Naama Axelrod is the granddaughter of Nathan and Leah Axelrod, One of the pioneers of Israeli cinema, who produced, Photographed and edited newsreels documenting the establishment and development of the Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel.
The Rare News Logs Collection contains 450 Diaries that together provide a broad picture of the Jewish settlement in the country – From the days of the British Mandate to the early years of the State of Israel – a fascinating mosaic depicting the turbulent years of the Zionist movement in Palestine 
Interview with Naama Axelrod
Nathan and Leah Axelrod. Photo courtesy of the family
Interviewer: Rotem Pesachovich P.Z.
Naama Axelrod is the granddaughter of Nathan and Leah Axelrod, One of the pioneers of Israeli cinema, who produced, Photographed and edited newsreels documenting the establishment and development of the Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel. The Rare News Logs Collection contains 450 Diaries created from 1927 to 1951. They include the homeland diaries and the Carmel diaries, that together provide a broad picture of Jewish settlement in the land from the days of the British Mandate to the early years of the State of Israel. Nathan Axelrod documented public figures and people from the settlement, Cultural and artistic life and daily routine – a fascinating mosaic depicting the turbulent years of the Zionist movement in Israel. The collection has been digitized and historically researched in the Israeli Film Archive, Supported and funded by the Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage, And it is available for the first time for viewing and research Here.
Naama, I'm excited to interview you. Today, five years ago, I began researching the diary collection for the digitization project of the Israeli Film Archive., So for me it's a great honor to talk to you today. There is very little information about Nathan and Leah's life, The Axelrod Family. Tell me about them.
"Nathan and Leah had four sons.: Moses, Aaron and Ellie, who are still alive, And Isaiah (Shaike) —My father, that is no longer. My father passed away five weeks before Grandpa Nathan. It was a very big family trauma, Because he died young, son 46, Cancer. His father, give, Died immediately after him unfortunate in age 82.
"From childhood I grew up with the understanding that we are part of something very big, Even before I knew what it was all about. When my grandparents wanted to take me with them to spend time, They took me to some ceremony. I didn't fully understand why. I remember, for example, that I had a day off and they took me to a 'fun day' – a ceremony in honor of Margot Klausner at the Dan Hotel. Additional memory: Celebrate for grandparents 50 Years of marriage, And someone gave them somewhere in Haifa, And Hannah Maron came to the celebration. Although they were not Berenjayim, Neither Nathan nor Leah, But they were very much appreciated in Berenger".
How was the day-to-day at Nathan and Leah's house, which was actually also the studio, The editing room and production house?
"My grandmother and grandfather were both people who lived simply and sparingly. They did what they did out of a sense of mission and never saw a lot of money from it. For example, Kids, In adulthood, Help support the family for many years before selling the archive to the state. On the other hand, Everyone who enters their home has never felt a shortage. They always organized events and parties, And was always happy. Every Friday there was a dinner at the family home in Pardes-Katz, More specifically between Pardes-Katz and Bnei Brak, The villa tends to fall – but it had a roof. And on the roof they organized events as if they were a very rich production team. Grandma would come into the kitchen on Sunday and prepare everything until Thursday evening. They gave the feeling that there is everything. Spiritual and mental wealth that is hard to describe".
Tell us a little about Grandma Leah, Nathan Axelrod's wife.
"Grandma until her last days controlled the newsreels with great skill. People would call her to ask where certain segments were located, And she would pull out of memory the number of the wheel and sometimes also the minute. She died a month before she was a child. 98 and was crystal clear almost to the end. She always made sure she had candies in her bag, So that if she meets someone nervous and angry she will give him a candy and he will give her a smile. She was a very inclusive and respectful woman. She first of all listened, First of all gave room to others. And she didn't have a simple life. It wasn't easy to live in my grandfather's shadow. He was an entrepreneur and a pioneer, But also a difficult man. Because to do such things in the absence of, There's nothing terribly big, Like making a cinema without electricity – the environment pays a price. the older kids, for example, She didn't raise at all. The one who raised them was her mother.".
How Leah and Nathan met?
"Their story begins in 1927, When Leah was a daughter 14. She was a new immigrant from Brazil, She barely spoke Hebrew. Grandfather met her in Israel, He arrived a little before her. He was a prisoner of Zion who received a forged certificate through the Hechalutz movement and managed to immigrate to Israel by way not through. incidentally, We have in our hand the piece of cloth that was sewn into his coat in which it was written that he was a member of the Hechalutz movement and that they would let him enter the country.. When he arrived in Israel, he joined a training group in Rehovot where they would pick oranges in the morning, And in the evening do cultural activities. Alexander Penn was a childhood friend of his, And when he immigrated to Israel, he was sure that there was a thriving film industry here.. His childhood dream was to engage in cinema, Although he studied optics and pharmacy. Grandpa Nathan was such a fantasizer. really, He was a fantasist.
"Anyway, During his training in Rehovot, he decided to go to the Montefiore neighborhood in Tel Aviv.. This happened after he heard about Jerusalem Segal, Get excited, And planned to establish a film industry with him in Israel. After arriving in Montefiore, And in the meantime, nothing happened, My grandmother's mother, Batya Weksler, who was a kind of social worker for the community in the neighborhood, Decided to organize a prom to raise money for a woman who had tuberculosis and arrange a sanatorium for her. She was looking for a mask for the prom, And someone told her that there was some young man in the wadi – almost inside the Ayalon – who dreams of making culture here. So she said, 'Tell him to come to me and we'll talk'. And so, in fact, Grandpa Nathan came to Leah's house for the first time.. According to the stories, He fell in love with her in the first second and tried to woo her even though her mother sent him to her cousin, Because Leah was only 14 years old.".
