In her lab at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Prof. Sigal Ben-Yehuda and her team have observed that bacteria can exchange molecules, genetic material and survival strategies through tiny structures called nanotubes. These findings suggest that, rather than acting independently, bacteria are capable of molecular communication.
This microbial interaction is at the heart of Ben-Yehuda’s research, pointing to a microscopic network built on exchange and cooperation. She will present this work in Vancouver April 29, as the featured speaker at the Dmitry Apel Memorial Lecture, hosted by the University of British Columbia.
Prof. Sigal Ben-Yehuda gives the Dmitry Apel Memorial Lecture at the University of British Columbia on April 29. (photo from Hebrew University)
Ben-Yehuda described herself as a scientist driven by questions. “I am fascinated by how bacteria make decisions, communicate and sense one another,” she told the Independent.
That interest has guided her career – from a PhD in microbiology at Tel Aviv University to postdoctoral research at Harvard. Since 2004, she has been a professor at the Hebrew University, where, two years ago, she became head of the department of microbiology and molecular genetics at the Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada.
Ben-Yehuda’s research into bacterial communication did not begin with a specific hypothesis. “It began with a set of microscopy observations that raised the idea that bacteria can mysteriously share intracellular molecules,” she said. “That curiosity turned into a deeper investigation, which led to the identification of bacterial intercellular bridges that the group termed ‘nanotubes,’ that mediate this form of communication.”
Ben-Yehuda explained that these structures “allow bacteria to transfer molecules and DNA between cells – effectively creating a biological highway for the exchange of antibiotic resistance.”
This resistance develops when bacteria evolve to survive drugs that once killed them, posing a major challenge in treating infections. Ben-Yehuda’s findings could shape new approaches to combating infections by targeting the bacterial links rather than individual cells.
While centred on the microscopic world, Ben-Yehuda’s work speaks to something larger – an approach to science that begins with curiosity and unfolds through observation. This open-ended inquiry is exactly what the upcoming seminar seeks to celebrate.
The Dmitry Apel Memorial Seminar was created in memory of UBC PhD student Dr. Dmitry Apel, who passed away in 2013. His family, notably his mother, Dr. Maryana Apel, and sister, Dr. Sabrina Apel, sponsor the lecture that honours his devotion to pure science, which was driven by a curiosity about how the world works.
Prof. Yossef Av-Gay, a professor in the UBC Faculty of Medicine’s division of infectious diseases, who, among other things, also holds an adjunct professorship at the medical school of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, invited Ben-Yehuda to speak.
“I thought that Sigal would be an inspiration for young scientists,” he said. “She discovered nanotubes – a great new discovery in microbiology. Having a strong microbiology department at UBC, focusing on similar fields as Sigal’s department at Hebrew University, I saw this as a chance to spark cross-continent collaborations. The Apel family has close ties to Israel, so it felt like a perfect fit and a great opportunity to bring Sigal to Dmitry’s memorial seminar.”
As a department head, Ben-Yehuda works to support early-career researchers.
“My main goal has been to support the younger faculty members,” she said. “I’m committed to helping them create strong research groups and establish themselves – and their labs – as leaders in their fields.
“As for my lab, my approach has been to encourage curiosity-driven research, which depends on the scientists and their progression. I encourage independence and creativity.”
Although this will be Ben-Yehuda’s second visit to Vancouver, it will be her first time speaking at UBC. Hosted by microbiologist Av-Gay, her visit will include meetings with faculty and colleagues, along with the hope of having time to explore the city and its surroundings.
As for her hope of what people will learn from her lecture, Ben-Yehuda said, “An important takeaway is that connection matters. Whether you’re a microbe or a human, being part of a community can enhance resilience and adaptability. Also, cooperation – far from being a soft or secondary trait – can be a powerful survival strategy. It reminds us that strength often comes not just from competing, but from collaborating, and highlights community strength.”
The Azrieli National Centre for Autism and Neurodevelopment Research team includes, left to right, Dr. Gal Meiri, Prof. Hava Golan, Prof. Ilan Dinstein, Mazal Malka and Prof. Idan Menashe. Dinstein and Menashe will be in Vancouver in May to meet with colleagues from the University of British Columbia. (photo from azrielifoundation.org)
When the International Society for Autism Research convenes in Seattle April 30 for its annual conference, researchers from all over the world will be flying in to learn about and share the latest research on this multifactorial disorder. Two of them, Idan Menashe and Ilan Dinstein, who head up the Azrieli National Centre for Autism and Neurodevelopment Research (ANCAN) at Ben-Gurion University, will be coming from Israel. When the conference wraps up, they will be in Vancouver to continue a three-year collaboration with autism researchers at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University, and meet with various people, including community members.
Menashe and Dinstein were part of a group – that included Dr. Tim Oberlander from UBC’s School of Population and Public Health and Grace Iarocci, director of SFU’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Laboratory – that published a paper in 2023 on whether oxytocin is associated with an increased risk of autism in offspring.
“Oxytocin is a neuropeptide hormone that plays a key role in social behaviour, stress regulation and mental health,” begins the paper’s abstract. “Synthetic oxytocin administration is a common obstetrical practice and, importantly, previous research has suggested that intrapartum exposure may increase the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder.”
The study supported the conclusion that “induction of labour through oxytocin administration does not increase the risk of autism spectrum disorder in the child.” However, Menashe and Dinstein’s own studies in Israel found an association between autism and the use of general anesthesia during caesarean sections.
“Having a C-section with general anesthetic increases the risk of diagnoses of autism in offspring by 60% compared to natural birth,” Menashe told the Independent. Because general anesthesia in C-section is infrequently used, that risk is low, but consistent, he added.
Menashe, Dinstein, Oberlander and Iarocci are excited to reunite in Vancouver in May because they all have access to population health data that allows them to compare their results. Such comparisons are especially valuable given that autism rates are increasing the world over.
Menashe said the rate of autism is 2% in Israel and Canada, and more than 3% in the United States. “We know a big portion of this increase is due to increased awareness among parents and caregivers, but we don’t know if that explains everything,” he said.
Autism is highly heterogeneous, he continued. “Every child is different and no two children present exactly the same autism symptoms. We believe the causes of autism are also very heterogeneous, and that’s what makes research so complicated, but also so interesting.”
Because of that heterogeneity, research requires collection of data from large populations. At the Azrieli National Foundation for Autism Research, Menashe and Dinstein work with nine clinical centres to collect data.
“A major advantage we have in Israel is our access to families’ medical records,” Menashe explained. “We ask families from those clinics to participate in genetic studies, through which we try to identify the genetic causes of autism.”
Menashe, Dinstein, Oberlander and Iarocci meet monthly by Zoom to discuss their findings. By collaborating, the four researchers can compare Israeli findings to those in British Columbia.
