An embroidered Torah ark curtain [Parochet] featuring the text of the Balfour declaration in the shape of a menorah. [The Levant?]. Dedication from the year 5688 [1927/1928] – 10th Anniversary to the Balfour declaration.
Velvet; goldwork; cardboard cutouts; metallic ribbons and fringe.
A Torah ark curtain made of green velvet. The text of the Balfour Declaration is embroidered in the center, on a dark green velvet rectangle framed with metallic ribbons.
The text of the declaration appears in its early Hebrew translation and is embroidered in the shape of a seven-branched menorah (a shape usually reserved for Psalms 67 or the Piyyut "Ana BeKhoach"): "His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people…"; topped by the verse "Shiviti". Hebrew dedication on bottom center reads: "The Balfour Declaration, dedicated by Mr. Nissim Yehuda Fijon… and… M. Simcha, daughter of Rivka, wife of Haji Eliyahu Fijon… the year 5688".
This is a unique item – the text of the Balfour Declaration, the famous state document from 1917 acknowledging the right of the Jewish people to establish a national home in Palestine, embroidered on a religious artifact, used in a synagogue by one of the communities of the Levant.
The Balfour Declaration was perceived by many as a sign of the coming of the Messiah. Some sages saw the Balfour declaration as the first stage in the process of redemption and the realization of the prophecies of the return to Zion. Subsequent to the declaration, Rabbi Kook, who was then the Chief Rabbi of Jaffa and the settlements, wrote that Britain was destined by Divine Providence to play the role of bringing forth the salvation, and about Lord Balfour himself he wrote that he is "remembered favorably, the renowned declaration being justifiably named after him". Like Rabbi Kook, other rabbis also saw the declaration in a religious Messianic light. For example, Rabbi Moshe Kalfon Hacohen, Chief Rabbi of Djerba and one of the leading rabbis of Tunis, saw the Balfour Declaration as one of the "thirteen holy sparks of redemption", calling the swift economic and agricultural development of Palestine "Ketz Meguleh" (revealed redemption).
Approx. 147X110 cm. Good condition. Faded velvet. Blemishes, stains, wear and unraveling. Some tears, including open tears. Suspension loops on upper edge.

Five booklets documenting the Jewish-Arab conflict in Palestine. Jerusalem and London, 1922 and 1936. English.
1. Palestine, correspondence with the Palestine Arab Delegation and the Zionist Organisation. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1922.
The first White paper (Churchill White Paper) – Britain's statement of intent after receiving the League of Nations' Mandate for Palestine, with a memorandum by Winston Churchill and nine documents determining the British policy in Palestine: loyalty to the principles of the Balfour Declaration, limiting Jewish immigration, an Arab kingdom on the eastern side of the Jordan River, and more.
2. The Holy Land, the Moslem-Christian Case against Zionist aggression, Official Statement by the Palestine Arab Delegation. London: Harrison & Sons Press, 1922.
An official statement issued by the Palestine Arab Delegation to London, which in July 1921 traveled to London with the aim of overturning the Balfour Declaration and changing the British policy.
3-4. Two political publications by the physician, ethnographer and Palestinian nationalist Dr. Tawfiq Canaan. Published in Jerusalem, 1936: • Conflict in the Land of Peace. Syrian Orphan Press. • The Palestine Arab Cause. The Modern Press.
5. Comments on Dr. Canaan's pamphlet "The Palestine Arab cause", by a Native of Palestine. Jerusalem: Azriel Printing Press, 1936.
A Zionist response pamphlet to Canaan's books. Published under the pseudonym "Native of Palestine".
Size and condition vary. Good to good-fair overall condition. Stains, creases and tears (mostly small). Original covers, with creases, blemishes and wear. Open tear to one cover. One cover detached and torn in half (along spine).

