This is a page from an album of photographs and postcards depicting landscapes of Israel called The Leprosarium Album, which was collated sometime between 1932 and 1936. The pages shown here include photographs of the city of Tiberius, the Sea of Galilee (the Kinneret), and Mount Hermon during the 1930s. The top-left photograph features a line of five camels, standing on rocky terrain with the snowy mountains of Mount Hermon in the background. The photograph underneath it features a view of the south-west corner of the Sea of Galilee. The lake is on the right, and on its shore is an old building on a hill, surrounded by trees. The photograph on the right shows a man riding a donkey and leading two camels and the Sea of Galilee can be seen in the background.
The Leprosarium Album is part of the National Library’s collection. The name comes from one of the postcards found inside which depicts the leprosarium – an institution for treatment of leprosy – in Jerusalem. These postcards are the most important piece in the album. The album is bound by fabric and includes 25 pages of photographs and postcards that were collected in Israel and Italy.
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Leprosarium – A leprosarium, a leper colony, or lazar house were all names used to refer to an isolated house or building for the quarantine of people who were believed to be suffering from leprosy. Leper houses stem back to the Middle Ages, when people feared leprosy, believing that it to be incurable and extremely contagious. Hansen House was a leper house established in Jerusalem in 1887 and operating until 1950, when it was sold to the JNF. Today, Hansen House serves as an art exhibition space.
Tiberius – Tiberius is located on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in northeast Israel. It was established in 20 CE as a city state and was named after the second emperor of the Roman Empire, Tiberius. Tiberius has been a centre of Judaism since the mid-second century CE and is considered one of Israel’s four holy cities along with Jerusalem, Hebron, and Safed (Tsfat). It is known as the “City of Water,” as it borders the Sea of Galilee. Tiberius has also played a central role in Jewish history. The Mishnah was completed in Tiberias in 200 CE under the guidance of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, and Maimonides, Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai, and Rabbi Akiva were all buried there. During the Middle Ages, Tiberias endured many wars which threatened Judaism, but the Kabbalists revived Jewish life in the city in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the twentieth century, the first kibbutz, Degania Aleph, was established to the south of Tiberias. Tiberius is also famous for its hot springs, Hamei Tiveria, in the south of the city.
Hermon – Mount Hermon is a mountain range in the most northern point of Israel which includes three main peaks. The southern part of the mountain range is in Israel and the northern part is in Syria. Its summit straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon, and it is a military vantage point for Israel. The Jordan River is based at the foot of the mountain and derives most of its water from the mountain range. Mount Hermon was known in the Bible as Sirion or Snir and comprised the northern part of the biblical Land of Israel. Due to the snowfall during the winter months, it is popular as Israel’s only ski resort.
Golan Heights – The Golan Heights is a plateau in north-east Israel. It is a beautiful region with many rivers and waterfalls and Mt. Hermon in the northern part. Throughout history the Golan has been ruled by different countries. In 1918 it was part of the French Mandate, and when Syria gained independence in 1946, the Golan became part of the new state. During the Six-Day War, following the Syrian attack on Israel, Israel occupied the Golan Heights, and the region has been held by Israel ever since. In the ensuing years, Jewish villages, kibbutzim, and a town have been built in the Golan, mostly in the southern part of the region. A large Druze population lives in the north of the Golan, mostly around Mt. Hermon. In 1981, the Knesset passed the Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law and jurisdiction to the area; Syria has, however, continually demanded its return. Israeli left-wing parties have, in the past, called for a withdrawal from the Golan in exchange for peace with Syria, but the Syrian authorities rejected these offers. The proposal to withdraw from the Golan caused much protest, including the founding of the Third Way party whose agenda was to fight against this idea. The question of returning the Golan to Syria has not been discussed in recent years due to the Syrian civil war and the presence of Jihadist factions in the Syrian Golan Heights in the east of the region.
Galilee – The Galilee is a region in northern Israel. The borders of the Galilee region are: in the north – the Litani River; in the south – the Jezreel Valley and the Harod Valley; in the east – the Jordan River; and in the west – the Mediterranean Sea. The area is a mountainous system surrounded by plains and valleys. Temperatures are relatively low and rainfall is high, which makes it conducive to plants and animals. The area is on the migratory path for many birds and is also known for its diverse fauna and flora. The Galilee was home to the biblical tribes of Dan and Naphtali. Under Roman and later Byzantine rule, the Galilee was far away from the government centres. For this reason, it was the home of many important tanaim (Talmudic sages), many of whom are buried in the Galilee. This was also thought to be the home of Jesus and his followers. In the following centuries, the Galilee was under the rule of the Romans, the Arab caliphate, the Ottomans, and finally the British Mandate. The Jewish population of the area was centred in Safed (Tsfat), and at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century, many pioneers settled in the Galilee, founding many towns, kibbutzim, and moshavim. The Galilee is also home to a large Arab population, mostly Muslim but also Druze and Christians.
Israel in 1930s – The 1917 Balfour Declaration and the new British rule caused increasing violence between Arabs and Jews throughout the 1920s, which continued to spiral in the 1930s. The Arab population was fighting against the growing numbers of Jews in Palestine (pre-State Israel) and the Zionist dream of building a Jewish state. One particularly hostile event was the Arab general strike in 1936, which was an attempt to stop Jewish immigration that degenerated into violence and led to the Arab Revolt which lasted from 1936 to 1939. The British set up the Peel Commission in 1937 as a way of combatting the violence. The commission concluded that the only way to repress the violence was to establish two states: one for the Jews, the other for the Arabs. The Jews accepted the proposal albeit reluctantly, but the Arabs rejected it. Violence continued and escalated in 1938, during which time the Haganah strengthened and increased its activities, leading into the 1940s and the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948.
