As our thoughts and attention remain focused on our brethren in Israel, Yeshiva University Archives shares this historic photograph we received as a gift of a group of Zionist leaders in pre--state Israel, including some of its future Prime Ministers and Presidents.
We have been able to identify most of them with some degree of certainty, as listed below. Can you help us confirm or identify the others? Also, what was the occasion for the gathering of these leaders?
- Yitzhak Ben Tzvi
- David Ben Gurion
- ?? (unidentified)
- Shlomo Kaplansky
- David Bloch Blumenfeld
- Berl Katzlenson
- Zalman Rubashov (later Shazaar) ??
- Yisrael Marminski ??
- Dov Hoz ??
- Neta Harpaz (Goldberg) ??
1924 is given as the date on the back of the photograph at the top (along with another indecipherable word). Might the occasion have been the conference of the Socialist Labor Zionist party Aḥdut ha-Avodah conference held in 1924 in Ein Harod? Or something else? The Tel Aviv studio of Abraham Soskin is listed as the photographer, but it could have been shot elsewhere. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated and can be sent to archives@yu.edu.
In the words of the Hanukkah blessing we will soon be saying, may we merit miracles in our current defense of our homeland and traditions as our ancestors did in their times.
Deena Schwimmer, Archivist
