all Jews from Palestine was halted by the German commander in Palestine.]
Locust eradication attempt (1915, Library of Congress) In March 1915, the situation for the residents of Eretz Yisrael turned more hopeless when a plague of locusts of Biblical proportions ravaged the land for six months.
The United States retained its neutrality in the war until 1917. Its consulate in Jerusalem, headed by Dr. Otis Glazebrook,remained open. The Americans were the only ones left to help the Jews of Palestine.On August 31, 1914, the American ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau, sent an urgent telegram to the New York Jewish tycoon Jacob Schiff. “Palestinian Jews facing terrible crisis,” he wrote.
Morgenthau's cable to Schiff, 1914 (JDC Archives) 
Amb. Henry Morgenthau
(Library of Congress)“Belligerent countries stopping their assistance. Serious destruction threatens thriving colonies. Fifty thousand dollars needed by responsible committee. Dr. Ruppin chairman to establish loan institute and support families whose breadwinners have entered army. Conditions certainly justify American help. Will you undertake matter?” Signed “Morgenthau.”Realizing the difficulty in bringing money into Palestine past corrupt Turkish officials, Morgenthau also appealed to Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan for assistance. It came in the form of U.S. Navy ships.The U.S. Navy to the RescueOn October 6, 1914 the U.S. Navy’s USS North Carolina landed in the Jaffa harbor and delivered $50,000 to the U.S. consul general for distribution to the Jewish community. A total of 13 port visits were made by ships such as the USS North Carolina, Vulcan, Des Moines and Tennessee which plied the eastern Mediterranean between Beirut and Cairo. Some of the ships delivered money, food and aid to the Jews of Palestine until the United States entered the war in 1917.
USS Tennessee crew members carrying
stores onto the ship’s boat deck, probably
at Alexandria, Egypt, circa 1914/1915.
Ship alongside may be
USS Vulcan. (U.S.Naval Historical Center)The Jews of Eretz Yisrael “would have succumbed had not financial help arrived from America,” the Zionist Organization of London report declared. “America was at that time the one country which through its political and financial position was able to save [Jewish] Palestine permanently from going under.”The U.S. ships also left with valuable cargo – the Jews of Palestine who were expelled or had to flee the Turks because of their Zionist activity or draft dodging. One such Palestinian Jew was Alexander Aaronson whose brother Aaron and sister Sarah were founders of the anti-Turk NILI spy network that helped the British. Sarah killed herself after prolonged Turkish torture.In his book With the Turks in Palestine, Alexander Aaronson relates: “One of the American cruisers, by order of Ambassador Morgenthau, was empowered to assist citizens of neutral countries to leave the Ottoman Empire. These cruisers had already done wonderful rescue work for the Russian Jews in Palestine, who, when war was declared, were to have been sent to the Mesopotamian town of Urfa—there to suffer massacre and outrage like the Armenians.”Aaronson stealthily traveled to Beirut where he was able to sneak aboard the USS Des Moines. Once under sail, Aaronson wrote, “Friends discovered friends and tales of woe were exchanged, stories of hardship, injustice, oppression, all of which ended with mutual congratulations on escaping from the clutches of the Turks.” [HT: AA]Lenny Ben-David is the Director of Publications at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and the publisher ofwww.israeldailypicture.com. He served as a senior diplomat at Israel’s embassy in Washington and an arms control consultant in eastern Europe. He spent 25 years working for AIPAC in Washington and Jerusalem.0Add a comment
Jews at the Kotel on Yom Kippur (circa 1904) See analysis of the graffiti
on the wall for dating this picture. The graffiti on the Wall are memorial
notices (not as one reader suggested applied to the photo later). (Library of Congress)On Saturday, Jews around the world will commemorate Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. For many centuries, Jews in the Land of Israel prayed at the Western Wall, the remnant of King Herod's retaining wall of the Temple complex destroyed in 70 AD.Several readers noticed and commented on the intermingling of men and women in these historic pictures.It was not by choice.The Turkish and British rulers of Jerusalem imposed severe restrictions on the Jewish worshipers, prohibiting chairs, forbidding screens to divide the men and women, and even banning the blowing of the shofar at the end of the Yom Kippur service. Note that the talit prayer shawls, normally worn by men throughout Yom Kippur, are not visible in the pictures.
The men are wearing their festival/Sabbath finery, including their
fur shtreimel hats. Note the prayer shawls. (Credit: RCB Library, 1897)
We found one rare picture in an Irish church's archives, dated 1897, showing men wearing prayer shawls at the Kotel.View this video, Echoes of a Shofar, to see the story of young men who defied British authorities between 1930 and 1947 and blew the shofar at the Kotel.
Another view of the Western Wall on Yom Kippur. Note the various groups
of worshipers: The Ashkenazic Hassidim wearing the fur shtreimel hats in
the foreground, the Sephardic Jews wearing the fezzes in the
center, and the women in the back wearing white shawls. (Circa 1904, Library of Congress)For the 19 years that Jordan administered the Old City, 1948-1967, no Jews were permitted to pray at the Kotel.Many of the photo collections we have surveyed contain numerous pictures of Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall over the last 150 years.
After the 1967 war, the Western Wall plaza was enlarged and large areas of King Herod's wall have been exposed. Archaeologists have also uncovered major subterranean tunnels -- hundreds of meters long -- that are now open to visitors to Jerusalem.Click on the photos to enlarge. Click on the captions to see the originals.1View comments
The scope of the World War I battles in Palestine are simply not understood by most students of the Middle East today. The Turkish, German, Austrian, British, ANZAC and Indian forces numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
Volunteer Arab Camel Corps led by Turkish officers leaving Jerusalem (circa (1915) 
Mounted troops from the Australian, British, New Zealand and Indian battalions of the Imperial Camel Corps
To provide some perspective, we present pictures of one of the most utilized tools of that war -- the camel. Tens of thousands were used in the war in Palestine.
