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David Ben-Gurion on Israel’s Mirage Dispute with France and George Washington’s 1790 Letter
March 30, 1971
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 773
In a 1971 letter, David Ben-Gurion discusses Israel’s Mirage dispute with France and references George Washington’s 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation, reflecting the enduring overlap between personal correspondence and affairs of state.
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Young John F. Kennedy Condemns Harry Truman's Reversal to Support the Partition of Palestine
April 4, 1948
Autograph Manuscript
2 pages
SMC 149
At a dinner of Jewish veterans, John F. Kennedy, then a congressman from Massachusetts, condemns Harry Truman's withdrawal of support for the partition of Palestine as "one of the most unfortunate reversals in American policy. Kennedy also called for the US to lift the arms embargo in order to give Israel a chance to protect herself in the ensuing war.
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Truman on the Recognition of the Jewish State and the "very dark" situation in Palestine
May 17, 1948
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 370
Two days into the Israeli War of Independence, Harry Truman thanks a rabbi for his offer to assist the President, and refers to the fledgling state's situation as "very dark."
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Ephemera
1 page
SMC 2434
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Document Signed
page
SMC 2453
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Document Signed
1 page
SMC 2295
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Ephemera
1 page
SMC 2291
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Original Painting of the Steamship "Quaker City" Moored at Naples on its Excursion to the Holy Land
August, 1867
Historical artifacts
1 page
SMC 2303
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 646
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Typed Letter
1 page
SMC 219
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Palestine, Truman Says, is a “Matter of Considerable Disturbance” to be Determined by U.N.
February 9, 1948
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 686
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Homesick General Eisenhower Writes of a WWII Visit to Jerusalem and Levant at Christmas
December 26, 1943
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 708
Homesick Eisenhower writes to his wife to thank her for Christmas gifts and to express his longing to see her. He omits his recent promotion as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces.
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Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 731
Theodor Herzl tries to garner support for his vision of a Jewish State amongst the Hasidic Jews of Europe. Herzl sets forth his ecumenical vision, where Jews would be free to practise (or to not practise) their religion in their own way, with no "falling out over matters of religion." Herzl mentions the first Zionist Congress, confident that the Jews will obtain their ancestral homeland of Palestine.
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Theodore Herzl Admits to Exhaustion But Swears to Continue "The Great Campaign...As Long as I am Able"
November 10, 1896
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 732
Theodore Herzl admits to exhaustion but vows to continue the "great campaign" for as long as he is able.
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Ben-Gurion: Had a Jewish State Been Established in 1937, Millions of Jews Would Not Have Died in the Holocaust
January 8, 1956
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 765
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David Ben-Gurion Compares, Favorably, the Fledgling IDF to George Washington's Revolutionary Army
January 27, 1956
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 766
At a critical juncture, when Israel was vastly outnumbered, Ben-Gurion compares the fledgling IDF to "an army that had been established by the owner of an estate in Virginia." Though Ben-Gurion compares the IDF to George Washington's Revolutionary Army and wishes to learn from it, he also claims that the Jewish people's situation is "different from any other nation."
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 769
David Ben Gurion tells his correspondent that Israel was founded by pioneers but now needs immigrants from free countries, most notably the United States, to come and populate it.
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 771
David Ben-Gurion encourages Ida Camelhor Silverman, an eighty-six year old Hadassah officer, to visit Israel, citing the Biblical Sarah and Moses Montefiore as examples of people who travelled to Israel at advanced ages. Two years after receiving this letter, Silverman actually settled in Israel, where she would die two years after making Israel her home.
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Autograph Document Signed
1 page
SMC 237
Mordecai Manuel Noah and Isaac Leeser propose relief for the poor Jews of Palestine, albeit through different channels. This typifies their differences of opinion and approach where the restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land was concerned.
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Prime Minister Winston Churchill on Orde Wingate: A Man of Genius Who Might Have Become a Man of Destiny
September 10, 1944
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 293
On his way to the second Quebec conference, Winston Churchill remembers that a year ago, he, Orde, and Lorna Wingate were on their way to the first conference. Churchill offers his condolences to the newly-widowed Lorna.
