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Jewish Journal

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January 22, 1998

Celebrating Israel’s 50th

Leave a Comment / Old Stories /

The “America Salutes Israel at 50” show at the Shrine Auditoriumis hardly the only celebration in and around Los Angeles planned tocommemorate Israel’s jubilee year. Here is a list of some other localevents.

April 26 — South Bay Israeli Festival at the TorranceCivic Center, sponsored by the Federation South Bay Council and SouthBay synagogues.

April 26-May 10 — Community Yom Ha’atzmaut mission toIsrael, led by Jewish Federation/Valley Alliance President Arthur andMady Jablon.

April 30 — Yom Ha’atzmaut Celebration, sponsored by theConsulate General of Israel.

May 3 — Los Angeles Israeli Festival at Pan Pacific Park,sponsored by the Jewish Federation and the Council of IsraeliOrganizations.

Oct. 22 — United Jewish Fund benefit concert at the1,800-seat Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, sponsored by the ValleyAlliance and produced by Canto Chayim Frankel.

The Schoolmaster

RabbiLaurence Scheindlin, pictured with (seated, from left), Gail Nussen,Sheila Leibovic and Debi Ben Aharon, dinner co-chairs. Standing fromleft, Rose Derhy, Jacki Ahdout, Jory Goldman and Lise Applebaum,auction co-chairs.

Not long ago, at a playground near the Venice canals, a group ofyoung parents were debating the merits of local private schools. “Wepulled our son out of that school,” said a father. “I didn’tlike the principal.”

“Oh, come on,” countered a mother. “How important is a principal?”

People at Sinai Akiba Academy could answer that question with adate: Jan. 24. That’s when the school is celebrating its 30thanniversary at a dinner honoring Rabbi Laurence Scheindlin, theschool’s headmaster.

In 1977, Scheindlin left a pulpit job and moved out West to headup what was then the 181-pupil Akiba Academy, the first ConservativeJewish day school in Los Angeles. Twenty-one years later, Sinai AkibaAcademy (the school merged with Sinai Temple in 1987) has 512students in grades kindergarten through 8, and has been consistentlyrecognized as one of the finest schools on the West Coast.Scheindlin’s guiding principle: “We really want kids to besuccessful, and we really want them to have strong Jewish values. Wewant compassionate, caring winners.”

He has joined that philosophy to a seemingly tireless enthusiasm.Donning a hard hat, he marches a visitor through Sinai Akiba’s $25million expansion, as proud of the cavernous parking garage as he isof the new, wider hallways and playing field.

“He has an open mind and a generous spirit,” said Janet Rosenblum,a school parent. According to Julie Platt, chair of the Sinai AkibaAcademy Committee, Scheindlin has helped the school “set newstandards” in Jewish education.

Those standards include a first-rate general education wedded tointensive Jewish studies. As parents have increasingly chosen Jewishday schools as an alternative to unsatisfactory public schooling andas a way to ensure their children’s Jewish identity, schools such asSinai Akiba have flourished. Four Westside schools — WilshireBoulevard Temple, Beth Am, the Milken Community High School and SinaiAkiba — have invested more than $100 million over the past fiveyears to expand their day-school programs.

Of course, success has brought a new set of challenges.Scheindlin, 53 and a father of three Sinai Akiba graduates, has seentuition rise from about $1,700 in 1977 to $7,000 today, a sum out ofreach to many families.

And, in the push for higher and higher academic achievement,Scheindlin said he hopes that schools pay attention to the spirituallife of their children. “Traditionally, elementary schools have notdone a great job at that,” he said.

But Scheindlin expects to continue at Sinai Akiba to see thesechallenges through. “It’s a bull market for Jewish day schools,” hesaid. “I’m optimistic.”

For more information on Sinai Akiba’s 30th Anniversary Dinner,call (310) 475-6401 — Staff Report

Cemetery Has

New Buyer

Anew potential buyer for the bankrupt Hollywood Memorial Park,which includes Beth Olam Cemetery, has come forward, after theprevious bidder, Callanan Mortuary, dropped out.

He is Tyler Cassity, a St. Louis cemetery operator who has put upa $75,000 non-refundable deposit. Tyler has until March 16 tofinalize the sale, and a new court hearing has been set for March 20.

The cemetery will remain open for visits and burials, but willhave to cut back on ground maintenance, said David Isenberg, attorneyfor the bankruptcy trustee. — Staff Report

UJ’s Shechter Is Arts Programming Dean

Dr. Jack Shechter

Dr. Jack Shechter, who has served as dean of the University ofJudaism’s department of continuing education for 21 years, was nameddean of the school’s arts programming division by universityPresident Dr. Robert Wexler.

