This picture was taken by the American Colony photographers sometime between 1934 and 1939.
Why is this house in the middle of the road?
The caption reads, "Jewish house blocking asphalt highway between Yehudieh and Tel Aviv."
Enlargement
Any suggestions? Submit your ideas below in the comment section. (Online version)
Kudos to our comment senders. In your honor a screen capture from the movie Sallah Shabbati:
Sallah Shabbati about to leave in the middle of the road
a wardrobe closet he was paid to move- JUL7
The Jewish Valero Family Owned the Land outside of Damascus Gate. Antique Photos Show What Happened to It
By some accounts, the Valero family arrived in Jerusalem in the 18th or 19th centuries from Turkey. Researchers have even suggested that the family were once conversos -- secret Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity in Spain. They later traveled to Turkey and returned to their Jewish faith.
Chaim Aharon Valero
(1845-1923)
In Jerusalem, the family took up residence in the Old City of Jerusalem . According to a monograph by Hebrew University's Prof. Ruth Kark and Joseph Glass, Ya'akov Valero arrived in Jerusalem in 1835 from Istanbul. Originally a ritual slaughterer, Valero opened a private bank -- the first in Palestine -- in 1848, located inside the Jaffa Gate in the Old City. When Ya'akov died in 1874, the banking and real estate enterprise was eventually taken over by his son Chaim Aharon.
Damascus Gate and Valero property
to the right of the gate (circa 1898)
Among the Valeros' land holdings were tracts outside of the Old City on Jaffa Road, the area that eventually became the Mahane Yehuda market, the grounds of the Bikur Holim hospital, and several acres around Damascus Gate, a hub of commerce in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Construction of the row of Valeros' shops outside Damascus Gate
(circa 1900). The domes of the Hurva and Tifferet Yisrael
synagogues are on the horizon on the left of the picture
Prior to World War I Chaim Aharon built and leased stores at the entrance of Damascus Gate, seen in the pictures below.
Another view of the shops. See also here
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.
Demolition of the Valero shops (1937), and here 
Another view of the demolition 3View comments
Last month Israeli newspapers reported on the discovery of a huge cache of guns, bullets, artillery shells and mines in the Dead Sea. Speculation suggested that the weapons belonged to the German army during World War I and were dumped in the sea. The salt water preserved the weapons which were exposed as the Dead Sea waters receded.
Guns revealed as waters receded. (Ynet,
photo by Yoav Zitun)
Photographs in the Library of Congress - American Colony collection erase all speculation and show that the Turkish-German army was well dug-in along the shores of the Dead Sea. The weapons are certainly theirs.
A British soldier looks over the Dead Sea shore from captured
Turkish trenches (1918). View another picture of
Turkish defense lines here
World War I was not only fought in Europe; the war was waged in the Middle East for four years and was conducted from the Suez Canal, all the way north to Damascus and east to Amman. After a slugfest in Gaza, the British army captured Beersheva and then Jerusalem in December 1917. But major battles continued in Palestine in 1918 along a line from Megiddo in the west, through Nablus in the northern hills, and to Jericho in the Jordan Valley. 
Turkish naval officers at their Dead Sea
base
Turkish boat being transported to
the Dead Sea (circa 1917)The Dead Sea served as a major artery for the Turkish-German armies, sending ships back and forth from eastern Palestine (later "Transjordan") to western Palestine. In early 1918, according to one account, Australian fighter planes raked Turkish ships carrying grain and hay for the Turkish army and effectively put an end to the Turkish naval activities on the Dead Sea. 
British engineers with German POWs "boatbuilding" (1918),
posed in front of the "Adela"Several pictures in the collection show German prisoners of war in front of a ship bearing the name "Adela" on the shores of the Dead Sea.The boat, quite possibly captured from the Turks, was named in honor of the wife of the British army's commander, General Edmund Allenby.Another photo of the ship, dated 1919, shows a wide-range of soldiers -- British, Indian, Australian, and perhaps others. 
A collection of soldiers from around
the British empire (March 15, 1919)The photo may reflect the fact that the "Western Front" war in Europe was not going well for Britain, and some 60,000 British soldiers were redeployed from Palestine to France. Their replacements included Sikh and Gurkhan troops, as well as Jewish volunteers who joined after the 1917 Balfour declaration. See the call for Jewish volunteers below.
