The growing importance of the Zionist ethos and its implementation in Palestine, understood as an alternative to life in the diaspora, required the yishuv1 leaders to distance themselves from life in the galut.2 The creation of the Jewish state strengthened this process – the Jewish world became split between life in the diaspora and in Israel. The young Jewish state required the creation of a model that would allow the formation of a cohesive Hebrew community from the scattered cultures of various diasporas. The status of foreign-language press publications3 in Israel should be viewed from the perspective of cultural and identity changes taking place there after the creation of the State of Israel, especially the mission of promoting the Hebrew language and its role in the cultural integration of Jews from different countries. It’s possible to distinguish at least two categories of linguisic foreignness among Polish Jews in Israel. The first stems from the relationship of Yiddish to Hebrew – due to the role of the latter in the process of Jewish integration, Yiddish was relegated to the status of a foreign language. The second level of foreignness encompasses the languages of Jewish people’s countries of origin, such as Polish. Though Polish gained the status of a foreign language, like Yiddish, its reception in the Hebrew-speaking community in Eretz Israel/Israel was completely different due to its different significance for Jewish identity. Demonstrating the importance of the Polish-language press within the Israeli market requires the creation of two parallel narratives – considering it in relation to Hebrew and Yiddish simultaneously.
1.1
The nonacceptance of Yiddish in the Israeli public sphere is illustrated well by a situation that occurred during the sixth Histadrut4 conference on 1 December 1945. Różka Korczak, a member of the Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye [United Partisan Organization] – a Jewish organization that had initiated the uprising in the Vilnius ghetto and later fought in partisan units – gave a speech bearing witness to the martyrdom of Jewish people during World War ii. Not knowing Hebrew, she spoke in Yiddish. David Ben-Gurion made the following remark about her speech: “The last speaker before me spoke in a strange and whistling language,”5 thus stigmatizing Yiddish and indicating Hebrew as the tool most strongly linking the diaspora with the Jewish state. In an interview with Lejwik Halpern,6 who was concerned about the increasing cultural marginalization of Yiddish in Israel, Ben-Gurion commented more broadly on the cultural policy of the State of Israel and later wrote the following:7 “Lejwik came to me at half past four and asked: ‘What will the State of Israel be like? What kind of approach will it have to messianism and the kingdom? Will it be a state like other goyim states? What kind of relationship will there be between Israel and Jewish people throughout the rest of the world? What will be its cultural path: ivrit8 or Yiddish? What will happen to Yiddish? Will Yiddish no
Although Yiddish didn’t have the potential to unite the various ethnic groups in Israel, it certainly transcended the borders of the countries of origin, as opposed to the other foreign languages present in the Israeli public sphere such as Polish, Romanian, and Hungarian, since it was capable of keeping readers connected with Jewish values. The discussion of the role and significance of Yiddish in the new state differed from reflections on the languages of the countries of origin – it revealed the identity of the Jews who spoke it and the cultural heritage of the diaspora that was difficult to part with in Israel, and even more difficult to question. Yiddish was an internal problem, an issue concerning the stance towards the Jewish world, while Polish indicated a relationship with the non-Jewish world – and this was perhaps the most important difference in determining linguistic foreignness in Israel.
Moreover, Yiddish was able to aid Zionism within the diaspora since it halted assimilation – unlike national languages such as Polish – and thus protected Jewishness. The Poale Zion Party14 in Poland linked Zionism directly to
This can be seen, for example, in the way Jewish communists from Poland who came to Israel with the Gomułka Aliyah19 and the March Aliyah20 integrated into Israeli society. Those who, while living in Poland, had decided to integrate into Polish culture while simultaneously retaining their knowledge of Yiddish and ties with Jewish culture adopted at least some of the values of
Regardless of the public perception of national languages in Israel, political parties wishing to expand their electorate were forced to break through the barrier that isolated foreign-language-speaking groups and establish contact with them.24 The leaders of all Israeli parties were aware of how efficient Yiddish could prove to be in activating ideological values, especially left-wing ones. A population of 100,000 Yiddish-speaking people was recorded in Israel in 1950, and this had a significant electoral potential that parties could not ignore.25 This was particularly true since Yiddish-language journalism, which maintained a large intellectual base, had reached a high level of quality, and the opinions within these circles had gained importance in Israeli public