“The comparisons make our research more powerful,” Iarocci said. “They allow us to see what’s the same and what’s different cross-culturally.
“Our goal with autism is early identification, early diagnosis, and offering interventions that are effective,” she continued. “When we collaborate, we can compare very large data sets and, without those comparisons, you can’t really answer these questions meaningfully.”
“We’ve had a very productive collaboration so far, and what makes it especially important is the cross-jurisdictional research we can do,” Oberlander said. “There are few jurisdictions in the world that can do this effectively, but Israel and BC are two of them. It’s a wonderful collaboration, a great model, and we’re looking forward to seeing them in Vancouver in May.”
While here, Menashe and Dinstein will participate in an invite-only parlour meeting on May 4. Those interested in attending should contact David Berson, executive director, BGU Canada, British Columbia & Alberta, at davidberson@bengurion.ca.
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond
In 2023, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev opened a new home in Sde Boker for the David Ben-Gurion archives. (photo from Ben-Gurion University)
For visitors to Israel – and for Israelis looking for an engaging getaway – there is a relatively new destination in the country’s south.
In 2023, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev opened a new home for the David Ben-Gurion archives, with a dramatic exhibition hall to attract visitors. In addition to the many artifacts and documents on display, the exhibitions include interactive activities that allow visitors to speculate how the first prime minister would have responded to various scenarios.
Ben-Gurion was Israel’s first prime minister and the dominant political figure for the country’s first decade-and-a-half, during which time he served concurrently as minister of defence. In addition, no individual is more associated than Ben-Gurion with Israel’s development of the Negev and the entire south of the country.
The new archives facility rounds out a network of Ben-Gurion-related sites in the Sde Boker area, where Ben-Gurion built a desert home and enjoyed his retirement.
David Berson, Ben-Gurion University Canada’s executive director for British Columbia and Alberta, says the facility makes Sde Boker even more of a must-see for visitors to Israel.
There had been an archive at the Sde Boker campus, allowing deep research into Ben-Gurion’s papers and other materials, but these were photocopies because the university did not have the archival capacity to accommodate the originals in the environment they required. The originals were held in Tel Aviv at an Israel Defence Forces archive.
“Everything was there, but it was a reasonable facsimile, as we like to say,” said Berson.
That changed with the opening two years ago of the purpose-built Ben-Gurion Heritage Archive, which includes a 280-square-metre (more than 10,000-square-foot) exhibition hall.
“All the real, genuine archives have been transferred there,” Berson said. “The exhibition hall is basically an interactive tale of David Ben-Gurion’s heritage and questions about things like the ultra-Orthodox serving in the army, his relationship to the diaspora, the Altalena affair, all sorts of different things, as well as his correspondence with Hebrew school students from all over the world, leaders, his perspectives on religion, etc., etc.”
The facility is a partnership between BGU and the Ben-Gurion Heritage Institute, an educational and commemorative organization committed to keeping Ben-Gurion’s ideals alive, especially his emphasis on developing the Negev. Among other things, they operate the museum at Ben-Gurion’s kibbutz home and other educational programming.
The Ben-Gurion Promenade, a project designed to honour his legacy and connect significant landmarks associated with his life, takes visitors on a 3.5-kilometre walk from his residence at Kibbutz Sde Boker to his burial site overlooking Nahal Zin, and taking in the new archives and exhibition hall. The accessible path is lined with native desert plants and interpretive signs about Ben-Gurion’s life and vision.
The David Ben-Gurion archives includes a 280-square-metre exhibition hall. (photo from Ben-Gurion University)
The archives are part of a larger complex that also houses the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism, and the Azrieli Centre for Israel Studies.
Ben-Gurion’s eponymous university has three campuses in the country’s south.
The main Marcus Family Campus, in Beersheva, is home to the university’s faculties of engineering and sciences, health sciences, humanities and social sciences, business and management, computer science and cybersecurity, among others, and several advanced research institutes. It is adjacent to the Soroka University Medical Centre, where BGU medical students train. The campus is also home to the 10-year-old Advanced Technology Park, which is a joint venture of BGU, the City of Beersheva and real estate development company Gav Yam. The park is part of a national effort to develop the Negev region into a global centre for cybersecurity, defence technologies and tech innovation.
At the Sde Boker campus, about 30 kilometres to the south of Beersheva, specialties include desert studies, environmental science, hydrology, solar energy, sustainability and climate research, and arid agriculture. It is also home to the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research.
The Eilat campus, at the country’s southern-most tip, on the Red Sea, specializes in marine biology and biotechnology, hospitality and tourism management, regional development studies, and interdisciplinary undergraduate programs that allow students from the south to do their initial studies in the area before completing their degrees at the Beersheva campus or elsewhere.
Sde Boker has always been a sort of pilgrimage site for Ben-Gurion fans and history buffs. But, because tourism to Israel has plummeted in the past year-and-a-half, most of the visitors so far have been comparative locals, Berson said, including leaders of the security services and military, educators and other Israelis.
When tourism picks up, Berson hopes the archives will make Sde Boker even more of a destination on the visitors’ map.
“It’s a wonderful national treasure,” said Berson. “But it’s also something that’s not on people’s radar screens abroad. We really want to encourage people to come and visit there, put it on their itineraries.”
Canadian Paralympic athlete and wheelchair racer Rick Hansen, known for his work to break down barriers for people with disabilities, receives an honorary doctorate from Hebrew University from then-Hebrew U president Menahem Ben-Sasson. In December 2010, Hansen visited Hebrew U as part of the 25th anniversary celebration of his “Man in Motion” tour. (photo from Hebrew University)
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem turned 100 this month. Opening officially on April 1, 1925, the university preceded the birth of the state of Israel by more than two decades.
“There was no country yet,” said Dina Wachtel, vice-president, community affairs, for the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University. “It’s the first daughter that gave birth to her mother.”
The history of the campus on Mount Scopus has been tumultuous, like that of the country its alumni have helped shape.
During Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, Mount Scopus became an isolated enclave, and the university was forced to relocate its main activities to facilities in West Jerusalem. In 1954, a new campus was established in the Givat Ram neighbourhood, followed by the creation of additional campuses, including at Ein Kerem, home to the institution’s medical sciences faculty, and, at Rehovot, where the agriculture department is headquartered.
Allan Bronfman, national president and founder of the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University, with Dr. Albert Einstein, honorary president of the Hebrew University, on Sept. 19, 1954, at a Princeton conference called by Einstein to launch a $30 million dollar capital building project for the university, which was in exile from its campus on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. (photo from Hebrew University)
After the 1967 Six Day War, Hebrew University regained access to Mount Scopus and began to restore and expand the original campus. Today, it is one of Israel’s leading research institutions, ranked among the top universities globally, and it remains a symbol of intellectual and cultural renewal in the country.