British recruitment poster directed at
Jews. See the poster in Yiddish here and
another poster here
According to the Library of Congress, the poster is entitled, "The Jews the world over love liberty, have fought for it & will fight for it ... enlist with the infantry reinforcements"
The poster shows a soldier cutting the bonds from a Jewish man, who strains to join a group of soldiers running in the distance and says, "You have cut my bonds and set me free - now let me help you set others free!" On the top are portraits of Rt. Hon. Herbert Samuel, Viscount Reading, and Rt. Hon. Edwin S. Montagu, all Jewish members of the British parliament. The poster lists at the bottom the commander, Captain Isador Freedman, headquartered on St. Lawrence Blvd in Montreal.2View comments
We recently posted a feature on a "streamroller" in the streets of Jerusalem.
"Steamroller (sic) in Jerusalem" with U.S. and
Turkish flag outside of the Old City's Jaffa Gate
We received this clarification from the folks at the British Road RollerAssociation.My colleagues have responded that this is not a Steam Roller; it's an American-built Austin motor roller with two somewhat narrow flywheels (in the style of much later A&P motor rollers) - and I would therefore assume the flag denotes its origins. It's thought to be from around the time of WW1.2View comments
- JUN26
The Jewish State in Formation Required Major Industries. The Dead Sea Potash Works Was One of Them
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Jews of Palestine were employed in agriculture (oranges, wheat, dairy cows, etc) and small industries (textiles, edible oils, furniture, etc).
Palestine Potash Company on the shore of the Dead Sea
(c 1937). Note the airplane, upper right corner of picture.
Unlike other areas in the Middle East, large reserves of petroleum and natural gas were never found. While no "black gold" was pumped from beneath the ground, a "white gold" was mined from beneath the water. In 1930, a major industry was launched on the barren shores of the Dead Sea, the Palestine Potash Company. Established by Moshe Novomeysky, the company was responsible for approximately half the worth of all of the exports of the Jews of Palestine by 1940. During World War II, the company provided Britain with half of its potash. (Potash is not only used in fertilizer. In World War II, it was a vital component in the fuel used by combat aircraft.)
Dead Sea 100-ton barge. View another
mining picture here
Dead Sea housing on the northern shore.
Note how close the buildings are to
the water line (1931). Since then, the
shoreline has receded hundreds of yards.At the time, the only route to the Dead Sea was overland via the Jerusalem-Jericho road or by boat to Trans-Jordan. Potash mined on the southern shore was loaded on barges and shipped to the northern facility where it was loaded on trucks. Until a workers' settlement was established in the north, workers traveled from Jerusalem.
Dead Sea dining room and
security building (1931)
The remains of the dining room and
security building today (credit: Michael
Yaakovson)
The potash company expanded to the southern half of the Dead Sea in 1934 where there was more area for evaporation pans. The area was known as Sodom.
Remains of the housing today (credit:
Michael Yaakovson)
The violence of the Arab Revolt (1936-1939) also struck the Dead Sea enterprise. In September 1937 terrorists struck a truck convoy on the way toward Jerusalem. According to the British Mandate report for 1937:
"On the 16th, five trucks belonging to the Palestine Potash convoy were ambushed and destroyed on the Jerusalem-Jericho road and two Arab employees of the company were murdered."
One of the burned-out trucks
British military jeep passing the burned-out convoy of trucks (1937)
Guards at the Palestine Potash Company (1937) During the 1948 War of Independence, the Jewish workers of the Dead Sea facility in the north were evacuated. The site was looted and destroyed by local Arab and the Jordanian Legion.Today, the Dead Sea Works is part of the Israel Chemical Group which reported $1.3 billion in revenue in 2010.The historic photographs presented here were part of an American Colony album produced for the Palestine Potash Company, and some 90 pictures can be viewed in the Library of Congress files.Michael Yaakovson visited the southern facility in 2009 and posted online an incredible collection of pictures of the abandoned camp. We thank him for permission to use some of his pictures.0Add a comment
"A Jewish colony" dated sometime between 1898 and 1946.
Where and when was the picture taken?