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Winston Churchill Thanks Ormsby-Gore for Accepting Post to the Permanent Mandates Commission
February 24, 1921
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 294
Winston Churchill Thanks Pro-Zionist Ormsby-Gore for Accepting Post to the Permanent Mandates Commission Responsible for Palestine.
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 302
Ben-Gurion claims that as long as the USA and the USSR fight the Cold War by proxy in the Middle East - by arming Arab countries - there will be no peace in the region, and Israel will have to continuously fight for its survival.
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Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 330
Writing to a minister's wife who was horrified by the 1929 anti-Jewish Hebron massacre in Palestine, President Herbert Hoover responds coolly to her "interesting observations."
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Chaim Weizmann Thanks Clark Clifford for His Help In Getting President Truman to Recognize Israel
February 20, 1949
Typed Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 647
Clark Clifford, President Truman's aide, argued against Secretary of State George Marshall "as if it were a case to be presented to the Supreme Court." Truman immediately recognized the Jewish State, and Weizmann, on his first day as President of Israel, thanks him.
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David Ben-Gurion on God’s Promises to His People: Strength and Peace – One Given, the Other, Coming
July 22, 1971
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 664
Two years before the Yom Kippur War, and quoting from Psalms, David Ben Gurion tells a correspondent that there is definitely trouble brewing with Egypt, yet God promises his people two things: strength and peace. The former is obtained, and the latter, Ben-Gurion has faith, is coming.
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Chaim Weizmann in 1943: "Nothing Short of a Miracle if We Do Get Something Out of this War"
December 10, 1943
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 376
Writing during World War Two, Chaim Weizmann assures Lorna Wingate that her husband Orde is on the mend after a bout of typhoid. In the interim, he comments that many things are happening in Palestine that would provoke the British, though he hopes they will not allow themselves to be provoked. It would be "nothing short of a miracle if we do get something out of this war," he ruefully remarks.
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Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 378
Chaim Weizmann agrees to stand as Godfather to the son of Major General Orde Wingate, Orde Jonathan Wingate.
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Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 379
Chaim Weizmann writes to Lorna Wingate, the widow of Major-General Orde Wingate, to tell her that the British government finally approved the creation of the Jewish Brigade. Weizmann's feelings are mixed, though, as Wingate - who died five months earlier - would have made this Brigade "a powerful force."
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Chaim Weizmann Analyzes British Partition Plans and Prerequisites for Statehood; Blasts American Jewry
June 20, 1937
Autograph Letter Signed
5 pages
SMC 380
Chaim Weizmann accepts Wingate's offer to organize guerilla night squads to defend against Arab terrorism, analyzes the British Partition Plans, and blasts American Jewry - all in one letter.
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Ben-Gurion Predicts Victory Under Dayan in 6-Day War; Discusses How Many Arabs Equal One Israeli Soldier
June 6, 1967
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 385
Moshe Dayan is appointed minister of defence; Ben Gurion predicts that Israel will triumph over Egypt, Jordan, and Syria in the coming Six Day War.
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Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 392
Rather than an independent Jewish state, Einstein would like to see a "secured bi-national status in Palestine with free immigration," adding that it defies common sense to "ask to be given the political rule over Palestine where two thirds of the population are not Jewish."
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James A. Garfield's Appointment of the Anti-Semitic Selah Merrill as Consul at Jerusalem
May 23, 1881
Document Signed
1 page
SMC 438
Merrill, who held the post of U.S. Consul at Jerusalem for almost three decades – appointed by three Republican presidents – is here installed in that position for the first time by James Garfield. Cleveland would remove Merrill, but he was re-appointed by Harrison and McKinley. He is generally considered to be the greatest reviler of the Jews to ever occupy the post of consul at Jerusalem.
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 508
David Ben Gurion places responsibility for peace with the Egyptians at their feet, but also remarks that "a great deal depends on Russia."
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Edward Robinson Writes to His Publisher to Inquire About His "Biblical Researches in Palestine"
October 12, 1840
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 545
Edward Robinson, eager to sail home to America, inquires with his publisher as to the progress of his manuscript for Biblical Researches in Palestine. His work would be the cornerstone and genesis of biblical archaeology.
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Calling Card
1 page
SMC 594
The author of Ben Hur's calling card, identifying Lew Wallace as the American Minister to Turkey.
