Art and designאברהם סוסקין

Avraham Soskin

Avraham Soskin was a Hebrew photographer who documented the building of the Jewish community in the Land of Israel and the founding of Tel Aviv.

1881 to 1963Photographing early Tel AvivThe Ahuzat Bayit lottery photographThe book "Views of Tel Aviv"

Born: 28 November 1881, Vorsha
Died: 28 August 1963, Tel Aviv
Occupation: photographer

Avraham Soskin was born in 1881 in Vorsha

Soskin was born in 1881 in Vorsha, in the Mogilev province of the Russian Empire. His father was a wealthy grain merchant. He studied in a heder and a yeshiva and at the royal gymnasium in Smolensk, which expelled him for his activity in the Poalei Zion movement.

He learned photography from his brother-in-law and settled in Liepāja, Latvia, in 1901. He came to the Land of Israel in 1904, fell ill with malaria and returned to Russia. In 1905 he came again with friends and opened the first Jewish photo studio in Jaffa.

In 1909 he photographed the lottery of plots for Ahuzat Bayit. In 1914 he moved to Tel Aviv and opened its first photo studio. In 1915 the Turkish governor briefly arrested him after he photographed a line for flour.

In 1926 he published the book "Views of Tel Aviv 1909-1926". In 1933 he closed his studio and turned to printing work. He retired in 1951 and died in Tel Aviv in 1963.