Australian camel corps hat pin
The difficult terrain of the Sinai, the Jordan Valley, and the Samarian/Judean hills required extensive use of the sturdy and powerful four-legged "supply truck."
Consider this report by a New Zealand officer in his book With the Cameliers in Palestine:In the advance up the coastal plain in Palestine, in November, 1917, General Allenby used thirty thousand (30,000) camels for carrying food, water and ammunition to the troops of one portion of the eastern force of his army.
A Turkish account of the war, and specifically the 1914-1915 campaign against the British on the Suez Canal, describes the forces and the logistical nightmare of crossing the Sinai desert:
Turkish Camel Corps in Be'er Sheva, 1915 The gathering point for the VIII Corps was Beersheba, which was inland, well away from the reach of British naval artillery. From there, 25,000 men would march 300 kilometres across the desert and reach Ismailia. However, this was nothing but a mission impossible. Moreover, every man was allowed one kilogram of food and drink water per day and this meant that they needed15,000 camels. But what they had was just 2,000 animals. [Commander] Cemil Paşa mentioned this problem in his memoirs as follows: “I think there are many people who are wandering why we couldn't find the required 15,000 camels in a place like Syria and Hejaz. We had to find 14,000 camels within one month.” Five kilograms of barley and 18 kilograms of water were allowed per horse and three kilograms of barley and five kilograms of water was allowed per camel.
The Turkish account continues, describing the Turkish army's strength after difficult battles in Gaza and prior to the British General Allenby's move north into Palestine: As of May 1917, the Ottoman Fourth Army was consisting of 174,908 men, 36,225 animals, 5,351 camels, 145,840 rifles, 187 machine guns and 282 artillery pieces.
British Imperial Camel Corps outside of Be'er Sheva on November 1,
1917, during the critical battle to capture the Turkish outpost and wells
Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on captions to view the original pictures.
World War I combat ambulances. Camels carrying wounded Turkish soldiers -- two per camel
on a litter called a "kankalah" or "cacolet." (1917, Ottoman Imperial Archives) See also here
Wounded Australian cavalrymen on their way to
medical attention (Australian War Memorial)
The following description is from
"With the Cameliers in Palestine:"
The field ambulance, instead of using wheeled vehicles, transported the sick and wounded in "caco-lets," on the backs of camels. These consisted of two canvas stretchers balanced horizontally, one on each side of a specially constructed saddle. In these the wounded men could either sit or lie at full length, and were shaded from the sun by a small canvas hood. The jolting
motion of the camel frequently was most trying to the badly wounded men, but it was sometimes a case of this kind of carriage, or death, and these camel cacolets, going as they did where wheeled transport was impossible, undoubtedly were the means of saving the lives of many wounded men who otherwise would have had a poor chance of being carried back to safety.
Indian army's camel ambulances
Only male camels were used in the
Camel Brigade. It would have been an unworkable system to have mixed the sexes, as in the East no mutilation of male animals, either horses, donkeys or camels for sterilisation purposes, is ever practised by the Mohammedans.
German soldiers loading wounded onto an "ambulance," 1918 
British Imperial Camel Corps "ambulances" in action, 1916
Horses generally have a strong dislike for camels, but this dislike can be overcome by daily contact. Some of the officers of higher rank of each battalion used horses during part of the campaign, and these soon grew quite accustomed to the company of their more ungainly associates.
Turkish army camel convoy, 1917. The caption in the Harvard University places the picture near the modern
northern Israeli town of Afula in the Jezreel Valley. The body of water, however, suggests it was taken near the
Hula Valley swamps which was sparsely populated by a Bedouin tribe living in reed huts, likely pictured here.
Turkish officers at David's Citadel in Jerusalem 
Turkish camel corps in Jerusalem 
Original caption: The Camel Transport of the Australian Light Horse at the railhead dump, on
the Philistine Plain (near Ashkelon). The camels are seen on their way to the forward area, loaded
with Australian frozen mutton for the troops. In the background can be seen the tent camp.3View comments
Yemenite Jew blowing the shofar (circa 1935, all photographs are from the Library of Congress archives) "Blow the Shofar at the New Moon...Because It Is a Decree for Israel, a Judgment Day for the God of Jacob" - Psalms 81
Jews around the world prepare for Rosh Hashanna this week, the festive New Year holiday when the shofar -- ram's horn -- is blown in synagogues.
The American Colony photographers recorded a dozen pictures of Jewish elders blowing the shofar in Jerusalem some 80 years ago. The horn was also blown in Jerusalem to announce the commencement of the Sabbath. During the month prior to Rosh Hashanna, the shofar was blown at daily morning prayers to encourage piety before the High Holidays. 
Ashkenazi Jew in Jerusalem blowing the shofar to announce the Sabbath
Yemenite Rabbi Avram, donning tfillin for his
daily prayers, blowing the shofar
Man blowing the shofar in Mandelkern, NY, 1901 0Add a comment
World War I began 100 years ago in the Middle East with the Turkish assault on the British-held Suez Canal.
Handwritten caption: "The Mayor of Jerusalem Hussein Effendi El Husseini meeting
with Srgts Sedwick and Hurcomb..., London Regiment, under the White Flag of
Surrender, December 9th at 8 a.m." The white flag was a bed sheet
taken from the American Colony residence. (1917, Library of Congress)
Let's skip to the end and view how the war concluded in Jerusalem in December 1917.
