Celebrating Sukkot in Jerusalem 100 Years Ago

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

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Celebrating Sukkot in Jerusalem 100 Years Ago  - Re-posting a previous feature Posted: 20 Sep 2013 Bukharan family in their sukka (circa 1900). Note the man on the right holding the citron and palm branch. (Library of Congress collection) Compare this sukka to one photographed in Samarkand 40 years earlier. As soon as the Yom Kippur fast day is over many Jews start preparations for the Sukkot (Tabernacles) holiday. It usually involves building a sukka, a temporary structure -- sometimes just a hut -- with a thatched roof, in which Jews eat and often sleep during the seven day holiday.  Ashkenazi family (circa 1900) in the sukka beneath the chandelier and picures The photographers of the American Colony Photographic Department took photos of sukkot structures over a 40 year period, preserving pictures of Bukharan, Yemenite and Ashkenazi sukkot.  Several photographs include the Jewish celebrants holding four species of plants traditionally held during prayers on the Sukkot holiday -- a citron fruit and willow, myrtle and palm branches. Even though the sukka is a temporary structure, some families moved their furniture and finery into the sukka, as is evident in some of the pictures. Portrait of the Bukhari family in the Sukka (1900) Bukhari Jews, shown in pictures from around 1900, were part of an ancient community from what is today the Central Asian country Uzbekistan. They started moving to the Holy Land in the mid-1800s.  A Yemenite Jew named Yehia holding the 4 species in the sukka (1939) Yehia, the Yemenite Jew pictured here, was almost certainly part of a large migration of Jews who arrived in Jerusalem in the 1880s, well before the famous "Magic Carpet" operation that brought tens of thousands to the new state of Israel during 1949 and 1950. A more elaborate sukka in the Goldsmidt house (1934) in Jerusalem. Note the tapestry on the walls with Arabic script The Bassam family sukka in Rehavia, Jerusalem neighborhood (1939) Exterior of the Goldsmidt sukka in Jerusalem (1934) A Sephardi Jew named Avram relaxing in his Sukka with a friend (1939) The picture of an elaborate dinner was taken in a very large Jerusalem sukka belonging to the Goldsmidt family. Tapestries and fabrics hang on the wall of the sukka. Close examination shows that the fabric contains Arabic words, even some hung upside down. Several experts were asked this week to comment on the Arabic. One senior Israeli Arab affairs correspondent wrote, "It is apparently some quotes that I can read but do not amount to anything coherent, written in Kufi style of Arabic... [I] would not be surprised if these are Kuranic verses." Presumably the Goldsmidts and their guests didn't know about the Arabic phrases either.  A reader helped identify the Goldsmidts' building. "The Goldsmidts were friends of ours who lived on Ben-Maimon Street [in Jerusalem]. They had a restaurant [and that explains the diners in the sukka]. Our wedding reception was there. There's a plaque on 54 King George Street that says "Goldsmidt Building."  We invite readers to unravel the mystery of the tapestries, translate the phrases, and provide a contemporary picture of theGoldsmidts' building. Click on the photos to enlarge. Click on the captions to see the originals.

A Day of Joy - circa 1870 Jewish weddings

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

Welcome to Tu B'Av, the 15th Day of Av, A Day of Joy in the Hebrew Calendar


The groom Barukh and the bride Khanna, two
separate portraits joined (c 1870)

Barely a week after Tisha B'Av (the 9th of Av), the day of mourning among Jews for the calamities that befell them on that date throughout history, Jews celebrate Tu B'Av,the 15th day of the month. It is probably the most popular date in the year for Jewish weddings.


The wedding of Barukh and Khanna, circa 1870. The bride and
groom are beneath a tallit serving as the chuppa (canopy).
Channa is the tiny figure under a "burqua," according to the
original caption. The man in the center is extending a cup of wine
as part of the ceremony -- sheva brachot, according to the
caption. The two mothers, wearing turbans, are on the sides
of the bride and groom.

In Israel it's commemorated as a "Love Holiday" like today's commercial Valentines Day or, for aficionados of Al Capp'sLi'l Abner comic strip, it's sort of like "Sadie Hawkins Day," a propitious day for matchmaking.

To commemorate Tu B'Av on July 22 ...

You Are Invited to the Wedding of Barukh and Khanna!
In Samarkand 140 Years Ago (re-posting)


Signing the ketuba, the marriage contract. The bride (peaking
out from under her burqua) and the groom are already under the
tallit, with their mothers on either side

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Click on the caption to view the original. 


A party for the women and girls on the eve of the wedding. 

Click here to see Barukh sitting with the men

Bukhari Jews, from what is today the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan, may be one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. According to some researchers, the community may date back to the days of the destruction of the First Temple and the Babylonian exile. Over the centuries, the community suffered from forced conversion to Islam and from Genghis Khan's pillage and destruction of the region. 



Earlier, the groom met with Khanna and her parents
 
Around the time these pictures were taken the Bukhari Jews began to move to Israel. They established an early settlement in the Bukharan quarter of Jerusalem.


The Bukhari Jewish families discuss the dowry prior to a wedding
(circa 1870). The caption identifies the two bundles
behind them as the dowry



Original caption: "A group of people escorting the bride and groom (the couple on the far left) to a house"