Jewish Workers in Tel Aviv

Image from the book: Jewish Palestine: A Celebration of the Yishuv

Ya’akov (Jacob) Benor-Kalter (1897–1969) was a prominent member of the pioneering generation of photographers in the Yishuv who predominantly came from the Austrian part of Galicia that became part of Poland after the First World War. In 1927, he designed a series of postage stamps for Palestine. His photography became more experimental in the 1930s, and he subsequently worked primarily as an architectural designer. Many of his photos were published on postcards produced by Samuel Adler, who apparently came to the Yishuv from Germany in 1933 and began to produce postcards, frequently with motifs by Benor-Kalter, the following year. In 1935, Adler also published a beautifully designed album with twenty of Benor-Kalter’s photos, Photographs of the New Working Palestine. The title gives a clear indication of the agenda Benor-Kalter and his publisher were pursuing. The photographs are mostly populated by wholesome muscle Jews engaged in urban construction or agricultural labour.

Photo: J. Benor-Kalter. S. Adler, Haifa, P. O. B. 960, Hadar Hacarmel, Palestine. Printed in Austria.