A large and varied collection of guidebooks for Palestine and Jerusalem, most of them from the Ottoman period and the British Mandate period. Jerusalem, London, Berlin, Paris, Cairo and elsewhere, mid-19th century to 1940s (several guidebooks from the 1950s and 1960s). English, French, Hebrew and other languages.
The collection includes: • A French edition of the Baedeker guidebook for Palestine and Syria. Leipzig, 1882. An ownership inscription on title page, in Hebrew: "From the books of Ahad Ha'am (A. Ginsberg)". • Nouveau Guide de Terre Sainte (New Guide to the Holy Land), by Barnabas Meisterman. Paris, 1907. • A Soldier's Handbook, by Henry Sykes. London, New York and Toronto, 1918. • Two guidebooks for Palestine and Syria published by Cook's Tourists' Handbooks. London, 1911 and 1924. • "Palestine and Southern Syria, a Travel Book" (Hebrew) by Yeshayahu Press. Jerusalem, 1921. • Two guidebooks for Palestine by Ze'ev (Zev) Vilnay, published by Steimatzky. One in German and the other in English, with original dustjackets, Jerusalem, 1935. Guidebook for Jerusalem by Ze'ev Vilnay. English. Jerusalem: Steimatzky, 1935?. • Guidebook for Jerusalem, by James Barr Walker. Cairo: YMCA, (no date). • And more.
38 guidebooks. Size and condition vary.

Collection of items related to the development of the telephone and postal addresses in Palestine: fourteen telephone directories, business guides and governmental brochures; an early contract for installing a telephone line in Jerusalem. Palestine, 1920s to 1960s. English and Hebrew.
1. Mandatory contract for installing a telephone line in Palestine, from 8.12.1920. Between the Joseph Deutch & A.M. Freund company and the Postmaster General.
This contract was signed for the construction of one of the first telephone lines in Palestine. According to records in the State Archive, on July 1921, six months after the contract was signed - only 43 telephone lines operated in the country. See: Daniel Rosenne, "Communications in Eretz Israel during the British Mandate: posts, telegraphs, telephones and radio " (Hebrew); The Association for the Commemoration of the Fallen Soldiers of the IDF Signal Corps, 2019.
2-6. Five telephone directories and business guides from the British Mandate period. Including: "Register of Commerce and Industry in Palestine" (Hebrew), 1935; "The Telephone Directory, Tevet 1936" (Hebrew); "The 1939 Palestine Guide" (Hebrew); and More.
7. "Jerusalem Guide" (Hebrew) by Yom-Tov Hel-Or. Jerusalem: Weiss Press, 1948.
The guide was published at the private initiative of its author, who went door-to-door to gather the necessary information (even after the British authorities forbade movement on the streets after the outbreak of the war). It was printed anonymously in 1948 at the Weiss printing house in Jerusalem; however, most of its copies were destroyed when the printing house was damaged in a car bomb explosion on Ben Yehuda St. (February 1948). In 2015, the writer's sons printed a facsimile edition of the guide. The NLI listing of this edition notes: "A facsimile edition of a single copy that remained from the 1948 Jerusalem edition".
8-12. Five governmental telephone directories from the early years of the state of Israel, from 1950, 1953, 1955, 1960 and 1963.
13-15. Three governmental brochures on the subject of telephone communication: "Summary of Postal, Telegraph and Telephone Information" (1929); "A List of Prices of Toll Calls" (Hebrew; 1946); "The Dial, a Leaf for Telephone Subscribers" (Hebrew), issue 11 (1962).
Size and condition vary. Good to fair overall condition. Blemishes, stains, creases and small tears to edges of some booklets. The "Jerusalem Guide" is in fair-poor condition, with mold damage.

Palestine & Near East – Economic Magazine. A Fortnightly for Trade, Industry & Agriculture. Tel-Aviv, 1926-1933. English. Seven volumes.
Seven volumes of Palestine & Near East – Volume 1: issues 1-12, 1926; Volume 2: issues 1-18, 1927; Volume 3: issues 1-24, 1928-1929; Volume 4: issues 1-22, 1929-1930; Volume 5: issues 1-24, 1930-1931; Volume 6: issues 1-24, 1931-1932; Volume 7: issues 1-22, 1932-1933. Some double issues.
Some issues are dedicated to tourism, the census of the Yishuv, trains in Palestine, public works, settlement plans, Tel-Aviv, citrus fruit, the Palestine and Near East Exhibition, and more. With contributions by leaders and public figures such as Ussishkin, Dizengoff, Weizmann and Rupin alongside researchers such as Vilnay, and many others.
The issues include many advertisements, maps, illustrations and photographs. Five issues include color lithographs – an advertisement for "Jaffa" oranges and an advertisement for "'Lord' Jaffa Oranges", both designed by Ze'ev Raban (the "Jaffa Oranges" advertisement appears in four different issues; the"'Lord' Jaffa Oranges" advertisement appears in five different issues). The logo of the magazine was designed by Pesach Ir-Shai.
7 volumes (146 issues). Size and condition vary.