“Even the word ‘incredible’ is too small to describe the impact of the Hebrew University on the establishment of the state of Israel and on the state of Israel,” Wachtel said. “Most of the Supreme Court judges are graduates of the Hebrew University faculty of law, which was established in 1949. We have eight Nobel Prize laureates – all of them from 2000 and after.” A ninth laureate, Albert Einstein, a founder of the university, won the Nobel for physics in 1921.
The university was established by the intellectual giants of the last century, said Wachtel. These included Einstein, as well as Chaim Weizmann, the Zionist leader who would become the first president of the state; philosopher Martin Buber; American Reform Rabbi Judah Leon Magnes, who served as the first chancellor and later president of the university; founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud; Ahad Ha’am, dubbed the father of cultural Zionism; poet Chaim Nachman Bialik; and Herbert Samuel, British High Commissioner for Palestine, among many others.
Einstein, Wachtel noted, left his entire intellectual estate to the Hebrew U and the university is in the process of constructing a new Daniel Libeskind-designed archive for his fonds on Givat Ram’s Edmond J. Safra Campus, adjacent to the Knesset, the Supreme Court and the Israel Museum.
“I think it will be the next tourist attraction in the city of Jerusalem,” she said.
Celebratory events will take place in Israel in June, concurrent with the Hebrew University’s board of governors meeting in Jerusalem. Happenings will include a special event at the home of Israel’s president, a special show at the Tower of David Museum, and other ceremonies.
Gail Asper, left, a Hebrew University honorary doctorate recipient and a member of the executive of the board of governors of Hebrew U, with then-Hebrew U president Menahem Ben-Sasson and guest speaker Chelsea Clinton at the 2015 CFHU Einstein Legacy Awards in Toronto. (photo from Hebrew University)
The university has been a hub for groundbreaking research, reflecting the institution’s commitment to education, scientific advancement and societal impact.
Marking the centenary, Hebrew U’s current president, Prof. Asher Cohen, credited the thinkers who initiated the school, the groundbreaking for which began in 1918.
“They and many others founded a pioneering academic institution to cultivate future leaders in research, science, public service and society – for the benefit of Israel and all humanity,” Cohen said in a statement. “From the moment this vision became a reality, the university has upheld excellence in research and education as its highest priority. Today, it continues to be a hub of knowledge, innovation and groundbreaking research across diverse fields, nurturing generations of leaders, scholars and thinkers.”
Prof. Tamir Shafer, rector of the Hebrew University, contextualized the university in Israeli society.
NBA superstar Amar’e Stoudemire visited Hebrew University in 2013, meeting with students at the Rothberg International School, and with the then-president of Israel Shimon Peres. (photo from Hebrew University)
“As a leading research institution,” Shafer said in a statement, “the Hebrew University sees itself as responsible for educating future generations, conducting groundbreaking research across nearly all fields of study, fostering extensive international engagement in both research and teaching, building strong ties with advanced industries in Israel and abroad, nurturing a diverse academic community, and maintaining deep social involvement in Jerusalem and throughout Israel.”
Diversity is a cornerstone of the institution’s success, according to Prof. Mona Khoury-Kassabri, vice-president of strategy and diversity.
“At the Hebrew University, we believe that diversity is not a substitute for excellence but a driving force that enhances it,” she said. “Our commitment to inclusion ensures that students and researchers from all backgrounds have equal opportunities to thrive, contribute and shape the future of society. By fostering a multicultural environment, we enrich both scholarship and community, proving that true innovation emerges when different voices are heard and valued.”
The centenary will also be celebrated with special events in Canada, some of which will be announced soon. Check cfhu.org for updates.
The Jerusalem Winner Marathon encompassed multiple races, from a full marathon to a 5K circuit and a 1.7K family run. (photo from Jerusalem Municipality)
On April 4, approximately 40,000 runners participated in the 14th International Jerusalem Winner Marathon, which broke all previous records for participation. Held under the theme “Am Israel Run,” the event paid tribute to the Israel Defence Forces, security forces and emergency responders, serving as a powerful symbol of resilience, hope, strength and the enduring Israeli spirit.
The winner of the marathon in the men’s category was Bohdan Semenovych, 39, from Ukraine, with a time of 2:22:47. The winner in the women’s category was Salgong Pauline Gepkirui, 37, from Kenya, with a time of 2:51:58.
(photo from Jerusalem Municipality)
Among the runners were around 15,000 IDF soldiers – both reservists and active-duty personnel – and members of Israel’s security and emergency services. The marathon drew about 1,800 international participants, all of whom ran along a course that passed landmarks including the Knesset, the Old City walls, Sultan’s Pool, Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Mount Zion, the German Colony, Rehavia, the Armon Hanatziv Promenade, Ammunition Hill, Sacher Park, Mount Scopus, the Mount of Olives, and other notable places.
(photo from Jerusalem Municipality)
Among the participants this year was the mayor of Jerusalem, Moshe Lion, who ran in the five-kilometre race.
The 14th International Jerusalem Winner Marathon featured six race categories: the full marathon, half marathon, 10K, 5K and 1.7K family run. Additionally, the event included the Community Race, an exclusive feature of the Jerusalem Marathon.
The event was organized by the Jerusalem Municipality, in collaboration with the Jerusalem Development Authority and with the support of the Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage, the Ministry of Culture and Sports, and the Ministry of Tourism. The event’s main sponsor was Toto Winner, and Saucony partnered in the event. Additional sponsors included Hapoel Centre, Eldan, Cinema City, Reidman College and Bezeq Business. The marathon was produced by Electra Target.
Sussita entrepreneur Itzhak Shubinsky driving a Sabra Sport car, from the newspaper Barkav, in the 1960s. (photo from Haifa City Museum)
For a trip down memory lane, cruise over to Haifa’s City Museum at 11 Ben-Gurion Blvd., in the German Colony, to see Sussita: The Exhibition. The display, which continues until May 25 (the opening was delayed by Hezbollah rocket fire from Lebanon), documents Israel’s failed automobile industry during the early decades of statehood.
Alas, the doorways of the museum’s 19th-century Templar building are too narrow to permit restored examples of the fibreglass shell cars to pass through. So, on hand is a stripped-down version of a Sussita, and a trove of fascinating documents and photos. Missing are full-size examples of the Carmel truck and Sabra Sport roadster that Autocars Co. Ltd. assembled at its Haifa workshop and then in the city of Tirat Carmel.
The exhibit was curated by Yifat Ashkenazi, together with filmmaker Avi Weissblei. The latter produced the 2020 documentary Desert Tested, which told the Sussita’s story.
