2025The Textile Industries in Eretz Israel - First Day Cover

The textile industry in Israel began within frameworks of vocational training and was developed through initiatives by Jewish immigrants who established family-model industries. After the establishment of the State of Israel, the textile industry expanded with the encouragement of state institutions. In the late 19th century, on the eve of Zionist immigration to the Land of Israel, when the old Jewish community numbered approximately 20,000 people, the "Torah and Craft" school was founded. Established in 1889 by the French-Jewish Alliance network, the school operated until 1918. Its goal was to provide vocational training and livelihoods for the Jewish community in Jerusalem. It included a cotton weaving factory equipped with the first 51 mechanical looms in the country, powered by steam, and a workshop for dyeing threads.