Israel's History - a Picture a Day - The U.S. Navy Saved the Jews of the Holy Land 100 Years Ago

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U.S. Navy receipt for emergency aid supplies destined for the Jews of Palestine from the Joint Distribution Committee 100 years ago, February 21, 1916. According to the JDC file, the supplies included matzot for Passover. (JDC Archives)

The U.S. Navy Saved the Jews of the Holy Land 100 Years Ago Posted: 10 Feb 2016  We have written previously how the United States Government rallied to save the Jews of the Holy Land from famine and expulsion by the Turkish army during World War I.  But we are now adding an important historic document from that episode showing the vital involvement of American Jewry and the United States Navy exactly 100 years ago. At the start of the war, Jewish men were forcibly conscripted into the Turkish Army, a devastating locust plague ravaged the land in 1915, Turkish troops were looting supplies in preparation for their attack on the Suez Canal, charitable funds from European Jewish communities for the Jews of Palestine were cut off, and plans were being drawn up by the Turks to expel the Jews from the land.  The United States Ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau, warned American Jewish leaders of the danger to the Jews of the Holy Land and appealed to them for funds.  The forced conscription and looting of  Jerusalem homes. (1914, Ottoman Imperial Archives) The American government had not yet entered the war and U.S. aid could still get through. But to ensure that the money and supplies would not be stolen by rapacious Turkish officials, the U.S. secretary of state approved the use of American warships for the deliveries. Thirteen U.S. ships were used for the deliveries and for providing passage to Jews expelled from the land by the Turks. More information and photographs on this historic episode will appear in the forthcoming book, American Interests in the Holy Land, Revealed in Early Photographs by Lenny Ben-David.

World War I in the Middle East - I'd Walk 100 Miles with My Camel

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World War I in the Middle East - I'd Walk 100 Miles with My Camel Posted: 29 Sep 2014 Volunteer Arab Camel Corps led by Turkish officers leaving Jerusalem (circa (1915) The scope of the World War I battles in Palestine are simply not understood by most students of the Middle East today.  The Turkish, German, Austrian, British, ANZAC and Indian forces numbered in the hundreds of thousands.  Mounted troops from the Australian, British, New Zealand and Indian battalions of the Imperial Camel Corps To provide some perspective, we present pictures of one of the most utilized tools of that war -- the camel.  Tens of thousands were used in the war in Palestine. Australian camel corps hat pin The difficult terrain of the Sinai, the Jordan Valley, and the Samarian/Judean hills required extensive use of the sturdy and powerful four-legged "supply truck." Consider this report by a New Zealand officer in his book With the Cameliers in Palestine: In the advance up the coastal plain in Palestine, in November, 1917, General Allenby used thirty thousand (30,000) camels for carrying food, water and ammunition to the troops of one portion of the eastern force of his army.  A Turkish account of the war, and specifically the 1914-1915 campaign against the British on the Suez Canal, describes the forces and the logistical nightmare of crossing the Sinai desert: Turkish Camel Corps in Be'er Sheva, 1915 The gathering point for the VIII Corps was Beersheba, which was inland, well away from the reach of British naval artillery. From there, 25,000 men would march 300 kilometres across the desert and reach Ismailia. However, this was nothing but a mission impossible. Moreover, every man was allowed one kilogram of food and drink water per day and this meant that they needed 15,000 camels. But what they had was just 2,000 animals. [Commander] Cemil Paşa mentioned this problem in his memoirs as follows: “I think there are many people who are wandering why we couldn't find the required 15,000 camels in a place like Syria and Hejaz.  We had to find 14,000 camels within one month.” Five kilograms of barley and 18 kilograms of water were allowed per horse and three kilograms of barley and five kilograms of water was allowed per camel. British Imperial Camel Corps outside of Be'er Sheva on November 1,  1917, during the critical battle to capture the Turkish outpost and wells  The Turkish account continues, describing the Turkish army's strength after difficult battles in Gaza and prior to the British General Allenby's move north into Palestine: As of May 1917, the Ottoman Fourth Army was consisting of 174,908 men, 36,225 animals, 5,351 camels, 145,840 rifles, 187 machine guns and 282 artillery pieces. Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on captions to view the original pictures. World War I combat ambulances. Camels carrying wounded Turkish soldiers -- two per camel  on a litter called a "kankalah" or "cacolet." (1917, Ottoman Imperial Archives) See also here Wounded Australian cavalrymen on their way to medical attention (Australian War Memorial) The following description is from  "With the Cameliers in Palestine:" The field ambulance, instead of using wheeled vehicles, transported the sick and wounded in "caco-lets," on the backs of camels. These consisted of two canvas stretchers balanced horizontally, one on each side of a specially constructed saddle. In these the wounded men could either sit or lie at full length, and were shaded from the sun by a small canvas hood. The jolting  Indian army's camel ambulances motion of the camel frequently was most trying to the badly wounded men, but it was sometimes a case of this kind of carriage, or death, and these camel cacolets, going as they did where wheeled transport was impossible, undoubtedly were the means of saving the lives of many wounded men who otherwise would have had a poor chance of being carried back to safety.  Only male camels were used in the  German soldiers loading wounded onto an "ambulance," 1918 Camel Brigade. It would have been an unworkable system to have mixed the sexes, as in the East no mutilation of male animals, either horses, donkeys or camels for sterilisation purposes, is ever practised by the Mohammedans.  British Imperial Camel Corps "ambulances" in action, 1916 Horses generally have a strong dislike for camels, but this dislike can be overcome by daily contact. Some of the officers of higher rank of each battalion used horses during part of the campaign, and these soon grew quite accustomed to the company of their more ungainly associates. Turkish army camel convoy, 1917. The caption in the Harvard University places the picture near the modern  northern Israeli town of Afula in the Jezreel Valley. The body of water, however, suggests it was taken near the  Hula Valley swamps which was sparsely populated by a Bedouin tribe living in reed huts, likely pictured here. Turkish officers at David's Citadel in Jerusalem Turkish camel corps in Jerusalem Original caption: The Camel Transport of the Australian Light Horse at the railhead dump, on the Philistine Plain (near Ashkelon). The camels are seen on their way to the forward area, loaded with Australian frozen mutton for the troops. In the background can be seen the tent camp.

