Remarkable Pictures of Extinct Jewish Communities, Part 3 - Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)

Remarkable Pictures of Extinct Jewish Communities, Part 3 The pictures from the University of California - Riverside Archives Posted: 13 Jan 2014 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)  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.  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 community numbered 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. Subscribe to www.israeldailypicture.com to receive features by email.   Enter your address in the box in the right sidebar.

The Ancient Synagogues of Jerusalem, Destroyed in 1948. (Israel's Picture A Day)

The Ancient Synagogues of Jerusalem, Destroyed in 1948 The pictures from the University of California - Riverside Archives

Posted: 09 Jan 2014

"The Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem with its two synagogues. Palestine."

The Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue (left) and the Hurva Synagogue (1900)
(Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock,
University of California, Riverside) See also Two domes (Library of Congress)


This picture of the two domes of the Hurva and Tiferet Yisrael Synagogues in Jerusalem's Old City has been featured in our postings before after we found them in various collections.

But we never came across a photo with such clarity, suggesting that the archives at UC-Riverside contains the original photos taken by the Underwood & Underwood Co. in 1900. UC-R's files also allow huge and detailed on-screen enlargements of the photos. We thank the heads of the library for permission to republish their photos, and we abide by their request to limit the photos' sizes on these pages.

The Keystone-Mast collection at UC-R also contains other photos of the exterior and interior of the Tiferet Yisrael and the Hurva Synagogues in the Old City in the middle of the 19th century.



The UC-R photo bears no caption or date on this picture of the
Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue (Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California
Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)

William H. Seward, who served as President Abraham Lincoln's secretary of state, visited Jerusalem in 1859 and 1870. He wrote a travelogue after his second trip, and he described attending Friday night services at the "Wailing Wall" and in one of the two impressive synagogues. Seward's description appears below.

Avraham Shlomo Zalman Hatzoref arrived in Eretz Yisrael200 years ago and was responsible for building the Hurva synagogue. Ashkenazic Jews had been banned from the Old City in the early 19th century after defaulting on a loan. Hatzoref, a student of the Gaon of Vilna and a builder in Jerusalem, arranged for the cancellation of the Ashkenazi community's large debt to local Arabs. In anger, local Arabs killed him in 1851. (Hatzoref is recognized by the State of Israel as the first victim of modern Arab terrorism.)

The two prominent synagogue domes shared the panoramic view of Jerusalem with the domes of the Dome of the Rock and al Aqsa Mosque for almost 80 years. In the course of the 1948 war, the Jordanian army blew up both buildings and destroyed the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.

We present below interior pictures of the two synagogues from the UC-R and Library of Congress collections.


The interior of the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue
(circa 1900) (Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum
of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)


Interior of the Hurva Synagogue (circa
1900) (Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of
Photography at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside)


Note the curtains covering the Ark containing the Torah scrolls. When the German Emperor arrived in Jerusalem in 1898, the Jewish community constructed a welcome arch, photographed by the American Colony photographic department. The curtains from the synagogues and the Torah crowns were taken down to decorate the arch.



Interior of the Hurva Synagogue (circa 1898, American Colony 

Photograph Department, Library of Congress).
Note the curtain, enlarged below



The inscription on the Hurva curtain reads: [In
memory of] "The woman Raiza daughter of sir
Mordechai from Bucharest, [who died in] the
Hebrew year ת"ר [which corresponds to 1839-40]"
The last line cannot be deciphered, and suggestions
are welcome.


The Hurva interior in the 1930s. The curtain is
dedicated in memory of Hanna Feiga Greerman, the
daughter of Mordechai. The bima inscription reads
"in memory of Yisrael Aharon son of Nachman known
as Mr. Harry Fischel and his wife Sheina daughter
of Shimon [?] of New York"

Click on photos to enlarge. Click on captions
to view the original pictures.

Secretary of State William Seward's Friday Prayer
Was it in the Hurva or the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue?

Excerpt from Travels around the World

... [After leaving the Wailing Wall] a meek, gentle Jew, in a long, plain brown dress, his light, glossy hair falling in ringlets on either side of his face, came tous, and, respectfully accosting Mr. Seward, expressed a desire that he would visit the new synagogue, where the Sabbath service was about to open at sunset. Mr. Seward assented.



William H. Seward, Lincoln's Secretary of State

A crowd of "the peculiar people" attended and showed us the way to the new house of prayer, which we are informed was recently built by a rich countryman of our own whose name we did not learn. It is called the American Synagogue. It is a very lofty edifice, surmounted by a circular dome. Just underneath it a circular gallery is devoted exclusively to the women. Aisles run between the rows of columns which support the gallery and dome. On the plain stone pavement, rows of movable, wooden benches with backs are free to all who come.

