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From:          JUICE <juice@jazo.org.il>
Subject:       JUICE Issues in Israeli Society # 3

Issues in Israeli Society # 3
Jonathan Kaplan


The Origins of Israeli Society: Formative Groups and
Ideologies


When the state of Israel was declared on May 14, 1948, there
were already some 650,000 Jews living in the "Yishuv", the
Jewish settlement in British governed Palestine. Motivated by
a Jewish nationalist vision often combined with socialist
ideals, successive waves of Jewish immigrants beginning in the
1880s had fled manifestations of European anti-semitism and
sought refuge and Jewish fulfillment in the Land of Israel.
New forms of settlement had been developed over the years, and
certain regions had become a focus for the building of new
communities. The Yishuv had developed its own political
parties and quasi-government, labor union, school system,
universities, Hebrew press, medical institutions, defense
organizations as well as institutionalized bodies for dealing
with finances, immigrant absorption and foreign affairs. Much
of the ideological and social basis of Israeli society was
laid during this pre-state period.

Zionist Ideology:

The most fundamental ideological element of this new society
in the making was Zionism, which appeared as a popular
movement in the last two decades of the nineteenth century.
Although a variety of Zionist streams soon emerged, all were
united on four basic common denominators.

1.   The Jews comprise a nation:

As opposed to most Jewish ideological or organizational
expressions of the nineteenth century, both religious (Reform
Judaism, Neo-orthodoxy) and secular (for example, the Alliance
Israelite Universelle) which viewed Jewish identity in terms
of religious belief, Zionism defined the Jews as a nation, ie.
a group of people sharing a particular history, culture,
language, territory (or at least aspiration to one) and sense
of belonging. There were various opinions on what exactly
united and characterized this nation: anti-semitism (Herzl),
common culture (Asher Ginzberg, better known as Ahad Ha-am),
predominance of middle class attributes (socialist Zionists)
or divine election (religious Zionism).

2.   The Diaspora is fundamentally defective:

All Zionist streams contended that for the Jews as a national
group, life in the diaspora had severe limitations and
defects. Emancipation and integration into general society
were either impossible or undesirable options. The critics of
Jewish diaspora life pointed to widespread anti-semitism
(Herzl), cultural disintegration and deterioration (Ahad
Ha-am), a distorted Jewish economic structure lacking a
significant working class (socialist Zionists) and to a
detachment from the land (A.D. Gordon) or from holiness (A. I.
Kook). Generally, Zionist writers referred to the diaspora as
"galut" (exile), suggesting that Jews in the diaspora had been
cast out of their native land into foreign and unnatural
surroundings.

3.   The solution to the Jewish problem is the ingathering of
a large number of Jews in the Land of Israel under conditions
of autonomy moving in the direction of sovereignty
For Zionism, the ultimate solution to the shortcomings of
diaspora life was not to be found in the diaspora: only a
concentration of Jews in their own territory could provide the
necessary security and preconditions for a cultural, economic
or religious renaissance. Indeed, in the early stages of
Zionism there was debate as to whether Zionist settlement
should be confined to the Land of Israel or whether an
alternative could be found elsewhere due to the pressing needs
of Eastern European Jewry and the serious obstacles
encountered in trying to settle Palestine. However, by 1905
this debate had more or less run its course and Eretz Israel
emerged as the undisputed objective of Zionist activity.
Opinions were also divided regarding the schedule of Jewish
settlement: some felt that Zionist settlement would move
essentially all Jews to Palestine in a relatively short period
of time leaving only a small assimilable minority in the
diaspora. Others felt that Jewish settlement would be a long,
drawn-out process and that most Jews would continue to reside
in the diaspora for the foreseeable future. The issue of
sovereignty was also a matter of discussion. While spiritual
Zionists tended to emphasize the importance of creating a new
Jewish culture as Zionism's primary task, political Zionists
pointed out the necessity of a state. Vladimir Jabotinsky, the
fiery leader of Revisionist Zionism in the 1920s and 1930s,
was adamant that the Zionist goal must be the creation of a
Jewish majority and a Jewish state on both sides of the Jordan
river.

4.   The means to realizing the Zionist goal are within the
realm of human understanding:

Traditional Jews had for generations believed that they were a
separate people with a unique culture and way of life. The
diaspora was perceived as exile, divinely ordained as a time
of repentance and preparation for the return to the Land of
Israel, which would constitute the ultimate resolution of
Jewish problems in the diaspora. To a large extent, Zionism
continued these ideas. However, in implementing the solution
to the Jewish problem, Zionism rejected the traditional view
that Jews must wait for the coming of the messiah before
effecting their own return to the Land of Israel. All
Zionists, including orthodox religious Zionists, felt that the
Jews themselves had to take action in order to realize Zionist
goals. Debate centered on the most advisable tactics:
diplomatic activity (Herzl), settlement and development
(practical Zionism) and educational or cultural activity (Ahad
Ha-am). Chaim Weizmann argued at the Eighth Zionist Congress
in 1907 that these divisions were artificial and that a
tactical success in one area could only improve the chances of
success in another.

