Panim- Faces of Art and Culture in Israel- June-July 1999

Israel Festival: A Dazzling Cultural Exchange

As spring gives way to the Jerusalem summer, and the century gives way to the new millennium, artists of the world will meet in a city distinguished by the paradoxical confrontation of old and new. Falling squarely in between Israel's jubilee and the coming millennium events, the 1999 Israel Festival has much to celebrate.

Traditional and progressive arts join forces in this cultural tete-a-tete of music, dance, theater, and the occasional large-scale production. The inaugural ceremonies, which begin on May 30, are led off by Shalom Hanoch - an Israeli icon of local music, in a relatively new genre of Israeli music. Following a tribute to this highly influential musician, who is still a major symbol for his generation, another performance intertwining old and new is presented by the Spanish National Dance Troupe. The Troupe performs original choreography to Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. These two events open the festivities, which continue unabated through June 15.

This year, the music world commemorates the death of Frederic Chopin, 150 years ago. In honor of the 19th century composer, the Andrzej Jagodinski Trio from Poland will perform a musical synthesis of Chopin and jazz, while, following suit, the American Uri Caine Ensemble will perform an unusual work that renders Mahler in jazz form. These manifestly 20th century works are in addition to three concerts that will be held at the Targ Music Center in Ein Karem, as part of Israel's tribute to Chopin.

Blending old and new work is one level of the event - integrating Israeli and international culture is another. Hundreds of creative artists from 20 countries will participate in the Festival, which will be held mostly at the Jerusalem Theater.

Jewish and Israeli heritage is thus a major presence. The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra will perform Betty Olivero's musical works in Ladino, as well as works by Igor Stravinsky. The Ra'anana Symphonette Orchestra will perform "Children of God," a symphony composed by Joseph Bardanashvilli featuring soloists Etti Ankri and David De'or, and a choir of Armenian monks. Two new Israeli chamber works by Ron Weidberg and Daniel Schalit will also be performed. The charismatic and interdisciplinary Yad Harif orchestra, together with composer-conductor Roni Porat will present "A Fantasy for A Monkey and an Orchestra." This dramatic-musical event based upon Kafka's "Report to the Academy," features a solo performance by director-actor Yehuda Almagor (see Panim, Sept. 1998).

At a festive Jazz evening, musicians will salute the 100th birthday of the towering jazz figure Duke Ellington. Among internationally acclaimed performers who will participate in this salute is the Harlem Boys Choir, which has dazzled world audiences with their performances of classical, soul and popular American music and of course, jazz.

The festival will include theatrical performances, including Britain's widely acclaimed "Our Country's Good." Dance performances by Spanish, Canadian, French and Israeli dance troupes will entertain audiences. Included among them is Philippe Decoufle's "Shazam!" - a production incorporating dance, acrobatics and video techniques.

New features that distinguish this year's festival include the performances of four outdoor theater groups, Clipa, the Tav Group, Jacky Bachar and Ran Slavin. In addition, the Fifth International Poets Festival, which takes place biannually at Mishkenot Sha'ananim, will be incorporated into the Israel Festival for the first time, and features leading Israeli poets, such as Natan Zach and Yehuda Amichai.

Israeli dancers are gearing up for a fresh season of international dance exposure. Prominent dancers, such as Rina Schenfeld and Barak Marshall, have built on the success of last year's joint Suzanne Dellal/Israel Festival event. This year, each participating choreographer will present short solo works. The lineup also includes Sharon Eyal, Yossi Yungman, and Rami Levi.

Back by popular demand! Michael Flatley's "Lord of the Dance" production was so well received on its Israel tour in January this year, that it returns again, this time gracing the Israel Festival as Sultan's Pool rocks to Flatley's virtuoso Irish dance performances. The performance, while part of the Festival, will take place before the official opening. Sultan's Pool, under the walls of the Old City, will host another Festival event on July I when the La Scala Opera Company from Milan will perform Verdi's Requiem.

The City of Gold is certain to shine this year at the Israel Festival. For all those concerned, artists and audiences alike, it will be a pilgrimage worth making.

Shooting Nature: A Portrait of Shai Ginott

The setting is picture perfect. Surrounded by private homes amid fruit orchards, photographer Shai Ginott lives in a small bucolic village that shows little signs of urbanization. Her street doesn't even have a name - "just past the playground," she explains over the phone. It's so quiet the only sounds are the occasional barks of a dog and the symphonic chirping of birds.

