"Plan for building the city Tel Aviv arranged by the technical department of the Tel Aviv municipality, following the plans of Prof. Patrick Geddes [in 1925] and approved by the Tel Aviv city council in 1926."

[3], 9, 10, 62 pages. 32 cm. Stencil. Two title pages, in Hebrew and English.

The fast growth of the city prompted Meir Dizengoff to invite Patrick Geddes, a Scottish city planner, to create a plan for Tel Aviv. The plan was supposed to create expansive infrastructure for the new Jewish city that was growing at a very fast rate. Geddes's plan was accepted and provides the the very first description of the city. The present city structure, with main roads and wide boulevards, was built according to this plan.

Very rare. Not in the Jerusalem National Library.

Paper jacket with Hebrew on one side and English on the other. The Hebrew side is torn, without loss, reinforced. Brittle paper. Fine condition. 

A series of rare photographs of sites of Biblical ruins by the photographer Tsadok Bassan [7]. Israel, beginning of the 20th century. 

[7] black and white photographs 18x13 cm, pasted onto an original cardboard frame of 22x17 cm. Titles in German are pasted on by hand. The series is numbered from 1 to 7 and includes sites of Biblical ruins. On the back of each photograph is the stamp Bassan Photograph Jerusalem. 

Tsadok Bassan (1882-1956) was born in Jerusalem and became the first Jewish photographer born in the Land of Israel. In 1900 he established a photography studio in the Old City of Jerusalem. For the majority of his career he worked with the old method of glass plates. In contrast with most of his photographs, which were taken in his studio in Jerusalem, here the photographer attempted to identify and photograph Biblical sites, possibly for tourists and pilgrims.

Refer to Tzalmei Ha'Aretz pages 32-33 for more information about him.

A few stains. Fine condition.   

Non-traditional Pesach haggadah - Hebrew and Dutch, beginning of 20th century.

47 pages. 19 cm.

On the haggadah's title page is written in Hebrew "Haggadah shel Pesach" and a subtitle in Dutch. Contains a collection of prayers, stories, and poems, with partial texts from the traditional haggadah, and additions in the spirit of liberalism. Published by the group Brit HaYehudim HaLiberalim in Holland, with no note of the year. At the end of the haggadah are music notes of Pesach songs.

Black paper cover with a Star of David and gilded writing in Dutch. Fine condition.   

Entartete Kunst - Ausstellungsführer - A guide to the Nazi "Entartete Kunst" exhibition that displayed artwork unbefitting the German nation, Berlin, 1937.

30 pages, [1] leaf, 21 cm.

Nazi Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, together with Adolf Ziegler, President of the Chamber of Art, created an art exhibition named "Degenerate Art" that displayed 650 works of art that were confiscated from 32 museums and galleries throughout Germany, as they were 'an insult' to the German nation. As part of the approach of defining the Aryan Race and invalidating everyone else, artwork that did not align with the Aryan perspective of art was disqualified, such as modern influences of impressionism and surrealism, as well as art by 'Jewish-Bolsheviks'. More than three million people visited the exhibition. It  opened in Munich on July 19, 1937 and then moved to twelve other cities throughout Germany until April 1941.

Jacket cover printed in color. The middle leaf is detached. Fine-very fine condition.  

A transit visa from Kovno to Curacao via Japan, issued by the Righteous Among the Nations Sempo Sugihara just before the annihilation of Lithuanian Jewry, to save the life of  Nachman Yitzchak Sroka, who escaped from Warsaw to Lithuania at the outbreak of the war. A rare historical item. Kovno, Lithuania, August 1940.

[1] double paper leaf. 23x29 cm, written on both sides. Certificate of Polish citizenship of Nachman Icchok Sroka which was issued by the British Consulate and the British Office for Polish Interests in Kovno, Lithuania. A photograph of Sroka with Polish and British stamps and personal details filled out by hand. On the second page, a transit visa to Curacao via Japan from the date 8.8.40, written and stamped in English and Japanese, by the Japanese Consul Sempo Sugihara.   

A rare and important historical document, testimony to the noble deeds of the diplomat Sempo Sugihara who did all that he could to save Jews in the crucial moments of the summer of 1940 in Lithuania.  The actions of Sugihara, who acted against orders, were later recognized throughout the world as an act of tremendous bravery and humaneness and he was awarded a medal as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. 

With the German invasion of Poland at the outbreak of World War II, many Polish Jews escaped to the Baltic countries. In the summer of 1940, when Russia forcibly annexed Lithuania, the refugees tried to escape from Europe by every possible means. The world's gates were locked, and it was impossible to pass through the Soviet Union without a valid visa for the final destination.
After Jan Zwartendjik, the temporary Dutch Consul in Lithuania, agreed to issue visas to the Dutch Curacao Island the Russians agreed that the refugees could pass through the Soviet Union on their way to Curacao, on the condition that they receive transit visas. Therefore, Dr. Zerach Warhaftig, one of the leaders of the Mizrachi movement, approached the Japanese Consul, Sempo Sugihara, and asked him to issue the visas.
Chiune "Sempo" Sugihara (1900-1986) served as the Deputy Consul of the Japanese Empire in Lithuania in Kovno, and served as the acting Consul in the critical window of opportunity of the summer of 1940. Despite his government's refusal of the offer, Sugihara decided to act and to issue the permits to the many Jewish refugees who flooded to the Consulate's doors. In the remaining weeks before he left Kovno, he worked tirelessly, for over 18 hours a day, to issue these visas, knowing that they would save the lives of their bearers. Many yeshiva students, such as the students of the Mir Yeshiva who had also escaped to Lithuania, took advantage of this opportunity to flee. During August 1940, when the Russians took control of Lithuania, Sugihara and Zwartendjik were forced to stop their activities. Even as he boarded the train, Sugihara continued stamping passports, knowing that each of them was a lifesaver for its recipient. 

There is a list of 2,139 names in the official Sugihara database, and Nachman Sroka's name appears in row 1,500. His name is displayed in "The Flight and Rescue" exhibition in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

Fold marks, light tears at the edges without loss. Fine-very fine condition.