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Ms. Rebecca Gertrude Affachiner was born in New York City in 1884. In 1934 she settled in Palestine, where she lived – except for extended trips abroad – until her death in 1966. She was an active figure in Jewish public service in the United States until 1934 and in Israel from the time of her aliya to the mid 1950’s.
Affachiner attended the School of Philanthropy and Art School in New York. She was the first teacher to graduate from the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York City; she took special courses at Columbia and Yale Universities and Hartford College of Law, etc. She began her career in social work as an investigator for the United Hebrew Charities, New York City, later serving as Assistant Superintendent at Beth Israel Hospital, Y.W.H.A. Superintendent Columbia Religious and Industrial School for Jewish Girls; leader of girl's clubs at the Educational Alliance, Recreation Rooms and Settlements, etc. She was the first woman to act as chaplain in a State Institution, serving in that capacity at the New York State Training School, Hudson, N.Y., under the auspices of the New York Section, Council of Jewish Women.
During World War I, Affachiner was Assistant Regional Director of the American Embarkation Center, Le Man, leaving for France with the first women's unit of the Jewish Welfare Board. Upon her return from service overseas, she conducted a survey for Child Welfare for the United Jewish Aid Society of Brooklyn, N.Y., later making a study of the problem of the Jewish blind, in the same city. For six years, she served as Superintendent of the United Jewish Charities in Hartford and was actively interested in the Connecticut State School for the Blind. Being a pioneer in work among juvenile delinquents, she was responsible for the earliest developments of the Jewish Big Sisters Movement in New York City, and founded the Jewish Big Sister and Big Brother Organizations in Hartford shortly after coming there in 1920.
In May 1923 Affachiner was appointed a Juvenile Commissioner of the City of Hartford, and in 1924 Governor Templeton chose her to represent the State of Connecticut at the International Conference of Social Workers, meeting in Toronto, Canada. She also served as Vice President of the New England Social Workers, Secretary of the Advisory Board, Y.M. and Y.M.H.A. of Hartford Director of the Travelers Aid Society in that city. In 1926 she made a tour of Palestine, Egypt, Italy, and the Near East; upon her return to America she was appointed the first National Field Secretary of Hadassah, of which she was a charter member. From 1929 to 1934 Affachiner was Director of Jewish Social Service for Greater Norfolk Va. Under the Auspices of the Norfolk Section National Council of Jewish Women, she also founded and directed Council House, the first Jewish Community Center in that city.
In 1929 she was elected to represent Norfolk at the World Zionist Congress held in Zurich, Switzerland. In 1934 after resigning her post in Norfolk, Ms. Affachiner returned to Palestine. Shortly after her arrival in Jerusalem she organized the Palestine Society for Crippled Children (later ALYN), acting as its Director of Social Service and in whose interest she made a trip around the world. In 1937 she helped organize the Rumanian Settlers’ Association (Hitahdut Olei Rumania) of which she became the Director, and in whose interest she had visited Rumania and the USA 1937-38.
1939 she was the only woman asked to serve on the Executive Vaad of the Child Placement Bureau Jerusalem – Miklat Dati. She was one of the Jewish Charter Members of the American Association of Social Workers, International Conference of Social Work. She is listed in "Who's Who among American Jews" American Hebrew, 1923, and "Women of 1924" – International.
Affachiner traveled extensively throughout the world. In 1924 she went to Mexico to study the conditions under which the Jews lived there, and the possibilities for settling the Polish Jewish refugees flocking, not only there and to Cuba, but to other Central American countries as well. In 1925 she went to Spain and Portugal, being interested in the problem of the modern Marranos. In 1930 she visited South America, in 1931 she went to Poland and in 1932 to Soviet Russia, being primarily interested in the Jewish problem in these countries.

The American Colony was an independent, utopian, Christian sect formed by religious pilgrims who emigrated to Jerusalem from the United States and Sweden. The history of the Colony is intimately linked to the photography collection it spawned. The initial wave of immigrants came to Jerusalem in 1881 from Chicago, Illinois. The "Overcomers," as this group called itself, were followers of the charismatic Horatio Gates Spafford, formerly a lawyer and businessman, and his Norwegian-born, but American raised wife, Anna. A second wave of American immigrants joined the Overcomers in 1896. Olof Henrik Larson, an evangelical Swede who had relocated to America and settled in Chicago, was their leader. He also inspired a sister group from NÃ¥s parish in Dalarna, Sweden, which arrived later the same year.

