c. 2004 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Marcia and I recently girded ourselves with steely determination and spent hours viewing our huge collection of old 35 millimeter color slides. We were like archaeologists digging up the past because many of the slides were decades old. Surprisingly, looking at them after years of neglect was an emotional and spiritual adventure.

But for younger readers asking, “what’s a slide?” some words of explanation are due.

Long before today’s digital cameras that require no film, computer generated photos that instantly reach all parts of the globe, video cameras that record our every move in full color and sound, and power point presentations, there were once small transparent slides. They were shot mostly by amateur photographers who then had a photo lab develop and seal each one in a protective cardboard holder.

Back then, possessing a large collection of color slides or “transparencies” was evidence we actually took a vacation or were tourists in exotic places throughout the world. We unmercifully inflicted lengthy and boring slide shows upon our helpless family and friends. The shows often featured out of focus and over or underexposed photos projected onto a room’s white wall as we lovingly described each slide. At such viewings, the captive audience’s eyes would glaze over as they uttered silent prayers begging for a speedy end to the pictorial torture.

Once the slide show was concluded, the film transparences, sometimes numbering several hundred, were frequently stored in closets never to be viewed again.

But now after forcing ourselves to look at each slide, certain emotions and truths emerged. My wife and I often had trouble recognizing where we took a particular picture. Many mountains, lakes, rivers, beaches and forests look the same and unless the slides were labeled (ours are not), the exact location of each “artistic” nature shot was a mystery.

In addition, many stately educational and government buildings, houses of worship, even street scenes appeared similar to one another especially when decades have passed since we photographed them.

However, two things helped us in our detective work. The photo lab usually stamped the month and year upon each slide holder, and I was sometimes able to pinpoint a location by identifying the make and year of the cars appearing in the slide. And, of course, we discarded many slides that were unworthy of viewing.

But slides shot in Israel presented no problems of location or identification. Those photographs were unmistakable. After all, there is only one nation in the world where Hebrew language store and street signs are the norm. There is only one Western Wall, one Church of the Holy Sepulcher and one Dome of the Rock … all situated near one another in the spectacular city of Jerusalem with its incredibly beautiful stone buildings.

Especially moving were the slides I took during my first visit to Israel only weeks after the conclusion of the Six Day War in 1967. One photo shows men and women praying together in front of the Western Wall, Judaism’s most sacred Holy Place. A short time after the picture was taken; two unequal sections were established at the Wall separating worshippers by gender.

There are poignant slides of the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem’s Old City showing the vast destruction that took place between 1948 and 1967 when Jordan controlled half of the city. Historic synagogues, schools and other community buildings were destroyed in those years, and no Jew was permitted to live in the Quarter during the Jordanian occupation.

I even have a slide of a Jewish youngster’s frayed school notebook that was buried among the ruins. It was last used in the spring of 1948, shortly before Israel’s War of Independence began. Happily, the rebuilt Quarter is once again a center of Jewish life. However, my 1967 slides are a constant reminder of a time when the Quarter was destroyed and without Jews.

Something quite unexpected emerged while viewing long forgotten slides. The most exciting moments came when people appeared in the pictures: classmates and colleagues, traveling companions, family members (sadly, many of them now deceased) and neighbors. Especially meaningful were slides of our wedding, Passover seders, bar/bat mitzvah celebrations, and other family events.

The message was clear. People count much more than landscapes, buildings, or street scenes. We all need to take many more pictures of our family and friends, lots more. Such photos represent a legacy of love for the generations to come. And best of all, using today’s hi-tech photography methods eliminates the need for boring slide shows.

MO/JL END

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s Senior Interreligious Adviser, is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Saint Leo University.)