The Jews' Wailing Place -- Photographed 150 Years Ago
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| "The Jews' Wailing Place" (circa 1860) |
This high-resolution photo of the Kotel was taken by Peter Bergheim (1813-1875), one of the first resident photographers in the Holy Land. He set up a photography studio in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem; his family owned a bank inside the Jaffa Gate.
A
converted Jew, Bergheim was well aware of the holy sites of Jerusalem. Three of
his pictures were reproduced by the British Ordnance Survey of
Jerusalem by Charles Wilson, who, in 1864, was one of the first
surveyors of Jerusalem -- above and below the surface of the
ground.
To put the photograph in chronological perspective, the picture was taken when Abraham Lincoln was president of the United States, Queen Victoria was in the middle of her reign, and disciples of the Gaon of Vilna had finished building the "Hurva" synagogue in Jerusalem's Old City.
To put the photograph in chronological perspective, the picture was taken when Abraham Lincoln was president of the United States, Queen Victoria was in the middle of her reign, and disciples of the Gaon of Vilna had finished building the "Hurva" synagogue in Jerusalem's Old City.
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| A similar perspective of the Kotel
taken by the American Colony photographers 80 years later (circa 1940) |
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| Photograph (1869) by French photographer Félix Bonfils (1831-1885) who opened a studio in Beirut in 1867. Might this be a self-portrait? (Ken and Jenny Jacobson Oriental Collection, Library, Getty Research Institute)
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