Art and designרודי ויסנשטין

Rudi Weissenstein

Rudi Weissenstein was an Israeli photographer who took the only photographs of Israel's Declaration of Independence in 1948.

1910 to 1992Photographs of the Declaration of IndependenceDocumenting immigrant life in the 1930sThe Photo House Pri-Or shop

Born: 17 February 1910, Jihlava
Died: 20 October 1992, Tel Aviv
Occupation: photographer
Founded: PhotoHouse (1936)

Rudi Weissenstein was born in 1910 in Jihlava

Rudi Weissenstein was born on February 17, 1910, in Jihlava, a town in Moravia. He grew up as one of four children.

From 1929 to 1931 he trained in graphic arts and photography in Vienna. He then served in the Czechoslovak army and worked as a newspaper photographer in Prague and Vienna.

He moved to the Land of Israel in 1936 and settled in Tel Aviv. He photographed daily life, new settlements, immigration and building work, and he became the official photographer of the Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1940 he married Miriam Arnstein, and they opened the Photo House Pri-Or shop in Tel Aviv. On May 14, 1948, he was the only accredited photographer at the Declaration of Independence.

In 1961 his work Working Hands won an award at a photography exhibition in Moscow. He died on October 20, 1992. His widow kept his archive until 2011, and then his grandson Ben Peter Weissenstein took it over.