Like Shai Agassi’s Better Place electric car company, which went through almost $1 billion in venture capital before declaring bankruptcy in 2013, Israel’s ultimately insolvent auto industry never thrived.
A Sussita Autocars Co. Ltd. advertisement in the 1960s, featuring its “5 Road Champions!” (photo from Haifa City Museum)
The Sabra’s aerodynamic curves evoke the glamour of early James Bond films. Nonetheless, even though they were jump-started by foreign firms, Haifa’s car business never quite managed to compete with Detroit.
Discussing Autocars’ 1966 Sussita at carsurvey.org, one classic car aficionado noted: “What things have gone wrong with the car?
Almost everything! It was a very cheap car made of a fibreglass body attached to a very simple welded pipes chassis, with a Triumph engine. The car was unstable, seriously dangerous, unreliable and very badly built.”
Folklore has it that camels liked to munch on the cars’ fibreglass body. But the relative paucity of dromedaries in 1960s Israel makes the truth of this story doubtful.
Founded in the mid-1950s with assistance from Britain’s ReliantMotor Co., Autocars initially assembled quirky but popular three-wheeled micro-cars. The first four-wheeled blue-and-white vehicle, the Sussita, was also designed by Reliant.
The Sussita, meaning mare in Aramaic, developed a reputation as a reliable workhorse. By 1960, Autocars was exporting the cheaply priced car – available in estate, van and pick-up models – to the United States and Canada. Rebranded as the Sabra – a genus of cactus originally from Mexico that had become a descriptor of native-born Israelis – the car sold poorly in North America due to its inferior quality.
That year, in 1960, Autocars’ owner Itzhak Shubinsky spotted the coupé Ashley GT at London’s Sports and Racing Car Show. Changing business strategy, he purchased the bodywork moulds and created the Sabra Sport, which made its debut at the 1961 New York Motor Show. The roadster car was also sold as a hardtop coupe. Fewer than 150 were exported to the United States, while a similar number were sold in Belgium.
Reliant also launched the car in Britain. Anglicizing its moniker to Sabre, the prickly cactus morphed into a swashbuckling sword.
Advertising for the Sussita: “You bought Sussita, you were not wrong.” (photo from Haifa City Museum)
Expanding production, in 1961, Autocars introduced the Carmel, named for the mountain that defines Haifa. The car featured a 1,200cc Ford Cortina engine mounted in a Reliant chassis.
By 1965, Autocars declared bankruptcy and was taken over by Britain’s Leyland-Triumph. Revamping the product line, the following year it introduced the Gilboa, a four-door version of the Carmel. In 1967, it produced an off-road, front-wheel drive utility called the Dragoon.
But the red ink continued to spill. In 1971, Leyland severed its ties with its Israeli subsidiary. Three years later, Autocars was bought by Rom Carmel Industries, which brought out its Gilboa-based Rom 1300.
Sputtering along, in 1978, the company was purchased by the Netanya-based foundry Urdan Industries. Restyled again, the Rom 1300 became the Rom 1301. But declining sales could not be reversed, going from a peak of manufacturing more than 3,000 cars annually during the 1960s to just 540 cars rolling off the assembly line in 1980, the last full year of production. In 1981, the plant shut its gates.
For more about the exhibit, visit hcm.org.il/eng/exhibitions/11128/sussita.
Light projections on the internal walls of the Tower of David, in Jerusalem, part of the Night Spectacular. (photo by Pat Johnson)
Tourism to Israel plummeted after Oct. 7, 2023. For example, January 2024 saw an 80% drop in visitors from a year previous. Those who did travel to Israel were often on solidarity missions or volunteer programs.
In March, I visited for 10 days, speaking with scores of Israelis about the situation, their grief, determination and changed attitudes, among other things. During that period, there was not a single siren in central Israel, though, days after my departure, the ceasefire ended and war in earnest began again.
It may seem frivolous or disrespectful to speak of “tourism” or “sightseeing” in moments such as these. The example of Israelis, however, is, as ever, resilience and getting on with it. Museums are open and, no matter what brings you to Israel, making time for recreation is necessary and, in many cases, adds depth to the understanding of what is happening now. A few of my destinations and choices are a bit odd – not what every visitor might choose – but others, like the Tower of David, should be on your must-see list.
Story of Jerusalem
The Tower of David Museum tells the story of Jerusalem. With a multimillion-dollar investment in new technologies upgrading the experience, the centrality of the city of Jerusalem in multiple traditions is underscored by the imagery of the city as the “navel of the world.”
From 5,000-year-old idols and 3,000-year-old stamps indicating a thriving bureaucracy, to Theodor Herzl and the modern state, the museum tells the story of a place with more history than geography.
A not-to-be-missed component is the immersive, after-dark sound and light show called the Night Spectacular. Perhaps less informative than just, well, spectacular, the 40-minute program projects the epochs of the city’s history (that is, its litany of invasions) onto the interior walls of the imposing citadel. Combo tickets to the museum, permitting evening entry for the show, are available. The effect is all-immersing, more powerful and moving than I could have anticipated. It will captivate visitors of every age.
History of Jewish militias
Like the Haganah Museum in Tel Aviv (see below), the Museum of the Underground Prisoners Jerusalem takes a politically ecumenical approach to the history of Jewish militias fighting the British in pre-state Israel.
Located in the former British Mandate-era jail, the museum tells the story of resistance fighters from the Haganah, the main defence force of the pre-state Jewish community, the Revisionist Irgun (Etzel) and the more radical Lehi (“Stern Gang”).
Jewish prisoners were captured and punished for sabotage against the British, including the smuggling of Holocaust survivors and others into Palestine. Some of the prisoners were executed in the prison yard and these lives are commemorated movingly.
Holocaust remembrance
Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Centre is always a moving pilgrimage. The primary exhibit space – an A-frame hall with windows at the peak, reminding us that the events took place in full view of the world (and, arguably, God) – provides a chronological history of the Shoah. The slash across the top of the Moshe Safdie-designed building also represents the permanent scar this history has left on humankind.
Like the Tower of David, Yad Vashem has had a huge infusion of money to update the exhibits and add high-tech components.
The eternal flame, at Yad Vashem. (photo by Pat Johnson)
A simple, but crucial, aspect of the exhibit is at the start, after visitors traverse the “bridge to a vanished world,” and a short film loops the story of the pre-Shoah Jewish civilization that was destroyed. This contextualizing of what was lost is an irreplaceable part of the experience.
The permanent exhibit, including the emotional Hall of Names, is what the public most often sees and it provides the history of the Holocaust for people of all levels of knowledge. The vast work of the centre remains mostly out of sight, with archives, research, recording and publication being a less visible but no less important component of Yad Vashem’s mandate.