Shechter will oversee the school’s performing arts series,Elderhostel cultural arts programming, the Platt Gallery and theSmalley Sculpture Garden. He also will be responsible for expandingan already extensive array of instructional arts classes at the UJ.

An ordained rabbi, Shechter is a graduate of Yeshiva Universityand the Jewish Theological Seminary. He earned his doctorate inbiblical studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Before coming tothe University of Judaism in 1976, he was rabbi at Congregation B’naiIsrael in Pittsburgh for 10 years.

Federation Raises $42.4 Million

Despite worries that the religious pluralism debate and stalledpeace process in Israel would hurt the Jewish Federation’s 1997fund-raising efforts, the organization raised $42.4 million for itsUnited Jewish Fund, surpassing its goal for the year.

Bill Bernstein, Federation associate executive vice president anddirector of the fund, said the total was “within range of where wehoped we would be.” He called it a “great achievement” for the LosAngeles community in a difficult year. “I think we helped donors torealize that it would be a wrong decision to penalize thebeneficiaries of the United Jewish Fund by withdrawing theircontributions, since it would hurt those people who need the dollarsmost,” Bernstein said. He credited UJF 1997 general chair Todd Morganand Carol Katzman, chair of the Women’s Division, for their”phenomenal” leadership.

Sources close to the campaign said that possibly an additional $1million to $1.5 million would have been pledged if not for donordissatisfaction over the pluralism issue.

In 1998, the Federation has set a lofty goal of raising $50million, a number that coincides — not by accident — with Israel’s50th anniversary. Reaching that figure will be “a stretch,” Bernsteinadmitted, but isn’t impossible. Contributions hit the $50 millionmark in 1989.

To sweeten the appeal for donations this Super Sunday (Feb. 22),phone volunteers will for the first time be offering bonus miles onAmerican Airlines. Other federations and the Jewish Home for theAging have used the mileage incentives with good results, said SusanBender, special assistant to Executive Vice President John Fishel.The mileage is given, however, only when the pledge is actually paid.— Ruth Stroud

A Day for Learning

More than 1,000 Jewish learners descended on Taft High School inWoodland Hills recently to attend Yom Limud, a community-wide all-dayevent that was the Bureau of Jewish Education’s way of celebratingits 60th year in Southern California.

About half the participants were teachers from religious schoolsand day schools across the Southland. But lay people, too, turned outin droves to hear the intellectual stars of our community –professors, rabbis and lecturers from all the Jewish movements –explore Judaism from many angles.

Attendees could choose an Orthodox rabbi’s take on women’sopportunities in traditional Judaism; a college professor’s analysisof the golden age of Spanish Jewry; a Talmud-based discussion on theJewish educator’s right to strike; an introduction to Jewishcyberspace; or a Yiddish sing-along. Virtually every session wasstanding-room-only.

A particularly engaging discussion was provoked by Rabbi LauraGeller, who examined the legacy of two 20th-century giants: the Rev.Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Joshua Heschel. Gellerdisclosed how her own youthful passion for civil rights in the wakeof King’s assassination ultimately put her on a path to therabbinate.

Quoting extensively from both leaders, she noted how much theSouthern Baptist minister and the Warsaw-born rabbi had in common,despite their vastly different backgrounds. For both, a Bible-basedtheology, heavily flavored by the book of Exodus, led inexorably to acall for social justice.

As Geller’s listeners began asking questions, the session movedinto a probing consideration of how institutionalized Judaism hasfailed to heed Heschel’s message that “prayer is meaningless unlessit is subversive, unless it seeks to overthrow and ruin the pyramidsof callousness, hatred, opportunism, falsehoods.” Why do most Jewsturn a deaf ear to Heschel’s bold imperatives? In Geller’s words,”People come to synagogue — when they come — because they’relooking for comfort.” They may be persuaded to turn inward and findspiritual renewal, but they’re not ready to be forced into action onbehalf of the world’s oppressed peoples. — Beverly Gray

‘Family Stories’ at the Skirball

JoyceDallal’s “It is a Tree of Life to Those that Hold Fast to it,” at theSanta Barbara Museum of Natural History.

Drop into the Skirball Cultural Center this week, and you’ll findwork by artists Jewish and Japanese and Native American.