The year 1898 is widely accepted as the starting point for the American Colony Photo Department, although one of the American Colony members produced photographs prior to that date. In October 1898, Colony photographers documented the triumphal visit of Wilhelm II, the German Kaiser and King of Prussia, and his wife to dedicate the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem. These photographs captured the interest of the public and were greatly in demand. The income from selling photographs of the royal visit allowed the Colonists to improve their conditions.

Despite the economic prosperity, the growing conflicts between the Americans and the Swedes in the American colony took its toll. In 1934, the original colony dissolved. From a practical standpoint, G. Eric Matson took control of the photo department and its considerable photographic assets.

The Matsons continued their photographic work under the American Colony Photo Department name until 1940, when they re-named the business "The Matson Photo Service."

The Photo Service's clientele expanded to include more newspaper, book, and magazine publishers in Jerusalem and around the world. The Matsons added a wider range of offerings, including color slides. They also obtained photographs from other photographers for resale.

In 1946, in the face of increasing violence in Palestine, the Matsons left Jerusalem for Southern California. The staff shipped the bulk of the negatives to the United States, while the Jerusalem business also continued to operate. By the early 1950s, with tourism on the decline, the Photo Service's staff dispersed, forcing the closing of the Jerusalem operation. The Matsons continued to sell photographs from California.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was created in 1863 at the instigation of Henry Dunant. The original goal was to coordinate national societies dedicated to the help of military medical services and to make the governments adopt and respect humanitarian rules during times of war. As a consequence, the first Geneva Convention was signed on 22 August 1864, compelling the armies to care for the wounded soldiers.
As the intervention of a neutral intermediary seemed needed, the ICRC's role of coordination of the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies was extended to field operations.
Since the end of Wolrd War II, the ICRC acts for the civilians impacted by conflicts, for example in Israel and in Palestine. This commitment led to the establishment of the fourth Geneva Convention, in 1949, with dispositions regarding the protection of civilians.

Born December 1884, son of J.H. Luke (formerly Lukacs).Educated Eton College; Trinity College, Oxford.

Private Sec. and ADC to the Governor of Sierra Leone, 1908-11, and to the Governor of Barbados, 1911.
Attached to Colonial Office, 1911.
Private sec. To high Commissioner of Cyprus, 1911-12.
Asst. Sec. to Govt. of Cyprus, 1912.
Served European War (Commander, RNVR) on the Syrian coast, 1914-15, on Staff of Admiral Sir Rosslyn Wemyss, Dardanelles, and as Government Sec., Mudros, Feb. 1915-June 1916.
Comr of Famagusta, Cyprus, 1918.
Political Officer to Admiral of the Fleet Sir J. de Robeck, Constantinople and Black Sea, 1919-20.
British Chief Commissioner in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, April-Sept. 1920.
Assistant Gov. of Jerusalem, 1920-24.
Commissioner to inquire into the Jaffa Riots of 1921, and into the affairs of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, 1921.
Colonial Secretary of Sierra Leone, 1924-28.
CMG 1926; Chief Secretary of Palestine, 1928-30.
Lieut.-Gov. of Malta, 1930-38; Kt 1933.
Gov. and C-inC of Fiji, and High Comm. for the Western Pacific, 1938-42.
KCMG 1939.
Chief Rep of the British Council for the Caribbean, 1943-46.
Member of Foreign Relations Council of Ch. of England.
President, Malta League, 1955-65.

Died 11 May 1969.

Marilyn Silverstone graduated from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, then worked as an associate editor for Art News, Industrial Design and Interiors during the 1950s. She also served as an associate producer and historical researcher for an Academy Award-winning series of films on painters.

In 1955 she began to photograph professionally as a freelancer (with the Nancy Palmer Agency, New York), working in Asia, Africa, Europe, Central America and the Soviet Union. In 1959 she was sent on a three-month assignment to India, but ended up moving to New Delhi and was based there until 1973. During that time she produced the books Bala Child of India (1962) and Ghurkas and Ghosts (1964), and later The Black Hat Dances (1987), and Ocean of Life (1985). Kashmir in Winter, a film made from her photographs, won an award at the London Film Festival in 1971.