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General Edmund Allenby Commemorates His Victorious Entrance Into Jerusalem One Year Later
December 18, 1918
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 595
General Edmund Allenby, in celebrating the Allied victory of World War I, humbly commemorates the year anniversary of his conquering of Jerusalem.
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David Roberts Sends Sketches of Holy Land to Archaeologist to Refute Famous Argument About Temple Mount
February 2, 1849
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 645
Ahead of a meeting of the Royal Institute of British architects in London, David Roberts sends his sketches to the archaeologist J.J. Scoles, with whom he would collaborate to debunk James Fergusson’s thesis that the Dome of the Rock was the original Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
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Signature
1 page
SMC 155
Rare Hebrew University postcard signed by Chaim Weizmann and Albert Einstein, who, as much as anyone, made the dream of a Hebrew University in Jerusalem a reality.
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Autograph Manuscript Signed
1 page
SMC 167
Robert Frost expresses his identification with, and friendship for, the "brave… little" nation of Israel. He also recommends reading the story of Nehemiah, possibly as a prelude to the modern-day restoration of the Jews to Israel.
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 184
Thomas Cooke thanks a member of the clergy for a testimonial of his tour, and asks if any corrections are necessary.
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Broadside
1 page
SMC 186
Broadside advertising Henry Dickson's museum of Palestine. Dickson, having lived in Palestine for five years, offers his spectators not only curiosities from the country, but insight as to the dress and custom of the Arab people. He also retells the story of the fateful night in which his family were "beaten, robbed and murdered."
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Theodor Herzl Sends Postcard From Jerusalem to Menachem Ussishkin Ahead of Meeting With Kaiser Wilhelm
October 31, 1898
Card Signed
2 pages
SMC 207
In 1898, Theodor Herzl came to Jerusalem to ask Kaiser Wilhelm to appeal to the Turks for the creation of a Jewish state under a German protectorate. He sent Menachem Ussishkin a postcard from the Holy City.
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 108
Nelson jubilantly reports that the French are being pushed back from Acre and from Zante (Greece), pleased at Napoleon "the villain's" ignominious end.
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 110
Primarily discussing his book "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom," T.E. Lawrence confides in Brig. General Sir Gilbert Falkingham Clayton that no person of any "race or creed" living in Palestine trusts the British for "more than two minutes." If they would, he ruefully comments, "things would be more stable there."
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 111
T.E. Lawrence writes to his superior at the Arab Bureau, General Clayton, to ask if he should send a letter he wrote to Sir Mark Sykes, the man responsible for divvying up the Middle East between the English and the French. Here, Lawrence mentions to Clayton that the "Jewish section" should be cleared up, and when they fight the French, the French section will fall into English hands, as well.
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Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 112
Here, Charles Gordon, writing to friend and fellow explorer, Sir Samuel Baker, is positive of the location of not only Calvary, but of other archaeological sites purporting to be of biblical significance, though disputed, by his own admission.
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Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 113
Charles Gordon reveals that he will be going to Palestine. There, he will fulfill a cherished ambition, searching to establish authoritatively the locations of the site of the crucifixion, the line of division between the tribes of Benjamin and Judah, the identification of Gibeon, and the whereabouts of Christ’s tomb.
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 117
Twain's use of the title, The American Vandal Abroad – a play on The Innocents Abroad - suggests that perhaps American tourists to the Holy Land weren't always so innocent. Twain recorded, aghast, how these religious pilgrims sliced off souvenirs from venerable biblical sites in Palestine.
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Autograph Manuscript Signed
2 pages
SMC 119
Mark Twain's handwritten mockup of the title page and dedication of More Tramps Abroad with a note about Innocents Abroad.
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Chaim N. Bialik on the Jewish Persecutions in the Diaspora and the Determination to Make a Home in Zion
May 19, 1934
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 782
Writing in 1934, Bialik affirms that the latest persecutions of the Jewish people necessitate the creation of a Jewish state.
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Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 792
Here, Einstein writes a conciliatory letter, appreciating that Selig Brodetsky is not alienated by his gruff manner in handling and discussing the Hebrew University, a cause so dear to his heart. At the time a mathematician at the University of Leeds, Brodetsky would go on to become the Hebrew University's president twenty years later.
