Yemenite Jew
Shlomo Narinsky (1885–1960)
Native Jew of Jerusalem
Postcard
Jerusalem: Jamal Brothers, 1921
At the turn of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, Jerusalem stood as a vibrant spiritual center. It encompassed diverse religious and cultural traditions and was a pilgrimage destination. The city also represented a rich tapestry of various Jewish communities from around the world that settled in the city over the centuries. Jerusalem and its inhabitants were a source of inspiration for many photographers, who left behind their unique historical imprints for the generations that followed. Today their photographs and postcards offer important historic and ethnographic insights that visually document the life of people on the streets of Jerusalem, the spirituality of their worlds, and the distinctiveness of their traditional attire.
The photographer Shlomo Narinsky captured a profile of this elderly Yemenite Jew immersed in deep contemplation, his head bowed. The reflective expressiveness of the man, with deep wrinkles carving his face and neck, evoke millennia of the rich history and traditions of Jews in Yemen. His head is covered with a sudra, the traditional headdress of Mizrahi (Eastern) Jews from the Middle East, central Asia, and North Africa, worn here in a distinctive Yemenite style.
It is plausible that the Yemenite Jew depicted in the image arrived in Jerusalem during the first wave of aliyah (ascend, translated from Hebrew, meaning immigration to Israel), that occurred in 1881–1918.
Narinsky was born in Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire. He studied painting in Moscow and Paris, and photography in Berlin. Narinsky settled in Jerusalem in 1906, where he opened a photographic studio in the Old City together with his wife, Sarah, and friend Yaakov Hotimsky, also a photographer. In 1920 he sold a selection of his photographs to the Jamal Brothers, a popular tourist agency in Palestine at that time. This postcard is part of the set the Jamal Brothers produced, both for sale and promotion of their business.
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