You’ll find the same six artists exhibited side by side at theJapanese American National Museum and the Santa Barbara Museum ofNatural History. It’s all part of “Finding Family Stories,” athree-year project that aims to create multicultural dialogue in LosAngeles. “All the artists deal with issues of family, so we’re hopingthe people of Southern California will see a bit of themselves in thework,” says the Japanese American National Museum’s Cynthia Endo.

This is the first time the Skirball is participating in theproject, and the first time the show has included Jewish artists.Joyce Dallal’s installation piece, “Finding Home,” for example,describes the struggle of her Iraqi-Jewish father to emigrate to theStates.

There are works by Eddy Kurushima, a Japanese-American artist whoendured the internment camps of World War II. Painter Judith Lowrydepicts a lost friend, a powwow dancer comatose since a car accident,dancing with an angelic figure in “Rolling Thunder, Dancing AcrossAmerica.”

Mixed-media artist Aaron Glass, meanwhile, recalls a childhoodmemory in “Aronit Ha’Zikharon (Little Cabinet of Memory),” abirch ark adorned with images of an unusual family heirloom. Thepiece recalls how, at the age of 8, Glass first saw a large fabricthat had been discovered in a suitcase under his grand-mother’s bed.The fabric turned out to be an 18th-century German Torah curtain, theproperty of forebears descended from Glass’s blue-blooded Jewishancestor, Jacob Bassevi von Treuenberg, the first ennobled Jew inGermany, the artist says.

A panel discussion with the artists will take place on March13, at 7 p.m., at Self-Help Graphics in Los Angeles. Choreographerssuch as Naomi Goldberg and Hiroki Hojo will explore “Dance asDialogue” in a Skirball workshop on March 15, at 2 p.m. Forreservations, call (213) 660-8587. — Naomi Pfefferman,Senior Writer.

Children of Chernobyl

The children come from cities such as Gomel, Mozyr, Berdichev andBobrusk, in the shadow of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. Since1990, Chabad has airlifted 1,527 of them to Israel, to escape thedeadly radiation poisoning that accumulates with each breath of airor sip of contaminated milk.

Now, Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl program has been honored witha new Israeli postal stamp — a rare Postal Authority tribute to aprivate organization — that was recently unveiled in the Knesset.The colorful NIS 2.10 stamp depicts smiling children disembarkingfrom an airplane in Israel. Twenty-one other countries unveiled theirown stamps honoring the program at a United Nations ceremony inApril.

When the Chernobyl meltdown unleashed 90 times the radiation ofthe Hiroshima bomb in April 1986, several hundred thousand Jews livedin the surrounding area — the eastern edge of what once was theJewish Pale of Settlement. Thousands of Jewish children begansuffering neurological, respiratory and digestive ailments, whilethyroid cancer increased 200-fold. Milk and food were contaminated,and medical care was poor or nonexistent.

Chabad has responded by evacuating at-risk children on 32 flightsso far; in Israel, the children are whisked to doctors and housed inthe Kfar Chabad complex until their parents arrive in the Jewishstate. Immune systems are strengthened, and enlarged thyroid glandsare closely monitored for signs of malignancy.

Yula, 12, is one of the lucky ones. Her mother wrote to her fromback in Gomel: “Many children are sick. Like you, they have somethinggrowing in their throats. They’re getting sicker, while you’regetting better.” — Naomi Pfefferman

Celebrating Israel’s 50th Read More »

Broadway, Los Angeles Isn’t

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ArtisticDirector Gordon Davidson

Speaking at the Skirball Center recently, Gilbert Cates of theGeffen Theater in Westwood told an anecdote to illustrate,indirectly, why Los Angeles theaters don’t draw audiences as dothose, say, in his native New York.

Seems this elderly lady was about to marry an even more elderlygentleman. Her friends remonstrated, pointing to the chosen’s poorlooks, personality and finances. What attracted her to the man? theyasked.

Ah, said the bride-to-be, he can drive at night.

The dependence on patrons willing and able to drive at night isbut one of the problems facing Los Angeles theaters, said GordonDavidson, who, as artistic director of the Center Theatre Group’sTaper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre, is the city’s most influentialstage producer.

Cates, Davidson and Marcia Seligson, of the Reprise! Broadway’sBest in Concert company, recently let down their collectiveprofessional hairs, courtesy of the lively Sunday MorningConversations with Marlene Adler Marks series at the SkirballCultural Center.