These fundamental ideas left a deep imprint on society in the
Yishuv and later in the State of Israel. Basic attitudes
toward the diaspora, Jewish immigration ("aliyah") and the
goals of the Jewish state originated in this ideology.

Waves of Immigration:

Jews came to the Land of Israel in several different waves of
immigration. Each wave had its own characteristics in terms of
geographical origin, causes, dimensions, dominant ideas and
achievements in Palestine.

Old Yishuv - During the last decades of the eighteenth and the
early years of the nineteenth century, orthodox Jews,
primarily from Eastern Europe, settled in the four Holy Cities
of the Land of Israel: Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and Tiberias.
These Ashkenazi Jews (Hassidim as well as opponents of the
Hassidim - the Mitnagdim) joined the few thousand Sephardi
Jews already in the Holy Land and formed what became known as
the "Old Yishuv". The new arrivals aspired to create a society
of Talmud scholars in the Land of Israel and devoted
themselves entirely to religious study and prayer which they
felt held universal Jewish significance. Consequently, these
Jews functioned in the framework of a "kollel" or adult
yeshiva (Talmudic academies) which received funds ("chalukah")
from Jewish donations abroad. As the years passed and numbers
grew, chalukah funds proved insufficient to sustain the entire
Old Yishuv. In the largest center of the Old Yishuv, the
Jewish Quarter in the walled Old City of Jerusalem, conditions
became so cramped that individuals began looking for
possibilities of settlement outside the city. The members of
the Old Yishuv, some 26,000 in the 1880s by one estimate, did
not subscribe to Zionist principles when the movement began to
develop. On the whole they opposed the new trend as
secularizing and even heretical in that Zionism sought to
create a Jewish national center before the appearance of the
Messiah.

First Aliyah - Prompted by the outbreak of riots against Jews
in Southern Russia in 1881 and the hostile policies of the
Tsar Alexander III, hundreds of thousands of Jews began to
emigrate from Russia, mainly to the United States and other
western countries. A much smaller stream, motivated by the
desire to return to the Land of Israel and create model Jewish
settlements there, moved to Turkish held Palestine between
1882 and 1904. In all some 30-40,000 Jews immigrated during
this period, and although many joined the Old Yishuv, some
formed what became known as the "New Yishuv", that settlement
which was motivated by modern nationalist ideals. The primary
achievement of this wave of immigration lay in the
establishment of "moshavot" (colonies) mainly in the central
coastal and the extreme northern regions of the country.
Rishon Le-Zion, Zichron Ya'akov, Petach Tikvah and Rosh Pina
were established at this time. Due to a lack of agricultural
expertise and financial means, the situation of the colonies
deteriorated until they reached the verge of bankruptcy, only
to be saved by Baron Edmond de Rothschild who took over the
settlements and appointed expert officials to supervise all
operations. The colonies were run henceforth on a more
businesslike basis and agricultural work was carried out
largely by local Arabs.

Second Aliyah - Many of Israel's symbols, ideals, leading
personalities and political ideologies have their roots in the
second wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine which lasted
from 1904 until 1914. As in the first wave, most of the
immigrants came from Russia and an increasing number had been
exposed to socialist ideas there. Of the 22,000 Jews who
immigrated during these years, a small group of no more than a
few thousand young and idealistic pioneers had the greatest
impact. This group was influenced by the Marxist-socialist
ideas of Dov Ber Borochov and the mystical "religion of labor"
advocated by Aaron David Gordon. Borochov argued that a
natural process of anti-semitism and migration was channeling
Jews to Eretz Israel where, for want of middle class
professions, they would be transformed into a working class
capable of carrying out a class conflict within Jewish
society. A.D. Gordon emphasized the moral and creative
significance in the return of the Jew to the land. Just as the
individual Jew would renew his or her creative power through
working the land, so would the Jewish people be rejuvenated by
returning to its native and natural soil. Although the two
theories led to different practical conclusions and in fact
spawned competing political ideologies and parties, both
approaches stressed the supreme importance of labor. The
"conquest of labor" became the aspiration of these idealists,
yet they failed to compete successfully with the more
experienced and less expensive Arab workers for employment in
the colonies of the First Aliyah. At the initiative of the
Zionist Organization's newly-created Palestine Office,
agricultural schools were established, and some of the
students of these institutions went on to found "kvutzot"
(sing. "kvutza" - communal settlement), the first of which was
established at Degania on the Sea of Galilee in 1909. The
centrality of labor values can be seen in the formation before
the First World War of three socialist Zionist parties: Poalei
Zion (Borochovist), HaPoel HaZair (Gordonist) and the
Non-Partisans, who advocated the establishment of a workers'
union for all workers in Palestine. Among the activists of
these parties were those destined to become some of the
country's most illustrious leaders: most notably Itzhak
Ben-Zvi and David Ben-Gurion. The principle of Jewish
self-help was extended to the area of defense with the
creation of "HaShomer", the Watchman, an association of Jewish
guards set up in 1909 to defend Jewish settlements. Members of
the Second Aliyah adopted the Hebrew language and thus
expressed their goal of creating a new Jewish culture in the
Land of Israel. Even the urban sector received a major boost
at this time: the new city of Tel Aviv was founded in 1909.