The British forces stalled in their attempt to capture Palestine through Gaza. A daring attack across the desert to Be'er Sheva in October 1917 opened the path to Jerusalem.
Click here for more on the surrender of Jerusalem to two British army sergeants.
Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on caption to see the original.
The Middle East fighting continued until October 1918, after major battles in Megiddo, Jericho and Damascus.
Turkish troops arriving in Jerusalem from nearby positions, before fleeing the city
(1917, stereograph photo, Monash University archives)
British General Edmund Allenby's arrival in Jerusalem via the Jaffa Gate
after the city's surrender (1917, Library of Congress)0Add a comment
- In recent weeks, the Ottoman Imperial Archives put digital photographs, illustrations and documents online, posting them as well to Flickr and Facebook. As we explore the archives, we are finding many pictures of life in Palestine in the 19th century and of Turkish forces in Palestine in World War I. We present a preview below.
Caption reads: Reservists and recruits rounded up in Palestine by the Turks being marched unwillingly to barracks.
Right: Troops of the Turkish Regular Army marching newly-raised levies through Jerusalem to
a camp in readiness for their projected attack on Egypt.
These pictures and English caption appear in the Ottoman Imperial Archives. They show the forced conscription of residents of Palestine, including Jews, prior to the Turkish attack on the British controlled Suez Canal in 1914. The picture on the right shows the confiscation of supplies and food stuffs from Jerusalem residents.
According to the report "Palestine during the War, 1914-1917" by the London Zionist Organisation, life for the Jews of Palestine was difficult and perilous:
Jews and Christians ...were for the most part not placed on active [army] service but assigned to various labor battalions. The members of these battalions were the pariahs of the army; their clothing, feeding, and general equipment was abominable, and they were treated worse than slaves. The Jew would sell his last stick in order to scrape together enough money to ransom him from the slavery of this battalion. But there were still many who could not raise sufficient, and who had to serve in the labor battalions; and these had to leave their families behind entirely unprovided for.
A large part of the Jews in the workers' battalions never returned. They fell victims to epidemics and starvation. A large part of the families of these soldiers also perished from poverty and sickness.
"Ottoman army, preparatory to the attack on the Suez Canal, 1914," is the caption in the Ottoman
Imperial Archives. The handwritten caption above appears in an album in the Library of Congress
Pictured below are the Varhaftig/Amitay family from Tiberias with their son in a Turkish uniform and Jerusalem resident Mendel Kremer in uniform. 
Mendel Kremer, Turkish soldier, later a
pharmacist, journalist and spy (1910)
Varhaftig/Amitay family in Tiberias (courtesy)
Several of the photos of the Turkish
army in World War I also appear in the Library of Congress' American Colony/Matson Collection and have been featured here in the past.
In the Jaffa Gate photograph, note the Jewish residents of Jerusalem in their black caftans and hats to the right of the troops.
Ottoman Imperial Archives: "Ottoman soldiers pass through the Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem" (1915)
The clock tower was built in 1908 in honor of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II. After the British captured the city in 1917 the ornate tower was torn down.2View comments
Jewish men sitting on the ground at the "Wailing Wall" (circa 1935).
From the Library of Congress collection.A version of this article appeared in theJerusalem Post Magazine,July 27, 2012.
Tisha B'Av is commemorated on the evening of Monday, August 4, 2014 and continues until sundown on August 5.The ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av -- Tisha B'Av -- is the day in the Hebrew calendar when great calamities befell the Jewish people, including the destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem, the fall of the fortress Beitar in the Jewish rebellion against Rome in 136 CE, and the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. The day is commemorated with fasting, prayers and the reading of Lamentations. In Jerusalem, thousands pray at the Kotel, the Western Wall.
"Devout Jewish women" at the Wall (circa
1900). View another photo of devout women hereThe American Colony photographers frequently focused their cameras on the worshipers at the "Wailing Place of the Jews." The Colony founders who came to Jerusalem in 1881 were devout Christians who saw the return of the Jews to the Holy Land as a sign of messianic times.Of the dozens of pictures at the Kotel there are several of elderly men and women sitting on the ground or on low stools, customs of mourning practiced on Tisha B'Av.
"A Jewish beggar reading at the Wailing Wall" (circa 1920).
Note others sitting on the ground. The day is almost
certainly Tisha B'Av and he is probably reading the
book of Lamentations.
Jews straining to see the Western Wall (circa 1929) 
"Jews' wailing place without mourners.
Deserted during 1929 riots." View looking north.Other pictures presented here show the very narrow and confined area of the Kotel over the ages until Israel's army captured the Old City in 1967 and enlarged the Kotel plaza.
The tragedies that occurred to the Jewish nation are also evident in the pictures of the deserted plaza after Arab pogroms in 1929. The area was deserted, of course, during the 19 years of Jordanian rule of the Old City when Jews were forbidden to pray at the site.A story is told of Napoleon passing a synagogue and hearing congregants inside mourning. To his question who they are mourning, he was told they were weeping over the destruction of the Jewish Temple 1,800 years earlier. Napoleon responded, according to the legend, "If the Jews are still crying after so many hundreds of years, then I am certain the Temple will one day be rebuilt."
Western Wall deserted in 1929. View looking south.
Dedicated in memory of
Chaim Menachem ben Levi1View comments
Gaza City in World War I, 1917 (Library of Congress). What caused such destruction?
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 March and April 1917 the British army attempted to push through Gaza and up the Mediterranean coast in battles that involved as many as 60,000 soldiers, British and French ships firing on Gaza from the Mediterranean, the use of poison gas, and the deployment of newly developed British tanks. The British suffered a disastrous defeat.