Har Herzl Pathway
For a British Columbian, it is hard to fathom what Israelis call “mountains.” The Mount of Remembrance (home to Yad Vashem) and Mount Herzl (or Har Herzl) are hardly recognizable as distinct geographic places, let alone mountains.
Monument to Israeli victims of terror, part of the many cemeteries on Mount Herzl, final resting place of soldiers, leaders and the fallen. (photo by Pat Johnson)
In any event, from Yad Vashem, it is a relatively short walk to the Herzl Museum, which is adjacent to the grave in which the founder of political Zionism was reinterred in 1949 from his original resting place in Vienna.
Between these two destinations are the resting places of most of Israel’s leaders, as well as cemetery after cemetery filled with soldiers and civilians killed in Israel’s successive wars and terror attacks.
It was only by happenstance – well, if you are arriving by foot, you can’t miss it, but those arriving by vehicle might – that I discovered a memorial walking path between Yad Vashem and the Herzl Museum, snaking through these sad, chronological rows of graves.
The trail, as a distinct entity, is a bit of a mystery. A post-trip web search indicates there is seemingly not even an agreed-upon name for the path. The information at the entryway says that it was developed by Jewish youth movements but the specific groups go unnamed. The signage is likewise a bit perplexing, without always clear directions or explanations. The larger message, though, does not require plinths: Israel and thousands of Israeli families have paid an enormous price for the country’s existence.
Learning about Herzl
Having meandered through the sombre cemeteries of Israel’s war dead and the resting places of most of the country’s prime ministers, presidents and other historical greats, you arrive at the imposing grave of Theodor Herzl. Nearby, the museum bearing his name tells the story of the man with the crazy dream of a Jewish state.
Replica of Theodor Herzl’s office, including his original desk and other artifacts, at the Herzl Museum, Jerusalem. (photo by Pat Johnson)
Museum-goers are given a guided tour from room to room, following a cheesy video of a pair of dramatic impresarios didactically directing an actor preparing for the role of Herzl but who has no idea who the man was. The actor (and, not at all subtly, the visitor) is educated on the Dreyfus Affair, which was the polarizing moment when the secular, assimilated Herzl concluded the Jews would never be free without a state of their own. The displays take visitors through his activism, and we eventually join delegates at the First Zionist Congress.
The museum includes the re-creation of Herzl’s home office and many important relics of his life.
Connecting past, present
Gush Katif Museum is an unexpected little museum in Jerusalem’s Nachlaot neighbourhood, which tells the story of the 17 Jewish settlements that were evacuated during the “disengagement plan” from Gaza in 2005.
The Israeli government withdrew from Gaza two decades ago in hopes of allowing a sort of pilot project in Palestinian self-government. In the process, and amid (yet another) emotional national dialogue, Jewish settlements in the enclave were evacuated.
With a decidedly political agenda, the museum finds relevance today, as many Israelis look at the situation in Gaza and, with 20/20 hindsight (or something like it), question every decision that may have led to today’s realities.
In an interesting thought experiment, a Jewish resident evacuated from Gaza, speaking in the museum’s introductory film, inverts the common perception of Jewish settlements in the area. Rather than the probably prevailing view of Jewish settlements as an imposition on Palestinian land, he makes the case that Israel gave 90% of Gaza to the Arabs and some still wanted to erase the Jewish presence entirely. (Ignoring the ideological point and contesting the details, Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip took up something around 20% of the land in the small area.) It’s a perspective that challenges the idea that, even absent a negotiated two-state solution, the Palestinians deserve 100% of the occupied territories. Presumably, it is just this type of questioning the museum hopes to engender.
The Gush Katif Museum explores more than modern history, of course, going back to the earliest Jewish settlement in the area, and the successive expulsions by the Romans and the Turks.
Origins of the IDF
Moving on to Tel Aviv, the Haganah Museum tells the story of the Jewish militia that morphed, upon statehood, into the Israel Defence Forces.
The museum is located on Rothschild Boulevard, in one of Tel Aviv’s oldest buildings, originally the home of Eliyahu Golomb, a founder and ideological leader of the Haganah.
The home of Eliyahu Golomb, founder and ideological leader of the Haganah. This was the site of many clandestine and pivotal meetings of the underground resistance. (photo by Pat Johnson)
While there were other military operatives, the Haganah was the de facto militia of the Yishuv, the pre-state Jewish community. The museum, though, takes a broader view, beginning with the role of “tower and stockade settlements” on the peripheries of the proto-state, through the First World War Zion Mule Corps, the Jewish Legion (which helped the rise to prominence of Revisionist leaders like Ze’ev Jabotinsky), and touches on the roles of Revisionist Etzel (the Irgun) and its breakaway group Lehi (the “Stern Gang”) in taking the fight to the British. In an ideological and military skirmish after independence, these groups would be forcibly unified into the IDF.
The museum includes the crucial role the Haganah played in the Aliyah Bet, the illegal migration of Jews into pre-state Israel during the period of British blockade of Jewish refugees.
At the entry to the building is a relief mural by Israeli sculptor Moshe Ziffer, with figures in traditional kibbutz-style clothing, linking the movement to the pioneering Zionist ethos, as well as fighters shielding and defending Jewish families. There are also ancient symbols in the artwork, implying the Maccabean revolt, and including modern symbols of the transition to statehood, in 1948.
Statues of David Ben-Gurion and his wife Pola, by artist Ruth Kestenbaum Ben-Dov, on Tel Aviv’s Independence Trail. (photo by Pat Johnson)
Independence Trail
The Haganah Museum is a central part of the cobbled-together tourist route branded “Independence Trail.” What would ostensibly be the centrepoint of the trail – Independence Hall, the home of Tel Aviv’s first mayor, Meir Dizengoff, and the place where David Ben-Gurion read aloud Israel’s Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948 – is surrounded by scaffolding amid ongoing renovations without a set date for reopening.
An easy-to-follow map of the ambling tour is available at the tourism kiosk in the pedestrian boulevard between the Haganah Museum and Independence Hall. The tour begins (if you want to do it in un-Israeli orderly fashion) at the city’s first kiosk, a restoration of which still serves refreshments to Tel Avivians and tourists.
The site of the first kiosk in Tel Aviv. The location is still a destination for refreshments. (photo by Pat Johnson)
The walk continues past the Nahum Gutman Fountain, which depicts the history of Jaffa and its sister-city-come-lately Tel Aviv, from the setting-off place of Jonah on his way to the fish’s belly, through Egyptian invaders, Crusaders, Napoleonic forces on up to Herzl and to the Declaration of Independence that took place a few steps away.