The buildings in the circles help identify the siteHere are more pictures from the American Colony collection datedbetween 1898 and 1946. Not only is the date uncertain, but so is the location of the pictures.
"Harvesting, Jewish colony" (1898-1946)
Note the ultra-Orthodox man under the
umbrella. In the Library of Congress
digital collection the two harvesting
pictures are adjacent to the large photo
of the horse and buggy on the top right
Using landmarks and comparing the horse and buggy picture to other photographs, we can identify the unnamed "Jewish Colony" and suggest a time and vicinity for the harvesting pictures.
"Jewish colony harvesting" (1898-1946)
Note the same machinery in the two
pictures
The photo of the horse and buggy on the top right was taken at the Mikve Yisrael Agricultural School, established in 1870, near what later became Tel Aviv. Note the building with the central chimney which appears in other photographs below. The "Jewish colony harvesting" pictures are located in adjacent files to the horse and buggy picture.
The American Colony photographers took dozens of pictures of the "Jewish colonies and settlements," no doubt reflecting their Christian "end-of-days" theology which supported the return of Jews to the Holy Land. The founder of the American Colony's photographic department, Elijah Meyers, a Jew from India who converted to Christianity, produced a photographic documentary of the Jewish communities already in 1897.An earlier posting:
Training Israel's Farmers 140 Years Ago at Mikve Yisrael Agricultural School
Photo captioned "Mikweh"
Note the two buildings in the
buggy picture
In 1867, young residents of Jerusalem requested assistance from Jews in Europe in order to build outside the Old City walls. "We're not requesting charity," they wrote, "but work. Provide us the land, put in our hands the tools and send us the people who will teach us to work the land."
Mikveh Yisrael students The Mikve Yisrael Agricultural School was the result.Pictured here (left) is the Mikve Yisrael wine cellar, built in 1883.
Founded in 1870 by Karl Netter of the French Jewish organization, Alliance Israélite Universelle, the school was allocated 750 acres by Palestine's Ottoman rulers. It was one of the first modern Jewish schools in Eretz Yisrael. 
"Mikweh" photo and the chimney 
Wine cellar (1898) 
The montage of the
two men.(Not from the
Library of Congress
collection)The school was the site of the historic 1898 meeting between Theodore Herzl and the German Emperor, Wilhelm II. Herzl requested that the Emperor intercede with his ally, the Ottoman Sultan, to establish a Jewish state.The famous picture of the meeting, however, is not real. The photographer (apparently not one of the American Colony photographers) "missed the shot" and created a photo montage instead.0Add a comment
- JUN21
Another Mystery Photo -- A Steamroller in Jerusalem Can You Suggest Why It Flies an American Flag?
The Library of Congress provides little information about this dynamic picture in Jerusalem.
"Steamroller on Jerusalem Street" is the caption
The picture's caption reads "Steamroller on Jerusalem Street."
The date of the picture is given as sometime between 1898 and 1946, nearly 50 years the American Colony photographers were active.
The steamroller is on the left side of the picture surrounded by a crowd. Why is it flying an American flag (alongside what appears to be a Turkish flag)?
As we researched, we discovered another photograph of the same vehicle. The second picture was taken outside of the Jaffa Gate, beneath David's Citadel.
Here is what we deduce:
Vehicle enlarged - The first picture was taken on Mamilla Street with the vehicle heading away from the photographer. The photographer's back is to Jaffa Gate.
- The picture was taken during the Turkish rule of Palestine, sometime in the early1900s and before automobiles were introduced. Only horse-drawn wagons are on the road.
- Perhaps the steamroller was a vehicle never seen before by Jerusalem's residents, and that would explain why all traffic stopped.
- Perhaps the American flag was being flown because the vehicle was an American gift or produced by an American company.
"Steamroller on street outside of Jerusalem
walls." (1898 - 1946)
Click on the picture to enlarge. Click on the caption to see the original photograph.
Subscribe to Israel Daily Picture by entering your email in the box in the right sidebar. It's free.
New comments: Hat Tip to Reader Paul M! Read his comments below which explain the American flag and help date the picture.3View comments
- JUN18
Ultra-Orthodox Jews also Established Agricultural Communities in the Holy Land -- Kfar Chassidim
Many of the kibbutz and moshav agricultural communities established in Palestine in the early 1900s were based on socialist ideals. A large number of the new settlers discarded the old religious traditions of their parents and ancestors.
