Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld greets the President of Czechoslovakia, Thomas Masaryk, in the Hungarian houses. ...

Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld greets the President of Czechoslovakia, Thomas Masaryk, in the Hungarian houses. Jerusalem, 1927

A photograph of Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld greets the President of Czechoslovakia, Thomas Masaryk, who visited Jerusalem in 1927.

Masaryk was the first head of state to pay an official visit to Eretz israel in 1927 when he was 77. He visited the kibbutzim of Czechoslovakians "Beit Alfa" and "Sarid", and even came to the Hungarian houses in Jerusalem that after the First World War and the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire received the Czechoslovak citizenship. Prior to the visit, the houses of the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood were decorated with Czech flags, handing out pennants to the children of the hayderim, and teaching them to read "Slava" [Long live!]. The highlight was when he was greeted by the revered rabbi of the ultra-Orthodox community, the leader of the old settlement, Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld.

Masaryk wrote in his diary: "As a child I was afraid of the Jews. I believed they used Christian blood. All my life I tried not to do injustice to the Jews and be just towards them, and therefore they said I was attracted to them ... When did I overcome anti-Semitism? Maybe I did not overcome my anti-Semitic feelings, but only Mentally". During Masaryk's time, there was full equality of rights for Jews, according to a decision he made as president of the Czechoslovak Republic. 

9x14 cm. Very good condition.