Other stops on the trail include the site of Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, the world’s first modern Hebrew-language high school; the Palatin Hotel, the resting stop for famous names of the 20th century; Tel Aviv’s Great Synagogue; several buildings that are notable more for being examples of the Bauhaus or International Style of architecture than for historical import; the Tel Aviv Founders Monument; a statue of Dizengoff, astride his horse; and several others. The map and trail provide a quick and easy guide to important sites that you might otherwise overlook in a small area of central Tel Aviv.
Tragic walking tour
An unusual, if not terribly uplifting, activity is the Tragic Tel Aviv Walking Tour, which visits sites in the city centre where terror and even Second World War attacks killed civilians.
Easily missed: A monument to one of Tel Aviv’s many terror attacks. (photo by Pat Johnson)
On Sept. 9, 1940, Italian war planes operating from the island of Rhodes, made sorties over Haifa and Tel Aviv, killing 137 people, with many more injured. The attacks targeted no Allied (that is, British) military infrastructure and shattered what, to then, had been a feeling of relative isolation from the European war among the residents of pre-state Palestine. The monument to the bombing in Mikhoels Square, at the corner of Levinsky and Aliyah streets, is modest and easily overlooked if you are not explicitly seeking it – or even if you are.
Led by former Torontonian Jeffrey Levi, the tour then proceeds through sadly seemingly endless locations of suicide bombings and other terror attacks, many of which took place during the Second Intifada. In some cases, the historical events that left Israelis dead or wounded are not commemorated at all, or are marked by likewise inconspicuous markers.
If there is an uplifting message in this tour, it is in the innocuous manner in which most of these historical tragedies are commemorated (or not). As Levi recounts the devastations of the past, Tel Avivians hustle by, literally and figuratively moving past the past.
With Air Canada’s announcement of the resumption of flights from Toronto and Montreal to Tel Aviv, it will be much faster for Canadians to fly to Israel. But will it be cheaper?
The Canadian national carrier is set to resume its routes to Tel Aviv on June 8 with four weekly flights between Pearson International Airport and Ben-Gurion Airport. From August, it will fly from YUL Montréal-Trudeau International Airport once weekly.
Since 2022, when El Al Israel Airlines halted its flights to Canada, there have been no direct flights between Toronto or Montreal and Tel Aviv. Air Canada suspended its Israel operations following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel. It resumed services just before the Iranian missile attack on Israel on April 13, 2024, then again suspended flights, repeatedly extending the suspension, until announcing that flights would not be resumed until further notice.
“We are looking forward to booking direct non-stop flights from Toronto and Montreal again,” said Toby Soil of Toronto’s Peerless Travel. “During these very difficult times, we were booking flights from New York with El Al, which did an excellent job, or booking flights with Air Canada, El Al and other European airlines through Europe with a stop-over.”
Air Canada has undertaken an extensive safety analysis, which will continue leading up to and after June 8, said Soil. The airline will continue to monitor the situation in the region and adjust its schedule accordingly, including future service increases as warranted. Prices will depend on availability, class of service and season, she explained.
Other North American carriers that have announced they are resuming flying on the Tel Aviv-New York route include United Airlines, which scheduled flights beginning on March 15, and Delta Airlines, on April 1. Delta had ceased flying to Israel at the end of July 2024.
Air India resumed its long-haul flight services from Delhi and Mumbai to Tel Aviv on March 2. Similarly, China’s Hainan Airlines will resume twice weekly direct flights between Tel Aviv and Beijing starting April 10.
European airlines that have recently announced the resumption of flights to and from Israel include Air France, which resumed flying to Ben-Gurion Airport on Jan. 25; Iberia, which will start on April 1; Air Baltic, on April 2; and KLM and EasyJet both beginning on June 1.
By the summer peak season, three North American airlines will be operating flights to Israel after months in which only El Al scheduled direct flights between Tel Aviv and New York. That near-monopoly allowed El Al to raise its fares. Last November, the airline posted record quarterly profit and revenue. The Israeli airline drew criticism from customers in Israel and abroad for alleged price-gouging.
David J. Rotfleisch is a Toronto lawyer who made aliyah two-and-a-half years ago and now lives in Jerusalem, but commutes regularly to Canada.
“In October 2022, the month after I made aliyah, El Al stopped flying directly to Tel Aviv from Canada,” he said. “That left Air Canada as the only option for a direct flight. Post-October 2023, Air Canada canceled its flights, meaning there was no way to fly directly to Israel from Canada, which I need to do, both because my law office is in Toronto and to visit friends and family.
“Now, with the resumption of the Air Canada flights, a direct 12-hour return flight for the holidays, leaving in September and returning in October, is around $2,300 Cdn in basic economy. Flying Polish LOT Airlines via Warsaw will cost about $1,600 Cdn return in basic economy and will take 19 hours or longer depending on the connections.”
Last September, Rotfleisch was forced to fly Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Ababa to reach Israel for Rosh Hashanah.
With high demand and limited capacity, travel experts don’t forecast a fall in prices during the Passover holiday or summer season.
“Services by foreign airlines are going to gradually grow and we are going to gradually see prices come down, but they are not going to be down dramatically for Passover or the August period, when most Israelis are looking to book vacations with their families,” Yaneev Lanis, co-founder of online booking site Secret Flights, told the Times of Israel. “Passover period is always an expensive period to travel, and especially this year, when there is still going to be less supply than usual.”
He said, “Passover ticket prices are going to be higher, and I wouldn’t expect prices to drop, as demand will be very high and foreign airlines are planning to come back in a low capacity, which means that they will easily be able to fill up their planes and there is no reason for them to reduce prices.”
Overall, ticket prices to and from Israel have more than doubled at times since the Gaza War broke out on Oct. 7, 2023.
Gil Zohar is a writer and tour guide in Jerusalem.
Volunteers with Sar-El in Israel last March. (photo from Marina Sonkina)
Last year, about this time, I was in Israel, volunteering with Sar-El, an organization that connects the Israel Defence Forces with volunteers from more than 30 countries, who provide the army with non-combat support. So many others had wanted to help after Oct. 7 that I had to wait several months for my documents to be processed.
The mood was understandably sombre. Not just the trauma of the Hamas terror attacks, with hostages captive, but also the antisemitism that engulfed the Western world like fire.
I asked some of my fellow volunteers why they had come to Israel during such a dangerous time. The answers I got, especially from non-Jews, both surprised and comforted me. A Christian volunteer from Detroit wanted Israel to know that it did not stand alone. A middle-aged Australian had been sponsored by her church in Sydney to help people of the Holy Land under an attack. Two Romanian girls didn’t speak a word of Hebrew or English, but answered me in Italian: “Aiuto” (“Help”).
