1950 Szapiro Map of Israel with Decorative Pictorial Border

Socialist Realsim in Isreal - 3rd Year.

This is Joseph Szapiro's 1950 English-language map celebrating the third year of the State of Israel, with drawing and lettering by Isidor Ascheim and a pictorial border signed by Myer Isaacman. Its detailed geography records Israel's settlement expansion after independence. At the same time, the surrounding illustrations, in a Socialist Realism style, depict immigration, agriculture, scientific research, construction, and defense as interconnected foundations of the new state.

A Closer Look

The map extends from southern Lebanon and the Syrian frontier through Galilee, the coastal plain, Jerusalem, and the Negev to Eilat, with substantial coverage of neighboring Jordan. Red roads, black railways, and blue waterways overlay finely stippled relief. Ancient names such as Philistia, Moab, and Edom coexist with modern settlements and infrastructure. Near the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, the label 'Cave of the Scrolls' incorporates a recent archaeological discovery into this landscape of biblical and contemporary associations.

The legend makes settlement chronology a principal subject. Filled dots distinguish Jewish settlements founded between May 15, 1948 and April 23, 1950 from earlier Jewish settlements, while separate symbols identify towns and Arab villages. The concentration of new names around the coastal plain, the approaches to Jerusalem, and the northern Negev lets the reader follow the geographical development the title celebrates.

Heavy green lines define what the legend calls 'Boundaries of the State' (the 'Green Line' of the 1949 armistice); dashed green lines preserve parts of the former international boundaries. The distinction is especially evident along the Jordan River and through the Dead Sea, east of the line enclosing the West Bank.

The decorative border enhances the map's implicit message of national development into a sequence of human activities. At upper left, immigrants carrying possessions descend a ship's gangway, as many Jewish refugees and emigrants had in the preceding decades. Below them, a propeller, scientific apparatus, and a microscope lead to a tractor working ordered fields and a monumental agricultural laborer. Across the right border, construction workers and modern buildings give way to interlocking gears, a hand writing in a book, musical instruments, military aircraft, and an armed soldier. The laborer and soldier anchor opposite lower corners, visually pairing cultivation with defense. Dense hatching and broad dark passages give these figures a sculptural weight distinct from the smaller lettering and restrained colors of the map itself.

Above, a procession of banners bearing traditional tribal emblems curves beneath an enormous eagle toward a radiant sun. A woman raises an arm beside a trumpeter and the Israeli flag; below them appears the state emblem, a menorah between olive branches. The biblical quotation reads: 'and I bare you on eagles' wings and brought you unto myself', identified as Exodus 19:4. Read beside the disembarking immigrants, it frames migration as a renewed biblical homecoming. The quotation also had a particular contemporary resonance, relating to Operation Magic Carpet, also known as Operation On Wings of Eagles, which transported Yemenite Jews to Israel between December 1948 and September 1950.

Historical Context

This map was intended for English-speaking Jews, tourists, and recent immigrants who had not learned Hebrew. Anglosphere tourism was largely driven by diaspora solidarity delegations, philanthropic missions, and Zionist youth visits; despite severe domestic rationing and rudimentary hotel infrastructure, these early visitors built enduring cultural bridges and laid the institutional foundation for Israel's commercial tourism. Meanwhile, English-speaking immigrants, often driven by ideological commitment or arriving as foreign volunteers (machal) during the War of Independence, brought vital professional, medical, and technical skills that helped establish civil institutions, civil aviation, and kibbutzim.

Publication History

This map was prepared and published in 1950 by Joseph Szapiro (elsewhere as Shapiro) with drawing and lettering by Isidor Ascheim, the pictorial border drawn by Myer Isaacman, and printing handled by E. Lewin-Epstein Ltd. It relates to an earlier map, the 'Second Year of the State of Israel,' issued in both English and Hebrew (the Hebrew edition previously sold by us, IsraelSecondYear-shapiro-1950-3). A second issue of the present English-language map was published in 1951 with minor changes. The present edition is only listed among the holdings of the College of Charleston, the Library of Congress, the Bibliotheek Universiteit van Amsterdam, and the National Library of Israel.