The contrast between the New York and Los Angeles media, shorthandfor The New York Times vs. the Los Angeles Times, demarcates theroles of the stage in the cultural life of America’s two largestcities.

“You open up the Arts and Leisure section of The New York Times,and the first pages are about the theater, and the section is thickwith theater ads,” said Cates. “Open up the Calendar section of theLos Angeles Times, and there’s page after page of movie ads, and atthe end, one slim page of theater ads.”

The criticism of the Los Angeles Times, especially in its presentstate, went beyond advertisements. In the earlier days of Davidson’s30-year tenure at the Taper Forum, he recalled, the Times used to runa thoughtful piece before the opening of each new play, then a reviewand an analysis afterward.

Cates picked up on the same point. “There is no sense ofencouragement by the press, no sense of nourishing or caring,” hesaid.

Another minus for Los Angeles is the lack of theatrical”afterlife” in the form of cafes and restaurants surrounding theMusic Center — a contrast to New York’s Lincoln Center. But not allthe local difficulties can be attributed just to the differencesbetween the two cities.

Throughout American society, observed Cates, there exists “abalkanization of ideas and ideals, and it is more and more difficultto find a unifying theme to attract diverse ethnic and age groups tothe same play.”

Other challenges common to most American theaters include findingways to attract a younger generation of patrons and the logisticaland financial complexities of running a theater based on seasonsubscriptions.

A somewhat diffident note of optimism was injected by Seligson,the junior member of the trio, whose first season of reviving some ofthe great stage musicals has drawn diverse demographic audiences.

“We’re not as gray or Westside Jewish [as the more establishedtheaters],” she said.

The British director Tyrone Guthrie, a non-Jew, once observed thatif all Jews were to withdraw from the American theater, “it wouldcollapse about next Thursday.”

At the Skirball event, with three Jewish producers addressing anintensely engaged Jewish audience at a Jewish venue, the point neededno emphasis.

Even so, it was somewhat startling to hear Cates report that ofhundreds of play scripts submitted to him, “two-thirds were on Jewishthemes, one-half included gay themes, and only 15 percent wereneither Jewish nor gay.”

As daunting as the difficulties facing the Los Angeles theaterare, Davidson managed to put them into some kind of historicalperspective by noting that, after all, “the theater is a2,000-year-old experiment.”

The Sunday Morning Conversations will continue on Feb. 8, withCarolyn See and Lisa See in “Mother and Daughter Write Home,” and onMarch 8, with Richard Rodriguez in “Notes from a Passionate Son.”

Each event is preceded by an informal breakfast. For tickets, callTickets L.A. at (213) 660-TKTS (8587).

Celebrating Jewish Song

What does the earliest known version of “Hatikvah” sound likeperformed live onstage? Concert-goers can find out by attending the1998 Bromberg Concert on Sunday, Feb. 8, at Adat Ari El synagogue inNorth Hollywood. Entitled “Celebrating a Century of Jewish Song,” theeclectic concert program will also include operatic arias, cantorialsolos, duets and ensembles, Yiddish favorites, Sephardic melodies andeven some classic American show tunes.

This is the 17th concert in the Bromberg Series, which typicallyfeatures works by Jewish composers that are performed bydistinguished Jewish musical artists. This year’s four featuredguests are no exception. Lyric tenor David Lefkowitz is cantor at NewYork’s Park Avenue Synagogue and a recognized composer in his ownright. He was soloist on ABC’s “Selihot” video and performed for thePBS documentary “Hear Our Voices.”

Mezzo-soprano Rickie Cole has been soloist with the BostonSymphony Orchestra and with major opera companies. She was alsosoloist for Angel Records’ “A Little Sondheim Music.”

Soprano Roslyn Barak, cantor at Temple Emanu El in San Francisco,has appeared in concert with Theodore Bikel, as well as in operas andconcerts in New York, Santa Fe, N.M., and Israel. Recently, Barak hasbeen performing concerts of Jewish music in Germany to promote therelease of her CD, “The Jewish Soul.”

Rounding out the program is Los Angeles’ own Ira Bigeleisen,(bass) cantor at Adat Ari El. Bigeleisen was recently the featuredsoloist at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and at London’s BarbicanAuditorium. He has won national awards for his innovative musicprogramming.

