On the eve of the anniversary of the Hebron massacre on August 24, we re-post these photographs which we uncovered in the American Colony collection in the Library of Congress archives.
The destruction of the Avraham Avinu
Synagogue in Hebron in 1929Today’s leaders of the Hebron Jewish community told us last year that they had never seen the photos before.
Click on the photos to enlarge. Click on the captions to see the originals.Background to the Hebron massacre. After the British army captured Palestine from the Turks in late 1917, the relationship between the British and the local Arab population was characterized by tension that sporadically erupted into insurrection over the next 30 years.
A destroyed synagogue. Torah scrolls
strewn on the ground
Enlargement of scroll showing
Deuteronomy 1: 17The Arabs of Palestine were led by the powerful Husseini clan who controlled the offices of the Mufti (religious leader) as well as the Mayor of Jerusalem. For decades the clan had opposed European colonialism, the growing power of foreign consulates in Jerusalem, Christian and Jewish immigration and land purchases. After the 1917 Balfour Declaration expressed support for “a national home for the Jewish people,” Husseini added “Zionists” to his enemies list. The clan leveraged its power and threats of violence to win over Turkish and British overlords, to challenge the Hashemite King Abdullah, and to hold off competing clans such as the Nashashibi, Abu Ghosh, and Khalidi clans.
Jewish home plundered. Blood-stained floor[Haj Amin el Husseini fled Palestine in 1937 to escape British jail and eventually found his way to Berlin where he assisted the Nazi war effort. He died of natural causes in Beirut in 1974.]On Yom Kippur 1928, Jews brought chairs and screens to prayers at the Western Wall. This purported change of the status quo was exploited by the Mufti, Haj Amin el Husseini, to launch a jihad against the Jews. Husseini’s campaign continued and escalated after a Jewish demonstration at the Kotel on Tisha B’Av in August 1929. Rumors spread that Jews had attacked Jerusalem mosques and massacred Muslims. The fuse was lit for a major explosion.
Starting on Friday, August 23, 1929 and lasting for a week, attacks by enraged Arab mobs were launched against Jews in the Old City in Jerusalem, in Jerusalem suburbs Sanhedria, Motza, Bayit Vegan, Ramat Rachel, in outlying Jewish communities, and in the Galilee town of Tzfat. Small Jewish communities in Gaza, Ramla, Jenin, and Nablus had to be abandoned.
Synagogue desecrated The attack in Hebron became a frenzied pogrom with the Arab mob stabbing, axing, decapitating and disemboweling 67 men, women and children. At least 133 Jews were killed across Palestine. In 1931, there was a short-lived attempt to reestablish the Jewish community in Hebron, but within a few years it was abandoned until the Israel Defense Forces recaptured Hebron in 1967.The British indulged the Arabs and responded by limiting Jewish immigration and land purchases.
Large common grave of Jewish victims. Later the grave
was destroyed
Jewish home plundered
Today in Hebron: A recent Jewish service in the rebuilt
Avraham Avinu Synagogue (with permission of photographer)
The Mt. Zion Hotel is situated on the historic Hebron Road not far from Jerusalem's Old City walls. The beautiful boutique hotel overlooks the Biblical Hinnom Valley.
The Mt Zion Hotel in Jerusalem today (photo: Ron Peled) One hundred years ago, the beds in the building were of a different sort -- hospital beds in the St. John Eye Hospital, part of the
"Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem." They established the Jerusalem opthalmic hospital in 1882. 
The hotel today, view from Old City
Wall. Tower behind the building is St.
Andrew's Church, built in 1930
With the outbreak of World War I, the Turkish authorities used the building as a warehouse for explosives -- with a predictably tragic result. 
"British Opthalmic Hospital" in 1918, after World War I
According to the British Military Governor in Palestine, Ronald Storrs, "the Turks had used it for an ammunition-dump and blown it up on the eve of their retreat [in December 1917]. Nothing seemed to happen as quick as one wanted, for it took the best part of a week to clear it of exploded and unexploded cartridges and to summon the expert advice of MacCallan from Cairo; and some months before the hospital could be rebuilt by the Order."
