In 1933, cantor Yossele Rosenblatt received an offer from Joseph Fox, director of the American-Eretzian film company 'Kol Or', to appear in a Jewish film called 'My People's Dream', with Yossele's role being to sing some of his compositions against the backdrop of the landscapes of Eretz Israel.
Yosla accepted the offer, both because of his deteriorating financial situation and because he very much wanted to visit Israel.
During the filming of the film, he went to bathe in the Dead Sea, where he felt chest pains and was rushed to Bikur Holim Hospital. The doctors recommended complete rest at the hotel, but suddenly he returned his soul to his Creator.
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Besides the great historical value contained in the film - a documentation of the landscapes of the Land of Israel in 1933 - it contains a kind of fascinating documentation of the last days of the great cantor.
My Dream movie poster
Yaakov Gross, a researcher of the history of Hebrew film, published the film with the segments in which Yosla appears about a year ago.
He wrote about its publication:
""I found the rolls of the film 'My Dream' (1933) by Naim Zemirot Yisrael Yosla Rosenblatt under the mattress of a believing Jew, the late Zvi Rechtman, in Mea Shearim, Jerusalem.
Rechtman sold me the film in 1975 for a bottle of whiskey, 3 bottles of oil, and a wad of cash.
This copy was used by Avi Nathan Gross in his film 'Yosla Rosenblatt - His Life and Songs'.
In 2012, the Spielberg Archive preserved the film. A high-quality copy in English was found in the NCJF archive in the US, but funding for its preservation has not yet been found.
Towards the end of the film, we can watch Yosla's chilling funeral and the notices hanging on the street signs, announcing his untimely passing.
