A Yemenite Portrait: Photography and Memory 1881- 1948

In 1882, at the end of the 19th century, the new immigrants from Yemen came to the Palestine and settled in Kfar Hashiloach near Jerusalem. Their number steadily increased, reaching 35,000 in 1948, when the State of Israel was founded. During those years members of the Yemenite community were an important subject for the period’s photographers who have left us with rare and fascinating documentation. The photographers, the majority of European origin, regarded the Yemenites as representatives of the mythical and romantic biblical Jews. This was complex and multifaceted, reflecting the photographers’ view of the exotic other from a European and Orientalist perspective. The exhibition will present documentation of the Yemenite figures in Eretz Israel through the photographs taken by the finest photographers of the 20th century, between 1900 and 1948, among them: Soskin, Lilien, Ben-Dov, Kahn, Narinsky, Kolodny, Larsky, Kluger, Zedek, Carmi, Goldman, Kapa, the photographers of the American Colony, etc, as well as rare items from the Alexander collection.