The dream of establishing a university in Jerusalem had been expressed already in the 1880s.
Laying the foundation stone for Hebrew University, July 24, 1918
Finally, just seven months after World War I and the defeat of the Turkish-German army in Jerusalem, the foundation stone for Hebrew University was laid on Mt. Scopus on July 24, 1918.
Chaim Weizmann, the man who became Israel's first president 30 years later, was in attendence. So was Gen. Edmund Allenby, the commander of the British forces who captured Palestine.
More pictures and details can be found in an earlier posting, "Great Moments in Hebrew University's History."
British High Commissioner Herbert Samuel
(left) and Winston Churchill planting a tree
at Hebrew University site (1921)
Lord Balfour inaugurating Hebrew University (1925) - JUL21
Anniversary of the Bombing of the British Military Intel HQ in the King David Hotel 66 Years Ago Reposting an essay from one year ago
On July 22, 1946, the Irgun resistance organization blew up a section of the King David Hotel, killing 91 British, Arabs and Jews. The Library of Congress - Matson collection includes several pictures of the bombing's aftermath.
King David Hotel 1946
Those photographs pretty much marked the end of the Matson Photo Service's 65 years in Jerusalem. According to the Library, "In 1946, in the face of increasing violence in Palestine, the Matsons left Jerusalem for Southern California."
The attack still raises the question of the involvement of the Jewish underground in terrorism.
King David Hotel 1946
The following appeared in Myths and Facts, 1989, written by the publisher ofIsrael Daily Picture.The King David Hotel was the site of the British military command and the British Criminal Investigation Division. Two events led the Irgun commanders to choose the British military headquarters as a legitimate target.
On June 29, 1946, British troops invaded the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem and confiscated large quantities of documents. Simultaneously, over 2,500 Jewish leaders from all over Palestine were placed under arrest. Not only were the documents of crucial importance to the Jewish liberation movement, but papers on Jewish agents in Arab countries were also confiscated, endangering vital intelligence activities. The information was taken to the King David Hotel.
King David Hotel 1946 One week later, Palestinian Jewish anger against the British and their blockade of Palestine grew. Word arrived of the massacre of 40 Jews in a pogrom in Poland; 40 Jews who might have been saved had the doors to Palestine been opened for the survivors of Hitler's concentration camps.On July 22, the Irgun planted bombs in the basement of the hotel. Several calls were placed warning the British to evacuate. They refused. For decades the British denied that they had been warned.In 1979, however a member of the British parliament introduced evidence that the Irgun had indeed issued the warning. He offered the testimony of a British officer who heard other officers in the King David Hotel bar joking about a Zionist threat to the headquarters. The officer who overheard the conversation immediately left the hotel and survived.
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- JUL19
Antique Pictures of the Western Wall to Be Released Online. How Antique? Think Abe Lincoln's Days
Review of the Library of Congress' photo archives revealed pictures of Jerusalem dating back to the 1860s, but they have not been digitalized like the approximate 20,000 pictures taken by the American Colony photographers years later.
"The Wailing place of the Jews"
With the help of the dedicated Library of Congress archivists,Israel Daily Picture will post these pictures in the next few weeks. The pictures will be available online with incredible resolution and free of copyright restrictions.
Meanwhile, in the days leading up to Tisha B'Av, the day Jews around the world mourn the destruction of their Temples, we present a section of one of those rare pictures from the 1860s --almost 150 years ago.1View comments
In the pantheon of Zionist and Israeli historical heroes several names stand out -- Herzl, Ben-Gurion, Weizmann, Ben-Yehuda, Jabotinsky.
Pinchas Ruttenberg 1879 - 1942
Missing from that list is Pinchas Ruttenberg. Pinchas Who?
Ruttenberg. The Russian revolutionary who ran with the likes of Lenin and Trotsky, a prisoner of the Bolsheviks who immigrated to Palestine in 1919, co-founder of the Haganah defense forces, and and founder of the Palestine Electric Corporation in 1923 who established electric plants across Palestine. And a man relatively unknown.
Ruttenberg's Naharayim hydroelectric plant at the
confluence of the Jordan and Yarmuk Rivers (circa 1932).
In the early 1920s Ruttenberg joined with Zev Jabotinsky to form the "Haganah" Jewish self-defense militia to protect Jews in Palestine. When Jabotinsky was arrested in 1920 for defending Jews in Jeusalem, Ruttenberg took command. In the 1921 Arab riots Ruttenberg commanded the militia in Tel Aviv.
In 1923 Ruttenberg founded the Palestine Electric Corporation, securing financial support for his electrification plans from the wealthy Rothschild family and political support from British Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill.