Third Aliyah - In many ways the Third Aliyah (1919-1923) was a
continuation of the Second. Key ideas and innovations from the
earlier wave of immigration were implemented and developed
during the later period. The 37,000 immigrants who set out for
Palestine during these years were influenced by a series of
dramatic events: the First World War, the Bolshevik
Revolution, the Russian Civil War, massive pogroms in Eastern
Europe and the Balfour Declaration. Appalled and disoriented
by the destruction, yet encouraged by the Russian attempt to
create an ideal socialist society and the British recognition
of the legitimacy of a Jewish National Home in Palestine, some
of these settlers came to the conclusion that they could put
Jewish socialist and nationalist ideals into effect through
the establishment of a socialist Jewish society in the Land of
Israel. Unlike earlier settlers who had set out with virtually
no agricultural experience, many of the new prospective
pioneers joined the "HeChalutz" (Pioneer) movement that
prepared them while still in Russia for a life of farming.
Some of these went on in 1920 to form the "Gdud HaAvodah"
(Labor Brigade) which, due to its communal self-sacrifice and
devotion to national tasks, soon came to be regarded as a
social elite. Perhaps its best known activity was the
construction of roads in the Galilee. The Brigade hoped
originally to create a general commune of Hebrew workers in
the Land of Israel, but when this goal proved unattainable in
the mid-1920s, the organization split apart, and elements of
the radical left wing even returned to the Soviet Union to
create a commune in Crimea. The more moderate section of the
Gdud adapted its radical communal aspirations to the social
reality of the country. Instead of a general commune, it
founded large collectives or "kibbutzim" such as Ein Charod or
Tel Yosef that could unite hundreds of members (as opposed to
the small, intimate kvutzot of the second aliyah) living
according to communal principles. With time, a number of
kvutza and kibbutz movements were established along political
and ideological lines: Chever HaKvutzot (The Kvutza
Association - 1925), HaKibbutz HaMeuchad (The United Kibbutz -
1927), Kibbutz Artzi (National Kibbutz - 1927) and HaKibbutz
HaDati (The Religious Kibbutz - 1935). Common to all of these
settlements was the basic tenet: to each according to his/her
needs and from each according to his/her ability. Property and
profits belonged to the collective. Another form of settlement
that evolved during the third aliyah for those who wished a
greater degree of privacy was the "Moshav Ovdim" or Workers'
Cooperative. While children in the kibbutz lived in separate
children's houses, moshav members lived in family units. Each
family farmed a separate plot of land and owned its own house.
Profits belonged to the individual. Members of the moshav
cooperated in the purchase of expensive equipment as well as
in the areas of marketing, cultivation, mutual aid and
education. The first moshav ovdim, Nahalal, was established in
1921. One final example of labor dominance during this period
of time was the creation of the Histadrut, the General
Federation of Jewish Labor in Palestine, in 1920. Formed as
part of an effort to unify the various labor parties, the
Histadrut became a unique institution. Not only did it serve
as a trade union, defending the interests of the workers in
Palestine, but it was also constituted as "Hevrat haOvdim"
(The Workers' Company), a holding company that owned several
large corporations. Thus the Histadrut represented labor while
it was in effect one of the largest employers in the Yishuv.
The Histadrut also ran the largest "Kupat Cholim" (Sick Fund)
as well as a vocational school system (Amal), daily newspaper
(Davar), publishing company (Am Oved), sports club (HaPoel)
and youth movement (HaNoar HaOved), to name only a few of the
Histadrut's many activities.

Jewish representative bodies were also established during the
third aliyah. In April 1920, elections were held for the
"Asefat Nivcharim", the National Assembly of the Jews of
Palestine. The assembly elected a 36 member executive body
known as the "Va'ad Leumi" (National Council), which
represented the interests of Palestinian Jewry to the British
authorities.

Fourth Aliyah - The fourth aliyah (1924-1926) brought some
70,000 Jews, mainly from Poland, who suffered economic
discrimination in the newly reconstituted state. Unable to
emigrate to the United States and other countries due to
immigration barriers, this largely middle class population
settled in the urban centers of Palestine, especially Tel
Aviv, which increased in size from 16,000 in 1924 to 46,000 in
1929. As shopowners and small industrialists, this population
had much less affinity for the socialist ideals of earlier
waves of immigration. It was rather the Revisionist Zionism of
Vladimir Jabotinsky, with its more middle class values and
harsh criticism of socialist policies, that captured the
sentiment of many of the newcomers. This period saw the
opening of both the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the
Technion in Haifa.

Fifth Aliyah - The fifth aliyah from central and western
Europe (1933-1939) was the largest of the pre-state waves of
immigration and comprised some 225,000 people fleeing from
Nazism and other oppressive regimes in Europe. Some 25% of the
immigrants came from Germany, and they represented a more
affluent and acculturated Jewish population. A number of these
Jews managed to bring a small part of their wealth with them,
and this facilitated a development of industry and commerce.
Most settled in cities and some became pillars of the
intellectual and business elites.

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