The shattered St John's hospital after explosion (1918). View more
pictures of the destruction here and here. Notice the
Montefiore windmill in the background on the right
British General Allenby visiting the hospital (circa 1918) and here. He is entering what is the area of the main entrance to the hotel today
In 1948, the hospital found itself on the front line between Israel and Jordan and relocated to the Old City.
The hospital's Hebron Road entrance
(1918)
The complex was renovated and converted to the Mt. Zion Hotel in 1986.
Click on the photos to enlarge.
Click on the captions to see the originals.
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Solomon's Pools. The photo is dated between 1860 and 1880. No name is attributed to the photo. The photo and
handwritten caption are similar to photos by Felix Bonfils (1831-1885). The man in the photo may be the same as in
this photo from the Western Wall, perhaps even a photo of Bonfils himself.
Solomon's Pools in a rare color photo (circa 1905)
The early photographers in the Holy Land were enchanted by "Solomon's Pools," an elaborate water system from the Maccabean or Roman times located between Bethlehem and Hebron that brought water all the way to the Temple in Jerusalem.
The Cliffs. Original caption: "Solomon's Pools and ancient
aqueducts. Dam across Wadi Biyar al-Bir ed-Darraj"
(circa 1936)Dozens of pictures of the pools can be found in the Library of Congress archives, such as these photos.The American Colony's photo collection (1898-1946) includes a picture of cliffs near Solomon's Pools.
The cliffs beneath the Zayit neighborhood of Efrat
Here are pictures of the cliffs today. They are situated beneath the northern tip of the town of Efrat and its Zayit neighborhood. Efrat was established in 1983 and is located some eight miles south of Jerusalem.
The cliffs today as viewed on Google Earth0Add a comment
A visitor to Jerusalem in the second half of the 1800s reported that the Jewish community represented half of the population with the rest Muslim, Christian and Armenian.
The Getty Research Institute labels this picture
as a "Jeblanier jeuf à Jérusalem," taken in
1890 (sic). The Jewish merchant's profession is
a "ferbantier" -- a tinsmith or "blecher" in
Yiddish. The photographer was taken by Felix
Bonfils who died in 1885. Bonfils has pictures of
Jerusalem going back to 1865. (Credit: Ken and
Jenny Jacobson Orientalist Photography Collection, Getty)
Several photographers at the time specifically chose Jewish subjects to photograph, particularly at the Western Wall or in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.
But in many cases, Jerusalem's Jews were simply passersby in the picture, or, as in a picture reproduced and enlarged below, owned shops that were part of the landscape.
Jaffa Gate The Library of Congress dates this
picture between 1898 and 1946. Based on the
carriages outside the gate, the photo was
probably taken before the breaching of the
Jaffa Gate in 1898 and creation of a road.
The American Colony's Elijah Meyers was a
photographer prior to the Colony's
photographic department's creation in 1898
and may have taken this picture.
Look at the shop adjacent to the gate in
the accompanying enlargement.
Enlargement: The shop is a millinery store selling hats. The men
inside and outside are Jewish merchants or customers. The
signs show hat models and a store name in Hebrew.
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- AUG12
The Jerusalem Windmill Will Soon Turn and Mill Again. Built in 1857, It Operated for less than 20 Years
The Montefiore windmill is one of the most famous landmarks in Jerusalem. Built in 1857 to provide employment and low-priced flour for Jerusalem's Jews, the mill was operational for only 18 years.
"View of building and windmill built by Sir Moses Montefiore."
The negative was probably made by British Sergeant Henry
Phillips in May 1866 -- a period when the mill was operational.