The blacksmith of Kfar Chassidim and former
resident of a Polish shtetl. (1935)
The fields of Kfar Chassidim, (c. 1935)
a community founded 10 years earlier
The ark in the synagogue
But the Zionist enterprise and the promise to return to the "holy land" also inspired ultra-Orthodox Jews in Poland to establish a farming community in Israel's north called Kfar Chassidim, or "village of the devout."
Exterior of the synagogue
Click on photos to enlarge. Click on caption to see original photo
The settlers, many followers of the Kuznetz chassidic dynasty of Poland, first organized in 1922 while still in Poland. They purchased the land in Palestine and established Kfar Chassidim in 1924. But the land was swampland, and the community was hard hit by malaria and a lack of agricultural training.
The blacksmith in his shop
The Jewish National Fund aided the community in drying the swamps, paid off their debts and sent agricultural experts to train the new farmers.
Today, the community has approximately 600 residents.1View comments
The caption on this picture from the Library of Congress' American Colony collection reads "Jews Carding Cotton" sometime around 1900 in Palestine.
Jews carding cotton
What does carding cotton mean? How is it done?
Carding is a process of taking unprocessed fibers, such as wool or cotton, and untangling, cleaning and mixing the strands.
When done manually, carding was usually done with a brush-like tool, or "card." In the 18th and 19th centuries machines were invented to card fiber.
These Jewish men, however, are using another ancient method discussed inWikipedia:Historian of science Joseph Needham ascribes the invention of bow-instruments used in textile technology to India. The earliest evidence for using bow-instruments for carding comes from India (2nd century CE). These carding devices, called kaman and dhunaki would loosen the texture of the fiber by the means of a vibrating string.
0Add a comment
- JUN13
How Strange Does the American Colony Story Get? Meet the Founders' adopted Jewish son, responsible for one of the most incredible archeological finds in Jerusalem in 130 years
Meet Jacob David Eliahu, born in 1864 to Turkish Jewish parents in Palestine.
Jacob Eliahu Spafford
Jacob and his parents were converted to Christianity by the "London Jews Society," a missionary group that started in London's East End and established a mission hospital in Jerusalem in the mid-1800s. Jacob was born in Ramallah where his mother went to escape a cholera epidemic in Jerusalem.
Spafford picnic (1902). Jacob is believed
to be in the middle with a dark shirt.At the age of 17, Jacob went to live with the founders of the American Colony, Horatio and Anna Spafford, who had just arrived in Jerusalem. The Christian utopians, who had tragically lost five children to shipwreck and disease, adopted Jacob.
Jacob appears in numerous Spafford family pictures and is credited with using his many languages (English, Spanish, Swedish, Arabic and Hebrew) and business skills to guide the American Colony community through an incredibly difficult period in Palestine marked by war, famine, and a locust plague.
Jacob with his two Spafford sisters
and unknown girls (circa 1900)
Hezekiah's inscription. The original tablet
was chiseled out and taken to the Istanbul
Museum (Credit: Tamar Hayardeni,
Wikipedia)According to the Library of Congress, "Jacob continued to join [Jewish] relatives for Jewish holidays and observances while serving in a long and highly respected leadership capacity in the American Colony."
As a "local," Bible-steeped young man, Jacob was certainly familiar with the man-made underground water channel discovered in the 1830s from the Gihon Spring to the Silwan pool in Jerusalem.
But it was young Jacob who is credited with recognizing beneath centuries of silt an ancient chiseled tablet on the wall that dated the tunnel to the 8th century BCE and confirmed the massive engineering feat of King Hezekiah.
The inscription reads:
- ... the tunnel ... and this is the story of the tunnel while ... the axes were against each other and while three cubits were left to cut? ... the voice of a man ... called to his counterpart, (for) there was ... in the rock, on the right ... and on the day of the tunnel (being finished) the stonecutters struck each man towards his counterpart, ax against ax and flowed water from the source to the pool for 1200 cubits. and 100?cubits was the height over the head of the stonecutters ...