Constuction workers building the
power plant (1927). View workers'
dining hall here.
Ruttenberg's pilot project, launched in 1927, was a power plant at Naharayim at the confluence of the Jordan and Yarmuk Rivers. The land was located on the Transjordan side of the rivers, and the construction was carried out with the approval and assistance of Emir Abdullah. Security cooperation between the Arab Legion and Ruttenberg's security force (to protect both the plants and the power lines) was vital in protecting the building project during the 1929 Arab riots in Palestine. The Hashemite ruler attended the inauguration of the power plant. On the eve of the 1948 war, Abdullah met with the Jewish Agency's Golda Meir at Naharayim to explore avoiding hostilities, but to no avail.
Power plant's Sluice gate from
the Yarmuk River
Ruttenberg's company would go on to build power plants in Haifa and Tel Aviv, and the Palestine Electric Company would eventually become the Israel Electric Company.
Emir Abdullah starting up the turbines as Ruttenberg
watches (1932). Also see Abdullah here
During the 1948 war Ruttenberg's security forces were integrated into the Haganah. But the Naharayim power plant, located just across the frontier in Transjordan, was overrun by the Jordanian Legion and ceased operation. The power company lost almost one-quarter of its output until the Tel Aviv and Haifa plants came on-line.
After the signing of the Israel-Jordan peace treaty in 1994, the grounds of the Naharayim facility were converted to the "Peace Island" park, a symbol of coexistence between the two countries.
In 1997, a Jordanian soldier opened fire on a group of Israeli school girls visiting the Naharayim Peace Island, killing seven.
King Hussein and Prime Minister
Netanyahu visiting a grieving family
Many Israelis will never forget the image of King Hussein of Jordan, Emir Abdullah's grandson, visiting the girls' grieving families in Beit Shemesh to express his condolences.
Click on a picture to enlarge. Click on a caption to view the original picture in the Library of Congress collection.
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The American Colony photographers were based in Jerusalem, but they roamed throughout Palestine between the 1890s and 1946. Their pictures record the history of the land from Metulla to Be'er Sheva, Tel Aviv-Jaffa to Jerusalem and the Dead Sea.
The Library of Congress caption reads "Jaffa" and that the
picture was taken between "1898-1946"
These Christian photographers captured on glass plates and film the Jewish life in Eretz Yisrael decades prior to the establishment of the State of Israel.
This picture provides an example. Labelled simply "Jaffa," the photo is dated between "1898 and 1946," the years the American Colony Photo Department was active in the Holy Land.
But there's much more in the photo beyond the two obviously Orthodox Jewish men walking in Jaffa. We can even narrow down the date of the picture.
The picture could not have been taken during World War I when the Turkish rulers expelled the Jews of Jaffa and hundreds died.
The two men are walking along railroad tracks which appear incongruously to be laid through a Jaffa alleyway. Actually when the Jaffa-Jerusalem railroad was inaugurated in the 1892 there was a spur that continued from the Jaffa train station down to the Jaffa dock (see adjacent postcard).
The rail line into the Jaffa Port (Cairo Postcard Trust)
But the men are not walking on the rails laid during the Turkish rule. Those rails were "standard gauge," at least one meter apart, and indeed in the old postcard people are shown walking two abreast. The rails around Jaffa were ripped out by the Turks during World War I for use elsewhere in the Palestine war effort. One can surmise that they left the wooden railroad ties.
In the photo above, only one of the Orthodox Jews can walk between the rails. The line was 60 centimeters wide, a fact that dates the picture to post-December 1917, when, with the port beyond the range of Turkish artillery, the British built a narrow-gauge track along Raziel Street, probably using the wide Turkish ties, to move supplies from the port. The narrow gauge tracks operated until 1928.2View comments
From the earliest days of photography, the Western Wall has been a favorite subject for photographers. The Wall or Kotelwas always a magnet for Jews who came to pray at the remnant of the Temple retaining wall. On the other side of that Wall once stood the Holy of Holies.
Jews at Western Wall (circa 1917). Note presence of women,
Ashkenazi Jews with the fur hats, and Sephardi Jews with the fez.
During Arab riots in the 1920s and during the Arab revolt (1936- 1939) Jews were often attacked in the Old City. 
Orthodox Jews on the way to
the Western Wall (1934-39) and here
That's why this set of the American Colony's photographs of the Old City is so unusual. It shows Jews walking to the Western Wall between 1934 and 1939 "on their usual Sabbath* walk to the Wailing Wall," according to the caption.