(Palestine Exploration Fund)
The restored windmill today,
soon to be spinning and
grinding grain again
The windmill on the horizon in this 1899
photograph with a Yemenite Jew in
the foregroundMoses Montefiore bought the land and built the mill along with the adjacent Mishkenot Sha'ananim housing project (1860). The philanthropist Montefiore copied the design of mills he had seen in his native England, a factor in the mill's eventual failure. Replacement parts were not available, and, according to some historians, the grain of Palestine was harder to grind than European grain. The location was not particularly windy and subsequent building in the area further blocked the wind. Eventually steam-powered engines replaced the wind-powered mill.The windmill viewed from the King
David Hotel (1938)
In a recent Ha'aretz article, Nir Hasson reported that "Arab millers tried to sabotage the venture by paying someone to cast a curse on it. S.Y. Agnon wrote of the affair in his book Only Yesterday: 'And the Arabs saw and were jealous. They hired an old man to curse the windmill. He turned his eyes to the windmill and said, I guarantee you that when the rains come and the winds come, they will make it into an everlasting ruin, and the rains came and the winds came and didn't do anything to it.'"
Scene at the Jerusalem train station
in the first movie filmed in the Holy Land
in 1896. See windmill on the left horizon
The blowing up of the sniper's nest
on top of the windmill in 1948
(Wikipedia)
Over the next century, the windmill stood idle. On the eve of the 1948 war, however, the British High Commissioner Alan Cunningham was leaving the nearby St. Andrews Church when he noticed that the Jewish Haganah had put a gun emplacement on the top of the windmill. Cunningham ordered the destruction of the position. According to Jerusalem legend, the British sapper sent to blow up the mill recognized the name "Montefiore" on the building as the name of a school in England. He only destroyed the sniper's nest.
In the last 40 years repairs have been made to maintain the building's structure, but no effort was made to restore the actual mill -- until now. The Jerusalem Foundation, the Jerusalem Municipality, Dutch Friends of Israel, Israel's Ministry of Tourism and the Prime Minister's Office are sponsoring the restoration of the mill. Once opened at the end of August, the mill will produce flour that will be made into bread and sold at the mill. The mill will have backup electric motors when wind power is not sufficient.4View comments
- AUG9
The 'Kotel' Exposed with the Advent of Photography, Old/New Photos of the Kotel Now Online in Great Detail -- With Thanks to the Library of Congress Archives
A version of this article appears in the Jerusalem Post Magazine today."Exterior of Haram-Ash-Sharif, Wailing place of the Jews" by Peter Bergheim
(1865). The newly available photo allows us to explore details usually not seen
Bergheim established a photographic studio in the Christian Quarter. A
converted Jew, he was well aware of Jerusalem's holy sites.
The advent of ocean-going steamships and tourism to the Holy Land and the development of photography all went hand-in-hand in the latter half of the 19thcentury. Tourism encouraged photography and photographs encouraged tourists, explained photography curator Kathleen Stewart Howe, author of The Photographic Exploration of Palestine.Enlargement shows memorial graffiti on the
Western Wall with the names “Eliyahu, Elka,
Sharf, Shaul” The two figures may have been
models; indeed it is impossible to tell if the
seated, veiled and gloved individual is a man
or woman.While the first people to look at Palestine through a lens were amateur photographers and missionaries in the 1840s, by the 1860s professional photographers began to visit holy sites and even establish photo studios. Military explorers and surveyors often used the services of the photographers.The "wall of wailing" by Frank Mason Good. The Library of Congress dates the photo
as published in 1881. The authoritative Palestine Exploration Fund records that it was
taken by Good during his first trip to the Near East in 1866/67. Good's panoramic
picture of Jerusalem appears as the title photo of this website above.Among the tourists were Mark Twain and his “Innocents Abroad” companions in 1867. His party stayed at the same Old City Mediterranean Hotel as a British survey team headed by Lt. Charles Warren.The American Colony settlers who arrived in 1881 eventually established a tourist store inside the Jaffa Gate in the Old City where they sold their photographs. They capitalized on the fierce demand for pictures of the German emperor’s visit to Jerusalem in 1898.An enlargement shows an unusual piece of furniture in the picture. Muslim rulers didn't allow benches,
chairs, screens or other furniture.
On the stand appears to be a lantern or even a Sephardi Torah case.