“I had a very good life. I had a chance to travel all over the world. But, until now, I’ve been traveling horizontally,” a Parisian Jew of Algerian descent told me. “Now, it’s time to travel vertically,” she said, raising her eyes to the sky. “This land is sacred. I feel it here like nowhere else. And now it’s in peril.”
In spite of rockets being fired into Israel from Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen, the volunteers felt more protected in Israel than they did back home. Many felt relieved that, finally, there was no need to conceal one’s true feelings or to hide one’s Jewishness.
“I don’t feel safe in the US anymore,” said a New York lawyer who had been attacked from behind in the streets of Manhattan, his yarmulke yanked off his head.
A German woman from Munich was on her 10th visit to Israel. “I’m not Jewish, and I can’t explain it,” she said. “All I know is that I love people here. Love their warmth. Chaos? Yes! They talk loud, they are emotional, but I don’t mind that. I plan to spend half a year here once I retire.”
Initially, I wasn’t sure how we, civilians, could help the IDF fight Hamas in Gaza, but my first day at the medical military base near Tel Aviv made it clear. Hundreds of different medications and medical devices that had come from warehouses across the country had to be sorted out, their expiration dates checked. Those who accuse Israel of racism should see these medicines, each labeled in four languages: Hebrew, Arabic, English and Russian. (Thanks to Soviet antisemitism and, lately, to Putin’s war on Ukraine, 15% of Israel’s population comes from Russia.)
On the military base, I saw clearly what is best in Israel: its people. The IDF mirrors the diversity and inclusiveness of a society that, in its short history, has accepted refugees from more than 100 countries.
Without Moshe, for example, we would have had no idea how to sort the truckloads of medications arriving every day. Having come to Israel from Bukhara (in Central Asia) as a child, Moshe kibitzed in three languages, instructing us by means of his hands while talking on his cellphone. From his easy smile, I would never have guessed that his wife had recently died of cancer, that his two sons were fighting in Gaza and that, every day after his work with us, he went to a synagogue to pray. One morning, Moshe directed us to place boxes in long rows on the floor, in an unusual configuration. The next morning, a group of children with autism and down syndrome came to finish the sorting, also helping their people’s army.
Paul, a mathematician who came from France, was in charge of the military base’s math department. Ruth, who had made aliyah from the Netherlands as a teenager, was serving as one of the madrichot (female soldiers tasked with organizing and looking after Sar-El’s volunteers); after the army, she hoped to become a specialist in Japanese culture.
On another military base, about 20 kilometres from Gaza, in the Negev Desert, one of our tasks was to assemble care packages for soldiers spending Passover at the front, away from home. In two days, we filled 15,000 boxes with grape juice, matzah and other traditional items. Asoldier with a distinct Californian accent came to help us. He was a “lone soldier,” a soldier who has no family in Israel. Various families take turns welcoming lone soldiers for Shabbat, feeding them and giving them a sense of home.
The cover of a Haggadah that Sar-El volunteers inserted into thousands of Passover boxes that were sent to Israeli soldiers in Gaza. It shows the multicultural character of the Israel Defence Forces. (photo from Marina Sonkina)
Once, an officer joined us, helping make up the boxes, which was unusual, given his rank. Later, I saw him in the mess hall speaking in Hebrew to the base commander, who was originally from India. I found out that the officer was Druze. Living mainly in the country’s north, in the Galilee region, the Druze community enjoys all the civil rights of other Israelis, while maintaining their Arabic language and customs. Many Druze reach high echelons in the army, in medicine and other professions. When a Hezbollah rocket struck the Druze town of Majdal Shams, killing 12 children playing soccer, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu went there, addressing community members as “brothers and sisters.” He promised that Hezbollah would “pay a heavy price” for killing their children, and he kept his word.
When I think of the soldiers I met and talked to, one thing sets them apart from young people of their age in North America: a seriousness of purpose, and the burden of responsibility. They know that the survival of Israel lies on their shoulders. They also know that, while defending theircountry, they may not survive. Death lurks behind every corner in Gaza and Lebanon. It has hidden in an effigy of a child pleading, in Hebrew, for help, but booby-trapped with explosives. It was underground, in the tunnels, some going 50 kilometres deep. It disguised itself in doctors’ scrubs, inside Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, which was appropriated by Hamas terror operatives.
Every fallen soldier is loved and mourned as one’s own child. Army service acts as a social glue in a country into which millions of refugees, speaking different languages, have poured. The IDF is still the backbone and pride of this society.
At a party for troops just returned from Gaza, I saw a religious Jew in a yarmulke (skullcap) and tzitzit (prayer shawl) hanging from under his uniform, with a baby girl in each arm and an automatic rifle dangling behind his back. I talked to a medic, a corporal who was more outspoken than many – a college history teacher in times of peace, he had three young children at home.
“Is there any possibility of peace between Palestinians and Jews?” I asked him.
“Before Oct. 7, I supported a two-state solution because I wanted peace, but the Palestinians do not want peace,” he responded. “We’ve tried it many times in the past. They want only one state, an Islamic Caliphate with Sharia rule. We, Jews, are in their way and they want us dead…. We have to fight – if we want to survive.”
“What about your children?” I asked. “Will they have to fight, too?”
“Yes, them, too,” he said. “They’ll be left with no other choice.”
I shook my head in distress but said nothing.
“Look,” said the man, “illusions cost us very dearly. We can’t afford them anymore.”
I remembered Golda Meir’s words, spoken in 1957: “Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.”
There is a truce in Gaza now. But, while some 20,000 Hamas fighters have been eliminated, 10,000 armed fighters are still at large.
Marina Sonkinais a fiction writer, and teaches in the Liberal Arts Program 55+ at Simon Fraser University.
A photograph of Gen. Lewis Cass taken by Mathew Brady, circa 1860-65. In 1837, Cass dropped the anchor of the USS Constitution off Jaffa. (photo from US National Archives and Records Administration)
President Donald Trump’s unconventional proposal on Feb. 5 to annex the Gaza Strip isn’t the first time the United States has expressed territorial ambitions in the Middle East.
In 1837, Gen. Lewis Cass (1782-1866) dropped the anchor of the USS Constitution, “Old Ironsides,” off Jaffa. (Until British dynamite cleared the rock-strewn harbour in the 1920s, rowboats connected the port with the ships anchored offshore.) Together with several US Navy officers, Cass proceeded inland, planning to survey the uncharted Dead Sea – the lowest point on earth – but the poorly equipped mission was a failure. Ill from sunstroke and dehydration, the sailors barely managed to return to their vessel alive.
