GAURD & SPORT

The Farkash Gallery “VINTAGE ISRAELI POSTERS” Offer for sell one of the rarest poster that printed in the late 1930s in Eretz Israel by the Dobek company

Dobek Company that released an album with hundreds of photos of the defenders of the homeland. Hundreds of photos of athletes from Eretz Israel. This is the story of a rare and unusual album

But it was not the Jewish Agency that released the rare album from the late 1930s. Neither it was Keren Hayesod nor the KKL-JNF; the one who collected and collected the rare photos was Dovek, the old blue-and-white cigarette company.

The album was named “Guard and Sports”:

In the years before the establishment of the state, long before the Ministry of Health determined that smoking was harmful to health and that this should be noted on every pack, the cigarette company Dovek released an album to collect stickers called “Guard and Sports”. The captions of the photographs indicate that the “campaign” took place in the early 1940s (the photographs deal with the period of the events of 1936-1939, but on the agenda: World War II)

“Guard and sport, seriousness and play, seemingly two opposing concepts, are nevertheless characteristic of the most sublime and sublime qualities of man and people: heroism and freedom, power and redemption, courage and honor,” reads the opening of the album.

Guard and sports
An advertisement for “Dobek” that was published in the press with the release of the photo album, 1939
And further:

“The Mishmar VeSport” photo collection intends to make a small contribution to promoting the idea of ​​physical education in the community, and to encourage the public to create the necessary means for the youth to cultivate sports. The Mishmar photos are a small attempt to show the community “With their great dedication and courage, they protect the lives of all of us and the freedom of the people.”

Pictures of “Defenders of the Homeland”

Photos “On the Watch” 

“The Woman in the Guard”, from the album “

From the newspapers that came out that year, we learn about the process: Dobek collected photos from the Eretz Israel audience, and in return gave them the album she made from the photos. These photos were attached to Dovek’s various cigarette boxes, and at the end of the process, as mentioned, they were compiled into a prestigious and elegant photo album.

“Mickey Herschel, whose trained body shows a rich muscular system”,

“Athletics” photos on the “

It’s a bit strange that a cigarette company is the first to encourage physical education, or maybe it’s not strange at all, since the Dobek company was a symbol of a thriving industry in blue and white, at a time when the harms of smoking were only partially known. Among other things, the people of the settlement could smoke an “aliyah” cigarette and thus symbolize the grouping of the exiles to Eretz Israel, or a cigarette on the morning of the “Atid” brand, which symbolizes the vision of Zionism embroidering skin and tendons in Eretz Israel.

Photos of the “training of the guards”

Photos of “Heavy Athletics”

“If the book before us helps to arouse and deepen in the community all its avenues the understanding of the great value of sports education,” reads the last page of the album, “and if it succeeds in proving to the general public the direct and strong connection between The purpose of his ambition and thereby contributed his part in solving the great and difficult roles that still lie with us. ”
Photos of “Attack and Defense”

“One of the first Hebrew girl pilot in the Ertz Israel”,

One can only imagine the young notary or the gifted Jewish athlete, concluding an hour of physical training or guarding the tower by smoking a “Dobek” cigarette – to the glory of the State of Israel.