Passover Nears. Time to Recall that a Biblical-Scale Plague Struck the Holy Land 99 Years Ago

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Passover Nears. Time to Recall that a Biblical-Scale Plague Struck the Holy Land 99 Years Ago Posted: 26 Mar 2014 12:42 AM PDT The American Colony photographers  took hundreds of pictures of the  locust plague and the insects' metamorphosis from larvae to adult A version of this posting appeared in January 2012. World War I brought widespread devastation to the Middle East as German and Turkish armies fought British, Australian and New Zealand troops in battlefields from the Suez Canal in the south to Damascus in the north.   The war also meant a cut-off of aid and relief to the Jews of Palestine from Jewish philanthropists in Europe and the United States. As many as 10,000 Jews were expelled from Jaffa-Tel Aviv in April 1917 by the Turks, and many perished from disease and hunger. But the famine that struck the residents of Palestine was also caused by a massive plague of locusts that swarmed into Eretz Yisrael in March 1915 and lasted until October.  Accounts of the locusts and the subsequent starvation and pestilence recalled the plagues of Bible. A New York Times account from April 1915 described deaths from starvation.  By November 1915, theTimes detailed a cable from the American Counsel General in Jerusalem in which he described "fields covered by the locusts as far as the eye could reach."  The diplomat reported on efforts made by the Turkish leader of Palestine to combat the locusts.  A Jewish agronomist, "Dr. Aaron Aaronsohn, who is well known to the Department of Agriculture at Washington, was appointed High Commissioner" to the "Central Commission to Fight the Locusts."   A tree before the locusts arrived The same tree after the locusts finished  [Aaronsohn would go on to establish the anti-Turkish NILI spy ring in 1917.  His sister Sarah was captured by the Turks for her involvement in the spy ring, and after torture, she committed suicide.] American funds and food were essential for keeping the Jewish community in Palestine alive, and aid was delivered by U.S. Navy vessels.  The American Colony in Jerusalem established soup kitchens to feed starving residents in Jerusalem.  The colony's photographers documented more than 200 pictures of the locusts' devastation, efforts to combat them and the locusts' life cycle.  An album of color (hand tinted) photographs is stored in the Library of Congress collection.   "Locusts stealing in like thieves through the window" The Times reported, "Few crops or orchards escaped devastation.  This was especially true on the Plain of Sharon, where the Jewish and German colonies, with their beautiful orange gardens, vineyards, and orchards, suffered most severely... In the lowlands there was a complete destruction of crops such as garden vegetables, melons, apricots and grapes ... upon whose supply the Jerusalem markets depend... few vegetables or fruits [were] to be had in the markets." Click on photos to enlarge.  Click on captions to view the original pictures. Team waving flags tries to push a swarm of locusts into a trap dug into the ground.  The Turkish governor demanded that every man deliver 20 kilo (44 pounds) of locusts "In Jerusalem and Hebron," the report continued, "the heaviest loss from the onslaught of the locusts has been in connection with the olive groves and vineyards.  Olive oil is a staple of food among the peasants and poorer classes....The grape, too, is a similar staple among all classes."  Garden of Gethsemane, Jerusalem,  before the locusts Garden of  Gethsemane, Jerusalem, after the locusts "When the larvae appeared near Jerusalem," the Times related, residents were mobilized "for immediate organized resistance....Tin-lined boxes were sunk in the earth in the direction in which the locusts were advancing." Men, women and children were given flags and "the flaggers would drive the locusts together in a dense column toward the trap..." Both the forces of war and nature combined to take a terrible toll on the residents of Palestine during World War I. Join 3,800 subscribers and receive Israel Daily Picture via email