L'Neshek Ve-L'Mesek! (Eretz Israel Be-Binyana)/ Flight and Work!/ Kamf aun Arbeyt!/ Boj a Práce/ Коружию и Труду! [Eretz Israel Under Construction] [HEBREW, ENGLISH, YIDDISH, CZECH, AND RUSSIAN LANGUAGE VERSIONS, 5 vols.]
Jerusalem: Printed by Azriel Press for Keren Ha-Yesod, 1942. First edition. Softcover. Large quarto. (11 3/4 x 9"). Unpaginated. 14 pages each. B/w photo-illustrated wrappers with photomontage and red and black lettering on the covers. These scarce promotional pieces of ephemera published by the Karen Ha-Yesod fundraising organization were issued to coincide with the photographic exhibition "To Arms and to Work, the Face of the People and the Land". Here we have 5 copies of the same publication, one in Hebrew, one in English, one in Czech, one in Yiddish and one in Russian. They promotes both the military training of Jewish soldiers and the agricultural/settlement efforts in building toward a Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine.
Profusely illustrated throughout with 82 b/w photographic reproductions showing these activities, often with visual parallels drawn between the military and land cultivation, via the layout and framing of the images (especially the front cover). Images throughout also include depictions of other activities including education, recreation, construction, industry, manufacturing and Jewish religious activities. The back cover shows a regiment of marching Jewish soldiers lead by a British commanding officer, with a text quote from Chaim Weizmann. The publication was edited by Israeli historian and then head of Keren ha-Yesod, Nathan Michael Gelber (1891-1966), and features photographs by leading Israeli photographer Zoltan (Zvi) Kluger (1896-1977).
Text in Hebrew, English, Czech, Russian and Yiddish.
The Russian and Yiddish language editions are moderately age-toned throughout, with tiny chipping at the upper margin of both covers of the Yiddish copy. Russian edition with light pen markings on the front cover. English edition with minor rubbing to extremities and a few light stains to the covers. Hebrew edition with light rubbing and rippling along edges. Front cover with a tear at the bottom, resulting in slight loss of text. Rippling continued throughout the pages along the top section. Copies in good to near fine condition overall. All copies protected in modern mylar. Quite scarce. g to near fine. Item #47882
Yiddish title: קאמף און ארבייט
Hebrew title: לנשק ולמשק! ארץ ישראל בבנינה
Exhibition: לנשק ולמשק, פני עם וארץ - תערוכה אמנותית של קרן היסוד
Alternate Translate: To Arms and to Work!
Keren ha-Yesod was established at the World Zionist Conference held in London in 1920 to provide the Zionist movement with resources needed for the Jewish people to return to the Land of Israel. It came in response to the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which confirmed support from the British government for the establishment in Palestine of a "national home" for the Jewish people. Keren ha-Yesod immediately established fundraising organizations around the world. Early leaders included Chaim Weizmann, Albert Einstein and Ze’ev Jabotinsky. During World War II and in its aftermath, Keren ha-Yesod established emergency campaigns, sometimes in partnership with other organizations. Funds were also used to help the Allied war effort, and, after the liberation of the concentration camps, to smuggle massive numbers of survivors into the Land of Israel, in defiance of British immigration restrictions. Many of Keren ha-Yesod’s leaders perished in the Holocaust; the organization had to recover quickly in face of the staggering needs during those fateful years.
*There are also known Greek, Hungarian, Polish and French language versions of this publication. The various versions all are extremely similar in terms of content with only the slightest variation in terms of text placement.
Price: $4,750.00