Great Mosque of Gaza (circa 1880) 
The Mosque after the fighting (1917) 
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
Footnote: History records Jews living in Gaza for thousands of years. [View the mosaic depicting King David from a 6th century synagogue in Gaza.]
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.
Mosaic of King David
(Israel Museum)
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
- JUN28
Announcing a new feature: WW100 -- World War I and the Jews of Palestine, Commemorating the Centenary since the Outbreak of the War to End all Wars
We will present over the next year special features commemorating the centenary of World War I, showing the major battles that shook Palestine, the Jewish population of the Holy Land, and the Jewish soldiers who fought -- on both sides. Below are sample pictures:
Turks prepare to attack the Suez Canal 
Austrian Jewish soldiers at the Kotel 
Jewish students and teachers after the capture of Rishon LeZion by New Zealand soldiers 0Add a comment
The Presbyterian Church Archives Research Centre holds a fascinating collection of 144 glass Lantern slides of various scenes from the Holy Land. The majority appear to have been taken in the latter years of the 19th century.
Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee (circa 1890, colored slide, Presbyterian
Research Centre, Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand)
See Part I here.
The Tower of David's Citadel at Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem. The clock tower on the left was built
in 1908 and torn down in 1922, enabling the dating of the picture.
(Presbyterian Research Centre, Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand)
Western Wall (1867, (Presbyterian Research Centre,
Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand) and here
The picture of the Western Wall is from the Presbyterian Research Centre, but it also appeared in the Israel Daily Picture two years ago. It was taken byFrank Mason Good in 1866/67 and published by thePalestine Exploration Fund.
Note in both photos the single figure praying and the buckets (?) hanging on the wall.
Hebron and the Cave of the Patriarchs (circa 1890) 
Jacob's Well, near Nablus (Shechem) and
Joseph's Tomb. (1868)
Click on photos to enlarge.
Click on captions to view the original photographs.
Mobile users: visit www.israeldailypicture.com0Add a comment
Women at the Western Wall (circa 1890, Presbyterian Research Centre,
Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand)
Proving that responsible archivists and librarians digitize and preserve their photographic treasures is the collection of 19th century pictures of the Holy Land in the Presbyterian Research Centre in New Zealand. We present here a sample of the collection.
Rachel's Tomb, Bethlehem (Presbyterian Research
Centre, Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand)
We thank Donald Cochrane, the former curator of the photographs and lantern slides, Myke Tymons the current curator, and Eva Garbutt, archivist at Knox who gave us permission to use their photographs.
The Research Centre's introduction provides some details on the collection:
The Presbyterian Church Archives Research Centre holds a fascinating collection of 144 glass Lantern slides of various scenes from the Holy Land. The majority appear to have been taken in the latter years of the 19th century. While undated, some do carry a manufacturers name or trademark which can act as a guide to dating. Those high quality slides produced by the Aberdeen firm of George Washington Wilson (marked "GWW"), were produced throughout the late 19th century. Mr Wilson, who died in 1893, received patronage from Queen Victoria and a Royal Warrant due to his obvious abilities. Many slide sets are also numbered which show a considerable number missing...
The New Zealand collection is remarkable for the
angles of some of the pictures -- such as the women at the Western Wall, above -- different from many of the other conventional "postcard" pictures taken at the time.
Elderly Jewish men in Jerusalem. The photo was hand-colored with
hues that never would have been worn by the poor, pious men.
(Presbyterian Research Centre, Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa)
Some of these photographs/slides were taken by Frank Mason Good in the 1860s.
Color film was not available until years later. The color slides were transparencies with color applied.
Kerosene "stereo" lanterns to
project slides onto a screen
In the 1880s, before movies or electricity, photographic slides such as these were projected in front of classes or audiences using a kerosene-lit lamp fitted with special lenses. The slides were often produced by optical manufacturers who sold the lanterns.
Lepers outside of the walls of Jerusalem. Note the Montefiore windmill
and Meshkenot Sha'ananim housing project behind them
(Presbyterian Research Centre, Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand)
Sea of Galilee (Presbyterian Research
Centre, Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand)
Damascus Gate of Jerusalem's Old City
View our other lantern slide collections from Chatham University, theChurch of Ireland, the Library of Congress, Oregon State University, and the George Eastman collection.
With special thanks to David Bardin
Jihadi forces overran Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, this week. Analysts explain Mosul's significance as the center of Iraq's oil-rich areas, the gateway for the Sunni radicals to attack Baghdad, and a debacle for the U.S.-supported Iraqi army.
Jews of Mosul (Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection,
California Museum of Photography at UCR)
But Mosul also has an ancient history. It was the Biblical city of Nineveh, so large that the Book of Jonah describes it as a "great city of three days
journey in breadth."
"Jewish Cobblers Repairing Shoes for Arabs, near
Mosul, Mesopotamia" (Iraq) (Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection,
California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, University of
California, Riverside)
The Assyrian King Sennacherib built a massive palace there on the banks of the Tigris River.
We present pictures of Mosul 80 years ago and of Jews of Mosul approximately 100 years ago.
Read here a 2007 account of a Jewish chaplain from the US Army's 101st Airborne who discovered the remnants of Mosul's Jewish community.
