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ABSTRACT
Jewish colonies were established in rural areas of Ottoman Palestine in the late nineteenth century; a period full of radical changes, including the industrial revolution, political and cultural shifts in the Ottoman Empire, and social transformations wrought by World War I. These global and local events had a significant impact on everyday life in the colonies, challenging the resilience of the built-up and open public spaces. According to urban space research, the ability of public spaces to withstand change depends on how these spaces are created and defined and the extent to which they evoke a communal sense of ownership and belonging. In light of the above, this paper combines archival and theoretical research in order to examine and characterize the resilience of public spaces in the Jewish colonies in Ottoman Palestine over four decades – from 1878, the foundation of the first colony, to 1918, the end of World War I. Planned and designed by mostly European-educated designers and entrepreneurs, the colonies’ public spaces demonstrated modernity, accommodated change, and created vibrant centres geared to serve a diverse ethnic local population.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the head of Zichron Ya’akov Archives, Liron Gurfinkel and her assistant Hilla Laner-Bloom, for their assistance in uncovering photos and documents used in this paper. We are also grateful to the director of Zichron Ya’akov Museum, Avital Efrat, for her contribution. Thanks go to Efrat Haberman, the head of Rishon Le-Zion Museum’s Collection, and the manager of Rosh Pina’s Archive, Hana Shopen. We are also grateful to Catherine Taylor, Head Archivist of the Waddesdon Archive at Windmill Hill, for her invaluable help in retrieving new documents. Thanks to all the senior residents who shared their precious memories with us, especially Hilik Leitner. A special thank-you to Yuval Ben-Bassat for his helpful suggestions. The generous financial help of the Shlomo Glass & Fanny Balaban-Glass Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Talia Abramovich is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion and an industrial designer. Her PhD’s research ‘Public spaces in first rural Israeli settlements’ at the Technion is in its final stages. Talia holds an MA in industrial Design from the Technion and a Bachelor’s degree in Design Education from Tel Aviv University.
Marina Epstein-Pliouchtch, Ph. D., is an architect and a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa, as well as in the programme of Conservation studies at the Western Galilee Academic College in Acre. She was director of the Architectural Heritage Research Centre at the Technion, Haifa, from 2003 until 2008. She is the author of Richard Kauffmann and the Zionist Project (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuhad, 2016, with Levin, M.).
Iris Aravot, B.Arch., M.Sc., Ph.D. is an architect and professor of urban design and theory, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion, I.I.T. Research interest: Phenomenological research of architecture and urbanism; Urban design theories; History of Jewish-Romanian architects.
Notes
1 The architectural developments in late Ottoman Palestine have been evaluated in the contexts of other local enterprises. For the establishment of modern state institutions in the district of Jerusalem: Büssow, Hamidian Palestine; Lemire, Jerusalem 1900. For the neighbourhoods outside the walls of Jerusalem: Ben-Arieh, A City Reflected; Kark, Jerusalem Neighborhoods. For rural settlements: Ben-Arieh, A Land Reflected; Grossman, Expansion and Desertion. For German, French and British colonies: Carmel, The German Settlements; Ben-Arzi, From Germany to the Holy Land; Heinze-Greenberg, Europa in Palästina.
2 Ben-Arieh, A Land Reflected, 283.
3 Abramovich and Nizan-Shiftan, “From Public Space to Urban Square,” 136.
4 Kark, “Missions and Architecture.” For example: Russian Consulate building, Jerusalem, from 1860; Holy Trinity church, Jerusalem, 1860–1872, and so forth.
5 Ben-Arzi, Jewish “Moshava”; Aaronsohn, Baron Rothschild; Seltenreich, People from Here.
6 Büssow, Hamidian Palestine.
7 Ibid., 11. For the multiple nature of modernity: Bayly, The Birth of the Modern, 9–12; Gelvin, The Modern Middle, 9–110.
8 Avci and Lemire, “De la modernité administrative”; Campos, “Making Citizens”; Büssow, Hamedian Palestine.
9 Büssow, “Ottoman Reform,” 130–1.
10 Lefebvre, The Production of Space.
11 Hilik Leitner (a senior resident of Zichron Ya’acov), January 2015; Ben-Ezer Rab and Zalman Haimov (senior residents of Petach-Tikva), April 2015; Aviv Keller (a senior resident of Rosh Pina), May 2016; Nitza Walsenson (a senior resident of Rishon Le-Zion), February 2018; Yaacov and Rachel Tepper (senior residents of Hadera), July 2017.
