Israeli history photo of the week: A family Succot

JPost special feature: Collection of photographs documents Israel before the creation of the state.

By LENNY BEN-DAVID
Family in Jerusalem succa (photo credit: American Colony-Jerusalem-Photo Dept.)
Family in Jerusalem succa
(photo credit: American Colony-Jerusalem-Photo Dept.)
The Library of Congress has recently digitalized a collection of over 10,000 photographs, taken by the "American Colony" in Jerusalem, a group of Christian utopians who lived in Jerusalem between 1881 and the 1940s. The photographers returned to the US, and bequeathed their massive collection to the Library of Congress in 1978.

The collection includes Winston Churchill's visit to Jerusalem, Jewish expulsions from the Old City during Arab riots, and the building of Tel Aviv.Israel Daily Picture usually focuses on the Library of Congress' American Colony collection of 22,000 photos. But while exploring the Library's archives we came across an amazing collection of pictures of the Bukhari Jewish community of Samarkand in 1870.Members of the community began moving to Eretz Yisrael, the Holy Land, in the mid-1800. They established a new neighborhood outside of Jerusalem's Old City walls. The American Colony photographers recorded how various Jewish communities celebrated Sukkot in Jerusalem in the early 1900s with pictures of Yemenite, Ashkenazi and Bukhari succot booths. Is it possible that the family photographed in Samarkand in 1870 may be the same family photographed in Jerusalem in 1900?More photos can be viewed at http://www.israeldailypicture.com