The subjects hide their faces because of their desire to avoid being photographed on the Sabbath.
Little girl at "Jews wailing place" (1934-39)
Possibly because of the dangers there are few women or non-Orthodox worshipers in this set of pictures. Yet, one little blond girl appears in two of the pictures.
Little Jewish girl walking in the Old City
(in circle)
Click on picture to enlarge.
Click on caption to see original.
To maintain order in the Old City, the British police established gun positions and built walls to separate Arabs from the Jews. In 1929 and again in 1939 the British evacuated Jews from the Old City.
"Sand bags used by police in Jewish
Street" in the Old City
Sealed passageway in the Old City and here
But the American Colony photographers still found pious Jews who continued to flock to the Western Wall, and their pictures are presented here.
Jews in the Old City, walking back from prayers at the
Western Wall (1934-1939) and here
Sabbath walk in the Old City and here 
The Western Wall deserted during visit
of British General, 1936 "Palestine
Disturbances"
In 1948, the Jordanian Legion captured the Old City of Jerusalem, imprisoned or expelled all of the Jews, and destroyed the Jewish Quarter. Jews were not permitted to visit the Western Wall until 1967 when the Israel Defense Forces reunited the city.
*(Actually, the pictures were probably taken on a Jewish festival. Many of the worshippers are carrying prayer books and bags which some wouldn't normally do on the Sabbath.)
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Iraq and Israel do not have diplomatic relations, and indeed, some 20 years ago Saddam Hussein was firing Scud missiles at Tel Aviv and Haifa during the Gulf War from the H2 base in western Iraq.
Haifa port today 
Laying the Iraq-Haifa pipeline in the Jezreel Valley (1933)
Today, however, The Times of Israel reports, Iraq is importing and exporting products through Haifa's port via Jordan. According to the report, "trade expert Matanis Shahadeh told Al-Jazeera that from Iraq’s point of view, the Iraq-Haifa route is much more direct and cost-efficient than the alternative maritime route through the Persian Gulf."
Iraq Petroleum Co. tractors with Mt. Tabor in the background Today's Iraq-Haifa connection is history repeating itself.In the 1930s two Iraq Petroleum Co. (IPC) pipelines were built from Kirkuk in Iraq to the Mediterranean Sea. At French insistence, one was built through Syria and Lebanon ending in Tripoli.
Great Britain insisted on a pipeline through Palestine ending in Haifa. One of the pumping stations for the Haifa pipeline was designated Haifa 2 or "H2" -- the same infamous location used as a Scud missile base.
Iraq Petroleum Company oil tanks at Haifa (1937) 
The "IPC terminus" in Haifa Bay (1935) 
IPC inaugural ceremony (1935) 0Add a comment
- JUL10
The Turkish Naval Base at the Dead Sea during World War IPart 2 to a Previous Posting on Weapons Found at the Dead Sea
Last week we posted a feature on the origins of a cache of antique German weapons found recently at the Dead Sea. The posting showed pictures of a World War I Turkish naval base and abandoned Turkish defense lines at the Dead Sea.
Unloading grain at the Dead Sea (1917) 
Turkish delegation received at Dead
Sea dock (1916)
The Turks' "Dead Sea Flotilla" (1917) 
Towing barges of wheat (1917) 
Shipping grain from the south end of
the Dead Sea to the north. No roads
connected the north and south parts
of the Dead Sea shores
As evidenced in these American Colony-Library of Congress album pictures, the Dead Sea was a major supply route for the Turkish army between eastern and western Palestine, particularly after Britain and its allies blockaded Mediterranean ports.
Click on the photos to enlarge.
Click on the captions to see the originals.1View comments
The Library of Congress photo archives contain dozens of old pictures of Syria. Some of them were taken 100 years ago in 1912 by the American Colony photographers who left Jerusalem on an expedition to Syria. The pictures and their travelogue appeared in the 1913 National Geographic article, "From Jerusalem to Aleppo."
Damascus (photochrome, circa 1890), also here (1860), and
Tomb of Saladin here (1870)
Other photographs in the Library of Congress collection were taken by early film pioneers Felix Bonfils and P. Bergheim in the 1800s.
Aleppo (1912) and here (1936)
In February 2012 we published our first tribute to the brave Syrian people under siege in Hama and Homs. We little expected that the massacres and oppression by the Assad regime would still be going on six months later.
"Busy scene on the Orontes River," water wheel in Hama (1912) 
Orontes River, Homs (1912) 0Add a comment
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
July 24 -- Anniversary of the Laying of the "Foundation Stone" for the Hebrew University in 1918 - picture a day
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