Boys at the Western Wall, almost certainly posed by the photographer, Felix Bonfils, in the 1870s. Enlargement is
from the picture below. (Getty Research Institute). View a similar photo from the Library of Congress collection
Felix Bonfil's photograph (Getty)
Scores of century-old pictures of the Western Wall have appeared inIsrael Daily Picture. Known as the Wailing Wall, the Kotel HaMaaravi, or the Jews' Wailing Place, the prayer site was the focus of every photographer in Jerusalem.
Two years ago we posted a feature on "The Women of the Western Wall," and noted that there were no physical partitions between the men and the women visible in the pictures because of restrictions imposed by the Ottoman authorities
The girls at the Kotel. The graffiti on the wall suggests the picture was
taken after 1903. (Library of Congress) See a similar picture here
and demands by the Muslim Mufti of
The original picture with the girls.
Jerusalem. Any attempt to set up screens or bring chairs were met with protests and attacks. The Jewish worshippers honored a separation of sexes, for the most part.
"The Jews' Wailing Place" (circa 1900). Take a closer look below.
Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
The picture below, from the University of California - Riverside collection, appears to be a typical picture of the Kotel at the turn of the 20th century, but it's not.
Enlargement of the photo shows a group of children begging with their hands outstretched to men on the left, men whose hats suggest that they are visitors from overseas.
Children with their hands extended. The Jews of Jerusalem were remarkably poor under the Turkish rule, and
relied on charitable donations from Jews in Europe and North America.
More Children at the Kotel
Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
An earlier feature here showed hundreds of Jewish children in 1918 returning to the Old City from a field trip on the Jewish holiday of Lag B'Omer.
Are some of these the same children?
Jewish children's procession on Lag B'Omer 1918.
(Library of Congress)Click on pictures to enlarge.Click on caption to view the original picture.
The mystery ship. The back of the picture only says "Palestine" and "WX25115"
Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)The picture above appears in the University of California - Riverside's Museum of Photography.
No details are provided other than the word on the back, "Palestine." Every man is wearing a western style cap or hat. There appear to be no religious Jews on board, men vastly outnumber the few women in the photo, there are no suitcases or identifying clues other than a German language sign "Tragkraft" on the crane that translates "Lifting capacity 3,000 kilo." We estimate the picture to have been taken early in the 20th century.
Your suggestions are welcome!1View comments
The University of California - Riverside Museum of Photography contains 250,000 stereoscopic plates and 100,000 negatives, many of which are online, such as the one above. See more on the Keystone-Mast Collection.
A photograph of the photographer. Photographer using a stereoscopic camera. No date or location
in "Palestine" is provided. (circa 1900) (Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
19th century stereo camera 
An enlargement of the photographer-horseman
Anyone who has used a "View-Master" toy will recognize the 3D illusion created by the stereo camera. Already in the 19th century photographers were taking stereo pictures which were viewed on a special device. In effect, the two camera lenses captured the view and the slight angle differences of the right eye and the left eye.
Many of the photographs presented in www.israeldailypicture.com are half of a stereoscopic pair, cropped for easier presentation.0Add a comment
The oldest pictures of Jews at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City date from the 1850s, such as this photo taken by Mendel Diness. (With permission of Special Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University. 1859)
In his 1871 travelogue, Travels around the World, former U.S. Secretary of State William Seward described the prayers of the Jews at the Western Wall (Kotel) -- "pouring out their lamentations over the fall of their beloved city." He reported the Jewish population of the city was 8,000, twice the number of the Christian or Muslim residents.
Original caption: "A Bazaar in Jerusalem"
(Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography at UCR
ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
Many of the century-old photos of the Jews of the Holy Land were taken during their prayers at the Kotel. Far fewer were the less formal pictures of their everyday life in Jerusalem. We present such pictures here.
What did everyday life look like?
Close scrutiny of the "Bazaar in Jerusalem" shows Jewish men (and probably Jewish women in the foreground) shopping and walking past a parked camel in the shuk of the Old City. See the enlargement below.
