Israel the First Year – A Photo Album

With nearly  nine million inhabitants and one of the world’s leading economies today, it is almost impossible to imagine what kind of place Israeli was in 1948, the year that it was founded. the people, the landscape, the national spirit were very different than they are today.In 1948 Israel was a poor country in the midst of an extended and difficult war. At the same time it was absorbing thousands of new immigrants and building the physical and ideological infrastructure of a new country. These challenges were met with a spirit of “we shall make this work.” It was not euphoria, but a feeling of being present at a unique moment in history.The photos of this period embody this. Many of them are posed, staged to convey the sense of renewal and togetherness. Even so they portray the reality of those days of  faith in a better future.