Treasure Trove finds some hope in today’s world through the evolution of a verse
Hatikvah (The Hope) was written in 1878 as a nine-verse poem by Naphtali Herz Imber. The poem became the lyrics of the Zionist anthem and later the anthem of the State of Israel. Born in what is now Ukraine, Imber moved to Palestine in 1882, departing in 1889 for Europe and winding up in the United States […]
Treasure Trove enjoys some light summer reading with the comic book exploits of the Jewish Hero Corps
It was 1965 and eight-year-old Alan Oirich was standing in the playground of his Long Island synagogue when his friend David told him he wasn’t planning to celebrate Hanukkah that year because Christmas was more fun. Trying to change David’s mind, Alan, a comic book fan and aspiring illustrator, went home and drew a number of Jewish […]
Treasure Trove: How a Polish-Jewish artist told Canadians about the horrors of Nazi Germany and produced beautiful illustrations
Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) was a Polish-Jewish artist whose work reflected the historic times he lived: the two world wars, the rise of totalitarianism in Europe and the birth of the State of Israel. In 1940, with the support of the British government and the Polish government-in-exile, he visited Canada to popularize the struggle against Nazism. […]
Treasure Trove revisits an early Zionist meeting that was truly a slap in the face for one participant
The newly opened Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts was featured on this official postcard of the Ninth Zionist Congress that was held in Hamburg, Germany in 1909. The school was founded by Boris Schatz (1867-1932), a Lithuanian-born professor of sculpture, and named after Bezalel Ben-Uri who was the chief artisan of the Tabernacle and was […]
Treasure Trove: A 3,000-year-old message about Israel gets one important fact wrong
The Moabite Stone depicted on this trading card is from the series of Fifty Jewish Symbols and Ceremonies, issued by the West London Synagogue in 1961. Also known as the Meshe Stele, the stone was discovered in 1868 in Dhibon, Jordan and is now at the Louvre in Paris. It is about one meter high and […]
Treasure Trove: Shavuot is a time for reflecting on the tenacity of Israel’s pioneers and the lessons for today
The festival of Shavuot, which begins at sunset on June 11, is seven weeks after the second Passover Seder (shavuot means weeks). The holiday celebrates both the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai and the grain harvest. This image of the harvest is found in the Rebirth of Israel Passover Haggadah published in 1997 by Jerusalem […]
Treasure Trove strolls down memory lane and remembers the UJA Walkathon
Those of us of a certain age will remember Toronto’s UJA Walkathon whose length in kilometres matched the age of the State of Israel. This 1978 pin promotes that the Walk is 30 kilometres to celebrate Israel’s 30th Independence Day. The walk was first held in 1970 as the UJA Walkathon and has had several […]
Treasure Trove recalls a time when the Kingdom of Jordan’s pavilion at the World’s Fair generated controversy, protests and a court battle
In this pamphlet, the country of Jordan is billed as the “The Holy Land”. This material introduced visitors to the Kingdom of Jordan pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City. Ironically, the motto of the fair was “Peace Through Understanding”. It describes a pavilion that includes a “photographic survey of the Holy […]
Treasure Trove explores the connection between errant arrows on Lag ba-Omer and comments that hit the mark
Are these kids the worst archers you have ever seen? Based on where their hands are, it is not obvious how the arrows will fly (which is probably a good thing, since most of them are facing each other). This 1910 postcard printed by the Hebrew Publishing Company of New York depicts the holiday of […]
Treasure Trove: How the State of Israel prepared for the announcement of its independence
The ceremony at which the State of Israel was proclaimed started at 4 p.m. on Friday, May 14, 1948—the British Mandate was ending at midnight between Friday and Saturday, a final shot to the Jewish community, necessitating that the new state be declared before sundown. The ceremony took 32 minutes. It was only on the […]
