Yaacov Ben-Dov was an Israeli photographer and a pioneer of Jewish cinematography in Palestine.
10 Facts About Ya'acov Ben-Dov
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Ya'acov Ben-Dov was born in a shtetl near Kiev in Ukraine, son of Dov and Raizel Lasutra.
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Ya'acov Ben-Dov studied religious studies in a heder and secular subjects with private tutors.
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Ya'acov Ben-Dov attended the Academy of the Arts in Kiev and became a professional photographer.
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Ya'acov Ben-Dov first encountered film in 1911 when British Zionist Murray Rosenberg filmed his visit and visited Bezalel Academy.
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Ya'acov Ben-Dov was enchanted but it took him several years to obtain a camera and raw film stock.
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Ya'acov Ben-Dov established the Menorah Film Company and became the sole cameraman filming key historical events.
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Ya'acov Ben-Dov immortalized images of the Jewish Legion in Eretz Israel in his second film Land of Israel Liberated, which includes a portrait of Legion founder Ze'ev Jabotinsky in uniform.
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Ya'acov Ben-Dov shot some of the earliest footage of an archaeological expedition, the excavation of the Hammat Tiberias Synagogue, in 1920.
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Yaacov Ya'acov Ben-Dov photographed key events in the life of the yishuv, such as the wedding of Rachel Ussishkin to Shimon Fritz Bodenheimer, the arrival of the first British Commissioner to Palestine Herbert Samuel, the funeral of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and the opening of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.