Really the story of Rachel and Leah.
"That's right, This is what came to mind when it happened. In the end, Nathan and Leah met and went on a trip to Jerusalem, And there he proposed to her near the Western Wall. Of course, in practice he waited until she was a girl 17 Half, And only then did they get married. When she was a girl 19 The eldest son was born, Yvonne".
And when do they start working together on the diaries?
"Grandma Leah didn't go to school. The school was shared by boys and girls, And her father thought it would take her out into a bad culture. That's why he taught her at home, and brought her books from the library. In the meantime, she met Grandpa, and at age 16 Started working in homeland diaries. At first, she just pasted the subtitles, And later on she was mainly engaged in editing, When grandfather functioned as the photographer, Producer and director. She continued to edit even after they closed the company, and worked at Herzliya Studios for many years.".
How all their joint business functioned with starting a family?
"When the first son was born, The person who raised him as a baby was Leah's mother, Grandmother Batya, The bubbling. After three years, the second son was born, Aaron, And he was also raised by grandma Buba. Meanwhile, war breaks out in Europe. The bubble is busy with other things, And when the third son was born, Isaiah – my father – so Leah for the first time needs to learn to be a mother. She goes to what was then a drop of milk and the nurse tells her: 'Good, I don't need to explain it to you, in a third child...'. So Leah told her: Yvonne, What a third child and what shoes, I don't know how to do anything, Teach me everything.'".
Describe family life in the home of a news photographer in the 1930s and 1940s.
"Actually,, The children are growing up into this industry and they are paying a very heavy price. Because they stay aside, They don't matter. So what if they are the kids, Now you have to make a movie. Now you have to take pictures. It's news, It won't be returning back. So on the one hand they have a very special life, But on the other hand it takes a toll, Because the parents are not available and the children are raising themselves.".
In the diary from 1936 Found Rare documentation of the Carmel Diaries Production Laboratory. How to take pictures, Develop, edit, Duplicate and transfer the material in time to the house of cinema?
"The diary should have been ready for the first show on Saturday at 6pm, So the pressure was great. Additionally, Nathan was a man of faith. He kept kosher and went to synagogue on Shabbat. But he always said that the car didn't know if it was Saturday or Sunday, And he needs to work, Because it's his job. So if they were filming the Friday afternoon football game, Development, The editing and preparation of the copies took place on Saturday. Then each of the children and grandmother would go to a different movie theater in Tel Aviv to give away the copies of the diary.. Shortcut, A complete factory".
and how they knew how to document the news events? Received a telegram? phone? There was a phone in the house?
"The country was small, Few inhabitants, Few matters, Going to build the wall and tower, And all the organizations know that they are going to build the wall and the tower – so they inform Nathan that he will come and take pictures.. And, They got a phone line relatively quickly, But Nathan was mostly connected. Don't forget, They lived in the Montefiore neighborhood, Today it's Tel Aviv, So they were very connected. Ben-Gurion, for example,, The day before the declaration of the state, Informed Nathan that it was going to be so and so in this place and this. So Nathan tells Ben-Gurion: 'I don't have enough film'. We are talking about after the beginning of the war, And no raw materials arrive in Israel. So they made an agreement between them, May Ben-Gurion mark when we begin, When to stop and where are the important points that need to be documented in each case. Therefore, there is also no complete visual documentation of the entire declaration, because Nathan didn't have enough raw material.".
So how did he manage to get raw materials anyway??
"He would do tricks, Because there really were no raw materials and it was very difficult to get, After all, no one paid for news. So he was selling commercials. They would ask him 'how much would it cost', And he was a computer that needed 50 Pete – and would say you have to 500 Pete [Length measurement of film coils]. So they would have stayed in his hand 450 Pete, And from that he would take pictures of the diaries. He had no money, And for the diaries he did not receive significant money. But he was willing to do anything to continue doing and get the raw materials.".
In terms of equipment, What did he have at home? What it looks like?
"Once upon a time, going to the photographer involved getting ten suitcases. Camera wasn't anything small, And he couldn't do it alone, So he always had all kinds of assistants. They had a private house on stilts, Downstairs was a storage room and there they reset the equipment. And by the way, There was also the archive. They lived on a barrel of explosives." (Meaning film, that used to be made of highly flammable material: Nitrate; R.P.).
They were aware that it was an explosive barrel?
"Of course they were aware. On the ground floor there was a housing unit and a room that was basically the storage room of the archive, Until it was transferred to a state authority in the early 1980s. They lived on the top floor. Additionally, In the yard there was a storage room and inside it stood the editing table on which they edited the diaries.".
What was the mood at home?
"Crazy levity. Vitality to the state, For action, To this project and life's work. Throughout the years, Their pain was that they didn't praise enough and didn't mention enough. They were hurt by it. Nathan felt that his work was not really respected, Although he did receive awards and recognition. But apparently inside he didn't feel that it was enough.".
What kind of configuration do you think grandfather and grandmother's work would have received today??
"It was very important for my grandparents to have documentation, And that Israel will have a history – photographed, Documented and meaningful. It was very important to them. Today he could have been the king of TikTok.".
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