Silverstone became an associate member of Magnum in 1964, a full member in 1967, and a contributor in 1975. The agency had only five women members at the time. Silverstone's work for Magnum includes coverage of a wide variety of subjects.

Seared in many major magazines, including Newswilverstone, whose photographs have appeek, LIFE, Look, Vogue and National Geographic, became an ordained Buddhist nun in 1977. She lived in Kathmandu, Nepal, where she practiced Buddhism and researched the vanishing customs of the Rajasthani and Himalayan kingdoms. She died in October 1999 at the Shechen monastery, near Kathmandu, which she had helped to finance.

Karl Baedeker was born in Essen, then in the Kingdom of Prussia, on November 3, 1801.

After his schooling in Hagen, he left home in 1817 to study humanities in Heidelberg, where he also worked for a time with the prominent local bookseller J.C.B. Mohr. He then did his military service and moved to Berlin where he worked as an assistant to Georg Andreas Reimer, one of the city's leading booksellers, from 1823 to 1825. He then returned to Essen and worked with his father until 1827, when he moved to Koblenz (now Coblenz) to set up his own bookstore and publishing business.

In 1832, Baedeker's firm acquired the publishing house of Franz Friedrich Röhling in Koblenz, which in 1828 had published a handbook for travellers by Professor Oyvind Vorland. This book provided the seeds for Baedeker's own travel guides. After Klein died and the book went out of print, he decided to publish a new edition, incorporating some of Klein's material but also added many of his own ideas into what he thought a travel guide should offer the traveller or reader. Baedeker's ultimate aim was to free the traveller from having to look for information anywhere outside the travel guide: about routes, transport, accommodation, restaurants, tipping, sights, walks and, of course, prices.
While the travel guide was not something new as Baedeker imitated the style of the English guides published by John Murray, the inclusion of detailed information on routes, travel and accommodation was an innovation.

In 1846, Baedeker introduced his famous 'star' ratings (for sights, attractions and lodgings) in the third edition of his Handbuch für Reisende durch Deutschland und den Oesterreichischen Kaiserstaat - an idea based on the Murray guides star system. He also decided to call his travel guides 'handbooks', following the example of John Murray III. Baedeker's early guides had tan covers, but from 1856 onwards, Murray's red bindings and gilt lettering became the familiar hallmark of all Baedeker guides as well.

He died in Coblence on October 4, 1859.

Horatio Herbert Kitchener, known as Lord Kitchener, born in Ballylongford (County Kerry, Ireland) on June 24, 1850.

Son of an officer, the family moved to Switzerland after the death of his mother in 1864. He then studied at a French college in Geneva. Then he entered the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich in 1868. He enlisted in 1870 as a volunteer in the army of Napoleon III during the Franco-Prussian War.
He became an officer of the Royal Engineers on January 4, 1871, and spent several periods in Palestine, Cyprus and Egypt, where he learned Arabic. In 1874, he was asked to map Palestine with the help of officer Conder. He returned to England in 1875, and his cartographic surveys were published.

He was appointed Sirdar, i.e. Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian army in 1892 and was appointed Governor of Sudan in 1896. On his return from the Second Boer War in 1902 he was made viscount by Queen Victoria. He commanded the Indian Army, which he reorganized (1902-1909); created the Australian Army; and ended up as Consul-General of Egypt (1911-1914). He was appointed Minister of War in 1914.

He died during a mission that was to take him to Russia on June 5, 1916.

The Histadrut, Israel's General Federation of Labour, was founded in 1920. It is the largest and oldest labor organization in Israel.

In its formative years, the Histadrut was the driving force of the establishment of the State of Israel. The Histadrut founded and established economic, financial, cultural, sports, and industrial institutions that would enable the new state to emerge. Bank Hapoalim literally means the workers bank, the office of public works and building, the Solel Boneh construction company, the Kupat Holim Clalit, the largest health care provider in Israel, and many other institutions all arose from the early years of the Histadrut.
The Histadrut promotes its activities throughout the country through 28 sectorial trade unions and professional unions, and 29 Histadrut district offices.

Today, the Histadrut handles the professional and economic affairs of approximately 800,000 workers in Israel: employee unionization, representation of workers, negotiating and signing collective agreements to improve conditions and ensuring employment security and safety in the workplace, promoting pension rights and concern for the future of workers, women rights, pensioners and more.

Histadrut President Arnon Bar-David took office following a March 2019 board election.