Is there a man next to it pressed against the wall? Note the feet.The Library of Congress archives contain not only the 22,000 photographs of Palestine by the American Colony photographers, but also pictures dating back to the 1860s by pioneering photographers Felix Bonfils, Peter Bergheim, Frank Good and others. The American Colony pictures were donated to the Library of Congress and classified as “public domain.” Photographs of the Western Wall by the other photographers, some more than 130-year-old, were available to researchers within the Library, but never “made public” Online."Wailing place of the Jews, Solomon's Wall," Jerusalem. The
Library of Congress dates the picture in the 1890s and doesn't
name the photographer. But the name Bonfils can be seen in the
enlarged photo. Other similar photos in the Getty collection prove
that Frenchman Felix Bonfils was the photographer and that the
picture was taken in 1869. Bonfils died in 1885.In response to our recent inquiries, the head of the Photo Research Division explained, “Our legal counsel has asked us to allow 130 years to elapse before displaying larger images outside Library of Congress. Based on the available information, I was able … to display outside Library of Congress buildings for some of the images you mention.”These photographs are presented here and are now available to the public Online. The old glass plate photographic technique, rather than paper and film, provides viewers with an amazing enlargement capability.
A similar Bonfils photo (Getty) Enlargements from Bonfils photo Click on pictures to enlarge.Click on captions to view the Library of Congress originals with the option to use "Tiff" enlargement.
"Ashkenazi Jews" who may have
been models (1867)In viewing these 145-year-old pictures, bear in mind that these are not the spontaneous snapshots of today. The pictures required long exposures and extensive set-up, Stewart Howe explained. Often the subjects were models dressed to play the role.That was apparently the case of the seven “Ashkenazi Jews” photographed at the Mediterranean Hotel in the Old City in 1867 by a member of Lt. Charles Warren’s expedition team."Exterior of the Haram-Ash-Sharif. Wailing place of the Jews,"
by Peter Bergheim (1865). View a similar picture here Enlargement of the worshippers
This collection of 19th century photographs presents a portrait of Jerusalem's Jewish community, a pious population who gathered at the retaining wall of Judaism's most sacred site. According to the 1871 visitor to Jerusalem William Seward, the American Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln, the Jews comprised half of the city's population, the Muslims one-quarter, and the Christians and Armenians the remainder.1View comments
The American Colony photographic collection in the Library of Congress is so large (some 22,000 pictures) that occasionally we take a virtual turn in the Online files and discover new sets of pictures, such as these pictures of Zion Gate, now added to our first feature on the gate.
Zion Gate (circa 1898) The photo was
captioned "Jerusalem" with no further detail.
Zion Gate (circa 1900)
In some cases the pictures were not captioned fully or they were given a general date such as "1898-1946," the years of activity of the American Colony photographers.
The founder of the photographic department, Elijah Meyers, was an Indian Jew who converted to Christianity and moved to Palestine. It is believed that he was an active photographer prior to 1898. Some of these pictures may actually pre-date his forming the American Colony Photographic Department.3View comments
- AUG6
Bnei Brak, 2,000 Years Ago Home to Talmudic Scholars, Reborn in 1924 as an Agricultural Village, Today, an Ultra-Orthodox City
Mentioned in the Book of Joshua, the town of Bnei Brak was well known in Talmudic days as home to the famous Rabbi Akiva (second century, CE). The town is also mentioned in the Passover Seder service as a meeting place for the leading rabbis of the Talmud.
Bnei Brak's synagogue, built in 1928 
Bnei Brak (circa 1930)
In 1922, in an area not far from the ruins of ancient Bnei Brak, a group of Orthodox Jews from Warsaw, Poland purchased land from an Arab village in order to establish a farming community. The town's cornerstone was laid in 1924.
Bnei Brak bank for "agri-
culture and business"
(circa 1928)
Situated between Tel Aviv, Petach Tikva, and Ramat Gan, the town attracted a large population of ultra-Orthodox Jews.
The new town of Bnei Brak (circa 1928)
Today, Bnei Brak is one of Israel's most densely populated cities, with a population of 170,000.
Click on pictures to enlarge.
Click on captions to view original picture.
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Tuesday, August 18, 2015
The Hebron Massacre, August 24, 1929. Re-Posting Photos Discovered in the Library of Congress Archives - picture a day
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