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Jerusalem Consul Wallace and Chief Rabbi Salant Solicit American Funds for the City's Institutions
1894
Document Signed
8 pages
SMC 836
The situation of two of Jerusalem’s loftiest institutions - the Talmud Torah House and the General Hospital - are in dire straights, Rabbi Salant and Consul Wallace attest: this, the unhappy result of the “terrible loss of employment and income of our brothers in Russia who have heretofore been great supporters.” They appeal to American Jews for funding.
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A "Song of Praise" Celebrating the Yishuv's Welcome of U.S. Consul Lew Wallace to Jerusalem
December, 1883
Ephemera
1 page
SMC 837
Song of Praise written and performed in Hebrew on the occasion of the arrival of the U.S. Consul, General Lew Wallace, to Jerusalem.
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Ephemera
1 page
SMC 856
A scarce travel poster for the French railway, Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée, or PLM, to Palestine, by the noted poster artist Hugo D’Alesi.
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Ephemera
1 page
SMC 861
This Thomas Cook travel poster advertising the Nile and Palestine tours is a rare 1901-1903 reprint of the original, produced in the 1870s.
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Autograph Note
2 pages
SMC 911
In this leaf from one of Mark Twain's missing notebooks, the young author writes of his upcoming journey to Europe and the Levant. Twain would chronicle the trip in The Innocents Abroad, a book that which would launch his career as a writer.
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Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 985
Three weeks before many of the stranded colonists would leave Jaffa with Mark Twain on the Quaker City, Governor of Maine Joshua Chamberlain here passes on Secretary of State William Seward's interest in extending aide to 156 American Christian colonists in Jaffa.
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Document Signed
1 page
SMC 999
Bogged down at the Siege of Acre on what, only weeks before, he thought would be a quick victory on his way to Jerusalem, Napoleon here orders that his generals and the infantry, lancers and sappers, be paid.
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Typed Manuscript
30 pages
SMC 1012
The 1858 Senate report, which details the murder and rape of the Dickson family in their agricultural colony. The author, Jonathan Steinbeck was a descendent of members of the colony, and the "Outrages at Jaffa" is alluded to in his East of Eden. Herman Melville, inspired by the tragic events, wrote his epic poem Clarel.
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Document Signed
1 page
SMC 1040
Signed as General-in-Chief, Bonaparte signs papers for a soldier to join his campaign in Syria. The campaigns were deployed for French commercial interests, with the additional motivation of disrupting Britain's.
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Abraham Lincoln Appoints Edward Joy Morris Minister to the Ottoman Empire - and by Extension, Palestine
July 15, 1861
Document Signed
1 page
SMC 1099
In the midst of the Civil War, Lincoln replaces the Southern minister to the Ottoman Empire with Edward Joy Morris.
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On His Penultimate Day in Office, President Ulysses S. Grant Announces His Intention to Travel the Globe
March 2, 1877
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1142
Just before setting off on a two-year world tour, Grant arranges for bank dividends to be sent to his son and namesake, U.S. Grant, Jr. so that the latter can manage his affairs during the world tour.
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Benjamin Harrison Names Solomon Hirsch Minister to Turkey, the Third Jew to Hold That Diplomatic Rank
May 15, 1889
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1531
Solomon Hirsch tops President Benjamin Harrison's list of diplomatic appointees. Harrison was indebted to the German-born Hirsch, who carried his home-state of Oregon as Republican.
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President Cleveland Appoints Nageeb Arbeely to Replace Anti-Semitic Selah Merrill as Consul at Jerusalem
October 15, 1885
Document Signed
1 page
SMC 1595
The wildly unpopular Consul at Jerusalem, Selah Merrill, is replaced by the Greek-ancestry-Syrian-born naturalized-American, Najeeb J. Arbeely.
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Ephemera
1 page
SMC 1601
Handbill for Dr. Cyrus Adler's lecture about his three-year tour of the Levant.