Mosul, Iraq, 1932 (Library of Congress) Mosul and the Tigris in the background, 1932 (Library of Congress) Sennacherib's castle, Mosul, Iraq, 1932 (Library of Congress) See also here 0Add a comment
- JUN9
Life in Palestine 1830-1880 as Described by a Very Unusual Woman, Lydia Mamreoff von Finkelstein Mountford
We never heard of Lydia Mamreoff von Finkelstein Mountford (1855-1917) until we came across several clippings in aNew Zealand archive from the 1880s.Von Finkelstein (Set in Stone, Fixed in Glass)
She was born in Jerusalem to a Russian family, apparently Jewish, according to historian Ron Bartur. She spoke Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, German, and French. The family converted to Christianity and it appears she later became a Mormon. She was a popular actress, missionary, and news correspondent. She traveled to the United States, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand presenting Bible-based plays. She filed news reports on the German Emperor's visit to Jerusalem in 1898, and probably appears in the bottom left of this picture with a reporter's pad in hand.
One of her most interesting articles appeared in the Aroha News(New Zealand), October 24, 1888, entitled "PALESTINE FIFTY YEARS AGO AND PALESTINE TODAY." Her observations about life in the Holy Land for Christians and Jews are fascinating, and we present excerpts below in blue:
About fifty years ago, with the exception of some Polish Jewish families, and a few Latin monks, there were no European residents in Jerusalem. At that period the Jews did not contribute either to the civilisation of the inhabitants or the improvement of the city, but adapted themselves to the manners of the people and the exigencies of the place. The monks confined themselves to their daily avocations in the convents, and to the entertainment of wealthy pilgrims and travellers, whose visits, like those of angels, were few and far between.Inside the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem's Old City as it appeared in Lydia
von Finkelstein's days, circa 1870. (New York Public Library)
Receiving the German Emperor in 1898. Von Finkelstein, the reporter,
is presumably at the bottom left. (Library of Congress)
Von Finkelstein, in
costume, 1885
(Imagining the Holy Land)
The Jews, as well as the native Christians, throughout Syria and Palestine, were daily and hourly subjected to oppression, extortions, exaction, robbery and insults from their Moslem neighbours. It was no unusual occurrence for the Moslem to enter their houses, ransack closets and boxes, and appropriate any article of wearing apparel, furniture, or food that took the marauder's fancy. The local Government authorities would occasionally, when in need of funds, levy blackmail to the amount of hundreds of pounds on the Jews and native Christians, threatening them with massacre and plunder in default of payment. Consequently, Jews and native Christians dared to make any display of wealth only at the risk of losing life or property, and often both....
... With the advent of the American and English missionaries came the dawn of a brighter day tor the Holy City, and indeed for the whole country. On account of Moslem fanaticism and prejudice, these messengers of the Gospel, and consequently pioneers of civilisation, were obliged for a certain period of time to adopt the Oriental dress for safety. The Oriental furniture, utensils, and cuisine, though in
many respects better adapted to the climate and surroundings, were so entirely different to those of Europe and America, that those early settlers, wealthy or otherwise, may truly be said to have endured hardships and privations great and innumerable. Occidental furniture, utensils, crockery or glass, were not to be had for love or money; and only those fortunate families or individuals possessed them who had had sufficient foresight to bring such articles from their homes in Europe. Further, there was not a window in any house in Jerusalem that had a pane of glass in it; wooden lattices, shutters, and iron bars being the order of the day.Hezekiah's Pool in Jerusalem's Old City. All those windows and not
a pane of glass, 1865 (New York Public Library)
Portrait of von Finkelstein and three
unknown people taken by Krikorian,
a well-known Armenian photographer
in Jerusalem (circa 1885, Library
of Congress)
About the year 1845, a European merchant first imported —at great inconvenience, risk, and cost, having to travel to Beirout and Alexandria to make the purchase—Occidental furniture, crockery, and windowglass. There were no facilities for travel, and no steamers touched at the port of Jaffa. Once, and later twice a year, the Jewish, Latin, and other communities sent messengers to Beirout from Jerusalem, a journey of about 150 miles overland, to fetch the mails and other matter that might have been brought by the steamers from Alexandria and Constantinople, which at stated periods touched for a few hours at Beirout. About the year 1845 steamers began to stop occasionally at the port of Jaffa...
The American Colony on the beach near Jaffa, 1866
(with permission of the Maine Historical Society)In the year 1866 a large American colony came out, and settled in Jaffa. It was called the American Adams colony. The colonists held their estate under great disadvantages. Mr Adams, either through design or in ignorance of the laws, possessed no title deeds; neither were the colonists, who purchased lots, provided with the necessary documents — all holding the property under bills of sale and pm-chase, whose legality and validity could have been questioned at any moment. Consequently interested parties took advantage of their position, and the best and the largest portion of the land they had paid for was lost, and all the trees out of a fruit plantation cut down, rooted up, and carried away...Von Finkelstein's performance - not in Jerusalem - but at a replica of Jerusalem at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair
(from Set in Stone, Fixed in Glass) For more on "Jerusalem" at the 1904 World's Fair click here. Note the
Christian and Jewish banners on the stage3View comments
- JUN5
The First "American Colony" Was Established in the Holy Land 150 Years Ago. Help Us Find It in Photographs
We are proud that the photographs presented here are all "kosher." They usually have lapsed copyright restrictions, but, in any case, we seek and obtain permission from the relevant collections, archives and libraries. All pictures are presented with the links to the original source, and we find librarians and archivists thankful for our site driving readers to their material.The American "Colony" in the 1860s. Please help us obtain
such pictures in high-resolution digitized form
On occasion, however, we have skipped certain collections because of requests for payment.
We believe that pictures of Americans attempting to establish a colony near Jaffa in the 1860s are worthy of an entry in these pages.Photograph of the colony founder, George
Jones Adams, c. 1841
(Our research found that Mark Twain met some of the members of the failed colony and wrote about them.)
