Arts & Entertainment

Israel's All-Seeing Eye

Photojournalist's career parallels the history of the Jewish state.

Robert Leiter
Special to the Jewish News

F

amed photographer David
Rubinger, though born in
Vienna in 1924, came to
pre-state Palestine in 1939, barely
escaping after the Nazi Anschluss,
or annexation, of Austria (his par-
ents' fate was different and very
complicated).
After working on two kibbutzim
and serving in the British army's
Jewish Brigade fighting the Nazis, a
girlfriend in postwar Paris bought
him his first camera while he was
on leave. He moved up to the clas-
sic, lightweight Leica camera that
has been credited, because of its
portability, with mak-
ing photojournalism
possible. By the time he
returned to Palestine, he
was married and assured
of the work he planned
to do.
His memoir (which
happens to be packed with
photographs) is called Israel
Through My Lens: 60 Years as
a Photojournalist (Abbeville
Press; $35.) It was co-written
with Ruth Corman.
Early in the text, Rubinger
notes that one of the first photos
he took "was an image of some
of my neighbors thrusting bread through
a barbed wire fence to their relatives and
friends. This took place during one of the
many curfews imposed by the British in
certain areas of Jerusalem. Roads were
cut off from each other with barbed wire,
largely in response to the activities of the
Jewish terrorist group, the Irgun, who were
proving troublesome and outright danger-
ous to the British authorities:'
It is this combination of the personal
— at times even the familial (in the sense
of the Jewish people as related one to the
other) — mixed with the political that
would mark Rubinger's work throughout
his varied career.
One of his first professional photos fea-
tured in the book shows a group of young
Jerusalemites, filled with joy, celebrating
the United Nations' decision to establish
a Jewish state; these young people have
climbed onto a British armored car and
are waving a handmade Israeli flag.

pital, for instance, and another
at a leper colony, not just visit-
ing for a time but staying for
days.
These experiences got
him ready for work on one
of Israel's top papers, Yediot
Achronot, and from there, it
was just a step to his long ten-
ure with Time-Life.
Rubinger has covered most
of the major stories that have
marked Israel's brief but
extraordinary history: the mass
aliyot from various Middle
Eastern countries during the
early 1950s; the Sinai War; the
Six-Day War; the Yom Kippur
War; the visit of Anwar Sadat to
Israel; the immigrations from
Russia and Ethiopia; the war
in Lebanon; the first intifada;
the second intifada — and on
and on.
His signature image is, of
course, the shot of the three
paratroopers looking up in
awe at the Western Wall soon
Above: David Rubinger with his first Leica, bought for 200 cigarettes
after it was taken from the
and a kilogram of coffee in 1946.
Jordanians
on June 7,1967,
Left: Rubinger's book cover features his signature photo of Israeli
perhaps
the
greatest moment
paratroopers looking up in awe at the Western Wall soon after it was
of
the
Six-Day
War. Rubinger
taken from the Jordanians on June 7, 1967, during the Six-Day War.
describes how he managed
to get to the Old City just 15
You can see every bit of
handy, since all of the newspapers at the
minutes after the fighting had
exultation on these mostly male faces,
time, except for the Jerusalem Post, were
concluded and how he was able to make
and you can read it as well in their body
based in Tel Aviv. He would take his pho-
that classic photo happen.
language. And there is a sweetness — a
tos, print them in his makeshift darkroom,
"The area between the Western Wall
modest, very human component — in
then storm off on his motorcycle to deliver and the houses that were then standing
the makeshift flag that seems to summon
them in Tel Aviv.
near it could not have been more than 10
up all their yearning and desire for a true
The turning point in his career,
or 12 feet across. To get the most effective
home of their own.
according to the photographer, came in
shot in such a narrow space, it was neces-
Rubinger got his first professional
1951. "A man named Uri Avnery bought
sary for me to lie down on the ground and
job when he was 25 years old — he was
a moribund family magazine that he
shoot skywards so that I could capture
also a young father by then — and it
proceeded to turn into a unique Israeli
in my lens both the victorious Israeli
happened to be during Israel's War of
institution.
paratroopers and as much of the Wall as
Independence. He had already fought as
"The name of the journal ... was Nine
possible.
a soldier; but when he made his wishes
O'Clock, but he renamed it Haolam Hazeh
"The scene around me was extremely
known to his superiors about eventually
— 'This World: It was a combination of
emotional. You have to remember that
becoming a newspaper photographer,
a mass-circulation news magazine and a
this miraculous success followed three
he was moved to the Army Map and
medium for pursuing aggressive politi-
weeks of overwhelming gloom and
Photography Services.
cal opposition to the establishment. It
despondency. People were crying with joy
He gained some technical knowledge
exposed, for the first time in Israel, issues
and relief; and I have to admit that, as I
and got some experience under his belt
concerning political and economic cor-
shot my pictures, tears were rolling down
so that when the fighting ended, he
ruption, previously taboo subjects, and in
my checks toot" ❑
began working as a freelance photogra-
addition advocated a radically different
pher.
national policy"
Robert Leiter is the literary editor of
By 1950, he'd purchased a Norton 500cc
Under Avnery's tutelage, Rubinger dug
Philadelphia's Jewish Exponent, where this
army surplus motorcycle. This came in
into stories deeply — one at a mental hos- article first appeared.

May 15 • 2008

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