Israel, right, with friends
The 30’s: View on early Zionism
They believed in both banks of Jordan River, took snapshots holding signs ‘I’ll with the name Zeev Jabotinsky on my lips,’ and took vows of loyalty to Josef Trumpledor. A journey in pictures into Israel’s past with Betar movement revisionist Zionist youth
Little is known about the life of Israel Issar Lotte (1909–1971). All of his relatives were killed in the Holocaust, and he and his wife did not leave behind any children.
An old photo album found at his niece’s house retells the story of his Zionist activities in the Betar movement (Hebrew acronym for Union of Activist Hebrew Youth, based on the teachings of Zeev Jabotinksy), first in Poland, his motherland, and later in Israel where he immigrated in 1937.
The photos are a rare record of early Zionist activity and reveal insights into the way of life of the “fighting family” in the 30’s. Legends are scrawled on the backs of many of the photos identifying the figures and situations pictured in them, but many pieces of the puzzle remain elusive.
Viewers who recognize the events, sites, or people shown in the photos are invited to contact the Bitmuna Lab, an organization which restores, collects and saves visual materials involving Israel and its history.
Betar convention in Warsaw, April 29, 1931. Zeev Jabotinsky appears in photo.
Zeev Jabotinsky with others (Bitmuna lab could not identify other figures)
Brigades in Poland, May 1933
Lab Be’Omer, 1933
Transit camp in hills of Jerusalem
“By the rock where Trumpeldor fell. 1921” Tel-Hai yard
At the Metulla cooperative farm, 1937
On Tel-Hai Road. “I will die with the name Zeev Jabotinsky on my lips.” 1941
“For Lotte Israel from the Mazali family, Kalmaniya. November 13, 1938”
