The Jerusalem Rotary Club Historical Background - Our first President J.W. Crowfoot

Historical Background: The Jerusalem Rotary Club

In 1928 James W. (Jim) Davidson, General Commissioner of Rotary International, a past president of the Calgary, Alberta, Rotary Club, answered a call from Rotary International to carry the Rotary ideal to Asia, to the Near East, to southern Asia and to the Far East. The journey took three years and started in Istanbul. Jim's wife and daughter accompanied him on his long odyssey, which covered 12,000 miles and took them to the shores of the Pacific.

The second stop was Athens and from there the Davidson's continued to Cairo where on January 2nd 1929, the Cairo club was founded with 22 charter members, and Clare Martin, manager of Shell Oil, as President.

Jim Davidson then proceeded to Jerusalem by train to join Dr. Edward Wicher, a Rotarian from San Anselmo, California, who, helped by three or four Jerusalem residents, had prepared the ground for a club in the Holy City. The founding meeting of the Jerusalem Rotary Club took place on January 22nd 1929 at the St. John's Hotel in the Old City. The first President was J.W. Crowfoot, a British archaeologist; the Secretary was Vladamir Wolfson, manger of Shell Oil. There were 21 charter members, most of them British officials; in those tense times the club could not have been founded at all without strong British support.

Indeed, it was a remarkable achievement and a credit to Rotary, that there were both Arab and Jewish members as well. However, the inclusion of such outstanding scholars as Norman Bentwich, Canon Danby and Hugo Bergman among the charter members ensured rapid admission to Rotary International on March 11th, less then seven weeks after the formal organizational meeting.

The Cairo Rotary Club, founded just 20 days earlier, sponsored the Jerusalem club and presented it with the Rotary Bell which has served the club every since.

The Jerusalem Rotary Club began life at a time of sharpened political tensions, shortly before the Hebron program that left many Jewish residents dead. The general situation did not improve. Indeed the five years from 1936 to 1940 where worse still.

Nevertheless, the Rotary spirit protected relations within the Jerusalem Rotary Club, and British, Arab and Jewish Rotarians continued their weekly meetings, providing a haven for harmony and free discussion. A second club was established in 1933 in Haifa as a result of Clare Martin's preparatory work.

It was the Jerusalem Club that takes credit for establishing the third club in Tel Aviv-Yaffo through the efforts of two of its members, the architect Chaikin and Halabi.

(Source: http://www.rotaryfirst100.org/global/countries/israel/index.htm )
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John Winter (J.W.) Crowfoot
The First President of the Jerusalem Rotary Club
(1873-1959)
John Winter (J.W.) Crowfoot (1873-1959) was the son of J.H. Crowfoot, Chancellor of Lincoln Cathedral. He was educated at Marlborough College and Brasenose College, Oxford. He had an early interest in archaeology and in 1897 spent a year traveling in Anatolia and Greece as a student of the British School of Archaeology in Athens. From 1899-1900 he was Lecturer in Classics in Birmingham University. In 1901 he joined the Egyptian Civil Service as Assistant Master of Education and in 1903 became Deputy Principal of Gordon College, Khartoum. In 1909, he returned briefly to Egypt as an Inspector in the Ministry of Education. In 1914 he became Director of Education and Principal of Gordon College, a post he held until his retirement from the Sudan Civil Service in 1926. At the same time, he became Director of the Department of Antiquities of the Sudan.
Following his 'retirement', he succeeded Professor John Garstang as Director of the British School of Archaeology (BSAJ) in Jerusalem from 1927-35. Under Garstang, the BSAJ and the Department of Antiquities of Palestine had been jointly run and the BSAJ had received a Treasury grant. In 1926 the two were separated and the School lost its grant, as well as its headquarters building. Crowfoot overcame these difficulties by establishing a close collaboration with the American School of Oriental Research, which had just built its own new headquarters. There, the library of the BSAJ was housed and the Crowfoots and the students of the BSAJ found a hospitable welcome.
Thereafter, Crowfoot began to carried out a major programme of excavations, beginning with the PEF excavations on the Hill of Ophel in Jerusalem in 1927. This was followed by the Joint BSAJ Yale University Excavations at Jerash/Gerasa in 1928-1930, and the Joint BSAJ, Harvard University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Palestine Exploration Fund excavations at Samaria-Sebaste from 1931-1935. During the first of these excavations, on 11 July 1927, while work was being carried out at a depth of 15.24 m, an extremely powerful earthquake shook the sides of the trench, but only dislodged a few pebbles on to the excavators.
Crowfoot’s work in this period was of the greatest importance for Levantine archaeology, with major contributions to the understanding of the Iron Age ceramic sequence, the eastern terra sigillata, and pioneering work on early churches. There is a collection of his lectures: Early Churches in Palestine (Schweich Lectures of the British Academy. 1937.)

Crowfoot and Fitzgerald continued the work of the Palestine Exploration Fund in 1927-1928 in the City of David. The most impressive find from their excavation was a section of a fortress within which was a large opening. Despite the fact that these were dated to the times of the Bible and then later identified with Sha’ar HaGay, it can be said that it is still inconclusive. This issue needs to be re-clarified and perhaps the nearby excavations at the Givati Parking Lot will help provide further information.