Picturing Israel: History Heritage and Homeland

Lech L’cha - Starting the Journey Lesson Plan by Zion Ozeri and Josh Feinberg

Lesson Plan by Zion Ozeri, Sara Wolkenfeld, and Josh Feinberg Let My People Go, New York City, USA, 1987                 ©Zion Ozeri Look...

Lesson plan by Zion Ozeri and Josh Feinberg Summer Camp, Washington State, USA, 2002             ©Zion Ozeri Look closely at this...

Lesson plan by Zion Ozeri and Josh Feinberg

Lesson plan by Zion Ozeri and Josh Feinberg 9th of Av at the Wall, Jerusalem, Israel, 1997.                                             ...

What does the holiday of Hanukkah mean to you?

Along with plaques and trumpets, these men are carrying a seven-branched Menorah, which had an important place in the ancient Temple of Jerusalem.  This image was carved on a grand archway, known as the Arch of Titus, in Rome in 81 CE, about 11 years after the Romans conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple.

This photograph was taken in Yemen in 1993.  The photographer explains that the man on the right is Muslim and the man on the left is Jewish.  Only the man on the right wears a curved dagger called a Shabriah.  It’s a status symbol that only Muslim men are allowed to carry in this society. 

This manuscript piece is one of about 400,000 written fragments that were found in the Cairo Geniza.  A Geniza is a storeroom for sacred Hebrew books that are no longer usable.  Rather than toss or destroy old books and manuscripts containing God’s name, Jews traditionally put them in a Geniza or bury them in the ground out of respect. 

The photographer Zion Ozeri took this photograph of a ramp leading down to a parking garage in a busy neighborhood of Tel-Aviv called Basel Square.  The garage owner had printed a quote on the side of the ramp by early Zionist leader Theodor Herzl that reads, “In Basel, I Established the Jewish State.”  Basel, Switzerland, was the site of an important meeting of Zionist leaders in 1897 known as the First Zionist Congress.

#44 Balfour Street, Tel-Aviv, Israel, 2024 ©Zion Ozeri

The primary figures in this photograph are statues of David Ben-Gurion and his wife Paula.  Ben-Gurion was a leader of the Zionist movement and the first Prime Minister of Israel.  These statues were erected in Tel-Aviv across the street from the home where David and Paula Ben-Gurion lived.  The photographer, Zion Ozeri, happened to catch these girls in the midst of playing and having fun with the sculptures.

Operation Solomon Lesson Plan by Zion Ozeri Edited by Joshua Feinberg

Farmer, Eastern Galilee, Israel, 1987 © Zion Ozeri