Let it snow, let it snow, let it... rain

JPost special feature: A Library of Congress photograph collection that documents pre-state Israel.

"Snowballing on Jaffa Road" in Jerusalem 390 (photo credit: American Colony-Jerusalem-Photo Dept.)
"Snowballing on Jaffa Road" in Jerusalem 390
(photo credit: American Colony-Jerusalem-Photo Dept.)
The Library of Congress has recently digitalized a collection of over 10,000 photographs, taken by the "American Colony" in Jerusalem, a group of Christian utopians who lived in Jerusalem between 1881 and the 1940s.

The photographers returned to the US, and bequeathed their massive collection to the Library of Congress in 1978. The collection includes Winston Churchill's visit to Jerusalem, Jewish expulsions from the Old City during Arab riots, and the building of Tel Aviv.The Israeli love of snow is not a new phenomenon, as is displayed in gallery below.The ski slopes on Mt. Hermon in the Golan Heights are clogged today with Israeli skiers after several heavy snowfalls in recent weeks.Elsewhere in Israel rains have fallen steadily over the last month, and the Sea of Galilee is slowly rising.  But the "national reservoir of Israel" has a long way to go after years of drought in the Middle East.Snow in the hills of Jerusalem occurs once every year or two. Roads from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem are clogged when there are predictions of snow in the capital.  Residents of Israel's warmer coastline have even been seen in Jerusalem loading snow into the trunks of their cars after a snow storm to take back "down the hill."More photos can be viewed at http://www.israeldailypicture.com