1930s Israel

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

"An eye for an eye" in Jewish law explicitly means monetary compensation in civil lawsuits. (The whole point of Judaism is not to take bible phrases out of context, but to check how they have been understood since, well, since the bible's been around. It's documented well enough.) You punch me in the face, my eye is lost, you have to make up for my loss of ability to work. No way I'm allowed to hurt your eye - if I do so, I'm liable just like everybody else.

Please don't buy those centuries of misinformation and often enough disinformation about Jews.

Also, the whole situation in (geographically) Palestine is much more complicated, even though I understand it's easy to think we're civilised in Europe or (even, hehe) the US, while down there, two exchangeable groups of fanatically religious savages are fighting. Israel is still mostly influenced by European secular culture, and even though these days, Islamists are gaining, until a decade or two ago, Palestinians were the most secular of all Arabs. The most brutal among them were Habash's (secularly?) Christians.

 

[Haversack]

Regarding a strictly Jewish rendering of "An eye for and eye", understood. In Judaic Law there is no maiming penalty for an offender. However, the phrase, "An eye for an eye" is also a commonly understood phrase describing a type of law found in many of the early Middle Eastern law codes. This type of law, mandates set reciprocal penalties for offences. Many of these appear to be incredibly severe. (Back when I was involved in architecture I kept a famed photograph on the office wall of a clay tablet with a section from Hamurabi's Code inscribed upon it in cunieform. It dealt with the penalties for an a architect or builder that had one of their buildings collapse and kill someone. If the building's owner's son was killed, then the architect's or buildier's son was to be killed.) As I said, severe.

Just as the phrase "an eye for eye" is commonly misunderstood as a reflection of Jewish law, so too are these severe, reciprocal-justice laws commonly misunderstood. Even Gandhi is quoted as saying "An eye for an eye, and soon the whole world is blind." Seen in the context of early civilizations seeking to establish and maintain order, these type of laws are clearly designed to prevent blood feuds and cycles of escalating retribution. Since much of the violence we hear about from the Middle East* appears to be part of a cycle of tribal vengence and retribution, I thought it appropriate to point out that in spite of some of the region's earliest written laws seeking to constrain such socialy destructive practices, a need for them continues.

Haversack.
*I also fully recognize that the Middle East and the Levant hold no special portfolio for tribal escalatio. The Partition of India and the break-up of Yugoslavia provide horrible evidence of this. It seems that when government breaks down and order is suspended, social differences that appeared to have been minor beforehand can rapidly turn into violence and vengence.

 

[Corto]

Please advise also if you are most interested in the geography, religious or history aspect,

I'm interested in the geography and history stuff.

I really appreciate the time you're willing to take for our edification.

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

a cycle of tribal vengence and retribution

No. Such. Thing. Same trap again. It's just an easy journalistic clich?© that goes round and round again.

No reciprocity. No mutual "eye for an eye". No "cycle of violence". Hardly a religious conflict. No All the same anyway, and we're enlightened.

 

[dr greg]

Territorialism?

I would have to argue that it is a religious conflict, the reason Ashkenazi Jews began to settle in Palestine in the late 19th C was to escape pogroms in Russia and Poland, but the basis for them going there specifically, and not to later options that appeared like Stalin's Jewish Oblast in Siberia, or the Northwest of Australia (which was also an option before WW2) was the religious belief that they had a RIGHT to do so based on their particular tribal myths. The Sephardic Jews who were peacefully scattered throughout the Middle East were dispossessed by these events and naturally had to go somewhere they felt safe from retribution.
It has since devolved into a territorial conflict that has polarised both parties into defensive reinforcement of their particular belief systems.
Ergo, a clash of superstitions, just like so many others on the globe.

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

No, this isn't correct. The early Zionists were decidedly non-traditional. Herzl even considered it an idea that the Jews should all convert to Christianity pro forma - not religious Christianity, but in order to be the same as the other peoples.

They were looking for a place, and argued with history, including the millenia-long yearning for this place in particular, in itself not simply a religious phenomenon. As you say, other places (most prominently in Uganda!) were very seriously discussed.

But anyway: Today, even this just doesn't play a role there very often. If you're born there in the third generation and as secular as some 80-85% of the Israeli population, you don't think in religious terms, you just don't want people to blow up your school bus and see your friends' severed heads and limbs in the street. So, you might engage in multi-cultural acts of friendship, or you might vote for zero-tolerance politicians, or you might develop a wrongly generalising hate, or you might emigrate as soon as you're out of school, but you typically don't argue with a religious argument you couldn't care less about.

 

[Vintage Betty]

Early 1900's Stereoviews

If you haven't seen these before, these stereoviews are part of a set sold to tourists as well as various consumers through mail order catalogs and revival meetings. Stereoviews are slides which are inserted into a viewer with a wire trap at the end of a short distance. The normal viewer looks through both sets of glass, which magnifies the image. Since the image overlaps for the regular viewer, the image "appears" three dimensional. These are very fun if you find a device, and still work today. These were sold in sets, which gave the average person a view of Palestine. And since they were religious based, most families approved these for Sunday viewing, when toys of these sorts were sometimes off limits. The quality of these is actually better than shown, as the scanner washed the images out.

 

[Vintage Betty]

Early 1900's stereoviews, part 2

Next up: Antique & vintage postcards of the same region

 

[Vintage Betty]

I'm interested in the geography and history stuff.

I really appreciate the time you're willing to take for our edification.

Oops - just saw this. Ok, the geography stuff is no problem at all. What kind of history stuff do you like? If I have it, I will post it (eventually).

Vintage Betty

 

[Story]

VB,
Neat - it'd be interesting to arrange to have "Then and Now" photos taken from the same perspectives, just to see how things have changed.

 

[LordJohnRoxton]

Thank you so much for sharing! Those were a really great record of a time now past, and a collection such as this is a time capsule of inestimable value!

 

[cookie]

Thanks for the Memories

Next up: Antique & vintage postcards of the same region

I remember walking around the whole of Holy City and Garden of Gethsemane with my late Mother in 1981. Incredible as she was like 60 years old even then.

 

[glamour-girl]

please don't judge people livinig in israel (jewish or arabs). you have no idea how good you'v all got it living in the states, or europe. i lost some of my best friends and a few family members because of this war-state we'r living in. life here is difficult for all of us and most israelies and arabs don't even want this war to begin with, the ones you see on the news are religious extremists. i'v lived in israel most of my life, i have a son i can't even take on a bus trip or to the shopping center, because it's simply to big of a risk, i have arab friends who say the same thing. i apologise for bringing this up, i know this isn't the place to discuss politics, but i think this had to be said.