Tower of David Museum wants your old Western Wall photos
Request for people to search for images comes as Jerusalem institution prepares 2027 exhibit for 60th anniversary of city’s reunification following 1967 Six Day War
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Jerusalem’s Tower of David Museum is asking for historical photos of the Western Wall, from the 1860s through 1968, the year following the Six Day War.
The museum is planning a 2027 exhibit, “Eyes on the Wall,” marking 60 years since the 1967 reunification of Jerusalem, exploring the ancient wall’s history across two millennia, through the eyes of those who visited and worshiped at its stones.
As part of the research for the exhibition, the museum is asking the public to help expand its visual archive of the Western Wall.
“There is something profoundly moving about the moment when an intimate family photograph crosses the boundary from private memory into shared heritage,” said curator Shimon Lev. “Through this initiative, we hope to uncover additional visual testimonies that illuminate and preserve not only the stones of the Western Wall, but the human experience of encountering across generations.”
A Montreal professor, David Freedman, recently discovered the photo album of his grandfather, Dr. Abraham Orkin Freedman, a Canadian physician who lived in Jerusalem in the 1920s and documented the city and its residents.
Freedman found the album while rummaging through his parents’ basement and gifted it to the Tower of David Museum.
Now the museum is asking the public to search through family albums, private collections, drawers, attics, and forgotten storage boxes for photographs, postcards, and other visual materials documenting the Western Wall, through 1968.
Any photos or images can be submitted to the museum by email, to exhibitions@tod.org.il.
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