Walls & Gates of Jerusalem -- More Pictures from the Emory University Collection

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta) It's the final countdown... 1,000,000 visitors to Israel Daily Picture Tell us why you enjoy viewing Israel Daily Picture in the comment section below. Recommend Israel Daily Picture to your friends and family. The Walls & Gates of Jerusalem -- More Pictures from the Emory University Collection, Part 3 Damascus Gate 1. (Emory Collection, circa 1905) Note shops on the right. Was this the first "strip mall?" We present part 3 of the digitalized photos of the Underwood & Underwood stereoscope collection, Palestine through the Stereoscope, from Emory University's Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology. In this feature we present the pictures of Jerusalem's walls and gates. By comparing the photos to the photo essays presented here over the last two years we are able to date the pictures. Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on captions to view the original pictures. Damascus Gate 1: The shops on the right of the square belonged to a Jewish banker name Chaim Aharon Valero (circa 1905). The domes of the Hurva and Tiferet Yisrael synagogues are on the horizon on the left of the picture. Both were destroyed by the Jordanian Legion  in 1948. Read more about Valero here.  Damascus Gate 2. photographed by Mendel Diness. Note how barren the area outside of the wall was. (Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, circa 1856) Damascus Gate 2: Mendel Diness, a Jewish watchmaker,  became Jerusalem's first Jewish photographer and is credited with photographing the Damascus Gate in the 1850s. Later he left Palestine and became a Christian preacher in the United States named Mendenhall John Dennis. Read more about Diness/Dennis and his photo collection  found in a Minnesota garage sale.  Damascus Gate 3 Construction of the row of Valero's shops outside the gate. (Library of Congress, circa 1900) Damascus Gate 3: The picture shows the construction of Valero's shops. In the 1930s, the British authorities ruled that the area should be zoned for use as "open spaces" and they demolished the shops in 1937. The Valeros were not compensated. View pictures of the demolition here. MOREL http://www.israeldailypicture.com/

Israel's History - a Picture a Day - Antique Photos Uncovered - 100+ years old

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

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Seeing Double? A New Trove of Antique Pictures Uncovered at Emory University -- "Stereographic" Photos 100+ Years Old Posted: 09 Oct 2013 01:37 PM PDT Prayers at the Western Wall (Stereograph photos courtesy of the Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of  Theology,  Emory University, circa 1900).  Note the lack of chairs, benches or dividers because of the  Muslim/Turkish restrictions. Yet men and women generally maintained separate prayer areas. 19th century stereo camera Anyone who has used a "View-Master" toy will recognize the 3D illusion created by the "stereo" camera.  Already in the 19th century photographers were taking stereo pictures which were viewed on a special device. In effect, the two camera lenses captured the view, and the slight angle differences of the right eye and the left eye created a 3D illusion. A stereoscopic collection The photography company of Underwood & Underwood specialized in publishing stereoscope collections, such as Palestine through the Stereoscope which was sold with a stereoscope, and 200 stereoscopic slides. The photos were taken in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the River Jordan, Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, and the Dead Sea between 1895 and 1904, and the accompanying tour book was published in 1914. We found the digitalized photos from the Underwood collection in the Emory University's Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology.  We are thankful to M. Patrick Graham, Ph.D., Professor of Theological Bibliography and Director of the  Pitts Theology Library, for permission to reproduce the photos. "Inside a Jewish synagogue," almost certainly the Instanbouli Synagogue in Jerusalem's Old City (courtesy of  the Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology, Emory University, circa 1900). Compare this picture to the American Colony photograph with its caption, "One of the oldest in Jerusalem." Almost all of the Old City's synagogues were razed when the Jordan army captured the Jewish Quarter. This publication has featured several pictures of Jewish money changers in Jerusalem.  But the stereograph of this Old City money changer is unique.  The sign above the door is in Hebrew/Yiddish and presumably gives the names of the proprietors.  But in clearer print are the words בהכשר הרב קוק -- "with the [kosher] approval of Rabbi Kook."  The sign helps us date the picture.  Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook arrived in the Holy Land in 1904, so the picture was taken after his arrival and prior to his 1914 departure. During World War I he was in exile in England and Switzerland and returned after the war. Money changer inside Jerusalem's Old City Jaffa Gate (circa 1905) Many of the Underwood photos are identical or similar to the pictures from the Library of Congress' American Colony collection that appear on this site.  But some have never been published as part of a history of Jewish life in Palestine in the 19th century.   Over the next weeks we will be publishing more of the Emory University collection.