1946 Benvenisti / Luria Hebrew Map of Eretz Israel

David Benvenisti (January 25, 1897 - May 16, 1993; דוד בנבנשתי) was a prominent Israeli geographer and educator. Born to a prominent Jewish family in Thessaloniki, he moved to Jerusalem in 1913 to pursue rabbinical studies. In 1918, he completed studies at the Hebrew Teachers' College (now the David Yellin College of Education) and joined the Hebrew Battalion of the British Army. In the following years, he taught at various schools in Haifa, Jerusalem, and elsewhere, while also pursuing a master's degree in geography from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Over the same period, he became involved with the Haganah paramilitary organization. After the founding of the State of Israel, he served as a teacher and principal of the Beit Hakerem elementary school in Jerusalem. He was an expert on the history of the Holy Land and deeply involved in organizations such as the Eretz-Israel Wanderers Association and the Committee for Naming Roads and Streets of Jerusalem (he often collaborated with fellow geographer Ben-Zion Luria, who was also a leader in these organizations). Over his long career, Benvenisti published dozens of books, articles, guides, and other publications. In addition to his work on the history and geography of the Holy Land, Benvenisti also wrote about the history of the Jewish community in his native Thessaloniki. More by this mapmaker...

Ben-Zion Luria (בן-ציון לוריא; April 4, 1905 - April 4, 2002) was a Polish-Israeli historian, cartographer, geographer, and educator who was an expert on the history and geography of the Holy Land. Born in Bialystok, Poland, he attended the Hebrew Gymnasium there before emigrating with his family to Palestine. In 1929, he enrolled at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and began an extensive course of Biblical study and research on the history of Eretz Isreal. He spent years determining the location of places mentioned in the Bible and assigning (or reassigning) them Hebrew names (he later was active in the Jerusalem Naming Committee, which assigned Hebrew street names in the holy city). He became editor of Beit Mikra (בית מקרא), a scholarly journal of Biblical studies and criticism. Luria was an active member of the Eretz-Israel Wanderers Association, a hiking club dedicated to helping members understand the history and geography of the Holy Land. Over his career, Luria published dozens of articles and books, and by the time of the founding of the State of Israel was one of the most prominent geographers in the country. Learn More...

Kiryat Sefer Publishing House (1933 - present קריית ספר) is a publisher of primarily Hebrew-language textbooks, fiction, reference works, and children's books based in Jerusalem. Beginning as a bookstore in the heart of the city (at the intersection of King George / Strauss St. and Jaffa St.) before quickly moving into publishing its own works, especially educational and reference texts dealing with the Bible and the history and geography of Eretz Israel. The firm also published well-known guides to Jerusalem for many years. As a result of long-running legal disputes, the company has officially operated from outside of Israel since 1996 and has largely ceased publishing since then. Learn More...

Michael Pikowski (מיכאל פיקובסקי; June 7, 1866 - October 21, 1943) was a Russian-born Israeli printer. Born in Elizabethgrad in the Russian Empire (now Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine), Pikowski attended a Russian gymnasium before moving to Vienna to learn the printing trade. He then retuned to Ukraine, opening a printshop in Odessa specializing in zincography and editing a newspaper. In 1924, he moved to Jerusalem and established a new printshop, also publishing a bi-weekly paper titled Polygraph Pages (דפים פוליגרפיים). In Jerusalem, he published a wide variety of maps, particularly of Palestine and locales therein. Many of the firm's publications were for the Mandatory Press Office of the British government of Mandatory Palestine, but at night the shop secretly printed works for the Zionist cause. Underneath the shop was a secret headquarters of the Haganah Zionist militia. After Michael's death, his son Emil took over the firm. After the founding of the State of Israel, the firm continued to print works for the new government and was also the first to publish the Isiah Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The printshop continued to operate until 1997, with its last owner being Yeshayahu Atia, a longtime employee. Learn More...