Unfortunately, the photographs can only be obtained in digitized high-resolution with payment. In one case, a small American museum contains documents and photographs, and images must be purchased. In the case of the Library of Congress, which has been amazingly cooperative in releasing their photographs, the photograph described below has never been digitized.
Title: The American Settlement, near Joppa, Palestine. Erected by the Adams Colony from Maine and New Hampshire, 1866-7 - Date Created/Published: [1866 or 1867]
- Medium: 1 photographic print.
- Summary: Photograph shows buildings of the "American Colony" or "Adams City" near Jaffa, now Tel Aviv, Israel which was founded by George Jones Adams (ca. 1811-1880) in 1866.
"And it shall be when you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance and you possess it and dwell therein. You shall take the first of all the fruit of the ground from the land that the Lord your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and you shall go to the place which the Lord your God shall choose to dwell in." [Deuteronomy XXVI:1-2]Shavuot celebration in Tel Aviv (1935, Israel
Government Press Office, HT: Gina)
During the days of the Temple in Jerusalem Jews were commanded to bring their first fruits to the sanctuary during the Shavuot (Pentecost) pilgrimage festival. It was a joyous thanksgiving holiday.
Poster for Shavuot (1940, Israel
Government Press Office)Children's procession in Kibbutz Ein Harod (1938,
Israel Government Press Office)A Shavuot gathering? Original caption: The Keren Hayesod. Agricultural Colonies on Plain of Esdraelon
"The Emek [Jezre'el]." Zionist children at play. A spring group. Children picking wild flowers [Library of
Congress, circa 1920-1933]
In the early 20th century, the collective Kibbutz and Moshav agricultural movements adopted the holiday to exhibit their produce and farm equipment. The new "tradition" continues to this day.
Reader Josh Korn of Canada provided us with this picture and a request:Kibbutz Naan, Shavuot 1932 (Courtesy Josh Korn) This photo is from Kibbutz Naan, dated from Shavuot 1932.I know only one of the people in the photo: the guy wearing glasses on the left is my dad. I'd love to find out who the others are.0Add a comment
- MAY31
Chapter: Jewish Festivals - Shavuot The Book of Ruth Recreated 100 Years Ago This feature is one of our most popular posting
Photo portrait of "Ruth the Moabitess" (Library of Congress) 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 Jewish holiday of Shavuot - Pentecost is 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.And Naomi and Ruth both went on until they arrived at Bethlehem
The reading of the Book of Ruth is one tradition 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.Ruth came to a field that belonged to Boaz who was
of the family of Naomi's deceased husband
A central element of the story of Ruth is her going to the local 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 had a levirate obligation to marry the widow). The union resulted in a child, Obed, the grandfather of King David.
Boaz said to his servant, who stood over the reapers,
"To whom doesthis maiden belong?"
Boaz said to Ruth, "Do not go to glean in
another field...here you shall stay with my maidens"
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 her at mealtime, "Come here and partake
of the bread..." He ordered his servants "Pretend to
forget some of the bundles for her."Ruth carried it to the city and Naomi
saw what she had gleaned
We have matched the pictures with corresponding verses from the Book of Ruth.
We present a few of the dozens of "Ruth" photographs found in the Library of Congress' American Colony collection. See more of the pictures here.
A major effort was made by the photographers to re-enact the story of Ruth, probably in the fields near Bethlehem. "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.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....
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. 0Add a comment
- MAY28
Chapter: Jewish Festivals -- The Gates of Jerusalem's Old City -- In Honor of "Jerusalem Day"
עומדות, היו רגלינו בשערייך, ירושליםירושלים הבנויה כעיר שחוברה-לה יחדיוOur feet did stand firm within your gates, O JerusalemJerusalem, built up, is like a city that is united- Psalms 122
Israel celebrates "Jerusalem Day" today, commemorating the reuniting of the city of Jerusalem during the 1967 war. For 19 years, between 1948 and 1967, the city was split between warring Jordanian and Israeli forces.
Thousands of Israelis will visit Jerusalem today, dance to the Western Wall, and march around the Old City's gates. We present here antique pictures of the gates, some taken 160 years ago.
Click on the photos to enlarge, click on the caption to read more about each gate.
Jaffa Gate (hand colored)1View comments
- MAY26
Chapter: Jewish holidays: Israel Commemorates "Jerusalem Day," Celebrating the Unification of Jerusalem in 1967
David Rubinger's iconic 1967 picture of Israeli paratroopers at the Western Wall is one of the most famous pictures in modern Jewish history.
Paratroopers at the Western Wall, 1967
(Israel Government Press Office)
The photo was taken just hours after the Israel Defense Forces captured Jerusalem's Old City during the Six-Day War after the Jordanian army fired on the Jewish half of the city.
Israel Daily Picture has discovered that the Western Wall has been a magnet for Jewish soldiers over the last century.
We present these pictures for "Yom Yerushalayim" which begins Tuesday evening.
Austrian Jewish soldiers at the Western Wall. The Austrian and German armies were allied with
the Turkish army during World War I, 1915 (Harvard Library/Central Zionist Archives). The
photographer, Ya'akov Ben-Dov, moved to Palestine from Kiev in 1907. He was drafted into
the Ottoman army during World War I and served as a photographer in Jerusalem
Jewish soldiers from the British Army after the capture of Jerusalem in December 1917 (Wikipedia) 
Two British soldiers, presumably Jewish, at the Western Wall during a
major snow storm in 1921 (Library of Congress)0Add a comment
- MAY21
Chapter: World War I: Did a German Officer Prevent the Massacre of the Jews of Eretz Yisrael during World War I?And Later His Son-In-Law Conspired to Kill Hitler
German General Falkenhayn on the Temple Mt with Jamal
Pasha, Turkish governor of Syria and Palestine, 1916
(Library of Congress collection)
This 2011 posting was one of our most popular features. It is presented here with updates. A version of this article was published in The Jerusalem Post Magazine on December 9, 2011.