"Just listen to them," says Ginott. After six years in Ramat Gan, where ambulance sirens and the cacophonous response of disgruntled drivers were her background music, Ginott describes her recent move to Kadima, with her husband and three-and-a-half year-old daughter, as a return to nature, a return to her roots.

Dressed simply in jeans and T-shirt, Ginott, 41, has a no-airs, no-frills earthy quality that so befits what she does.

One of Israel's foremost nature photographers, Ginott has been snapping shots of Israel's desert dunes and rushing streams, its flower buds and snow-capped hills for almost 20 years.

Her career had a serendipitous start. Following her army service (at the Sde Boker Field School in the Negev), a foreign photographer, whom she had guided to some of Israel's off-the-beaten tracks nature sites, sent her a camera as a gesture of thanks. "I never had any intention of using it professionally," says Ginott, who went on to study biology and Jewish education. During her studies she did pick up her camera and prepared an audio-visual presentation on the Negev desert. It was so successful that she prepared another on the Sinai, another on the Dead Sea and was then hired by the Israel Nature Reserves Authority in 1984 as their first staff photographer. In 1988 she decided to pursue an independent ("to shoot when and where I wanted") career. Since then her photos have appeared in leading newspapers, periodicals and magazines. She has two books to her credit - Echoes of a Landscape (1992), which won the Gold Prize at the Jerusalem International Book Fair in 1993 and A Place in the Heart, Jerusalem (1995). A third is due out this summer. Ginott is also photo editor of Spectacular Israel, a huge coffee table tome. Her photos have been exhibited throughout the world, including at the Barbican Centre in London and the Olympus Gallery, Tokyo.

For Ginott, nature knows no borders, yet she sees herself as deeply rooted in the soil. "I'm Israeli, and almond tree blossom in winter is part of my education, my experience." A goodwill ambassador "of all that is beautiful in this land," her goal, she says, is to show the side of the country that screaming headlines bypass and put Israel on the map of worldwide environmental concerns.

Ginott has the sensibilities of a poet; she is not a photographer of sites. A fragile blossom in the wind amidst an ocean of sand, waves crashing along the coast, ripples in a pool, flowers dancing in the wind; for Ginott nature is dynamic, ever-changing. She looks for atmosphere, for the right moment and will only shoot if she sees something new. Photographing Jerusalem, she says, was a real challenge. "I had to shoot the most photographed city in the country. I traveled to Jerusalem every day for six months and, out of sheer panic, didn't take one photo." It was also her first experience photographing people.

"I wanted to capture my Jerusalem," explains Ginott of her birthplace. Her photos are a composite of the sacred and profane, of the most intimate and universal aspects of life in the country's capital. There are photos of men and women - Jewish, Christian and Moslem - at prayer and shots of spectators at a soccer game; there are shadows and shimmering lights; there are even shots of people's feet.

Ginott's voice is deep and soothing. Her speech is associative, rambling. Asked about life in the desert ("my true home") and she's already talking about the human connection to the cosmos. "Look at flowers, no two are alike. To find one's personal favorite takes time. The same is true of human relationships." Intense, barely pausing for air, her lake-sized eyes dancing with expression, Ginott needs no prompting. "How much space is needed between buds for them to survive? How much independence should we allow our children?"

"My teacher is nature itself," says Ginott. It's almost like interviewing Henry David Thoreau.

Ginott admits that until her daughter was born she looked at nature more through the lens of a biologist. A blossom in the desert ("for which I would walk five kilometers to find") was quite simply a miracle of survival. Motherhood and age have waxed her more philosophical, adding, she says, a certain depth to her perspective.

In her soon-to-be-published book, and its accompanying exhibit, "From the Beginning," Ginott explores the complex relationship between man and nature, between what is real and what is imagined, what is hidden and what is revealed. Superimposing one photo on another, she makes the impossible, possible. There are spirit-like figures floating in an orchard, rock formations that appear human. Ginott's mystical shot of Jerusalem exists only through her imaginative figuring. The spot does not exist on any map. But it is Ginott's personal vision - her composite of a heavenly and earthly Jerusalem - and that makes it real enough.

