Figure 1.--This Jewish boy is unidentified. He was photographed by Savvides Freres, a Greek photographer, in Jerusalem. There was also a studio in Jaffa, The portrait is undated, but looks to have been taken about 1905. The boy's family may have been Greek. This photograph turned up in Crete.

Our Israel archive is very limited. So we have very limited information on garments. The political changes make it complicated to assess clothing styles. They affected the garments woirn. The Jewish population was realtively small before the Zionist movement began to promote Jewish emigration during the late-19th century. Palestine at the time was a province of the Ottoman Empire. We do not know how Jewish boys dressed during this period. The Jewish immigrants to Palestine came mostly from Europe and thus their clothing would have reflected the popular styles in the countries from which they came. We see portraits taken in Palestine that are indistinguishable from European portraits. The only way we can tell is these were taken in Palestine is if they are indentified. We note sailor suits and other popular European styles. Over time as the number of Jews increased and children were born in Palestine, clothing more in keeping with the local conditions developed. The British seized Palestine during World war I which added another fashion influence. Short pants were very common reflecting both European styles and the warm climate. The garments worn tended to change the longer the familiy lived in Israel. We see boys commonly wearing open-collar shirts. Garments like long stockings became less common. Boys after World War I were commonly wore short pants, often with ankle socks when not dressing up. Formal styles seem less popular than in Europe. We see some nursery children wearing rompers. Long pants became more common after the 1960s.

Created: 3:28 AM 8/13/2008
Last updated: 8:08 PM 12/15/2015