Cartographers

Joseph Shapiro (יוסף שפירא) (1900 - December 4, 1967), also spelled Josef Szapiro, was a Polish-Israeli publisher and cartographer active in Israel in the middle part of the 20th century. Shapiro was born in Łódź, which was in the part of Poland partitioned by the Russian Empire. He studied at the Hebrew school in Łódź, then moved on to study economics and philosophy at Mannheim and Heidelberg, Germany, receiving a doctorate from Heidelberg in 1924. He immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1935. He began his own publishing interest around 1940, publishing maps and atlases of Israel - often covering the various wars and most up-to-date events. His final work was a series of maps illustrating the Six-Day War (June 5, 1967 - June 10, 1967). His wife, Esther Lurie (1913 - 1998), was a prominent painter. When he died of a heart attack in 1967, the publishing business passed on to his son, Shaul Shapira (1947 - ????).   Further Details...

Isidor Ascheim (איזידור אשהיים; October 14, 1891 - May 19, 1968) was a German-born Israeli painter, printmaker, art educator, and occasional map illustrator, active in Breslau and subsequently Jerusalem during the 20th century. Born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Margonin, in the Prussian province of Posen, now Poland, he grew up in Breslau, now Wrocław. After serving in World War I, he studied at the Breslau Academy of Art from 1919 - 1923, where his teachers included the Expressionist Otto Mueller (1874 - 1930). He subsequently exhibited in Germany, and three of his works appeared in the 1934 exhibition of German-Jewish artists at the Parsons Gallery in London. Fleeing Nazi persecution, Ascheim reached Mandatory Palestine in January 1940 aboard an unauthorized immigrant vessel and was interned by the British before settling in Jerusalem. He married the German-born painter Margot Lange-Ascheim ( מרגוט לנגה) (1905 - 1981). Ascheim taught drawing at the Bezalel School of Art (now the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design) in Jerusalem and later served as its director. His etchings and lithographs, and his teaching of these techniques, contributed to the development of Israeli printmaking; his landscapes and figure compositions retained an Expressionist foundation while responding to the surroundings of Jerusalem and the Judean landscape. He received the Jerusalem Art Prize in 1955 and participated in the Venice Biennale in 1956. Ascheim died in Jerusalem on May 19, 1968.   Further Details...

Meir Ronnen (מאיר רונן, Mike Ronnen, Meir Isaacman, Myer Isaacman; 1926 - August 30, 2009) was an Australian-born Israeli illustrator, newspaper mapmaker, political cartoonist, and art critic active principally in Jerusalem during the second half of the 20th century and the early 21st century. Born in Melbourne as Meir Isaacman to a father from Jerusalem and British mother, he studied art and architecture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. He served in the Australian Army and worked on a military newspaper in occupied Japan before returning to Australia, where he became a cartoonist for the Sunday Telegraph. In 1949, he immigrated to Israel and joined the Palestine Post, initially drawing maps before taking on regular illustration and cartooning assignments. He also proposed the newspaper's change of name to the Jerusalem Post, adopted in 1950. In 1956, he adopted the surname Ronnen when appointed a Jewish Agency emissary to South Africa and Rhodesia. Returning to Israel in 1958, he helped establish the Jerusalem Post's international edition and continued as a cartoonist and art editor. He also contributed political cartoons signed 'Mike' to Yedioth Ahronoth. His later career centered on art criticism, exhibition reviews, book reviewing, and illustration; the Israel Museum named him an Honorary Fellow in 2003. Ronnen died in Jerusalem on August 30, 2009. His children donated his artistic archive to the Israeli Cartoon Museum in Holon, Tel Aviv in 2014.   Further Details...

