Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta) Why the Jerusalem Merchant Closed His Shop when the Emperor Came in 1898

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Why the Jerusalem Merchant Closed His Shop when the Emperor Came in 1898 Posted: 03 Jan 2016  The shuttered shop at Jaffa Gate when the German Emperor arrived in 1918. (Ottoman Imperial Archives) The full picture of the Emperor's arrival The German Emperor's arrival in Jerusalem on October 28, 1898 was a major news item around the world. The Ottoman rulers of Jerusalem and Palestine changed the face of Jerusalem to receive him. Victory arches were built along his route, and the Old City wall was breached to allow passage of his carriage.  And as the picture above shows, one shopkeeper closed his shutters. Why? Enlarged photo of the millinery shop The day was Saturday, and as we discovered in a photograph in the Library of Congress archives, the shop was a Jewish-owned hat store.  We enlarged that picture and discovered the shop and its clientele.  A sign with Hebrew writing hung above the store. (Readers are invited to decipher it.) The owner closed his store for the Sabbath, and the Jews of Jerusalem received the Emperor elsewhere in the city. The Emperor and his wife passing under the Jewish community's arch on Jaffa Road. The photos of the Emperor's visit established the photographers of the American  Colony in the world market. Below is the full Library of Congress picture of Jaffa Gate with the following caption: "Photograph taken before October 1898 visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II to Jerusalem when a breach was made in the wall near the Jaffa Gate. (Source: L. Ben-David, Israel's History - A picture a day.)" Jaffa Gate and the Jewish shop (Library of Congress)

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta) - David Street in the Old City of Jerusalem

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

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David Street, inside the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem's Old City. The picture appears to have been taken prior to 1898 when the moat on the right was filled in and the road widened to allow entry of the German emperor.   (Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside) Traffic jam on the expanded David Street in 1898 (Credit: Library of Congress) Welcome to David Street just inside the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem's Old City. Like today, it was a center for tourism over 100 years ago which explains the hotels, the signs in English, the sale of photographs, and a tourist office. No date is provided for the picture in the UCR files, but looking at another picture probably taken during the visit of Kaiser Wilhelm in 1898, this scene predates the visit. We found one of the photographs on sale of particular interest. (See the bottom left of the photo at the top.)  We've seen that picture before -- in the Library of Congress collection.   Photographs for sale in the 1890s.  Jew of Jerusalem The Library of Congress dates the picture as being taken between 1900 and 1910. It was  almost certainly taken in the 19th century, however. A sign on the street advertises "Bonfils," one of the leading photographers in the Near East at the end of the 19th century. Many of his pictures appear in Israel Daily Picture. Photographs for sale to tourists The Keystone collection photo from UCR also shows a prominent sign for the Cook's World Ticket Office, the leading travel agency for tourists and pilgrims to Palestine and Syria in the 19th century.  The bottom sign offers guides and camp equipment. For more information on Cook's role in investment and development of tourism in Jerusalem and Jaffa, read Ruth Kark's From Pilgrimage to Budding Tourism: The role of Thomas Cook in the rediscovery of the Holy Land in the 19th Century. Strangely, Cook's signs cannot be seen in the photograph of the German emperor's arrival. Cook had supplied dozens of large tents for the emperor's entourage, but the signs were covered over. The name "Assad C. Kayat" appears on a sign in the UCR photo.  Ruth Kark's book on Sephardi Entrepreneurs in Jerusalem shows a 1903 check from the Jewish banker, Jacob Valero, to Kayat, but we have not discovered his profession or why he hung a sign in the Old City.