- Shelley Kleiman

Beit Hagefen Hosts Arab Culture Month

Every May, the Israeli Arab literary world gathers for an event to celebrate the contribution of Arab culture to Israeli society. This celebration of Arab literature and culture is spread out over a whole month devoted to the books, folklore, music, food, costumes, artists and personalities of the Israeli-Arab community.

The central venue is Beit Hagefen in Haifa. The event, however, spreads out to dozens of Arab settlements throughout the country. Beit Hagefen initiated the activity, which is held in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, as part of its programs to foster Arab-Jewish cooperation and cultural exchange.

This year's program is as variegated as it is intense. Starting on May 23, with the opening ceremony at Beit Hagefen, eight different ongoing activities fill the month, through June 20. On the same day as the opening festival, there will be a carnival throughout the streets of Haifa, celebrating folklore, dance and song, complete with a marching band. From the 23rd through June 6, a book bazaar will present one million books, brought in from many different Arab countries. The bazaar is organized by "The Book Depot," Salah Abassi, of Haifa.

In early June, the festival exposes its artistic angle, with an exhibit of 15 local Arab artists at the gallery of Beit Hagefen. There will be concerts, literature and cultural events, symposia and conferences throughout the month. An up-to-date addition to this event is a computer and software bazaar, from June 5-12. This event is designed to bring the full range of Arabic-language computer programs to the attention of consumers, as well as programs for teaching Arabic, computers and use of the Internet. Computer representatives from around the world will attend.

Beit Hagefen spends the rest of the year organizing and hosting joint Jewish-Arab activities. These range from theatrical activities to artistic events. Recently, the Center hosted an exhibit of the work of Georgian-Israeli artist Meir Pichhadze, and Salman Mula. Pichhadze's oils convey themes of wandering and relocating: landscapes, families and the lives of people - practically documentary-like. Salman Mula is a sculptor from the Galilee who works largely with local stone. While his work does not explicitly represent human bodies, the "human presence" is identified in his sculpture through items that recall Pichhadze's themes as well, such as suitcases and shoes.

Beit Hagefen held its annual "Holiday of Holidays" event in the winter, in which the center organized on-site installations throughout Haifa in honor of Christmas, Ramadan and Hanukka.

Peace Powwow for Poets and Writers

The Galilee, in which Jews, Moslems, Christians and Druze live in peaceful cohabitation, is the ideal meeting place for dialogue and cultural exchange. It is no coincidence, therefore, that this year's International Congress of Conflict Resolution through Culture and Literature will be taking place in Shavei Zion on the Mediterranean coast of Western Galilee. Hosted by Beit Hava- the ICC International Convention Center from June 28-30, this event will be attended by prominent writers and poets from Israel, the US, Germany, South Africa, and Italy.

Prominent literary personalities such as Amos Oz, Nadine Gordimer, Alan Sillitoe and Nairn Araidi are scheduled to meet with the participants, who will have the opportunity to share their own works at the various workshops and discussions. Themes of the sessions, which will be conducted in English, include "Entering the New Millennium through Literature and Culture," and "The Role of the Mass Media in Spreading the Culture of Peace instead of Violence."

The event will be chaired by congress veteran Ada Aharoni, who in addition to her lecturing post at the Haifa Technion's literature and sociology departments, has 21 volumes of novels and poems to her credit.

"Sea Horses" Touches Hearts

A short, somber, but sweet film, "Sea Horses" has captivated festival audiences in the category of student films. It tells the poignant story of a young boy, Noam, and his two sisters, as they face the sudden turn their lives take when their parents decide to separate. As the family enters a trial separation, their roles shift subtly and their outlooks change substantially. The film enters the family's life at the very beginning, when Noam just begins to realize that although the world is no longer the same, he will have to learn to cope. Although his family appears broken, elements within him will strengthen so as to make up for the cracks.

The sensitive direction of Nir Bergman, who completed the film for his graduation requirements at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, has won the film several prizes. Starting at home, the film won the award for best script at the Haifa Film Festival 1998, and second prize at the International Student Film Festival in Tel Aviv, 1998. Internationally, "Sea Horses" won the Greek Directors' Society Award at the Larissa International New Filmmakers Film Festival, in 1999, and first prize at the Lodz International Film Festival in 1998. It has been screened at festivals in Hong Kong, Cracow, Barcelona and Munich. In the next two months, the film will be seen in Potsdam, Taiwan and at the Student Oscar Awards in Los Angeles.