Elihu Zeev Lewin-Epstein (אליהו זאב הלוי לוין-אפשטיין, Eliahu Ze'ev Lewin-Epstein; 1863 - July 18, 1932) was a Russian-born Jewish publisher, settlement administrator, and map compiler active in Warsaw, Ottoman Palestine, and the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Vilkaviskis, in the Suwałki region of the Russian Empire (now in Lithuania), he received a traditional Jewish education and attended the Volozhin yeshiva before returning home, where he continued religious studies and learned Russian, German, and French. He subsequently helped manage the Hebrew bookselling and publishing business founded by his father Shmuel Levin-Epstein (שמואל לוין-אפשטיין) in Warsaw, which had been founded in the 1880s as 'Levin Epstein Brothers and Partners Book Trade House' (בית מסחר לספרים של האחים לוין אפשטיין ושותפיהם), presumably founded by Shmuel with his brother or brothers. The firm initially focused on publishing the Torah and other religious works, which were very well regarded, but later branched out into a wider range of publications. While still in Warsaw, Elihu Lewin-Epstein married Judith (Yehudit) Fineberg, with whom he had four children, including two sons, Shmuel and Rechavia, who later managed his printing and publishing business. His principal documented cartographic contribution was the compilation and arrangement of 'Plan for the settlement of Rechavot, Jaffa District, Jerusalem Province, in the Land of Israel' (תכנית מושב רחבות מחוז יפו, פלך ירושלם בארץ ישראל), a plan of the agricultural settlement of Rehovot printed in Warsaw in 1897. Prepared following the allocation of the Menuha ve-Nahala society's land among its members, the map records numbered properties and their owners, roads, cultivation, terrain, wells, and public sites. Its attribution identifies Lewin-Epstein as the settlement's administrator, placing his cartographic work directly within the practical organization of agricultural colonization. A member of Hovevei Zion and one of the founders of the Warsaw branch of the Benei Moshe Zionist organization. He helped establish the Zionist emigration organization 'Rest and Inheritance' (מנוחה ונחלה) and traveled to Palestine in 1890 to arrange land purchases and the foundation of Rehovot. He became a leading member of its settlement committee and participated in the development of Hebrew education there. Aside from his settlement activities, Elihu Lewin-Epstein partially moved his family's publishing business to Israel, refounding it as E. Lewin-Epstein Publishing (הוצאת א. לוין אפשטיין, later renamed E. Lewin-Epstein, Ltd., and, for a time near the end of Elihu's life, as E. Lewin-Epstein and Sons, Ltd., reverting to the earlier name after his death). The Warsaw branch of the publishing house continued to be operated by his brother Levi (לוי לוין אפשטיין) until Levi also emigrated to Israel in 1934. Elihu also helped establish the Carmel Wine Association, which exported wines from Jewish settlements in Palestine, and went to the United States in 1900 to direct its American business. Subsequently, as a treasurer of American Zionist organizations, he participated in wartime relief efforts and returned to Palestine in 1918 with the American Zionist Medical Unit, later serving with the Zionist Commission. During the 1920s, he continued organizational and fundraising work in Palestine, Europe, and America. His memoirs, Zikhronotai (זכרונותי), appeared in 1932. He died in Germany while en route from the United States to Palestine on July 18, 1932, and his remains were brought to Rehovot for burial. After Elihu's death, Shmuel and Rechavia continued to focus on the firm's traditional strengths in religious literature. Shmuel appears to have handled most of the company's daily management as Rechavia was also engaged as manager of the Palestine branch of the American Economic Committee for Palestine. In 1936, the brothers built a large printing factory in Bat Yam, one of the first large, industrial printing operations among the Yishuv. After the founding of the State of Israel, this factory was given an exclusive concession to produce all of Israel's postage stamps, which made the firm something of an international expert on securely printing stamps. By the mid-1960s, the firm was facing serious financial trouble and underwent several rapid leadership changes. The large Bat Yam plant was sold in 1964 and, in 1973, the firm was broken up and sold off, with Oded Modan buying its publishing arm and continuing for a time to publish some works under the imprint 'Lewin-Epstein Modan.'   Further Details...

Condition

Excellent.

References

OCLC 892946388. National Library of Israel, NNL_ALEPH990038624910205171.