Photography’s Jewish affinities: Unintended benefits and squandered opportunities for Zionism & Israel

Abstract

This article explores previously undervalued aspects of Zionist and Israeli visual culture in light of the (newly recognized) significance of Jews in the history of photography. Zionism and the emergence of the State of Israel accrued a great deal of good will and benevolent publicity due to the historical confluence between Jews and the rise of photojournalism especially from the 1920s to the 1950s. The first part of the article focuses on Robert Capa, Chim (David Seymour), and Alfred Eisenstaedt, who were far more important, Berkowitz argues, than expressly Zionist photographers. The piece furthermore details little-known attempts to establish the history of photography as a discipline in Israel under the tutelage of (photographer) Arnold Newman and (photographer and photo-historian) Helmut Gernsheim. Despite the immense overrepresentation of Jews among eminent photographers, and the pioneering roles of Jews in photography, the Hebrew University and Israel Museum could have – but did not – become leading centers for the history of photography.

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