Cinematheque Launches First Documentary Film Festival

Documentary films often seem to be upstaged by the more glamorous feature films; they are seldom the focus of widespread attention. Helping put documentaries on center stage, the Tel Aviv Cinematheque held its first documentary film festival, adding a promising new event to its already rich lineup of film events.

DocAviv 1999, the International Documentary Film Festival, impressed Tel-Aviv audiences, who flocked to the Cinematheque from April 3-7. From the Israeli contingent, director Ziva Postak was the evening's winner. Postak was honored with both the Best Israeli Film and Best Film Director awards for her introspective film, "Stars." The full-length film revolves around a film team and their relationship with the residents of a home for the mentally-handicapped in Herzliya. Through the film's focus upon the minute details of the patients' daily routine, it is possible to discern the "growth process 11 of the residents and those documenting them. "In making 'Stars', I learned about the hidden world, which has no reason for being hidden," says Postak, adding, "It is society which causes it to be hidden."

Chile, Obstinate Memory, directed by Patricio Guzman, received the International Film Award. The film, which deals with traumatic memory, features the people and places appearing in Guzman's earlier documentary film, The Battle for Chile, which had been banned during Pinochet's regime.

The second DocAviv is scheduled to take place between April 21-26, 2000.

Gesher Theater on the Road Again

After releasing its major new production "Eating," (see Panim, Apr 1999) only this year, Gesher Theater has responded to international demand and will be traveling to London in early June. The company has been invited to the Barbican Centre from June 1-5, with its long-running production "City: Odessa Stories." Based on the stories of Isaac Babel, this upbeat, nostalgic and clever play is full of the lively characters that fills Babel's stories, caricatures and stereotypes as well as eccentrics and simpletons, who paint a picture of Jewish encounters with Russian society, in the coastal port town of Odessa. Gesher appears in London alongside theater companies from around the world. It is the third time that Gesher has performed in London and the first time "City" has been performed there.

KCDC Prepares for Festival

The Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company is preparing feverishly in anticipation of performing "A.P.T.", a creation with the largest and most spectacular choreography ever created exclusively for this troupe.

Choreographed by KCDC artistic director and house choreographer, the prolific Rami Be'er, this new work utilizes the company's 20 dancers, in a story-line that includes allusions to contemporary social and political issues in Israel. Subjects addressed or symbolized include references to the fighting in Lebanon and religious strife. "A.P.T." expresses a lyrical response to the human circumstance: the strangulation of the soul in a conflict-filled world and mankind's potential for transcendent creativity.

This is not the first time KCDC has built its production around issues central to Israeli life. "Memorandum," a memorial to the Holocaust, is one of the company's most successful productions.

The premiere will be held in Karmiel, from July 7-9 at its International Dance Festival, and will thereafter be performed at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center as part of its 1999/2000 Contemporary Dance Series.

Some $170,000 has been invested in this unique production, which is evidence of its ever-rising reputation. Recently returned from Central and South America, the Company is scheduled to tour North America this fall, and Europe next winter.

Eurovision: A Feast for the Eyes and Ears

From countries as far apart as Norway, Sweden Denmark, Croatia, Bosnia and Estonia, pop artists will flow into the cradle of civilization, at the foot of Mt. Zion, in late May. Here, in Sultan's Pool, this great gathering will ultimately burst forth in song. A wild, Babel-like celebration of language and music will culminate in a pinnacle of cultural exchange, cutting-edge popular music, and of course - victory for one of the countries.

This is Eurovision. Since 1956 when the first Eurovision Popular Song Contest was held in Switzerland, with seven countries, this festival has been stimulating the production of original songs in the field of popular music by encouraging international competition among artists and composers.

Eurovision has grown over the last 43 years, to the point where it now encompasses 23 countries. Devoted fans can pinpoint the stardom debut of some of the classic figures of past Eurovisions, such as Abba, Celine Dion, and Julio Iglesias. Israel has won the competition three times, culminating in the soaring, emotional victory of Dana International at last year's Eurovision, with her song "Diva."

