Cook’s Tours: the Kaiser and the Father of Zionism ...and... A Note About Birds in Spring

In 1929 the Bezalel artist Ze’ev Raban designed a poster for the Society for the Promotion of Travel in the Holy Land.  To entice potential tourists he included this lyrical description of spring from the Song of Songs.

“For, Lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.”
Spring began officially last week and with it our major tourist season opened.  About 3.5 million tourists come to Israel each year.   Thomas Cook & Son, the world’s first travel agency, pioneered the development of tourism to Jerusalem.  It also played a part in a historic meeting between Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Theodore Herzl that took place here.

Thomas Cook

Sign for Thomas Cook's agency
on the wall outside the Jaffa Gate

Thomas Cook, an English cabinet maker and Baptist minister, founded his business in 1841 running railway excursions to temperance meetings.  In 1850 he led his first trip abroad, to Calais.  He was the first to develop many of the familiar features of package holidays including travel brochures, hotel coupons and traveller’s cheques.  By the mid-1860’s Cook’s Travel agency was already transporting tourists to Jerusalem.  The journey was not easy.  The road from Jaffa to Jerusalem wasn’t paved until 1867.  The construction was primitive and parts of the road were often washed away by heavy rains.   By the 1870’s, with improvements to the road and to security along it, Cook’s agency began to organise cheap group visits to Jerusalem – “Cook’s Tours”.  They set up tent encampments for their tourists along the way and, because there were as yet no good hotels in Jerusalem, outside the city walls - near to the Damascus Gate,  near the Jaffa Gate and on the Mount of Olives.  They even had servants available for the guests.  The agency opened a ticket office just inside the Jaffa Gate - now a busy centre of commercial activity. 

The Kaiser's tent camp

In 1898 Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last emperor of Germany, visited Palestine.  In Jerusalem streets were cleaned and public buildings repaired in his honour.  The wall between the Jaffa Gate and the Citadel was torn down and the moat filled in so that he could ride into the city with his entourage.  A huge camp with 230 tents was set up for him in Jerusalem on the street we now call Rechov Hanevi’im.   Magnificent tents were provided by the Sultan for receptions.  Prefabricated buildings were brought from Germany for the royal visitors to sleep in.  Furniture and carpets were appropriated locally.   The Turkish army guarded the camp.  All the arrangements for this visit were entrusted to Thomas Cook’s travel agency. 

The Kaiser's procession to the
Church of the Redeemer

The official reason for Wilhelm’s visit was to attend the consecration of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter.   The Kaiser had more political purposes in mind.  He wanted to strengthen German national feeling amongst German Protestants and German Catholics in the Holy Land.  He presented his visit in heroic terms with himself entering the city like a Crusader.   The British satirical magazine Punch portrayed him in a cartoon as a “Cook’s Crusader”.

As demand grew, the services available for tourists improved.  By 1895, for example, the municipality required all tour guides in Jerusalem to take an examination in the history and geography of the city.  Those who passed received a diploma.  At the end of the 19th century several modern hotels opened in the Old City and outside the walls. 

The Kaminitz Hotel building today
Photo: DMY

Sandwiched between the Jaffa Road and Rehov Hanevi’im is the building of the former Kaminitz Hotel.   This was the first modern Jewish hotel in Jerusalem.  It was one of the hotels with which Thomas Cook and Son had an annual contract.  Eliezer Lipa Kaminitz had originally opened his hotel by the Jaffa Gate.  He moved it to these more spacious premises opposite the Alliance School in 1883.  It is dilapidated now but this was a five star hotel of its time with luxurious guest rooms, a large garden and a carriage drive leading up from the Jaffa Road.

Herzl on a boat en route
for Palestine

The Kaiser's entourage passes
through the Jewish triumphal arch

In October 1898 Theodore Herzl made his only visit to Palestine.  He had come to meet the Kaiser and to try to persuade him to support the Zionist cause.  Herzl arrived in Jerusalem late on a Friday afternoon.  He walked to the hotel from the railway station despite feeling unwell only to find that all the rooms had been taken by the Kaiser’s entourage.  Kaminitz took pity on him and found a bed for him for one night.  On Saturday afternoon he watched from the hotel as the Kaiser paraded through the two triumphal gates that had been set up to welcome him along the Jaffa Road.  That night the Stern family took Herzl to stay at their home on Mamilla Street where Steimatsky’s bookshop stands today.  The official meeting between Herzl and the Kaiser took place on November 2nd at the Kaiser’s tent camp.  Wilhelm was polite but made no commitment of any kind.  Herzl came away with nothing.

A Note About Birds in Spring

Cranes over the Hula Valley
Photo: אילת לב ארי שלי

With the start of spring the great migration of birds is also in full swing.  Because Israel sits at the junction of three continents, twice each year 500 million birds fly across our skies.   In the spring they journey north to enjoy temperate summers.  In the autumn they head south to find milder winter weather.   Eilat and the Hula Valley are regular refuelling points for the birds during their long migrations.  No wonder then that many bird enthusiasts visit to see the amazing number and variety of birds that pass through.  It’s a spectacular sight.  Timed to catch the peak of the spring migration, the 6th Eilat Bird Festival is on now and continues until April 1st.  The Hula Valley holds its bird festival in November during the autumn migration.