Zeire Ha'am. Collection

The photographs show different members of the Zeire Ha’am posing for group pictures, among other things. Among these members are Eric Beckmann and Rosa Ringer. Zeire Ha'am ("the youth of the people"), a Zionist youth organisation, was especially active in Antwerp in the 1930's. This Antwerp youth association drew inspiration from another Jewish youth organisation, Ness Ziona, which was active in Scheveningen in The Netherlands. After young people had joined the organisation, they founded Zeire Ha'am in Antwerp around 1927. Antwerp had a flourishing Jewish community at the time. Zionist associations, among others, ensured a lively Jewish club life in the city. This life was largely disrupted after the Germans had occupied Belgium. Fortunately, the majority of the members of Zeire Ha'am had already emigrated by then. Zeire Ha'am was Zionist in a general manner: the organisation was not affiliated to any party and could not vote at Zionist congresses. The leaders chose this as they felt that this served the purpose of emigration better. It saved a lot of squabbling between different Zionist ideologies. The purpose of the association was to learn about Palestine, Zionism, to do scouting and to prepare for emigration. The association ceased to exist before 1940 and the start of The Second World War.

On 16 May 2022, Mrs. Aagje Van Cauwelaert kindly permitted Kazerne Dossin to digitise thirty-seven pictures in this collection. Originally the photographs were in the possession of Eric Beckmann, born in 1915 and died in 2009. Eric Beckmann and Rosa Ringer, married together, donated twenty-nine photographs in 2005 to Aagje Van Cauwelaert. Berthe Taustein donated the last eight. Aagje had them all digitised by professional photographer Miel Verhasselt.

Aagje Van Cauwelaert