For this reason, among others, one could see a dichotomy in parties with a strong Zionist ethos that remained left-leaning – for example, the Zionist Mapam party proclaimed the Hebrew language ethos on the one hand, while on the other hand making declarations during meetings of its Press Department about the importance of continuing to publish materials in Yiddish.28 Adolf Berman began his speech at the party’s convention on 2 June 1951 as follows: “Comrades! I didn’t want to speak Yiddish at the Mapam convention, but I’m doing so because I feel it’s necessary for our friends who speak only this language. We don’t want to forget the language of the Jews. […] The most important Yiddish-speaking party after the Holocaust was Mapam. Perhaps Yiddish-speaking Jews are having trouble integrating into Israeli society right now, but they can offer a lot to the party.”29 Jews from Poland, defending the Yiddish language, linked it to the world lost during the Holocaust. At that time, however, shortly after the creation of the State of Israel, the subject of war experiences was too marginalized to convince people to preserve
Despite this positive assessment, Yiddish, having been granted the status of a foreign language in Israel, was – like other languages of the countries of origin – doomed to extinction. Letters were sent to the Israeli Ministry of the Interior, one of which stated, “While supporting Hebrew culture, we protest against issuing permits for new foreign-language newspapers and magazines, including those in Yiddish.”30 Demographics and ethnic cohesiveness were enough to maintain the vitality of Yiddish in the diaspora, while in the Jewish state, after a brief use of it as a secondary language, it became endangered by ideology and the yielding of the older generation to a new generation. Yiddish was presented as the language of the elderly, and statements such as the following were published in the press: “A friend of mine from the kibbutz told me how his nine-year-old son once described his own future: When I grow up, I’ll start working in the fields, then I’ll join the army, then I’ll get married and have children, then I’ll start speaking Yiddish and die.”31 Wanting to become an integral part of the new reality, young people rejected Yiddish because they viewed it solely as a symbol of catastrophe and anachronistic life in the diaspora, while the elderly, unable to learn Hebrew, retained Yiddish for the rest of their lives. There were still cases here and there of Yiddish being spoken between parents and children, but the communication between successive generations was disrupted.
Hebrew was the language that fit into the paradigm of the ideal Israeli – the sabra – a strong, self-confident Jew, not possessing the features of a sad, tired Jew from the galut.32 Admiration for the sabra dominated the press and
They start attending school right away, master the Hebrew language in no time, and fall in love with the blue sky and the smell of pardesai,41 the charm of the sandy coastline, the privacy of the new, modest flats with whitewashed walls and every piece of equipment they bring home. It’s a strange country and an even stranger time – it’s troubling when the father and mother must learn their country’s language and traditions from their children, and when the children demand the lighting of candles on Friday and to have their names changed to melodious Hebrew names. […] Children! Mature children who have finished high schools, vocational schools, military service, universities and polytechnics, who have become engaged or married. The sabras – the generation born here in Israel – have entered the world …42
This propaganda formula particularly resonated with Holocaust survivors, for whom coming to Israel with their children was the most important act of Zionism.
The symbolic end of Yiddish or its limited reach, as well as the rejection of the languages spoken in immigrants’ countries of origin, was connected with the establishment of a sui generis country that leapt into the future rather than awaiting the natural shift of generations and a slow and peaceful evolution of society towards statehood, ignoring traditions and customs that had been brought from the diaspora. The Hebrew language was meant to create a strong bond between the diasporas. Although the initiators of Hebrew’s rebirth were Yiddish-speakers, after many years of “sociolinguistic closeness” that also left a trace on Hebrew, Yiddish was formally excluded from the state’s public sphere.
1.2 Language and Press Policy
Multilingualism was part of the linguistic landscape of the Jewish state. As Ephraim Kishon wrote: “This is a country where people write in Hebrew, read in English, and speak Yiddish.”43 The waves of Jews arriving in Israel caused an increase in the foreign-speaking population. The Israeli authorities had to, on the one hand, establish contact with them in the language of their country of origin and, on the other hand, face the serious challenge of protecting the Hebrew language.
