An enigmatic photograph

A Jewish children’s parade long ago reveals more than what the eye first sees.

By LENNY BEN-DAVID
Lag Ba'omer 1918 521 (photo credit: Library of Congress)
Lag Ba'omer 1918 521
(photo credit: Library of Congress)
Going through hundreds of very old and recently digitalized pictures from a Library of Congress collection of photos from Palestine, I was captivated by this picture. All the library caption tells us is that the picture was taken between 1910 and 1930 and that it is a “Group of children and adults in procession in street, some holding a banner with a Star of David.”
Who are the hundreds of children? Why are the boys and girls separated? Where are they marching to? Where was this picture taken? And why is there a tent compound on the left horizon? Photo analysis and comparison to an aerial photograph from 1931 and contemporary pictures indicate that the children are walking south on Nablus Road in the direction of the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City. Behind them is the road that veers to the right toward Mount Scopus. The road leads to a neighborhood built around the grave of the High Priest Shimon Hatzadik, who lived in the days of the Second Temple. The boys and girls come from ultra-Orthodox schools, evidenced by the boys’ hats and frocks. The girls are wearing shapeless, modest smocks. But wait, the second batch of girls, those behind the Star of David banner (might they be from a “Zionist” school?) are wearing more stylish dresses and hats.
The tents belong to a British army camp following the British victory over the Turks in 1917 and deployment along the northern ridges stretching from Nebi Samuel to the Mount of Olives. The compound appears similar to other British army compounds in Library of Congress photographs. The day started off cool, and the girls have shed their sweaters. It’s a warm spring day, and based on the shadows, it’s probably around 2 p.m.
In fact, the day was Tuesday, April 30, 1918. The procession is almost certainly an organized outing of several Jerusalem schools taking place on Lag Ba’omer, four weeks after Passover. Traditionally Jews flock to the Galilee mountaintop of Meron on that day, to the grave of Shimon Bar Yohai, one of the most famous scholars in the Talmud. But some 100 years ago, travel to Meron would have taken days. Instead, the children hiked to Shimon Hatzadik’s grave, a known custom in Jerusalem at that time.
Veteran Jerusalemite Shmulik Huminer wrote in his memoirs, “Anyone who could travel to Meron on Lag Ba’omer would go, and there [would] take place miracles and wonders. But...the residents of Jerusalem who couldn’t afford to travel to Meron [had] as compensation the cave of Shimon Hatzadik located at the edge of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood north of the Old City.”
Today, Lag Ba’omer is a day when Jewish children still go out to parks and forests to celebrate. In Jerusalem, many traditional Jews still visit Shimon Hatzadik’s grave.
The houses around the grave where Jews lived 100 years ago were abandoned under threat of Arab pogroms in the 1920s and 1930s. The Hadassah convoy massacre in 1948, in which almost 80 Jews were killed, took place on the road beneath the building with the prominent arches. In recent years, however, Jewish families have returned to the Shimon Hatzadik neighborhood.
The writer served as a senior Israeli diplomat in Washington and today is a consultant on public affairs. He blogs at www.lennybendavid.com and comments on the Library of Congress photos at www.israeldailypicture.com.