12 Davison, Reform in the Ottoman Empire; Schölch, Palestine in Transformation.
13 Lafi, “The Ottoman Municipal,” in opposition to previous regime referred by historians as the ‘Ottoman old regime.’
14 Kark, “Consequences of the Ottoman,” 101–2.
15 Ben-Arieh and Bartal, The History of Erez Israel, 61.
16 Ibid.
17 Avci and Lemire, « De la modernité administrative. »
18 Arnaud, “Modernization of the Cities.”
19 Kark, “Consequences of the Ottoman,” 103.
20 Ben-Arieh and Bartal, The History of Erez Israel, 257–8.
21 Alon-Mozes, “Rural Ethos,” 284.
22 Sultan Abdulhamid II was generally opposed to liberal and constitutional ideas.
23 The first constitutional monarchy was a short period between 1876 and 8.
24 Kark and Solomonovich, “The Young Turk,” 184.
25 Kushnir, “The Last Generation.”
26 Campos, “Making Citizens.” A call to become Ottoman citizens was published by Rishon LeZion’s colonialists in the local newspaper Ha-Or, from 10 October 1912.
27 Ben-Bassat and Ginio, Late Ottoman, 4.
28 Yesud HaMa’ala archive, Immanuel Revik’s file: recruitments documentation, including evidences on the Turkish army condition, 1991.
29 Kedar, Looking Twice. Army locations are presented in German aerial photos, taken during World War I.
30 Druyanov, Tel Aviv Book, 239.
31 For example, the children’s sector of Zichron Ya’akov’s graveyard contains graves of children from both the colony and its environs, since its hospital also served Hadera and other small colonies nearby.
32 Yaffe, Illegal Immigrant, 33. Hillel Yaffe’s reports on measures to prevent cholera, published in Jerusalem and printed in three languages: French, Arabic and Hebrew.
33 A lecture “The battle against locust” was read by Aaronson in Tel-Aviv, 1915, Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem (CZA), BK/20017.
34 Samsonov, The Book of Zichron Ya’akov, 371.
35 Vale and Campanella, The Resilient City; Coyle, Sustainable and Resilient; Haas, Sustainable Urbanism.
36 Vale, “The Politics of Resilient,” 193.
37 Crowhurst-Lennard and Lennard, Livable Cities, 25; Low, On the Plaza, 238.
38 Carmona et al., Public Places.
39 Ibid., 203.
40 Mumford, The City in History.
41 Lynch, The Image of the City.
42 Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction, 38–40.
43 Anderson, On Streets, 7.
44 Ibid.
45 Boomkens, “The Temporalities of Public,” 19.
46 Ibid.
47 Han Meyers’ lecture at the 17th IPHS conference in Delft, 2016.
48 The expression “longue durée” was originally used by the French Annals’ School of Historical Writing to designate their approach to the study of history, which gives priority to long-term historical structures over events.
49 Ben-Arzi, Jewish “Moshava”, 46–7.
50 Efforts were made mainly for creating profitable agriculture and industries, as is documented in many letters, book accounts, and reports on the colonies in the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem.
51 These colonies were later known as ‘the Baron’s Moshavot.’
52 Njoh, “The Experience and Legacy.”
53 Büssow, “Ottoman Reform,” 131–2. Construction of new public spaces was a strategy, used by various actors and municipalities to gain legitimacy.
54 For example, Petah Tikva’s various statute books described in Yaari-Poleskin, Petah Tikva, 49.
55 This private ownership came with the responsibility to preserve public spaces and prevent the disappearance of open spaces due to processes of urbanization: Goldshleger, Amit-Cohen, and Shoshany, “A Step Ahead,” 57–69.
56 Hadera archive, Hadera Estate Book, no. 1, 141.
57 For example, Rishon LeZion, Zichron Ya’acov and Rehovot.
58 For example, HaNadiv street in Zichron Ya’acov.
59 CZA, J15M/939/1.
60 The plans were not always suitable for the land that was acquired as in Rosh-Pina. Special adjustments were made in the colony’s plan.
61 Aravot, “The Re-legitimization of Beauty,” 89.
62 Colonies that failed to integrate public gardens in their initial plans were exploring ways to amend the situation. A letter from Efron, Hadera to Vilna, The National Library of Israel, v. 379/1.