At the side of the synagogue, opposite the door, is an elevated desk on a platform accessible only by movable steps, and resembling more a pulpit than a chancel. It was adorned with red-damask curtains, and behind thema Hebrew inscription. Directly in the centre of the room, between the door and this platform, is a dais six feet high and ten feet square, surrounded by a brass railing, carpeted; and containing cushioned seats. We assume that this dais, high above the heads of the worshippers, and on the same elevation with the platform appropriated to prayer, is assigned to the rabbis.

We took seats on one of the benches against the wall; presently an elderly person, speaking English imperfectly, invited Mr. Seward to change his seat; he hesitated, but, on being informed by [Deputy U.S. Consul General] Mr.Finkelstein that the person who gave the invitation was the president of the synagogue, Mr. Seward rose, and the whole party, accompanying him, were conducted up the steps and were comfortably seated on the dais, in the "chief seat in the synagogue." On this dais was a tall, branching, silver candlestick with seven arms.

The congregation now gathered in, the women filling the gallery, and the men, in varied costumes, and wearing hats of all shapes and colors, sitting orstanding as they pleased. The lighting of many silver lamps, judiciously arranged, gave notice that the sixth day's sun had set, and that the holy day had begun. Instantly, the worshippers, all standing, and as many as could turning to the wall, began the utterance of prayer, bending backward and forward, repeating the words in a chanting tone, which each read from a book, in a low voice like the reciting of prayers after the clergyman in the Episcopal service. It seemed to us a service without prescribed form or order. When it had continued some time, thinking that Mr. Seward might be impatient to leave, the chief men requested that he would remain a few moments, until a prayer should be offered for the President of the United States, and another for himself. Now a remarkable rabbi, clad in a long, rich, flowing sacerdotal dress, walked up the aisle; a table was lifted from the floor to the platform, and, by a steepladder which was held by two assistant priests, the rabbi ascended the platform. A large folio Hebrew manuscript was laid on the table before him....

Celebrating Sukkot in Jerusalem 100 Years Ago

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)

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Celebrating Sukkot in Jerusalem 100 Years Ago  - Re-posting a previous feature Posted: 20 Sep 2013 Bukharan family in their sukka (circa 1900). Note the man on the right holding the citron and palm branch. (Library of Congress collection) Compare this sukka to one photographed in Samarkand 40 years earlier. As soon as the Yom Kippur fast day is over many Jews start preparations for the Sukkot (Tabernacles) holiday. It usually involves building a sukka, a temporary structure -- sometimes just a hut -- with a thatched roof, in which Jews eat and often sleep during the seven day holiday.  Ashkenazi family (circa 1900) in the sukka beneath the chandelier and picures The photographers of the American Colony Photographic Department took photos of sukkot structures over a 40 year period, preserving pictures of Bukharan, Yemenite and Ashkenazi sukkot.  Several photographs include the Jewish celebrants holding four species of plants traditionally held during prayers on the Sukkot holiday -- a citron fruit and willow, myrtle and palm branches. Even though the sukka is a temporary structure, some families moved their furniture and finery into the sukka, as is evident in some of the pictures. Portrait of the Bukhari family in the Sukka (1900) Bukhari Jews, shown in pictures from around 1900, were part of an ancient community from what is today the Central Asian country Uzbekistan. They started moving to the Holy Land in the mid-1800s.  A Yemenite Jew named Yehia holding the 4 species in the sukka (1939) Yehia, the Yemenite Jew pictured here, was almost certainly part of a large migration of Jews who arrived in Jerusalem in the 1880s, well before the famous "Magic Carpet" operation that brought tens of thousands to the new state of Israel during 1949 and 1950. A more elaborate sukka in the Goldsmidt house (1934) in Jerusalem. Note the tapestry on the walls with Arabic script The Bassam family sukka in Rehavia, Jerusalem neighborhood (1939) Exterior of the Goldsmidt sukka in Jerusalem (1934) A Sephardi Jew named Avram relaxing in his Sukka with a friend (1939) The picture of an elaborate dinner was taken in a very large Jerusalem sukka belonging to the Goldsmidt family. Tapestries and fabrics hang on the wall of the sukka. Close examination shows that the fabric contains Arabic words, even some hung upside down. Several experts were asked this week to comment on the Arabic. One senior Israeli Arab affairs correspondent wrote, "It is apparently some quotes that I can read but do not amount to anything coherent, written in Kufi style of Arabic... [I] would not be surprised if these are Kuranic verses." Presumably the Goldsmidts and their guests didn't know about the Arabic phrases either.  A reader helped identify the Goldsmidts' building. "The Goldsmidts were friends of ours who lived on Ben-Maimon Street [in Jerusalem]. They had a restaurant [and that explains the diners in the sukka]. Our wedding reception was there. There's a plaque on 54 King George Street that says "Goldsmidt Building."  We invite readers to unravel the mystery of the tapestries, translate the phrases, and provide a contemporary picture of theGoldsmidts' building. Click on the photos to enlarge. Click on the captions to see the originals.