Treasure Trove

from the collection of David Matlow

With a collection of more than 5,000 items related to our history, the Treasure Trove of David Matlow has found a home at The CJN, with new items regularly added. The treasures weave together a story about the longing for a Jewish homeland and the significant effort expended to make it happen. From hockey cards to sun hats, travel bags to wine labels, comic books to postcards—they’re all pieces of the evolution and revolution of Zionism. But sometimes he finds a reason to give something to someone who would appreciate it more, a phenomenon he calls “reverse collecting”.

Sadie Weiss

The Jewish Colonial Trust was established in 1899 by Theodor Herzl as a financial institution to help fund the ongoing settlement and development work of the Zionist organization. Shares were sold to hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world as the first tangible way to support the Jewish homeland effort.

In a grouping of share certificates sold at auction, I acquired one for five shares bought in 1923 by Sadie Weiss of Monticello, N.Y. Google led me to her 82-year-old grandson in San Diego. Marty Weiss had never met his grandmother and didn’t know of her interest in Zionism—even though he’d been to Israel many times himself. (Also, his daughter Andrea is a prominent Reform rabbi.)

A story about the return of the century-old share certificate was published in the San Diego Union Tribune and syndicated to multiple newspapers. In the process, a global audience was exposed to this part of the legacy of Herzl.

David Matlow is a partner at Goodmans LLP and the owner of the world’s largest private collection of Theodor Herzl memorabilia: herzlcollection.com

Rivka Klein

A popular photo album in Israel during the 1940s and ’50s had an image of Theodor Herzl on the cover. I accumulated many over the years, but never bothered to see what was inside them. But on one pandemic winter’s day, I set out to reorganize the albums and saw that a number were filled with personal family photos.

David Sela, the founder of the website Nostalgia Online, agreed to help with the search. He highlighted the first album in his popular Israel Hayom newspaper column, in the search for a baby named Rivka Yosipovitz, who was born in Haifa in 1954. Within minutes of publication, he received 800 emails about how to find her. (The one from Rivka’s husband was the only one he really needed.)

Rivka had another look at her childhood memories that she thought were lost forever when her parents died and their apartment was cleared out. She gave up searching by the time it landed in the Jaffa flea market where it was purchased, then passed on to me. Now, the album is back where it belongs.

Devora and Aviva

The second album belonged to a young girl named Devora, born in the late 1930s, who had a twin sister named Aviva. It contained photos of their trips throughout Israel during the 1950s. Once again, David Sela included a picture with an invitation for readers to contact him with any information based on these details.

As a result, we soon learned that Devora passed away, but Aviva was alive and well at age 83. “My heart is pounding,” she said upon the discovery—which hopefully won’t be the last. Sela considers it a great mitzvah to have his Israel Hayom column serve as a conduit to connect pieces of my collection to the faces I manage to find at home in Toronto.

As for me, I’m not worried about giving away items from the Treasure Trove, given how I have enough items to highlight a new one each week from now through 2122. (I’m currently working to get us through the rest of the following century too.)