Rishon's old synagogue then and now

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As we saw in the previous post, Rishon LeZion was founded in 1882 by Jews who came from the Russian Empire to farm the land of Israel. 
Here is another mural on a wall in present-day Rishon, now a city.

Here is that same old synagogue, presently undergoing restoration.
It's going to be really nice. 

The airbrushed paintings were made by Hillel Lazarov who has a school for teaching mural making. 

(Linking to Monday Mural meme.)
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Murals like historical photos

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Finally, some murals to contribute to Monday Murals meme. 
These were on sidewalk level of a tall building in Rishon LeZion, now our fourth biggest city.
Rishon was founded in 1882 by Jews who came from the Russian Empire to farm the land of Israel. 

Here is the same old water tower in real life.

See the bell tower in back of the orchestra?   
Not many farmers could afford clocks or watches back then, so they relied on the bell-ringer to signal the times of day (or to warn of emergencies). 

Here is the same bell today, in front of the old synagogue and next to the history museum. 
You can ring it! 
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The Great Synagogue of small Mazkeret Batya

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On a Beit Harav Kook study tour we visited the old "colonies" of Mazkeret Batya (originally called Ekron), Rishon LeZion, and Rehovot in central Israel.
Mazkeret Batya was founded in 1883.
In 1927 its first synagogue had to be razed, due to structural problems; and in 1928 the new Great Synagogue was built instead.

The sign notes a surprising fact: toward the end of the British Mandate, in the period leading up the war and to Israel's independence in 1948,  the Haganah force had a "slick," a secret weapons cache hidden under the bimah (the table on which the Torah scroll is unrolled and read).

Pictures of the interior of the synagogue after its 1989 renovation can be seen here.

Written in stone:

A GIFT OF THE BENEFACTOR BENJAMIN EDMOND

AND THE BENEFACTOR ADELHEID 

ROTHSCHILD

In the year Tarpaz

Baron Rothschild  and his wife, Adelheid, were great supporters of early Zionism.

He purchased huge tracts of land from the Arabs and got the Jewish pioneering families started in working the land. 

Rothschild changed the name of the Ekron community to Mazkeret Batya in remembrance of his mother, Batya, who had just died. 

You can learn more about Mazkeret Batya in this nice article by a tour guide
and/or at Wikipedia.
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(Linking to inSPIRED Sunday.)
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