My favorite picture from the Holy Land, & I've collected 1000s. What stands out about the pic, today in the day of #Corona?
I found it in the Lib of Congress, captioned "Children's procession, 1898-1946."
The pic was taken at the same time as the 1918 flu pandemic. Where? Why?

2/ With research, field trips, & my wife's suggestion, I discovered picture taken on Lag B'Omer, April 30, 1918. The kids were returning to the Old City after visiting the Tomb of Shimon the Righteous (Hatzadik), walking on Nablus Road.
Pic: Jewish women at the tomb, c. 1930.

3/ Lag B'Omer, bw #Passover & Shavuot, has deep Kabbalistic origins, but it is also the day the PLAGUE that killed 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva's students in 1st cen CE ENDED.
These children had just seen the end of the plagues of Ottoman control, starvation, cholera, typhoid, malaria.

4/ The flu doesn't even show on the records of the Jer'm burial societies.
The site of happy kids' procession was just a 100m from the American Colony.
Some buildings are the same. My big clue for 1918: British army camp on horizon on the left-4 months after capturing the city.

5/ I hope I made this photo come alive for you.
I colorized it today (HT My Heritage.) It was time.
Note the separation of boys/girls; the fashion of two diff girl schools.
There is life after plagues and tragedies.
And even time for song - see surprise in next Tweet.

6/ A new song was written in 1918, using an old Hasidic nigun (tune). HAVA NAGILA!
In recent yrs, the song is so cliched, it's even banned in some Jewish weddings.
(I still cringe over Bill Murray as the Lounge Singer.)
See the late Lucette L's article https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304388004577533092169060420

7/END
For the Jewish survivors of wars, occupation, disease in 1918, "Hava Nagila - Let Us Rejoice" was probably as sacred as "Jerusalem of Gold" in 1967.
Here is the sound track for the 1st recording by composer Avraham Idelson. https://www.jewish-music.huji.ac.il/content/hava-nagila-0