David Ben-Gurion Standing on His Head (Sharon Hotel Beach, Herzliya)

Paul Goldman

1957

Photograph of two shirtless men on the beach, one doing a headstand with legs bent facing to the right of the viewer and the other man facing the viewer on the right side of the photograph.

Paul Goldman was notable for keeping his distance from his subjects, perhaps as a show of respect. He photographed many of Israel’s early leaders. Here, David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, is doing a handstand on Herzliya beach after a lesson by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, inventor of the Feldenkrais Method, a form of physical exercise designed to increase well-being and self-awareness through movement.

Credits

Paul Goldman, MUSA, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv Collection.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 9.

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Creator Bio

Paul Goldman

1900–1986

Unrecognized until after his death, Paul Goldman produced an extensive body of work, totaling more than forty thousand images; it is now celebrated as one of the greatest photographic archives of a critical period in Israeli history. Born in Budapest, Goldman immigrated to Palestine in 1940, joining the British Army and then earning a living as a freelance photojournalist for local newspapers and international news services. Because press photographers were not credited for their work at this time, Goldman’s oeuvre remained unacknowledged until 2000, when David Rubinger, Time magazine’s Israel photographer, uncovered his remarkable collection of negatives. A selection of Goldman’s photos was the subject of a 2005 exhibition at the Hebrew Union College’s Jewish Institute of Religion Museum in New York.

Related Guide

Visual and Material Culture, 1939–1973

Jewish visual art flourished and diversified in the postwar period, reflecting the social and political transformations taking place in the world.

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