NEWS

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5753

1992

Postcard Collection
Documents An Era

ELANA SHAP

Special to The Jewish News

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557-4230

n 1948, the newly pro-
claimed State of Israel
had no well-oiled pro-
paganda machine to take ad-
vantage of the powerful im-
ages of youthful pioneers tur-
ning swamps into orchards or
the heart-rending scenes of
the Holocaust survivors
disembarking at Haifa.
Documentation of the era —
black-and-white photography
as well as film-making — was
sparse, with much of the
material filed away in damp
basements and musty
albums.
A thorough testimony to
Israel's historic past, however,
has been preserved in Alain
Roth's original postcard
collection.
Says Mr. Roth, who im-
migrated from France 20
years ago and settled in
Herzliya, "With no highbrow
ideas of artistry, the result is
an open window to the first
solely Jewish world, using the
widest range of images; a
world of Jewish workers, ar-
tists, builders and farmers
and a world of Jewish
holidays, where even trees
were photographed for their
biblical significance."
Mr. Roth began his collec-
tion in the early 1970s. While
strolling around Jerusalem
one day his eye was drawn to
the window of a small shop
displaying a postcard of
young pioneers laying foun-
dations for a building in new-
ly established Tel Aviv, the
first Jewish city. He speaks
excitedly of the experience,
"It gave me a special feeling,
unlike anything the antique
furniture I was collecting had
ever aroused in me. These
postcards had a tangibility
which allowed me literally to
relive the events."
Mr. Roth, now a full-time
postcard dealer, has a collec-
tion of some 10,000 cards
gleaned from all over the
world.
The postcards take one back
to the port of Jaffa in the
1930s, alive with activity as
crates of luscious Jaffa
oranges are loaded onto a
steamer; to Rishon leZion in
the 1930s, when Culiars
grapes arrive for the new vin-
tage; and to the Haifa Soap
Factory in 1925.
A panoramic view of Haifa
and the Carmel ridge draws
us into the beauty of the yet
undeveloped landscape. A pic-
ture of a crowded Tel Aviv
beach shows families wearing

Alain Roth: A historic collection.

antiquated swimwear enjoy-
ing the pleasures of the
seaside in their newly
established state.

A look at familiar Tel Aviv
streets as they were in 1912
— crowded with horses and
carriages — is particularly
humorous; and Jerusalem's
King George and Ben Yehuda
Streets are un-
characteristically unhurried,
a solitary bus providing the
only means of public
transportation. A brightly
colored three-dimensional
postcard of Tel Aviv's Shalom
Tower jolts us back to the
present.
Israel's holy sites are also
recorded: "The Jews Wall of
Wailing" and another, "The
Mosque at Hebron Over the
Cave of Machpelah."
Pioneers also proudly pose
at their "Colony at Rosh
Pina" and young women are
"Watering the Violets at the
Nahalal Agricultural School."
Memories of fighting the
fedayeen (Arab commandos)
and retaliating against the
British are brought back by
the solemn photograph of
uniformed Haganah (forerun-
ner of the IDF) members,
completewith
pre-
revolutionary
Russian
karakul caps, standing, arm-
ed, on a railroad track. The
group of airl parachutists
photographed on the march
some years later, were
already members of the new-
ly established, officially
recognized, Israel Defense
Forces.
"But," says Mr. Roth, "in a
country with a past as old as
the Bible, postcards have a
long way to go to really be
considered a part of
history." ❑

WZPS