The Life of the Jews of Palestine

1913 Documentary 58 minutes (surviving print) Directed by Noah Sokolovsky

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About The Life of the Jews of Palestine

Noah Sokolovsky's documentary, shot in Ottoman Palestine in the spring of 1913, shows Jewish communities in Judea, the coastal plain, and the Galilee. Meir Dizengoff, Joseph Trumpeldor, and Boris Schatz appear. Schatz is seen teaching a class at the Bezalel school. Prayer, farm colonies, and new streets, including early Tel Aviv, are in the footage.

Cast & crew

More about The Life of the Jews of Palestine

Miron Grossman (Meiron Ossip Grossman) photographed it during a two-month visit. The Ha-Mizrakh Society of Odessa, also called Mizrakh, paid for the film. It was shown in 1913 at the 11th Zionist Congress in Basel. Intertitles were prepared in English, French, and Hebrew. The Russian title is Жизнь евреев в Палестине. The Internet Archive identifier is silent-life-of-the-jews-of-palestine. A circulating copy runs 58 minutes. Another archive listing times a restoration at 67 minutes.

Themes

  • prayer and farm colonies
  • Tel Aviv's first streets
  • a Bezalel classroom
  • Palestine
  • Tel Aviv
  • Dizengoff
  • Trumpeldor
  • Bezalel
  • Sokolovsky

Background

The footage is of the Second Aliyah years, before the First World War ended Ottoman rule in Palestine.

Making

Grossman and Sokolovsky spent the spring of 1913 moving between older communities and the new colonies, then took the negative back for the Basel congress.

Look

Miron Grossman photographed the colonies, the Bezalel classroom, and the new streets of Tel Aviv.

Preservation

Lost after 1914 and found in Paris in 1997. Restored with the Israel Film Archive. A copy is on the Internet Archive.

Notes

  • The film vanished after the First World War. Yaakov Gross found a copy in Paris in 1997.
  • Restoration was done with the Israel Film Archive at the Jerusalem Cinematheque.
  • Dizengoff was the first mayor of Tel Aviv. Trumpeldor later organized the Jewish Legion. Schatz founded Bezalel.
  • Zionist critics on the left objected that local Arabs are left out of the picture.
  • Sokolovsky was a follower of Theodor Herzl and made the film to raise support for settlement.

Scenes

  • Schatz teaches an art class at Bezalel.
  • The camera moves through a new Tel Aviv street.
  • Farm colonists are shown at work in the colonies.

Also available

  • Internet Archive (silent-life-of-the-jews-of-palestine)