“Celebrating a Century of Jewish Song” will take place onSunday, Feb. 8, at 7:30 p.m., in the Adat Ari El sanctuary. Ticketsare $15 for general, nonreserved seating, and $30 and up for reservedseats. Make checks payable to Adat Ari El/Bromberg Concert and mailto the synagogue address: 12020 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood, CA91607. For more information, call (818) 766-9426, ext. 652, or(818)786-3717. — Diane Arieff Zaga, ArtsEditor

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Gearing Up for 50

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Film, Hollywood Jew, Old Stories /

The peace process is stalled, pluralism issues remain unresolved and the Netanyahu government is in turmoil. But organizers of a major, star-studded 50th anniversary tribute to Israel later this year are focusing their attention on celebration, not contention. Indeed, a rare in-gathering of major Hollywood celebrities, Jewish communal officals and organizational leaders has come together to mark Israel’s first half century. &’009;

First among the planned events is “America Salutes Israel at 50,” scheduled to take place April 14 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The producers of the Academy and Emmy awards shows, Gil Cates and Don Mischer, respectively, are teaming up for the first time to produce what is promised to be a Hollywood-style, entertainment extravaganza that will be broadcast on CBS April 15 to millions in the United States and around the globe. Hosted by actor Kevin Costner, it will feature other well-known stars — for the moment unannounced. The Jewish Federation and Simon Wiesenthal Center have joined together in the effort to make the event a resounding success.

During a kickoff sales meeting last week at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, speakers did not completely ignore the troubled state of current Israeli politics. Extravagant plans for an official jubilee celebration in Israel have been stymied by lack of funds and internal wrangling.

But in Los Angeles, organizers are more sanguine about the festivities. “We all know what is going on in Israel,” said honorary co-chair Lew Wasserman, former chairman of MCA Universal and a major Jewish philanthropist. “I think it’s vital that people in Israel know that they still have the support of the rest of the world.”

“With all the things that separate the Jewish people, we can use a 50th anniversary to bring us together in celebrating the accomplishments of the Israeli state,” added Herb Gelfand, president of the Federation and the other honorary co-chair of the Los Angeles at 50 celebration.

“It’s important to remind ourselves what Israel has done for world Jewry,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Details of the evening at the Shrine are somewhat sketchy. Costner, who isn’t Jewish, is expected to have a crossover appeal to non-Jews. “M*A*S*H” creator Larry Gelbart is the show’s head writer. The lineup of stars isn’t set yet and won’t be for a while, said Mischer, whose credits include the opening ceremonies for the 1996 Olympic Games and gala events surrounding the hand-over of Hong Kong last year. Mischer said the show’s roster would include major names in film, television and music. “It should be an All-American show.”

Other plans for the two-hour event include: a satellite link-up with Israel, film clips of highlights from Israel’s first 50 years and possibly a pre-taped musical performance from Masada. “We’re going to party for Israel,” added Cates, who has produced seven Academy Awards shows and more than 25 films. “It’s going to be a very emotional event that should make us feel proud to participate and to be Jews.”

Two other Hollywood veterans, Merv Adelson and Marvin Josephson, are overseeing the CBS special and many other events in conjunction with Israel’s 50th. Both were appointed to serve as international co-chairs of the 50th celebration, at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, but have denied that politics is a factor in their involvement. “I didn’t give a single shekel or dollar to Bibi, the Likud or Labor,” Josephson, chairman of the powerhouse talent and literary agency, ICM, told The Jerusalem Report recently. “I am not Likud or Labor. I’m interested in Israel.”

“I truly believe this will be the most important event of the 50th outside of Israel,” said Adelson, speaking via speaker phone to the Four Seasons gathering. The show transcends politics and “who is on the left and who is on the right,” added the former chairman and CEO of Lorimar Pictures. “This is a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the greatest friend America has.”

The overall budget for the event is about $6 million. CBS is paying $3 million for the broadcast, with the other $3 million being raised by the jubilee committee, headed by Adelson and Josephson. Los Angeles’ share is about $1 million, which is expected to be raised by sales of the 6,000 Shrine seats and to the gala that will follow, as well as by sales of ads in the tribute journal. The Wiesenthal and Federation have agreed that any extra dollars raised will be used to send children to Israel.

The tribute book, expected to run over 50 pages, will include decade and “mega-event” pages outlining key moments in Israel’s history, as well as personal eyewitness accounts of people who played a role in that history. The pages will be sponsored at $5,000 per page, with $10,000 as the price for the two-page decade and mega-event spreads. Eyewitness tales of Israel’s first 50 years are being sought.

