Lot 159
Map of Palestine Carved in Stone – Elazar Alperin – Yosef Trumpeldor Labor and Defense Battalion – Jerusalem, 1924
A map of Palestine, stone relief made by Elazar Alperin (a smaller version of a stone relief made by Alperin for the British Empire Exhibition in London). Jerusalem, [ca. 1924].
Carved Hebron stone.
A topographic relief map carved into a slab of reddish Hebron stone, based on a map of Palestine published by the Palestine Exploration Fund, without the area of the southern Negev and Eilat. On the lower part of the raised stone frame surrounding the map, appears the caption "Eretz Yisrael" (Palestine). Signed "A. Aya" (one of Alperin's nicknames) and "Gedud HaAvodah al shem Y. Trumpeldor, Jerusalem" (The Y. Trumpeldor Labor Battalion, Jerusalem).
Elazar Alperin (1896-1983), also known as "Barada" and "Aya", was born in Bialystok (then in Russia) and immigrated to Palestine in 1919. In 1920, he was appointed by Yosef Trumpeldor to command the defense of Metulah and after Trumpeldor's death, became a member of the Yosef Trumpeldor Labor and Defense Battalion which was established by Yitzchak Sadeh in memory of Trumpeldor, where he worked in paving roads, fishing in the Sea of the Galilee and other works; in 1923 he moved to Jerusalem. He studied for about a year in Bezalel, where he acquired the artistic aspects of stone sculpting, until he was expelled from the school. At the same time, he became a member of a Labor Battalion which was then located near the Ratisbonne Monastery. With the other members of the Labor Battalion, he learned the art of quarrying and carving in stone from Arab craftsmen.
In April 1924, the British Empire Exhibition opened in London; the exhibition was open for two seasons, from April 1924 to November 1924 and from May 1925 to November 1925, and due to pressure by the High Commissioner for Palestine, Herbert Samuel, a Jewish Palestine pavilion was included in it, despite Palestine being a mandate area and not a colony. The Labor battalion was then in a difficult financial situation and before the Exhibition, Yitzchak Sadeh appealed to the Zionist administration with a request for a loan that will enable the creation of various stone products to be presented in the exhibition, among them a carved stone map of Palestine. The mission of carving the map, more than two meters long, was assigned to Alperin. After the exhibition closed, the displays disassembled and the exhibits sold, the map disappeared, leaving no trace whatsoever.
Shortly after he created the large map, Alperin carved the map before us – a similar, smaller map – and gave it as a gift to the Jerusalemite contractor Shimon Diskin for providing work and livelihood. Diskin set the map on a wall of his house in the Rechavya neighborhood of Jerusalem, where it remained until his house was demolished.
94X57X19 cm. weight: approx. 300 kg. Good condition. Sawn iron poles protruding out of the sides of the slab. Small chip to frame. Several stains to frame.
For additional information, see enclosed article: "A Map of Israel Carved in Stone", by Dov Gavish (2004).