On May 29, at 10 p.m., Dana will be on hand as the evening unfolds at Sultan's Pool, where she will ultimately give the prize to this year's winner. Israel will be represented by the group "Eden," whose song "Happy Birthday" is the home country's contribution - not inappropriate following Israel's 50th. Eden is known for their original song-writing and smooth stage performance.

The evening of musical rendezvous is the work of producers Tsedi Tsarfati, and Ralf Inbar. As event director and artistic manager respectively, the extensive experience of both producers with Israeli and musical and television events promises an evening to live on in Eurovision history.

New Classical Music Festival in T.A.

Classical music adds a new festival to its roster this year. The Felicja Blumental International Music Festival, a new festival honoring the late Blumental, was hosted by the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Blumental was an acclaimed musician and pianist, notable for sparking new interest in the works of composers such as Field, Czemy, Anton Rubinstein and others.

World-renowned artists whose performances draw crowds are the Canadian pianist Louis Lortie and the Finnish soprano Karita Mattila. Lortie will perform an entire Chopin program while Mattila will sing a program of lieder by Schubert, Strauss, Mahler, Berg and Sibelius. Leading Israeli artists Natasha Tadson and Revital Hachamov performed works previously recorded by Blumental.

The festival's opening performance was "Non-Stop Piano", a four-hour marathon narrated by the television personality Ram Evron and musicologist Prof. Yehoash Hirshberg of the Hebrew University. The Israel Sinfonietta of Beersheba participated in both the opening and closing concerts of the festival.

As part of the experience, visitors had the opportunity to attend lectures, guided tours to the museum's exhibits, informal meetings with the performing artists and experience art at its best in a rich cultural environment.

19th Jerusalem Book Fair Celebrates 50th

Fifty years of Israeli independence could not have been properly celebrated without a tribute to what has been called a "Golden Age" of Israeli literature. The flourishing of modern Israeli literature has become a trademark of Israeli culture internationally, and thus both the international and local community will convene from June 20-25, 1999 for the 19th Jerusalem Book Fair, which was first held in 1963.

This biannual book fair has undertaken the challenge of capturing the texture and variety of Israeli literature - while putting it into the context of its history and society. To meet that challenge, five full days of non-stop activity have been planned, including seminars, events, lectures and exhibits. Representatives of 60 countries will attend the fair, which will fill the Jerusalem Convention Center, the venue of this massive literary exchange.

The life and times of Israeli literature itself will be conveyed through the fair's central exhibit, appropriately titled "50 Years of Israeli Literature." The exhibit comprises an inclusive chronicle of literature that spans books, periodicals, prose, poetry, plays and popular literature, children's books and light entertainment. The "crossroads" are demonstrated through a presentation of the milestones that influenced Israeli writing, carrying over into the contemporary scene. On June 23, the Mayor of Jerusalem Ehud Olmert, will bestow the Jerusalem Prize upon the writer whose work best expresses the theme of freedom in society. This year, the prize will be awarded to American writer Don DeLillo.

Other events characterize an analysis of Israeli and world literature. From June 20-24, the 9th International Symposium on Encouraging Reading will be held, in which literary scholars from Germany, France, Israel, Sweden, Denmark and Britain will lead sessions. From the 22-23rd, the Aspen Institute Forum holds its regular event, which this year is entitled "Books that Changed the 20th Century." As the century approaches its end, authors, scholars, journalists and publishers will choose the books that they believe have made the most significant change in society, thinking and writing. Children's literature will be addressed in an event entitled "From the Word to the Picture and Back." The Editorial Fellowship Program holds its seventh program, bringing together young editors together from around the world.

With chilling ease Israel's leading playwright has once again ventured into the unsettling subject of death with his new play "Requiem." Hanoch Levin's most recent work prior to "Requiem," "Those Who Walk in Darkness," offered at least a confused perspective on human existence - while "Requiem" proposes the possibility of death being an improvement over life.

Based upon three stories by Anton Chekhov, the theme of "Requiem" is well represented in a haunting scene of a mother mourning her dead baby, in which the buried child sends a message: "I will not rise again, / Why should I? Released from fear, / Worry and pain, / And my smile, quietly, With the years, / Will only widen." One of the other protagonists, an old man whose wife has died, recalls and regrets their unhappy life. "Life is loss, and death - gain. Even though this is true, I still feel bad and bitter. Why is the world conducted in this way, such that life is given to man only once and then passes uselessly?"