The Ottoman war effort in Palestine in World War I was led by German officers, and their involvement was recorded by the American Colony photographers. German General Erich von Falkenhayn, an able Prussian officer who served as the Chief of Staff of the German Army, was the commander of the Turkish and German troops during the critical 1917-1918 period.
A German photographic collection contains a picture of Falkenhayn leaving Palestine in 1918 and bears an amazing caption which claims that Falkenhayn prevented a Turkish massacre of the Jews of Palestine [Unfortunately, permission was not granted to use the photo, but it can be viewed here]:"Falkenhayn and the German Staff need to be credited with have [sic] prevented an Ottoman genocide towards Christians and Jews in Palestine similar to the Armenian suffering. Wikipedia: 'His positive legacy is his conduct during the war in Palestine in 1917. As his biographer Afflerbach claims, "An inhuman excess against the Jews in Palestine was only prevented by Falkenhayn's conduct, which against the background of the German history of the 20th century has a special meaning, and one that distinguishes Falkenhayn."'" (1994, 485)
Is it true? Did a German general protect the Jewish population of Palestine from massacre?
General Erich Von
Falkenhayn (Bundesarchiv)
A Falkenhayn family genealogy, posted on the Internet, elaborates further: "While he was in command in Palestine, he was able to prevent Turkish plans to evict all Jews from Palestine, especially Jerusalem. As this was meant to occur along the lines of the genocide of the Armenians, it is fair to say that Falkenhayn prevented the eradication of Jewish settlements in Palestine."
Again, is this true, or is this self-serving German testimony to scrub the stain of Nazism two decades later?
Falkenhayn and Jamal Pasha in the backseat of a car
in Jerusalem (The New Zealanders in Sinai
and Palestine, 1922)
The German general is pictured here in a car with the Turkish ruler of Syria and Palestine, Jamal (also written as Cemal) Pasha, a ruthless ruler and one of the "Young Turks" leadership accused of carrying out the expulsion and massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians across the Ottoman-controlled region during World War I.
Two of the "Young Turks" - Enver Pasha (center)
and Jamal Pasha (right). 1916. Were they responsible for
the Armenian massacre? What were they
planning for the Jews?
Another leader was Enver Pasha who led the Ottoman Empire during World War I and on occasion visited Palestine where he was photographed with Jamal on the Temple Mount and in Be'er Sheva.
Jamal Pasha suspected the loyalties of the Jews of Palestine. The explosion of nationalistic movements across the Empire was eroding Turkish control, and Arab and Jewish nationalism had to be crushed.
Zionists were particularly suspected of leading opposition to Ottoman rule, and leaders -- such as David Ben-Gurion -- were arrested, harassed or exiled. Many were relative newcomers from Russia, an enemy state. Meanwhile, over the horizon, 1,000 Jewish volunteers for the British army, including some from Palestine, formed the Zion Mule Corps in 1915, later known as the Jewish Legion, and they fought with valor against the Turks at Gallipoli.
The two Pashas ride into Be'er Sheva where the British
army later broke through and continued to JerusalemSarah Aaronsohn, NILI founder
The Jews of Palestinefeared that after the Armenians, the Jews would be next. The fear motivated some to form the NILI spy network to assist the British war effort.
Eitan Belkind, who infiltrated the Turkish army and served on Jamal Pasha's staff, witnessed the killing of 5,000 Armenians. Later his brother was hung by the Turks as a NILI spy. Sarah Aaronsohn of Zichron Ya'akov was traveling by train and wagon from Turkey to Palestine in November 1915. On the way she witnessed atrocities committed against Armenians.
In 1916 she joined her brother Aharon Aaronsohn, a well-known agronomist, in forming the NILI spy ring. Caught by the Turks in October 1917 in Zichron Ya'akov and tortured, Sarah committed suicide before surrendering information.
At the time, the British were moving north out of Sinai and pressing along the Gaza-Be'er Sheva front.
Sarah's brother Aharon wrote in his memoirs, "The Turkish order to confiscate our weapons was a bad sign. Similar measures were taken before the massacre of the Armenians, and we feared that our people would meet the same kind of fate."
One Zionist activist described the cruelty of the Jaffa Commandant, Hassan Bey, already in 1914:"Tyrant" Hassan Bey "It would suddenly come into his head to summon respectable householders to him after midnight...with an order to bring him some object from their homes which had caught his fancy. Groundless arrests, insults, tortures, bastinadoes [clubs] -- these were things every householder had to fear."
The most egregious act undertaken by the Turks was the sudden expulsion of the Jews of Jaffa-Tel Aviv on Passover eve in April 1917. Between 5,000 and 10,000 Jews were expelled. The Yishuv in the Galilee and Jerusalem sheltered many of the Jewish refugees, but with foreign Jewish financial aid blocked by the Turks and the land suffering from a locust plague, many of the expelled Jews died of hunger and disease. By one account, 20 percent of Jaffa's population perished.
A German historian, Michael Hesemann, described the horrible situation:"Jamal Pasha, the Turkish Commander who was responsible for the Armenian genocide... threatened the Jewish-Zionist settlers. In Jaffa, more than 8,000 Jews were forced to leave their homes, which were sacked by the Turks. Two Jews were hanged in front of the town gate, dozens were found dead on the beach. In March, Reuters news agency reported a 'massive expulsion of Jews who could face a similar fate as the Armenians.'"
