Notebook containing hundreds of signatures and inked stamps, collected by Jehiel Mizrakan, guide and signature collector, who travelled through Palestine in 1927 and collected the signatures and stamps of consuls, rabbis, mayors, Zionist settlements, hotels, churches and missions, and hundreds of organizations and public figures who operated in Palesrine during the British mandate. Palestine, 1927 (several stamps and signatures from later years). Hebrew, English, Arabic, Greek, Armenian, and other languages.
The notebook comprises over 230 inked stamps and some 300 signatures and handwritten inscriptions; most of the inscriptions mention the date of Mizrakan's visit, and occasionally several words about him (his profession as guide, his plans to extend his travels, recommendation of his qualifications, and more). The wording of the inscriptions seems to imply that Mizrakan obtained the signatures at a time when collecting signatures was very rare, or not practiced at all in Palestine (see for example Heinrich Loewe's inscription: "Mr. Jehiel Mizrakan asked me to affix my signature to this notebook, since he collects the signatures of institutions and public figures… even thought I don't know him at all… Director of the Shaar Zion library").
The signatories include: Dutch consul Jacobus Kann; Swedish consul Lewis Larsson; R. Eliyahu Illouz head of the Tiberias Beit Din; Zaki Alhadif mayor of Tiberias (first Jewish mayor in Palestine); Shlomo Stampfer mayor of Petach Tikva; R. Yitzchak Yehuda Sapir, a rabbi of Petach Tikva; the heads and secretaries of kibbutzim in the Petach Tikva area; the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem; the Greek Patriarchate in Jerusalem; the Haifa municipality and electric company; the settlements of Kinneret, Degania Alef, Ness Ziona, Rishon LeZion, Kiryat Anavim, and more; the Hebron municipality and Jewish institutions in Hebron; Ezrat HaGalil orphanage in Safed; R. Yishmael HaKohen, a rabbi in Safed; charity gabba'im in Tiberias and by the tomb of R. Shimon bar Yochai in Meron: Chanoch Zundel Goldsweig, Shaul Abitbol and Akiva Hiya Behloul; Hebrew Information Center for Tourists in Palestine; Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, Baptist Mission Jerusalem; London Jew's Society Workshop; Grossmann Hotel, Tiberias; Grand New Hotel, Jerusalem; inscription by Joseph Klausner ("Mr. Jehiel Mizrakan is a guide, he was in Jerusalem and is travelling the whole country, Palestine and Syria"); editorial board of the Doar HaYom newspaper; the Hebrew guard Avraham Shapira ("the oldest guard"); and many others.
In 1943, the collector received an additional letter, handwritten and signed by the chief rabbi R. Benzion Meir Chai Uziel.
The notebook is half-leather bound; a paper pocket inside the front board holds four photographs (presumably, of Mizrakan himself: with a walking stick and keffiyeh, with a Torah scroll or wearing decorations), and a letter from the secretary of the Tel Aviv municipality Yehuda Nedivi (dated 1947).
104 leaves with signatures, inscriptions and stamps (several blank leaves at beginning and end). 16.5 cm. Good condition. Minor stains and defects. Some inked stamps indistinct or faded. Defects and wear to binding and endpapers. Two photographs in paper pocket have divided postcards backs, and one is cut.