At a distance of seven kilometers from Haifa on the slopes of Mount Carmel stretches a city of canvas houses, with about 8,000 inhabitants. This is Tira Maʿabara. Olim from all over the world live in two-family canvas houses. The Romanian language mixes with Arabic, Yiddish, Polish, French, and Spanish. Hebrew is the only language that isn’t used very much, because not many people have mastered it well enough to communicate fluently. Daily problems and exhausting physical work make the olim too weak to apply themselves to studying Hebrew. Moreover, it was only recently that Histadrut started offering evening courses for adults. Two hours every day (6:00–8:00 p.m.) for a monthly fee of 3 il.48 But what lessons! Totally pathetic! Yesterday I attended one of these lessons but fled, ashamed, as fast as possible. Two hours that were meant to be devoted to serious learning were wasted in these lessons. Teachers with no pedagogical qualifications whatsoever gave convoluted explanations of complex grammatical rules – appropriate pedagogical effort for “second class” people [as the people living in the maʿabara were called – E. K.].49
However, new immigrants often recalled their stay in an ulpan as very pleasant, and learning was commonly perceived as a distinction and a ticket to a better life.50 The people who were most often sent to an ulpan were from the intelligentsia, representing professions of great importance for the state; educating them allowed the state to quickly train the staff necessary for the Israeli economy.51 Looking at the ulpanim from an ethnic perspective, they gave Moroccan
In order not to abandon the new olim in a cultural vacuum, another instrument of adaptation, the foreign-language press, was used in parallel with learning Hebrew. “We can’t deprive the new olim of their first contact with the state and nation,”53 the Ministry of the Interior stated in a report to justify the presence of the foreign-language press in Israel. At the beginning of the 1950s, the increasing circulation of foreign-language publications had been worrying the government.54 The Ministry of the Interior, authorized to issue permits, prepared a report together with the Ministry of Education, which was responsible for the dissemination of the Hebrew language. The report was then sent to all members of the government, informing them about the circulation, quantity, and usefulness of the foreign-language press in the adaptation process of the new olim.55 In a letter to the government’s secretarial office, Israel Rokach, the Minister of the Interior (representing the General Zionists), pointed out the urgent need to address the topic of foreign-language publications at a
The unrestricted activity of political parties was connected to respect for freedom of speech, which is why they were the first to be granted permission to publish in foreign languages.58 When granting concessions to private individuals, the situation was more complicated. The formal pretext for this was the lack of paper.59 At the beginning of the 1950s, data on newspapers and magazines published in a language other than Hebrew show that the most frequently published were in English (15) and Yiddish (11) (see table 1). The foreign-language press market was characterized by a lack of stability; these newspapers and magazines were ephemeral in nature – they appeared on the market, were discontinued, and then after some time were reissued.60 About 40 newspapers and magazines published in the years 1948–1950 did not appear regularly at all.61 For the most part, they existed to serve political parties, which used them only during election periods. In 1950, it was reported that out of the total of 180 press publications in the country, 80 foreign-language press publications were by far enough – suggesting that the issuing of permits should be limited in the future.62 The total number of foreign-language publications in 1953 included 104 newspapers and 31 weekly magazines, published in 13 languages.63 This means that according to the available data, there was
The increase in the number of foreign-language newspapers and magazines was also influenced by the registration system. Limits were set on the frequency of publication, which meant that two different but similar-sounding
Number of newspapers and magazines published in Israel in languages other than Hebrew (June 1950)
| Language | Number of press publications |
|---|---|
| English | 15 |
| French | 6 |
| German | 4 |
| Czech | 1 |
| Polish | 2 |
| Romanian | 4 |
| Yugoslavian | 1 |
| Hungarian | 3 |
| Bulgarian | 4 |
| Spanish | 3 |
| Arabic | 4 |
| Yiddish | 11 |
As a result, foreign-language publications were able to compete daily with the Hebrew press and attract readers.65 It should also be taken into account that the actual readership of the foreign-language press was much higher than shown in the circulation table (see table 2). In the foreign-language press sector, the readership rate remained high – each issue was read on average by four people. Furthermore, foreign-language press publications were expanded with supplements and literary additions.66
Average circulation of newspapers and magazines published on weekdays and holidays according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade
| Publications in Hebrew | Circulation of publications in Hebrew | Foreign-language publications | Number of press publications | Press circulation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Davar | 29,000 | German | 2 | 27,000 |
| Haaretz | 29,000 | Yiddish | 2 | 23/20,000 |
| Al ha-Mishmar | 16,000 | Hungarian | 1 | 10,000 |
| Ha-Tzofeh | 7,000 | Bulgarian | 1 | 8,000 |
| Cherut | 5,000 | Romanian | 2 | 16,000 |
As shown in table 2, the circulation of the popular newspaper Haaretz (29,000 copies) didn’t differ very much from the circulation of German-language daily newspapers (27,000 copies), which, together with weekly editions, could even exceed Haaretz’s circulation, reaching 35,000 copies. The same was true for Davar (29,000 copies), published by Histadrut, the reception of which was influenced by issues related to the functioning of the press under control of the government sector. Davar was monitored by Mapai, which