In 1921, a representative from Palestine reported to the 12th Zionist Congress on "Palestine during the War."“In Jerusalem [apparently in 1917] …dozens of children lay starving in the streets without anyone noticing them. Typhus and cholera carried off hundreds every week, and yet no proper medical aid was organized. … Through this lack of organization a considerable portion of the Jerusalem population perished. The number of orphans at the time of the capture of Jerusalem by the English Army was 2,700. “ He continued, “In Safed conditions were similar to what they were in Jerusalem; if anything, worse.… The death-rate here also was appallingly high; towards the end of the war the number of orphans was 500.”
What saved the Jewish community before the British completed their capture of Palestine in late 1917 and 1918?
Several accounts confirm that German officers and diplomats protected the Jews.
Col. Kress van Kressenstein
The Zionist Congress report credited foreign consular officials who "during the whole period of their stay in the country showed themselves always ready to help, and performed valuable services for the Jewish Yishuv [the Jewish community]. Especially deserving of mention are the German vice-consul Schabiner in Haifa... The Jewish population also benefited by the presence of the head of the German military mission, Colonel Kress van Kressenstein, who on several occasions exerted his influence on behalf of the Jews."
Falkenhayn's biographer, Prof. Holger Afflerbach of Leeds University explained, "Falkenhayn had to supervise Turkish measures against Jewish settlers who were accused of high treason and collaboration with the English. He prevented harsh Turkish measures -- Jamal Pasha was speaking about evacuation of all Jewish settlers in Palestine."
Kressenstein reviewing troops with Jamal Pasha
The professor continued, "The parallels to the beginning of the Armenian genocide are obvious and striking: It started with Turkish accusations of Armenian collaboration with the Russians, and the Ottomans decided to transport all Armenians away from the border to another part of the Empire. This ended in death and annihilation of the Armenians. Given the fact that Palestine was frontline in late 1917, something very similar could have happened there to the Jewish settlers."
"Falkenhayn's role was crucial, " Afflerbach explained. "His judgment in November 1917 was as follows: He said that there were single cases of cooperation between the English and a few Jewish radicals, but that it would be unfair to punish entire Jewish communities who had nothing to do with that. Therefore nothing happened to the Jewish settlements. Only Jaffa had been evacuated -- by Jamal Pasha."
Hesemann, the German historian, cites Dr. Jacob Thon, head of the Zionist Office in Jerusalem, who wrote in 1917, "It was special stroke of good fortune that in the last critical days General von Falkenhayn had the command. Jamal Pasha in this case -- as he announced often enough -- would have expelled the whole population and turned the country into ruins...."
[Hesemann has written extensively about the Vatican's role in aiding the Jews of Palestine: "Eugenio Pacelli, who in 1939 became Pope Pius XII, actively supported Zionism during World War I, German historian Michael Hesemann claims in his book “The Pope Who Defied Hitler. The Truth About Pius XII.” Hesemann, who is one of the few historians with access to the Vatican Secret Archives, states he found evidence that Pacelli in 1917 as Apostolic Nuntius in Munich, successfully intervened in favour of the Jewish settlers in Palestine."]
Falkenhayn, his daughter Erika, and Jamal Pasha at the Jerusalem train station, 1917. In 1926, Erika married a
young German officer, Henning von Tresckow, who rose through the ranks. A general in 1944, he was involved
in an attempted coup against Adolf Hitler. He committed suicide in June 1944. Erika and her children were arrested.
Falkenhayn had no particular love for Jews, according to his biographer, Afflerbach. "He was in many aspects a typical Wilhelmine officer and not even free from some prejudices against Jews, but what counts is that he saved thousands of Jewish lives."
Erika von Falkenhayn and her
husband Henning von Tresckow
(Wikipedia)
Why has no one heard about Falkenhayn and his role in protecting the Jews of Palestine? Afflerbach responded, "The action was forgotten, because Falkenhayn prevented Ottoman actions which could have resulted in genocide... The incident was not discussed for decades. It restarted only in the 1960s when scholars started to remember it."
Perhaps Falkenhayn was also erased from German history for many years because of his son-in-law's Valkyrie conspiracy against Hitler.
Post Script: Falkenhayn Saved Jerusalem
Turkish sources indicate considerable tension between Jamal Pasha and Falkenhayn. The following account appears in the English-languageTurkey in the First World War:
Turkish troops evacuate Jerusalem
"The British attack on Jerusalem began on 8 December. The city was defended by the XX Corps, commanded by Ali Fuad Pasha. Falkenhayn did not send reinforcements to Jerusalem because he did not want the relics and the holy places damaged because of severe fighting. [emphasis added.]"
"After withdrawing from Jerusalem, Ali Fuad Pasha sent a cable to Jamal Pasha: "Since my first day as the commander of the defense of Jerusalem, I did not receive any support except one single cavalry regiment.... The British, who benefited from the fatigue of my poor soldiers..., invaded the beautiful town of Jerusalem. I believe that the responsibility of this disaster belongs completely to Falkenhayn!"
"Falkenhayn put the blame on Von Kressenstein and his chief of staff...Dissatisfaction with the advice and command of General Falkenhayn was growing. His inability had resulted in the loss of the Gaza-Beersheba line. His refusal to send reinforcements had resulted in the loss of Jerusalem.... Enver Pasha was losing patience too. On 24 February 1918, he replaced Falkenhayn."Irony of ironies. The Jews of Palestine owed their survival during World War I to a German army officer, and, by extension, the State of Israel's foundations were established thanks to Falkenhayn. Some 25 years later the German army would take part in the eradication of the Jews of Europe. Ultimately, survivors of the Nazi genocide would find shelter in Falkenhayn’s legacy.
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