Tickets to the Shrine event will range from $18 (block sales only), $25 and $100 general seating (available through Ticketmaster) to $1,000 for VIP tickets which will entitle the ticket holders to sit in a special area, and admission to a gala reception after the show. The reception menu will be created by Jewish cookbook author Judy Zeidler in partnership with Terry Bell, former Federation president and general campaign chair. Since the event occurs in the middle of Passover, the meal will include a charoset tasting and a variety of other Pesach entrees and desserts.

Gearing Up for 50 Read More »

PhotographyImages from the Territory of Belief

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Old Stories, Photos, Travel /

Top, “Encampent in the Wilderness of Paran, Sinai,” circa 1875.Above, “Moses’ Well, Jebel Musa,” 1868-69. Below “Arab Man inProfile,” from the 1850s. Photos from “Revealing the Holy Land,”1997.

 

In the company of his friend, fellow world traveler andphotographer Maxime du Camp, French novelist Gustave Flaubert visitedJerusalem in 1850. The urbane and sophisticated Flaubert wasdecidedly unimpressed with this crumbling backwater of the OttomanEmpire: “Jerusalem stands as a fortress; here the old religionssilent rot away. One treads on dung; ruins surround you wherever youreyes wander — a very sad and sorry picture.”

That same year, a Rev. George Wilson Bridges also made his way tothe Holy City. An English cleric and an amateur photographer, Bridgesand his young son traveled through Palestine as part of a seven-yearjourney around the Mediterranean and the East. Bridges undertook thejourney as a form of solace: He had just buried his wife and daughterin Jamaica — victims of a tropical fever they contracted while thereverend was there doing missionary work. Steeped as he was in griefand religious conviction, Bridges found that Jerusalem’s atmosphereof melancholia and desolation suited him. “What sight,” he observedafter witnessing Jews praying at the Western Wall, “even in thiswondrous city, so touching, so impressive as this — Jews mourningthe ruins of Jerusalem….”

These two travelers — one a littérateur seeking new imagesand impressions for his work and the other an emotionally strickenChristian — see the same patch of stony land in dramaticallydifferent contexts. As is vividly illustrated in a stunning new book,”Revealing the Holy Land: The Photographic Exploration of Palestine,”men such as Flaubert and Bridges were part of a larger stream ofdisparate travelers who trekked to 19th-century Palestine.

From the moment an image could be fixed, photographers beganjourneying to Jerusalem to capture images from the ancient holy city.Armed with newly invented equipment and a host of differingmotivations, patrons and agendas, they all saw — through theircamera lenses — what they wanted to see. Collected here (and soon tobe on display at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art), these remarkablepictures tell almost as much about Western attitudes toward the “HolyLand” as they do about the hardscrabble country itself. NitzaRosovsky’s informative essay further illuminates the historicalcontext of these images.

Occupying the lion’s share of the book are a series of photographsby Sgt. James McDonald, a member of England’s Royal Engineers. Takenduring the engineer corps’ meticulous land surveys of Jerusalem andthe Sinai, McDonald’s pictures reveal an expertise with earlyprocesses of photography. They also capture 19th-century Palestine’ssun-drenched, desolate beauty and hint at England’s imperialisticdesigns on it.

Land surveyorsweren’t the only ones drawn to Palestine. Westerners in general,whether they were armchair travelers or early tourists, werefascinated with the mysterious Holy Land, which, until the mid-19thcentury, had only been represented by religious Renaissance art,illustration and sentimental contemporary painting. The demand forphotographic images of Palestine gave rise to several prominentcommercial photographers, such as Frenchman Felix Bonfils andEnglishman Frank Mason Good. Occupied with a different agenda thanMcDonald, they produced popular pictures for an eager, paying public.Those early photos stimulated travel and pilgrimages to the area. Asbusiness flourished, entire studios were devoted to producingphotographs of biblical sites (accompanied by verses of scripture)and portraits of romanticized Middle Eastern “types.” Those images –of picturesque tents under palm trees and exotically costumed locals– are also included here.

“Revealing the Holy Land” captures the point where the historiesof picture-taking, Palestine, and the West’s Middle East policyintersect and interact. As such, it’s not only a beautiful book ofphotography but also an important document. The particular set ofculture clashes and competing interests that had just begun to takeshape in mid-19th-century Palestine continue to reverberate in Israelto this day — unresolved and as seemingly fixed as an oldphotograph.

“Revealing the Holy Land” (University of California Press, $25paper/$60 cloth) is available at bookstores. The exhibit goes ondisplay at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art from Jan. 29 through March29.

PhotographyImages from the Territory of Belief Read More »