[3] Many of the individuals covered in the documentary are Ashkenazi immigrants of the Second Aliyah[4] including Meir Dizengoff, founder and first mayor of Tel Aviv,[5] Russo-Japanese War veteran and subsequent founder of the British Jewish Legion of World War I Joseph Trumpeldor,[5] and Boris Schatz, founder of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, shown teaching an art class.
[7] The film was criticised by the Zionist left for omitting local Arabs from its portrayal.
"[5] In Ukraine, the size of thronging crowds viewing the film prompted secret police reports.
[5] The film was lost shortly after its creation until in 1997 the original negative was found in France[2] in the vault of the Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) by archivist Éric Le Roy.
"[11] In the evaluation of Dennis Harvey of Variety, writing in 2000, by the era's standards the "photography is exceptional, with well-composed landscape, architectural and medium-to-long-shot crowd views and good occasional use of panoramic pans from elevated points, as well as traveling perspectives from train and boat.