Israeli history photo of the week: Snow in Jerusalem

JPost special feature: A Library of Congress collection of photographs that document Israel before 1948.

By LENNY BEN-DAVID
Snow in Jerusalem (photo credit: American Colony-Jerusalem-Photo Dept.)
Snow in Jerusalem
(photo credit: American Colony-Jerusalem-Photo Dept.)
The Library of Congress has recently digitalized a collection of over 10,000 photographs, taken by the "American Colony" in Jerusalem, a group of Christian utopians who lived in Jerusalem between 1881 and the 1940s. The photographers returned to the US, and bequeathed their massive collection to the Library of Congress in 1978. The collection includes Winston Churchill's visit to Jerusalem, Jewish expulsions from the Old City during Arab riots, and the building of Tel Aviv.

Strong rain, winds and snow storms are hitting the Middle East this week.After several years of drought, record rains have fallen on Israel presenting the possibility that the Sea of Galilee, Israel's "national reservoir," may fill by the end of winter.  Just this week the sea rose 60 centimeters (2 feet), and many areas in the country already received one-third of their average rainfall. Galilee and Golan mountains are covered with snow, and Jerusalem residents anticipate a city covered in white tomorrow morning.We present here old pictures of snow in Jerusalem from the Library of Congress collection. Some of the pictures were presented here last winter, but we've also added new ones found among the 22,000 pictures in the Library of Congress.More photos can be viewed at http://www.israeldailypicture.com