We were intrigued by the sign above the store on the left, and we enlarged it. We discovered the sign, in Hebrew and Yiddish, was for a bedding store and read:
The sign. Interpretations are welcomed.
Smeared cotton (not clear what it was "shmeared" with)Readymade quilts or coversMattresses – Best Sorts
The last line are the names of the store's proprietors, but all that can be easily read is "Chaim Tzvi."
A Jewish money changer just inside the Jaffa Gate under
signs advertising cheese and butter products(with
Rabbi Kook's kashrut supervision) and a printer.
(Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
The Getty Research Institute labels this picture as a
"Jeblanier jeuf à Jérusalem," taken in 1890.
The Jewish merchant's profession is a "ferbantier"
-- a tinsmith or "blecher" in Yiddish. (Credit: Ken and
Jenny Jacobson Orientalist Photography Collection, Getty)A Jewish hat store right outside of the Jaffa Gate. This
picture is from an enlargement of an original - here.
(Library of Congress, note the Library's citation of
Israel Daily Picture to date the picture as pre-1898)
Orthodox Jews among the throngs inside Jaffa Gate, an
enlargement of an original - here.
(Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
The setting inside the Jaffa Gate would again appear in later pictures showing the evacuation of Jews from the Old City during Arab rioting in 1929 and 1936. (Note the tree in the pictures above and below.) In 1948, the Old City Jews were expelled through the Zion Gate.
Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on captions to view the original pictures.
Jewish evacuation from the Old City of Jerusalem, Jaffa Gate, during 1936 Arab rioting and attacks.
The soldiers are British. (Wikipedia Commons)0Add a comment
- JAN13
Remarkable Pictures of Extinct Jewish Communities, Part 3 The pictures from the University of California - Riverside Archives
We present Part 3 of a series of vintage pictures on the Jews of the Middle East. Like the communities in previous features -- Baghdad, Mosul, and Constantinople (Istanbul) -- the Jews of Cairo, Alexandria, and Damascus are on the verge of extinction.
Original caption: "Jew Tailor in his Booth on a Street in Old Cairo"
(Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography at UCR
ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
Some of the pictures presented here show both the poverty and the wealth of the various Jewish communities.
Egypt
Cairo: In 1948, the Cairo Jewish communitynumbered an estimated 55,000. Pogroms and imprisonment caused almost all of the Jews of Egypt to emigrate.
Zaoud-el Mara (Jewish Quarters) Alexandria,
Egypt. A Library of Congress photo dates
this picture from 1898.
Alexandria: According to a Jerusalem Post article from 2008, Alexandria "is said to have boasted a community of tens of thousands of Jews of both Ashkenazi and Mizrahi descent, but some were expelled as French or British citizens during the Suez Canal crisis of 1956. Others were expelled and/or imprisoned for up to three years during the Six Day War. Some, too, left on their own accord, feeling that there was a brighter future for them as Jews in countries like Israel, America and Australia."
There are believed to be around 40 Jews living in Egypt today.
Syria - Damascus
"Beautiful shaded court of a Jewish Home in Damascus, Syria."
Look at the details of the picture.
(Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography at UCR
ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
The Damascus Jewish community numbered an estimated 15,000-17,000 in 1918. Riots, government discrimination, and imprisonment caused almost all of Syrian Jewry to flee.
Today, perhaps a few dozen Jews live in Syria, but the savage civil war has also engulfed old Jewish neighborhoods and ancient synagogues.
At the start of the 20th century, several wealthy Jewish families lived in Damascus, and photographs of their homes are presented here.
Enlarging the photos disclosed
several interesting details.
The matron of the home?
Children of the home?
Grand Mosque and Damascus from the Jewish
Quarters, Syria. Three women on a balcony
overlooking city.
Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum
of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, University
of California, Riverside)
Court of a Wealthy Jew’s Home in Old
Damascus, Syria. See also here.
Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography
at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)
Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on the caption to view the original photo.
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Tuesday, August 18, 2015
The Children of the Western Wall 100+ Years Ago -- Our 400th Photo Feature - picture a day
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