Men and women pause during a funeral service for soldiers killed in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War in this photo dated 1949 by Beno Rothenberg, on display in the exhibition “Photographed and Reported: 1947-1957,” at the Korea Foundation Cultural Center Gallery through Feb. 7.( Israel Embassy)
The Israeli Embassy brought the story of the founding of the State of Israel, and the powerful immigration story it entailed, to Korea for the first time in a photo exhibition at Korea Foundation Cultural Center Gallery through Feb. 7.
It is a story that Israeli Ambassador to Korea Tuvia Israeli knows all too well. He emigrated to Israel with his parents from Romania as a 7-year-old child in 1962.
“We stayed in a transition camp, like many first arrivals,” Israeli said during the opening reception of the exhibition at the gallery Monday.
The exhibition, “Photographed and Reported: 1947-1957,” features a selection of the work by Israeli photojournalist Beno Rothenberg.
The pictures portray the initial years of the founding of the State of Israel, covering themes of immigrant’s journeys, the transition camps many new arrivals faced, Arab-Israeli fighting, and economic changes and development of the Israeli countryside.
For Israeli, it was as much a personal journey as it was historical. The career diplomat’s parents are Holocaust survivors. His mother survived Auschwitz and his father survived a labor camp.
When they returned to Transylvania, Romania, after the end of World War II, they decided Europe could no longer be home.
“It was clear to them as it was clear to many others that Europe was not a welcome place for Jewish people,” Israeli said.
(ephilip2011@heraldcorp.com)
