Three Photographic Postcards – Rare Documentation of Jewish Exiles from Palestine on Board of the United States ...

Three Photographic Postcards – Rare Documentation of Jewish Exiles from Palestine on Board of the United States Navy Ship Tennessee – "The Jaffa Deportation", 1915
Three photographic postcards with pictures of Jews who were forcibly deported from Palestine during World War I, making their way to Alexandria on board of the United States navy ship Tennessee. Alexandria (one was possibly taken at the Jaffa Port or at sea), 1915.
With the outbreak of World War I, most of the Jewish citizens of Palestine, members of the first and second Aliyah who lived in Palestine without Turkish citizenship, became enemy aliens. The Governor of Greater Syria, Djemal Pasha, ordered the deportation of all enemy citizens, and on December 17, 1914, hundreds of the Jewish residents of Jaffa were separated from their families and sent penniless to Egypt on a crowded ship. Over the next few weeks, additional Jews were deported under similar conditions, whereas those who remained in Palestine were victims of looting, harassment and confiscation of property.
Fearing the fate of the Yishuv, the Zionist leaders appealed to the USA ambassador in Istanbul, Henry Morgenthau (whose country still had diplomatic relations with the Empire). Morgenthau was horrified to learn about the way the Jews had been deported and the state of those who remained in Palestine and willingly provided the Yishuv with one of the ships of the United States Navy – the USS Tennessee [ACR-10]. Between December 1914 and February 1915, the USS Tennessee sailed back and forth from Jaffa to Alexandria, leading exiles in one direction, letters and money in the other. The journalist Mordechai Ben Hillel wrote in his memoir about the ship: "For a year, the USS Tennessee was our guardian angel, bringing us from Alexandria money and letters and transferring to Egypt masses of exiles… its name whispered admiringly by everyone".
The deportation and the harassment of the Jews that remained in Palestine at the beginning of World War I led to approximately 10,000 people leaving the country – an eighth of the Jewish population of Palestine. In Egypt, the leaders of the Jewish community and the Zionist leaders established the "Aid Committee for Palestine and Syria"; the "Herzliyah" school was established in Alexandria and the exiles even printed their own journal – "BaNechar" (In Exile). Many of the exiles returned to their countries of origin; some chose to immigrate to the USA and a small percentage waited until the end of the war and returned to Palestine.
These three photographic postcards document the Jewish exiles sailing to Egypt on board of the USS Tennessee. One of the postcards depicts the passengers registering in a book on the deck of the ship (presumably, shortly after they boarded the ship at the Jaffa Port) and the two others depict the passengers disembarking at the Alexandria Port, their few possessions packed in bags and sacks, while the members of the crew are watching them from the deck. The postcards are captioned in the plate (English) and two of them are signed: "S+S" and dated: 14.2.1915, Alexandria.
The archive of the United States Navy holds several photographs documenting the sailing of USS Tennessee from Jaffa to Alexandria – some with captions similar to the ones on these three postcards, and with the same signature. The photographs on these postcards do not appear in the archive.
Three photographic postcards. Approx. 14X9 cm. Good condition. Minor blemishes to edges and minor stains to verso.