A decade later, Lieut. William Francis Lynch (1801-1865) of the US Navy led a better-provisioned 17-man expedition to explore the Jordan River and Dead Sea. Camels hauled the prefabricated boats specially manufactured of copper and galvanized iron overland from the Mediterranean Sea to Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). Lynch then ventured down the Jordan River, which is a creek by most standards. In tandem, a party proceeded on land. The mission mapped the Jordan’s hitherto unknown 27 rapids and cascades. Though it is only 100 kilometres from the freshwater Lake Kinneret to the Dead Sea, the Jordan River’s winding course was 322 kilometres long. Lynch described the Jordan as unsuitable for navigation, calling it “more sinuous even than the Mississippi.”
Lieut. William F. Lynch, circa 1861-62. In the mid 1800s, Lynch led a 17-man expedition to explore the Jordan River and Dead Sea. (photo from Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph Collection, NH 367)
While advancing “the cause of science,” Lynch was also at “the service of American commerce with the region.” He reported “an extensive plain, luxuriant in vegetation and presenting … a richness of alluvial soil, the produce of which, with proper agriculture, might nourish a vast population.”
While Congress shelved Lynch’s report recommending colonization, it helped spark the United States’s fascination with the Holy Land – and led to the establishment of American colonization projects in Jaffa and Jerusalem.
At Tel Aviv’s south end is a cluster of wooden clapboard buildings straight out of New England known as the American Colony. The story begins shortly after the American Civil War: on Aug. 11, 1866, 157 members of the Palestine Emigration Colony – including 48 children under the age of 12 – set sail from Jonesport, Me., for Jaffa on the newly built, three-masted vessel USS Nellie Chapin.
George Jones Adams (1811-1880), leader of the 35 New England families, hoped to develop the Land of Israel in preparation for the biblically prophesized return of the Jews. This would hasten the second coming of the Christian messiah. Adams had been a follower of the Mormon Church, but quit the religion following the assassination of Mormon founder Joseph Smith in 1844. Most of the congregants of the Church of the Messiah that Adams founded lived in Maine.
Departing the United States, Adams stated: “We believe the time has come for Israel to gather home from their long dispersion to the land of their fathers. We are going [to Jaffa] to become practical benefactors of the land and people, to take the lead in developing its great resources.”
Proto-Zionists, their purpose was not to missionize but to assist the Jewish people in returning to their ancestral land. However, though equipped with the latest agricultural tools, 22 pre-fab houses and religious fervour, the colonists’ mission was doomed. Arriving in Jaffa, they learned that Adams had not yet purchased the land on which they planned to settle. Instead, they pitched their tents on the beach near a cemetery where the victims of a recent cholera epidemic were buried. Within six months, 22 of the 157 settlers, including nine children, were dead.
Disease was not the settlers’ only problem. After finally buying the property for their neighbourhood, the first outside of Jaffa’s Ottoman ramparts – Tel Aviv would only be founded 43 years later, in 1909 – the pioneers quickly learned that farming in the arid Middle East was nothing like agriculture in rainy New England.
Facing starvation and soaring mortality, Adams sought solace in alcohol. Within two years after their arrival, all but two dozen or so members of the American Colony had returned to the New World. Their buildings were sold to newly arrived German evangelical Christians. Known as Templars, the Germans developed seven colonies across Palestine until being arrested by the British in 1939 as Nazi sympathizers. They were deportedto Australia or sent back to the Third Reich in prisoner exchanges.
Among the Americans who remained was Rolla Floyd (1832-1911), a pioneer of Israel’s tourism business. In 1869, he opened the stagecoach service from Jaffa to Jerusalem on the newly paved road. The journey from the coast to the mountains took 14 hours: today’s high-speed train covers the same distance in 29 minutes, with a stop at Ben-Gurion Airport.
The Maine settlers were not forgotten, thanks to Reed Holmes: in 1942, the historian met an elderly woman who had been 13 when the Nellie Chapin dropped anchor. After four decades of research, Holmes published The ForeRunners. Around the same time, he organized a tour of Israel. Among the participants was Jean Carter, a licensed contractor from Massachusetts. Touring the former American Colony, she was aghast to learn that the decrepit, historic wooden houses were about to be torn down.
Raised in a Protestant church, Carter had a master’s degree in Jewish studies and was fluent in Hebrew. She persuaded the Israeli government to declare the former colony a heritage site, received a promise that any structure that could be preserved would be spared demolition, and got the Tel Aviv municipality to erect a plaque on the beach where the Maine colonists had landed.
Holmes and Carter fell in love and eventually married. In 2002, they purchased Wentworth House – one of the remaining American Colony buildings. With the help of specialists in 19th-century building preservation techniques from Maine, the couple spent two years restoring the ruin and removing later additions. Today restored as the Maine Friendship House, it houses a museum about Jaffa’s American Colony.
The Holmes, who live in Peace Valley, Me., were honoured in 2004 by the Maine Preservation Society – the first time the group recognized a project outside of New England.
Unrelated to Jaffa’s American Colony is a Jerusalem settlement of the same name. The eponymous luxury hotel where foreign journalists like to belly up to the bar was founded in 1881 as a commune – Israel’s first kibbutz – by members of a Protestant utopian society led by Horatio Spafford of Chicago (1828-1888), who penned the Evangelical hymn “It Is Well With My Soul.”
Spafford and his wife Anna (1842-1923), together with a group of 14 adults and five children, expected Jesus’s second coming imminently. While waiting, the members of the pietistic settlement of Yankees and Scandinavians served the Holy City’s many destitute by opening soup kitchens, hospitals, orphanages and other charitable ventures.
Horatio Gates Spafford and Anna Spafford, circa 1873. In 1881, a Protestant utopian society led by Horatio Spafford founded the American Colony in Jerusalem. (photos from Manuscript Division, Library of Congress)
Much of that charity was funded by the American Colony Photo Department, which became the community’s primary income. Many of those early images fall into the category of Orientalism, for which the West had a seemingly insatiable appetite. But part of that artistic achievement was due to fortuitous timing – the colony’s photographers began operating at a time when tourism to the Holy Land, especially from America and Europe, was beginning en masse.
Moreover, “with the advent of halftone printing in the 1880s, images were now becoming more accessible to the public via printed matter – books, magazines and newspapers – where they were now reproduced alongside text,” notes Tom Powers in his 2009 work Jerusalem’s American Colony and Its Photographic Legacy. (Before that, photographs could only be pasted into books by hand, as individual prints.)
A third factor was getting off to a good start, thanks to plain luck. The first sizeable project of the American Colony documentarians was the1898 state visit of Imperial Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II and Empress Augusta Victoria to the Holy Land.
Interested in seeing the American Colony Photo Department’s 22,000 historic photographs archived at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC? Visit loc.gov/pictures/collection/matpc/colony.html.