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Herzl Directs U.S. Zionists to Force McKinley to Protest Turkish Discrimination of Jews in Palestine
February 25, 1901
Typed Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1680
In 1900, the Ottoman Empire officially barred Jews from visiting the Holy Land. The Italian government immediately protested this violation of human rights, which distinguished between Jewish and Gentile Italian citizens. Here, Theodor Herzl aims to introduce the debate to Congress or Senate so that a country as powerful as the United States would emulate Italy's example, inspiring other countries to follow suit.
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From "Innocents Abroad," Mark Twain's Famous Soliloquy at the Tomb of Adam in the Holy Land
November, 1870
Autograph Quotation Signed
1 page
SMC 1682
Mark Twain's handwritten irreverent soliloquy from the Tomb of Adam in the Holy Land from Innocents Abroad.
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Mark Twain's Last Day in New York Before Leaving on the "Quaker City," Spent Drinking With Writers
June 8, 1867
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1686
A letter written in the wee hours of the morning after an evening and night spent drinking. Twelve hours later, Twain would be aboard "The Quaker City."
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Ephemera
1 page
SMC 1723
Rail Ticket, in French and Arabic, for the Jaffa-Jerusalem Railroad, 2nd Class. Palestine, no date. Punched and cancelled.
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President Franklin Pierce Appoints the First United States Consul to Serve in Jerusalem
October 20, 1856
Document Signed
1 page
SMC 1741
President Franklin Pierce appoints Boston physician John Warren Gorham as the first United States Consul at Jerusalem on October 20, 1856.
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Signed Photograph
1 page
SMC 1772
In direct contrast to Kaiser Wilhelm II's entrance to Jerusalem on horseback, Edmund Allenby respectfully dismounted before entering the Holy City. He was the first Christian to rule Jerusalem in centuries.
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At the End of His Life, Albert Einstein Writes Check to His Beloved Hebrew University
January 13, 1955
Check Signed
1 page
SMC 1814
The Hebrew University was a dream towards which Einstein devoted a considerable amount of time, including serving on its board, speaking at its inauguration, and bequeathing all of his papers to it. Nearing the end of his life, he wrote this check, in 1955 for $10 (equivalent to $90 in today's money) to the American Friends of the Hebrew University.
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Autograph Letter Signed
6 pages
SMC 1849
In Istanbul, Grant was struck by scenes of the refugees – many of them, Bulgarian Jews – who had fled the notoriously anti-Semitic Russian invaders during the just-concluded Russo-Turkish War. Grant also discusses the gift of an Arabian horse from the sultan and the logistics involved in shipping it back to the United States.
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President William McKinley's Appointment of the Antisemitic Selah Merrill as Consul at Jerusalem
January 22, 1898
Document Signed
1 page
SMC 1879
President William McKinley reinstalls Selah Merrill as consul at Jerusalem. Merrill held the post for about thirty years prior to this, his last appointment, and was widely known to revile the Jews in the Holy Land.
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Autograph Manuscript
4 pages
SMC 1921
Rabbi Isaac Leeser reviews the American Zionist Warder Cresson's book The Key of David. Leeser explictly states that he does not "wish to be considered as endorsing all Mr. C. advances." Nor does he regularly read his work. However, he continues, it makes for enjoyable reading to those who are "fond of high-seasoned polemical writings."
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President Millard Fillmore Acknowledges the Gift of "a Beautiful Picture of 'Ancient Jerusalem'"
June 17, 1852
Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 2034
The Unitarian President Fillmore thanks the Presbyterian Rev. Septimus Justin for "a beautiful picture of 'ancient Jerusalem.'" Although he has only had time to glance at it, the appears to him to be well-executed.
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Passport for the Early Explorer of Jerusalem, the Reverend Eli Smith, Signed by James Buchanan
October 23, 1846
Document Signed
1 page
SMC 2068
Reverend Eli Smith, who had joined Reverend Edward Robinson as an Arabic-speaker during the latter's exploration of Biblical Jerusalem, travels to the Holy Land yet again, this time with a passport signed by then Secretary of State, James Buchanan.
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Carte de Visite
1 page
SMC 2230
Selah Merrill, known primarily as the longtime U.S. Consul to Jerusalem, famous for his antipathy for the Jewish people there, as well as anyone outside of mainstream Protestantism, was also, ironically, a chaplain with the 49th Colored Infantry during the Civil War. This rare carte-de-visite photo dates from his year's service in that capacity.
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