From a family album: "Uncle Jacob Spafford,
adopted son of Horatio and Anna Spafford,
formerly a Jew called Jacob Eliahu."
Plaque dedicating a wing in Jacob's
memory at an
American Colony orphanage
Jacob Spafford's grave on Mt. Scopus 1View comments
There are many pictures in the American Colony collection that are simply not well captioned. Kudos go to the curators at the Library of Congress for digitalizing and cataloging the 22,000 photos they received from a California old age home. But, in some cases, they may have had trouble putting all of the puzzle pieces back in place.
"Triumphal arch" in Jerusalem, sometime between 1898 and 1946
Where? Why? When?
Here's an example of another mystery photograph that this website attempts to decipher. The photo is set somewhere in Jerusalem, sometime between 1898 and 1946, the period when the American Colony's photography department was active.
"Triumphal arch"
The photo is accompanied by a second photograph with the same caption "Triumphal arch" and the dates of 1898-1946.
Now we fill in the blanks: The picture was taken in 1898. The arch was built in honor of the Emperor of Germany, Wilhelm II. The location was Nablus Road, a few hundred meters north of the American Colony's home. The second "Arch" picture was probably taken from the American Colony's upper floor and may be a photo of the Emperor's procession.
The Emperor's arrival in Jerusalem, riding on his white horse.
The building on the right is the American Colony's residence.
Note the minaret in this photo and the second "Arch" picture.
View another picture of "The Kaiser in front of our house."
This website has published other photos of events on Nablus Road in a posting "Nablus Road: Where History Marched."
View the "Arch" picture below with other Nablus Road pictures. We have marked in a box a group of houses with distinct roofs in several of the pictures.
Click on the picture to enlarge. Click on the caption to view the original photograph.
Note the roofs, arch and crooked
telegraph pole on the left
"Turkish soldiers marching on Nablus Road past the
American Colony." Marked are the same arches, roofs and
crooked telegraph poll (between 1898 and 1917)
Jewish children's procession on Nablus
Road on Lag B'Omer, 1918. Note the
distinct roofs on the left
Several "triumphal arches" were built in honor of the German Emperor, including a very elaborate structure built by Jerusalem's Jewish community, replete with Torah crowns and curtains from synagogues' Torah arks. 
British army towing artillery on Nablus Road
during World War I (1917-1918)
The arch built by the Jewish community of Jerusalem (1898) on
Jaffa Road. View photo essay on the arch here. The Emperor's
arrival was on the Sabbath, but the Jewish community and
its rabbis turned out.0Add a comment
Like the American Colony collection, the Central Zionist Archives (CZA) has many 100-year-old pictures of key events in Jewish history in Eretz Yisrael. One person, however, apparently got past the photographers of the American Colony, usually featured in this space.
British commissioner Samuel (center), Chief Rabbi Kook (in fur
hat), and Mendel Kremer in white suit (1925). Who was this man?
Central Zionist Archives, Harvard
In several CZA pictures, usually in the background -- Forest Gump-like -- stands a stout man identified as Mendel Kremer. Who was he?
Advertisement for Kremer's pharmacy
on flyer at the Jerusalem railroad
station (1898) Central Zionist
Archives-Harvard
Kremer in Turkish
uniform (1910)
Central Zionist
Archives, HarvardKremer was an alleged agent and informer who first worked for the Turks and then the British. He was considered a hatedmoser who turned over his co-religionists to the authorities, according to some accounts.Reports claim that he was directed by the Turks to spy on Theodore Herzl during his 1898 visit to Palestine and was even authorized to arrest Herzl if his presence led to disturbances. In his diary, Herzl noted Kremer's presence.Mendel Kremer was born in Minsk in the 1860s and moved with his family to Palestine in 1873. He opened a pharmacy in Meah Sha'arim in Jerusalem in 1890.
Kremer, in suit, with other veterans of
the Turkish army (1927) Central
Zionist Archives, HarvardKremer worked for some of the early Hebrew newspapers which probably served him well in providing information to the Turkish authorities.
Kremer with his Turkish
medals of honor Central
Zionist Archive, Harvard
Dov Ganchovsky, an Israeli journalist and chronicler of Jerusalem stories, suggests that Kremer was actually a double-agent and on occasion assisted the Jewish community.
