Ahavat Tsiyon Micrograph

Born in Timkovits in the Russian Empire (today Timkovichi, Belarus), Shmuel Schulman immigrated to Safed and earned his living as a scribe. He was an active member of the Yesod ha-ma‘ala committee that established the First Aliyah colony of Rishon Lezion. Schulman was famous for his micrographs, which he sold to raise money for the new Jewish settlement in Palestine. One, Ahavat Tsiyon, depicts the Holy Temple flanked by willow trees; it was given to Baron Edmond James de Rothschild and the Ḥoveve Tsiyon movement. He sent another, depicting the Temple Mount, to Kemal Pasha, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire. This earned Schulman an audience with Sultan Abdulhamid II, who granted Schulman’s request that five hundred Jews be admitted into Palestine. Schulman died in Tiberias.