Archive of hundreds of family photographs of the Meyer and Auerbach families, relatives of the father and mother of R. Yissachar Meyer, dean of Yeshivat HaNegev. Germany and Eretz Israel, [late 19th century – mid-20th century (and several more recent photographs)]
Some 500 photographs documenting the history of both families, beginning from the late 19th century in Germany, until their immigration to Eretz Israel and their lives there in the mid-20th century. The photographs depict R. Yissachar Meyer as a child in Germany, as a boy and young man in Eretz Yisrael; his father, Yaakov Meyer; his mother, Leah Meyer née Auerbach; his sisters Yehudit, Shoshana and Ayala Meyer; his grandfathers and grandmothers, including Aharon and Helen (Hindche) Auerbach from Hamburg, R. Yissachar Seligmann and Mathilda Meyer from Ronsburg, his great-grandparents, Meyer and Yittel Meyer née Selig; and many other family members; photographs of the tombstones of family members; photographs and postcards documenting the synagogue in Regensburg, where his grandfather R. Yissachar Seligmann Meyer served as rabbi, and more.
Yaakov Meyer, father of R. Yissachar Meyer, emigrated from Germany to Eretz Israel before his family, with the intent of setting himself up and bringing his family over shortly thereafter. During his stay in Eretz Israel, he took ill and was hospitalized in Egypt, where he passed away. Leah Meyer and her four children immigrated to Eretz Israel via Amsterdam after his passing, in 1938, and settled in Petach Tikva.
R. Yissachar Meyer (1927-2010), founder and dean of Yeshivat HaNegev in Netivot. Born in Hamburg, he immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1938 together with his three sisters. He began studying in the Lomzha yeshiva in 1941, and was later one of the first group of students in the Ponovezh yeshiva. Upon the instructions of his teacher, R. Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, he was sent to Casablanca, where he founded a yeshiva for higher studies and an Orthodox seminary for girls. After serving as lecturer in the Bnei Akiva yeshiva in Kfar HaRoeh, he moved to Netivot in the early 1960s, with a group of Dati-Leumi students, with whom he founded the Azata yeshiva, formally known as Yeshivat HaNegev. Within a few years, the yeshiva grew and numbered some two hundred students. A large community later developed in Netivot, led by R. Yissachar Meyer, and schools were established for boys and girls. In his final years, R. Yissachar Meyer and his disciples founded branches of the yeshiva in Sderot and Moshav Zru'a, around which communities of G-d fearing, Torah Jews developed.
Many photographs have handwritten captions on the verso, in Hebrew or German. Most photographs are pasted to album leaves and some have handwritten captions and dates in German on the leaves. A few of the photographs which were taken or reprinted in Eretz Israel bear photographers' stamps, including "Photo Frankfurter" and "Tzalmaniah L. Eisenberg" in Petach Tikva and "Photo Aharonsohn Brothers" in Bnei Brak. Some of the photographs from Germany also bear photographers' stamps.
Size and condition vary. Overall fair condition. Damage, creases, tears and stains to many photographs.
Enclosed: postcard sent by R. Yissachar Meyer to his family from Safed, during his stay in the Margalit guesthouse. 1947. German.