Kremer with chief rabbi Yaakov Meir
(1925) Central Zionist Archives,
Harvard
When the Turkish Pasha plotted to kill the manager of the British-Palestine bank, Ganchovsky wrote, Kremer warned the manager and smuggled him out of Jerusalem to Jericho. Subsequently, Ganchovsky recounted, the manager's daughter confirmed the story. A woman claiming to be Kremer's granddaughter also contacted the reporter to thank him for "saving my grandfather's honor."
When Kremer died in 1938, the newspaper Davar reported that Jerusalem lost one of its most known figures. The obituary referred to Kremer's experience with Herzl and his work with the Turkish and British police. The latter attended his funeral.1View comments
Skim through the pages of Israel Daily Picture and you will see dozens of pictures of Yemenite Jews, some dating back more than 100 years. The photographers of the American Colony clearly enjoyed taking their portraits.
"Arab Jew from Yemen" (circa 1900)
We recently discovered why.
Yemenite family (circa 1914)
The American Colony was a group of utopian American Christians who moved to the Holy Land in 1881. The leader of the group, Horatio Spafford, believed that "the return of the Jewish people to Jerusalem was a sign of the imminent second coming of Jesus," according to the Library of Congress curatorof a recent exhibit.
"In May 1882," the Library of Congress exhibit reported, "the Spaffords met a group of impoverished Yemenite Jews recently arrived in Jerusalem. The Yemenites had come from their homes in southern Arabia because they believed that the time was right after thousands of years to return to the land that had been Israel. Impressed by their sincerity and claim to be descendants of Gad, a founder of one of the twelve tribes of Israel, the Spaffords housed and fed them until they could establish themselves in Jerusalem. In appreciation the Gadites bestowed a blessing on the Spaffords, which was recorded in [the family] Bible."
The "Gadite" (Yemenite) prayer in Spafford's Bible, 130 years ago
Prayer of Jewish Rabbi offered every Sabbath in Gadite
synagogue, June 27?: He who blessed our fathers Abraham,
Isaac & Jacob, bless & guard & keep Horatio Spafford & his
household & all that are joined with him, because he has
shown us mercy to us & our children & little ones.
Therefore may the Lord make his days long...(?) and may the
Lord's mercy shelter them. In his and in our days may Judah
be helped (?) and Israel rest peacefully and may the
Redeemer come to Zion, Amen.
A Yemenite Jew standing above the
village of Silwan. The Yemenites lived
in caves there upon their arrival in 1882.
(circa 1901)
Yemenite Jew at Yemin Moshe project in Jerusalem (1899)
Yemenite Family (1911) 0Add a comment
Also the foreigners, that join themselves to the Lord, to minister unto Him, and to love Him... I will bring them to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer... for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. (Isaiah 56: 6-7)
Russian pilgrims on the way to Jericho. See more pictures
of Russian pilgrims - Women's hostel in Jerusalem (1899)
Russian Pilgrims at the Jordan River and here, here
During the times of the Jewish Temple, Jews made pilgrimages to Jerusalem three times a year -- on Passover, Sukkot and Shavuot.
Christians' pilgrimage to the Holy Land is also a long tradition as evident in these photographs from the Library of Congress collection.
Russian pilgrims overlooking
the Kidron Valley. Note the
Jerusalem Old City walls on the
top right (circa 1900)
Abyssinian (Ethiopian) Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem
French pilgrims praying at the first Station of the Cross
located in Turkish barracks in Jerusalem (1913)
Egyptian Coptic Christians bathing in Jordan River (1900)
Click on pictures to enlarge
Click on captions to see the original photo
The Library of Congress collection includes pictures of
Muslim pilgrims in Palestine going to Mecca (1900)
Today's posting is dedicated to the memory of
Aydel Batya bat Moshe Yitzhak
"Jacobite pilgrims from Chaldea" (circa 1900)
Chaldea was an area in Babylon, now southern
Iraq. The Jacobites are part of the Syriac
Orthodox Church and many spoke Aramaic.
Note the howling baby in the backpack0Add a comment
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
OK, We're Stumped. Can Someone Explain Why There's a Jewish House in the Middle of the Road? - picture a day
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