Yaacov Ben-Dov (; 21 June 1882 – 7 March 1968) was an Israeli

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

and a pioneer of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

cinematography Cinematography () is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens (optics), lens to focus reflected light from objects into a real image that is transferred to some image sen ...

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

.''Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman world: toward a new Jewish archaeology'', Steven Fine, Cambridge University Press, 2005, Chapter 1, Building an Ancient Synagogue on the Delaware, p. 26.

Biography

Ya'acov Ben-Dov was born in a

shtetl or ( ; , ; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ''shtetelekh'') is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish populations which Eastern European Jewry, existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The t ...

near Kiev in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, son of Dov and Raizel Lasutra. He studied religious studies in a heder and secular subjects with private tutors. In his mid teens, he joined a movement devoted to reviving the

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language unti ...

. He attended the Academy of the Arts in

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

and became a professional photographer. A skeptical Menachem Ussishkin is said to have asked Ben Dov what need he thinks Jerusalem has for a photographer, to which Ben Dov answered "I need Jerusalem more than Jerusalem needs a photographer." Ben Dov arrived in Eretz Yisrael in 1907 as part of the

Second Aliyah The Second Aliyah () was an aliyah (Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel) that took place between 1904 and 1914, during which approximately 35,000 Jews, mostly from Russia, with some from Yemen, immigrated into Ottoman Palestine. The Sec ...

and attended the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design where he continued his studies and later taught photography. In 1909, he married Roza Rabinowitz, a pharmacist, who immigrated from Zhytomir, Ukraine. In 1922, he was one of the founders of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiot. Ben-Dov first encountered film in 1911 when British Zionist Murray Rosenberg filmed his visit and visited Bezalel Academy. He was enchanted but it took him several years to obtain a camera and raw film stock. At the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he joined the Ottoman Imperial Army and obtained a commission as a medical photographer in the Austrian army in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. In 1917, he finally acquired the equipment he needed probably through his Austrian military connections.''Israel Before Israel: Silent Cinema In The Holy Land'', Hillel Tryster, Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive, 1995. p. 29.

Filmography

Ben-Dov established the Menorah Film Company and became the sole cameraman filming key historical events. His first film, ''Judea Liberated'' documents General

Edmund Allenby Field marshal (United Kingdom), Field Marshal Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, (23 April 1861 – 14 May 1936) was a senior British Army Officer (armed forces), officer and imperial governor. He fought in the Second Boer ...

's historic entry into Jerusalem on 11 December 1917. Just a month earlier, the Balfour Declaration, expressing British support for a Jewish state in Palestine, was issued. And thus, Allenby's entry was enthusiastically received. In addition, Ben-Dov photographed Hanukkah festivities in Jerusalem schools, craftsmen working in workshops, public gatherings, etc. under the title ''Mirror of the Return to Zion''. After the production of this film, he received some financial support from the official Zionist bodies who now recognized the value of his work.''Israel Before Israel: Silent Cinema In The Holy Land'', Hillel Tryster, Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive, 1995. p. 30. Ben-Dov immortalized images of the Jewish Legion in Eretz Israel in his second film ''Land of Israel Liberated'' (1919), which includes a portrait of Legion founder

Ze'ev Jabotinsky Ze'ev Jabotinsky (born Vladimir Yevgenyevich Zhabotinsky; 17 October 1880 – 3 August 1940) was a Russian-born author, poet, orator, soldier, and founder of the Revisionist Zionist movement and the Jewish Self-Defense Organization in O ...

in uniform. In February 1915, a small committee in Alexandria approved Ze'ev Jabotinsky and Joseph Trumpeldor’s plan to form a Jewish military unit that would participate in the British effort to conquer the Land of Israel from the Ottoman Empire. Instead a Zion Mule Corps unit of 560 soldiers was formed fighting in the Gallipoli Campaign in Turkey. After the dissolution of the Mule Corps, a number of veterans, Jewish soldiers from abroad and fresh recruits from Eretz Israel eventually formed an official Jewish regiment called the Jewish Legion in August 1917 seeing action north of Jerusalem, in the Jordan River and in the Battle of Megiddo (1918). In addition to the fragments of the Jewish Legion, the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive holds one reel showing Jewish communities in north of the country including Merhavia, Sejera, Degania, Rosh Pinna,

Safed Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...

, Migdal and Metula. Ben-Dov shot some of the earliest footage of an archaeological expedition, the excavation of the Hammat Tiberias Synagogue, in 1920. The footage was used in his film ''Shivat Zion'' (Return to Zion). The film was screened at the 12th Zionist Congress in Carlsblad. In 1923, he produced ''Palestine Awakening'', the first film to be shot exclusively for the Jewish National Fund. It is also the first Hebrew film using actors and containing dialogue. Yaacov Ben-Dov photographed key events in the life of the yishuv, such as the wedding of Rachel Ussishkin to Shimon Fritz Bodenheimer, the arrival of the first British Commissioner to Palestine Herbert Samuel, the funeral of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and the opening of the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

. Baruch Agadati purchased Ben Dov's film archives in 1934, when Ben Dov retired from filmmaking owing to his inability to adapt to sound. Agadati and his brother Yitzhak used it to start the AGA Newsreel.

Films

Awards and recognition

* Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem

References

External links

* Films about and by Yaacov Ben Dov in the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive: **
Yaacov Ben Dov: Father of the Hebrew Film
' **
Land of Israel Liberated
' **
Banim Bonim
' **
Springtime in Palestine
' * Galleria,

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...