63 Aaronsohn, Baron Rothschild.
64 Later followed by other experimental projects such as the Kibbutz, Epstein-Pliouchtch and Levin, Richard Kauffmann.
65 CZA, J15/4354-1m.
66 Samsonov, The Book of Zichron Ya’akov; Scheide, Mémoires sur les colonies.
67 This architect was brought specially from France to construct elaborate buildings.
68 For more information about professionals hired by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Aaronsohn, Baron Rothschild.
69 Ben-Bassat, Petitioning the Sultan; Ben-Bassat, “Beyond National,” 97.
70 Such as in Rishon Le-Zion, Petah Tikva, Nes-Ziona and other colonies’ synagogues.
71 Provence, “Ottoman Modernity,” 207–8.
72 The new administration was appointed by Baron Edmond de Rothschild.
73 Amit-Cohen, “Haim Margaliot Kalvarisky.”
74 Idelovich, Rishon Le-Zion, 437.
75 Fuchs, “The Palestinian Arab,” 53–86.
76 Efforts are currently underway on Tantura beach to excavate a sunken boat that contains imported materials, presumably designated for Zichron Ya’acov.
77 As documented in other luxurious buildings built in the area.
78 Chattopadhyay and White, City Halls, 8.
79 Hissin, A Journey to the Promised Land, 324. Articles published by the author in the Russian journal Voshod from 1890 to 1893.
80 Modernity was an ethical stance with political, national, social, and religious implications: Fuchs and Epstein-Pliouchtch, “Tel Aviv and Jerusalem,” 28.
81 Gullet, The Australian Imperial, 470.
82 Waddesdon Archive, PIC12/5/12.
83 Samsonov, The Book of Zichron Ya’akov.
84 See a sketch of the Hadera colony and public garden in a letter from Efron, Hadera to Vilna, The National Library of Israel, v. 379/1.
85 Rishon Le-Zion historical archives and maps collection.
86 In a map drawn by Adolf Starkmeth, 1905, Rosh Pina Archive, maps collection.
87 Helphand, Dreaming Gardens, 3.
88 Waddesdon Archive, 12-05-13 tif.
89 For example, architect Daniel Lipshitz’s letter to Aryeh Leib Frumkin from 23 September 1883, elaborating on the water system needed in Petah Tikva, built under ‘European standards.’ Oded Yarkoni municipal archive of Petah Tikva, Daniel Lipshitz’s diary, 40.
90 Hilik Leitner (a senior resident of Zichron Ya’acov), in discussion with the author, January 2015.
91 Paccoud, “Planning Law.”
92 Yaari-Poleskin, Petah Tikva, 65 (Hebrew letter pages).
93 Zichron Ya’acov archive, AMS 1027, Protocol no. 30 from 18 May 1919.
94 Raffalovich, The Appearance of Eretz Israel, 48; Hissin, A Journey to the Promised, 317.
95 Scheide, Mémoires sur les colonies, 164 (Hebrew translation).
96 Schlesinger, Hebrew Kollel, 26.
97 Zalman Haimov (a senior resident of Petah Tikva), in discussion with the author, April 2015.
98 Goodwin, A History of Ottoman, 409.
99 Sağlar Onay and Hilal Uğurlu, “A Public Meeting.”
100 Davison, Reform in the Ottoman, 8.
101 Chattopadhyay and White, City Halls, XXI.
102 Abramovich and Carmon, “Religion, Design,” 4–7.
103 Seltenreich, People from Here, 259–62.
104 Nitza Walsenson (a senior resident of Rishon Le-Zion), February 2018; Hilik Leitner (a senior resident of Zichron Ya’acov), January 2015.
105 Yaakov Epstein memoirs, Zichron Ya’acov archive, A.M.S 666, file 123–5.
106 Schama, Two Rothschilds, 214–5.
107 Pasha, Memoires of a Turkish. An impression taken from his memoirs.
108 Yaakov Epstein memoirs, Zichron Ya’acov archive, A.M.S 666, file 123–5.
109 Eliav, Siege and Distress, 251.
110 Such as in Zichron Ya’acov, Yaffe, Illegal Immigrant, 613–5.
111 For example, a British camp located near the Metulla colony (Metdule), CZA, J15M/189. See .
112 The plan signed: Haifa, without planner’s name, CZA, J15M/580.
113 Carmona et al., Public Places, 198.