Over 100 years of historical images of Israel available online<

TEL AVIV (JTA) — For years, only people with special permission could visit the air-conditioned depots of the Jerusalem Cinematheque to view the moving images held in the Israeli film archive. But following a major digitization effort, anyone with an Internet connection can now view these images.

“We have come to the fun part where we can share this treasure with the public,” says Noa Regev, director of the Jerusalem Cinematheque.

Following a project, valued at $10 million and started in 2015 to preserve, restore and digitize its audiovisual collection, the archive can now be streamed via a website launched in Hebrew in late 2020. English were added in October.

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Divided into two sections, the website includes an on-demand paid category, “The Artistic View,” containing 300 Israeli feature films, and a free “Historical View” area with digitized versions of rare films, all films from news created in Israel from 1927 to 1972, amateur films and family collections.

Footage from the Lumière brothers, showing a train entering Jaffa station in 1896, is available on the Israel Film Archive website. (Screenshot by Israel Film Archive/via JTA)

“The Historical View” exposes, in mostly black and white films with scraped patina, the life of the region through elections and wars, tree plantings and advertisements for beauty salons of the 1920s. Also included are unabridged versions of historical footage that you may have seen as snippets in documentaries, such as the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel.

There's plenty to see on the platform, which is searchable by decade, keyword and location, and more selections are on the way. So far, only about 30% of the archive's celluloid and video materials have been digitized. Mr. Regev estimates that the entire archive will be available within five years.

“People are constantly discovering new documents,” she adds, while pointing out that the archives are constantly being enriched and that they may never be fully available online. “The most fascinating documents are those that have been brought from someone's boydem [“attic” in Yiddish], whether in Israel or abroad.

Here is a list of some of the documents you can see today, from the late 19th century to the 20th century.

The Cinematheque during the Jerusalem Film Festival, 2009. (Credit: Gilabrand/Own work/CC BY-SA 3.0/WikiCommons)

Film by the Lumière brothers of Jaffa, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, 1896

Filmed by a representative of the Lumière brothers, French film pioneers, just a year after the invention of their cinematograph, this nine-minute clip – the oldest video sequence in the region – opens with a train entering the station of Jaffa in 1896.

The fez-wearing crowd doesn't know where to look: the locomotive they've been waiting for from Jerusalem (which passes only once a day) or the strange contraption driven by a stranger. This reel, which passes through Jaffa, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, shows the sellers, mustaches and camels of old, 130 years ago.

Thomas Edison's Cameraman in the Holy Land, 1903

Not to be outdone by his French colleagues, American inventor Thomas Edison sent cameraman Alfred C. Abadie to the region a few years later, in 1903, with a Kinetograph.

Two Israeli children celebrate Purim at the Tel Aviv Zoo in 1959, in documentary footage available from the Israel Film Archive. (Screenshot by Herzliya Studios Archive/ via JTA)

Abadie films a main street in Jaffa and Jerusalem, the unnamed "busiest street". Five men with intertwined arms are at the center of Abadie's lens during a section introduced by an intertitle card that reads 'Jewish dance in Jerusalem', hopping to music we can't hear in the silent clip .

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Purim at the Tel Aviv Zoo, 1959

The archives preserve charming images of Purim and the legendary Tel Aviv Zoo (which once stood in the center of the city, near present-day Rabin Square), and they coincide in this 1959 short film where we witness to costumed celebrations amidst cages of leopards.

This was when Purim costumes were handmade originals, and here we see a child wearing a feathered chicken costume standing comically near pelicans of the same size, while brothers dressed as explorers drag a fake hot-air balloon. This iteration of the zoo is a step ahead of its basic 1930s version, set in the backyard of Rabbi Mordechai Shorenstein (immortalized in this 1935 clip).

Josephine Baker visits Israel in 1954 in footage available from the Israel Film Archive. (Screenshot by Israeli Film Archive and Jerusalem Cinematheque, State Archives of Israel/ via JTA)

Josephine Baker and other celebrities visiting Israel

American stars of stage and screen visited Israel in the 1950s and 1960s, and their ceremonial landings at Lod airport made news. Josephine Baker, the American-born cabaret singer and activist who calls France home, took an El Al flight in 1954 to perform several shows (and tried, unsuccessfully, to adopt an Israeli child).

When "White Christmas" actor Danny Kaye makes a surprise visit a few years later, in 1961, he spends most of his time at the Caesarea golf course. The following year, Frank Sinatra arrived by private jet to give seven performances, the proceeds of which were donated to a Jewish-Arab youth center in Nazareth. And when Kirk Douglas came in 1964, he met Israel's third prime minister, Levi Eshkol.

The most moving of these paparazzi clips is that of Sammy Davis Jr., who came for a one-day visit in 1969 and asked to be driven directly from the airport to the Western Wall, where he wedged a handwritten vow between old stones.

Sammy Davis Jr. shortly before his death in 1989. (Alan Light)

Archaeological discoveries

Ancient stones are a recurring theme in the archives, including a burial cave from the Hasmonean period accidentally discovered in 1956 while preparing the foundations of a building on Alfasi Street in Jerusalem.

In another clip, aerial footage records the excavations atop Masada, conducted in 1963 by archaeologist and politician Yigael Yadin. The rededication of Caesarea's ancient Roman amphitheater in 1961 - after a 1,700-year hiatus - was filmed to record the crowd of international musicians brought in to re-inaugurate the space, including cellist Pablo Casals, who performed on a humble scene amid the ruins.

The Carmel Market, 1969

On the other hand, some clips don't have the gravitas of ancient history, biblical empires, or historical battles — they're just plain funny. Such is the case with this reel showing shoppers shamelessly poking pickled fish and pulling apart the limbs of butchered chickens at Tel Aviv's open-air Carmel market. Only women shop in this clip, and they want to make sure they're choosing the best products.

Some of Gottex's early swimsuits (Courtesy Gottex)

Advertisement for an instant soup produced by Osem, 1960

When not heading to the market, Israeli shoppers rely on TV ads to find out what's good. According to Ms Regev, vintage advertisements kept in the archives are an under-explored gem, such as that of the Israeli manufacturer Osem which encourages mothers to feed their young children a broth made of bouillon cubes and boiling water. . (It must have made quite an impression – powdered soup is still a staple in Israeli homes today). The Israeli landscape appears in other advertisements, such as the beach at Caesarea in an advertisement for Israeli brand Gottex swimwear in 1964, and a road trip to Rosh Hanikra as the premise of an advertisement for fuel-efficient Heinkel scooters in fuel.