Jewelry - Making in the Holy Land

Jewelry-Making in the Holy Land: A Wise Profession for a Peripatetic People Posted: 07 Jun 2013 08:37 AM PDT Assembling rings (circa 1925, Cigarbox collection) Jewels were always the currency of travelers.  Gemstones were more reliable than currency and lighter than gold bullion. Even today, some investors are smitten with a "refugee mentality," financial experts recently told The Wall Street Journal. "If the world gets a computer virus," one explained, "and suddenly you need to move $10 million in 48 hours, gold will set off metal detectors and too much cash gets cumbersome, but you slip on a $5 million ring and a $5 million necklace and you've got no problems." Tragically, that scenario repeated itself  throughout Jewish history.  According to some accounts, prior to the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 a rumor spread that many Jews swallowed diamonds and gold in order to take their wealth with them. Thieves killed many and sliced open their stomachs in their search for treasure.  The Holocaust is fraught with tales of Jews attempting to use gems to buy their escape.  Diamond polishing (1930, Library  of Congress) Diamond cutting on lathes (1939, Library of Congress) Inspecting diamonds (1939, Library of Congress) Since the 15th century, diamond cutting was a traditional Jewish craft,Wikipedia reports. That's when a Jewish diamond cutter in Belgium invented the scaif, an essential tool for polishing.  The first diamond polishing plant was opened in a Jewish town in Eretz Yisrael by Dutch refugee experts. By 1944 the industry employed 3,300 workers in 33 factories in Palestine. Today, Israel is one of the world centers for preparation and sale of diamonds. Today's posting is dedicated to Stella and Jordan -- Happy Anniversary and many, many more  and to Keren B, the jewelry maker and designer Israel Daily Picture website

The "Cigarbox Collection" Part 3 -- the Arabs of Palestine, and a Clarification

Among the photographs we received in the "Cigarbox Collection" 

are several pictures of Arab life in Palestine approximately 100 years ago.

 
Days before our formal "opening" of the collection, 

we continue to provide previews. 

An Arab street in Haifa, ironically called "al Yahud" (the
Jews) street, according to a note on the picture's back (c 1920)

 

The village of Kalkilya. Enlarging the photo shows a woman
with a jug on her head, suggesting the structure is a well

A Bedouin family near the Hula Lake. Homes were made from reeds. The
lake was partially drained in the late 1800s. Later Jewish efforts drained the
malarial swamps. (circa 1920)

Today's pictures come from the Arab 

communities in Kalkilya, Haifa and the Hula Valley.

Mishmar Ha'emek from the 1920s
(Keren Hayesod)












Clarification

We previously posted this picture from the Cigarbox Collection.  

Some of the pictures, such as this one, bear a stamp on the 

back saying "Photo Keren Hayesod."  The Central Zionist Archives 

contains some 50,000 pictures from the organization which was 

established in 1920.

We discovered this picture in the Harvard Library files, but it was 

dated "1948-1946."  We suggest that the photograph, part of other 

pictures in the Cigarbox Collection, was taken in 1926, soon after 

Mishmar Ha'emek's establishment.

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More Treasures from the "Cigarbox Collection" -- Part 2

More Treasures from the "Cigarbox Collection" -- Part 2



The cigarbox collection

We continue to scan and research the treasure trove of 
photographs donated to Israel Daily Picture, pictures 
taken by the donor's father in the Land of Israel in the 
first decades of the 20th century. We hope to unveil the 
collection and the donor's account in his own words 
in the near future.

Meanwhile, we present two more special pictures and 
a response to yesterday's picture from Yizraela, an 
octogenarian from Nahalal, who is an expert on the 
early days of the community and its photographs.

Kibbutz Mishmar Haemek in the Jezreel Valley (circa 1926) with 
Mt Tabor in the background.  The community was evacuated
 briefly during the 1929 Arab riots. 
In the 1948 war it was attacked by 
Arab artillery and aircraft.

Young women doing laundry.  A notation on the back of the photo 
says that they are Yemenites.  Are they Jewish? 
The talit prayer shawl in the tub suggests
 that they are. (circa 1920)

Yizraela Bloch (named for the "Jezreel" Valley where she was born) is the 
photo archivist of Nahalal.  The spry octogenarian was shown yesterday's 
photo of the children of Nahalal and asked if one of the boys could be Moshe Dayan.



She responded: "Moshe Dayan couldn't be one of the children in the picture 
because you can see the water tower that was built in 1924 in the background. 

The building in the foreground was the kindergarten and behind it the first
 grade class room. In 1924 Moshe Dayan would have been older then the 
kids in the picture." [Dayan was born in 1915.]

Confirming the unique nature of the "Cigarbox collection," Yizraela was very interested 
in the photograph which she doesn't have in the archive collection. She was also 
surprised that she didn't know the kindergarten teacher in the photo.

   The children of Nahalal and their teacher.

Our special thanks to NSP for interviewing Yizraela.

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