Most of the characters in "Requiem" have either suffered the loss of a loved one or are ignorant fools, such as the drunks and prostitutes riding in the carriage with a bereft driver whose son has died. The lonely driver, confounded by his passengers' obscene joviality, asks the perennial question (of his dumb horse, no less!) how to continue life after the loss of a loved one. By leaving these questions unanswered, Levin may be trying to ease his own magnified preoccupation with mortality.

"Requiem" has been showing at the Tel-Aviv Cameri Theater since mid-March.

Clipa - Alternative Theater with a Touch of Class

Idit Herman and Dmitry Tyulpanov do not share a mother tongue; her first language is Hebrew, his is Russian. On top of this potential obstacle to communication, the two creative theater artists see no easy way of defining their work- Dance? Theater? Why choose? Clipa Theater, an eccentric, humorous, communicative alternative theater group, is the brainchild of two actors with a message, and it is unlikely that audiences will leave their theater without a very clear idea of what it is.

One might muse that the very lack of a shared native language forced the directors to be that much more communicative with each other, and hence with the audience. How else to explain the fact that in an hour and a half performance, with only the two actors on stage and not a word spoken, the story of a lone bureaucrat brings the audiences to peaks of laughter and depths of philosophical meditation at the drop (or mysterious rising) of a hat? How to explain that the audience can immediately identify the central inspiration behind this piece, called "Wanted" - which is based on the world described by Franz Kafka? The combination of dance-like movement and exaggerated mannerisms of the characters are displayed in outrageous interactions between them, as the audience watches the hapless clerk struggle, suffer and despair of ever mastering the unconquerable "system."

Spectators at Clipa performances are struck by the surprisingly simple means by which the dreamlike images provoke their senses and stimulate their imagination. "Mid-Evil" is another example. This production enacts, beyond what might have seemed possible - scenes from Hieronymus Bosch paintings. The decadence, confusion, discovery and enlightened growth of human society are portrayed through a polished combination of movement, unspoken communication, and physical gimmicks. Elaborate stage sets are prepared for the performers to clamber upon; everything from beheading to birthing is conveyed with surprising realism and - despite the inescapable sinister elements - humor.

"Hide and Seek," will be shown at the Israel Festival. This is a production that conjures up the friendship, games and fears of childhood as reflected in adult life. Other productions include "Labyrinth," Zonov, "Hands" and "Watershow."

Clipa's intriguing stage design and expressive performance helped earn it prestigious awards such as the Sternfeld Award for Theater and Stage Design in 1996, first prize at the Israel Dance Festival in 1997, and the Israeli Theater Academy Award in 1999. Clipa is scheduled to perform in festivals throughout Eastern Europe later this year and will go on tour to Italy and the Netherlands.

Reuben Rose Poetry Competition

Voices, a group of Israeli poets writing in English, is sponsoring the Tenth International Reuben Rose Poetry Competition. Prof. Bill Freedman will judge the poems, which can be submitted until the end of September. Prof. Freedman, a widely published poet himself, is presently a lecturer of English and American Literature at Haifa University.

Entries can be sent to Voices Israel, Group of Poets in Israel, P.O. Box 236, Kiryat Ata, Israel 28101. The winning poems will be announced by the end of November and be featured at a special public reading of Voices Israel.

"Gesher Bayam" - First-Time Showing of Hagana Photographs

A unique exhibit of previously unreleased photographs is being shown at the Museum of Photography, in the Industrial Park of Tel-Hai from April 30 -July 15. The exhibit, "Gesher Bayam" (Bridge on the Water), features members of Palyam, the naval arm of the Hagana, the forerunner of the Israeli Defence Forces during the British Mandate.

Palyam, which was established in 1943, helped bring Jewish survivors of the European Holocaust to Palestine, and brought more than 70,000 "illegal" immigrants. Almost all of the passengers on the 13 boats were forced to land at Haifa by British warships and then interned in camps in Atlit and Cyprus. Subsequently, Palyam proceeded to sabotage British patrol and deportee boats. In 1948, Palyam's members formed the core group of the newly established Israel Navy.

The anonymously taken photographs document the members training at their base in Kibbutz Sdot Yam, rescue missions, boatloads of passengers, British prison camps, the sabotage unit and European immigrants - men, women, and children - stepping on the shores of Palestine for the first time.