Despite so many interventions, Davar slightly exceeded the popularity of the German-language press that appeared on the free market.70 The cohesiveness of the community and group connections won the competition for readers against the well-organized network that the ruling party had at its disposal. Mapam’s newspaper Al HaMishmar surpassed the circulation of Mapai’s press publications because it was distributed to every kibbutz resident, and Mapam had the best-organized network of kibbutzim at that time. However, the communal and ideological life in the kibbutzim forced the party’s press to be published solely in Hebrew, and it was still losing out to the Yiddish press, despite the ostracism of Yiddish in the public sphere (see table 2).71
This “poor” party doesn’t have even one Hebrew newspaper, since Davar is, after all, one of Histadrut’s newspapers.74 But look at how many other newspapers it has at its disposal. All newspapers published in foreign languages belong to it. There used to be an independent French-language newspaper – Mapai started publishing its own competitive newspaper to “stifle” it, then bought it. And now it has two. The entire French-speaking press market is now under the control of Mapai. It has done the same with newspapers in Romanian, Bulgarian, and Polish. And even an independent Yiddish newspaper [Letzte Nayes – E. K.], which was not afraid of competition and did not need any mercy from Mapai, and which was very well-organized and financially independent, received a “blow” from Mapai that weakened it and subsequently found itself absorbed by Mapai.75
The strategy of creating new press publications and purchasing publications that already existed on the market in order to weaken competition from other political parties in the foreign press sector was part of the struggle to win votes, and also to maintain dominance in the foreign-language press sector. On the one hand, Mapai’s governing apparatus, which was composed of the elite – vatikim and chalutzim (the first settlers of Israel) – acted as a promoter of the Hebrew language, while on the other hand Mapai, as the ruling party with a network of state institutions and significant financial resources at its disposal, quickly gained many new members and created for them the largest number of press publications in the languages of their countries of origin: “In the present situation, the foreign-language media is a very important political instrument for us in – above all – our political business,”77 wrote Moshe Kitron, a member of the Mapai party who was responsible for foreign-language publications.
The number of foreign-language newspapers and magazines published by political parties depended on the Zionist tradition and the specific nature of each party’s program. Those with a long and rich tradition in the Zionist movement introduced members to their ranks who had been learning Hebrew in youth organizations in the diaspora. Mapam, based on Hashomer Hatzair, a youth movement that was dynamically active within the diaspora and taught the Hebrew language, did not start publishing newspapers and magazines in Polish until 1958, when an aliyah of Polish-speaking people arrived who were left-wing enough for them to try to gain their votes. Earlier, despite the high percentage of party members from Poland, Mapam had focused more on publishing press in Arabic (with poor results), in order to expand its influence among the Arabic-speaking electorate.79
The parties published foreign-language press in the hope that individual newspapers and magazines would be published only for a short time, after which their readers would naturally move on to the Hebrew-language press. However, not only did the number of press publications increase, but the circulation also remained stable.80 This meant that the readers of these newspapers, contrary to the parties’ assumptions, were not only the new olim but also people who had come to Israel much earlier. A good example of this was the prewar German aliyah, which after World War ii maintained a circulation of German-language press publications at a similar level as in the 1930s, when a large group of Jews had arrived from Germany along with German-speaking people coming from other countries, mainly from Austria, Hungary, or other countries of Eastern or Central Europe.81 It was calculated that the
The ability of Jews from various countries to accept Hebrew as their own language was very diverse. It was determined by people’s education and age, and the strength of their ties with the culture of their country of origin, which often became stronger in Israel in defense against assimilation into Hebrew Israeli culture. For example, the long existence of German-language newspapers and magazines was due to the fact that in the group of Jews who had emigrated from Germany there were many elderly people who were proud of their language and strongly connected with German culture. Since they often couldn’t speak or write in Yiddish, they had no contact with the Hebrew alphabet or words of Hebrew origin, the knowledge of which would have made it easier for them to learn Hebrew after arriving in Israel. The German Jews were a very tight-knit group; they cut themselves off from everything that was not connected to German culture – what they called Hochkultur. This could be clearly seen, for example, in the case of kibbutzim. Forced to live alongside Jews from Eastern Europe but feeling like coexistence with them was impossible, they would leave a kibbutz and look for a place where they would be among their own people – Jews from Germany.82
When I asked a certain yekke (a Jew from Germany) who had been living in Palestine for four years if he knew Hebrew, he replied with ridiculous pride:
“Ni eine silbe (not a single syllable).”
“How is it possible that you don’t know the language of this country?”
“What does the language of this country mean? Which one is the country’s language? This country has five languages.” He started counting on
his fingers. “Arabic – Landersprache (the national language), English – Verkehrssprache (the social language), German – Umgangsprache (the colloquial language), jargon – Familiensprache (the family language), and Hebrew – Geheimsprache (the language of the initiated).”84
For the yekke, the German language served at least the last four functions – it was a means of communication on the social, colloquial, and family levels and was also used by the narrow, initiated circle of the European elite from Germany.
Hungarian Jews were another community that resisted using the Hebrew language. Among the foreign-language newspapers published in the new settlements, Hungarian newspapers and magazines occupied, apart from the Yiddish-language press that was aimed at Jews from various (mostly European) countries, one of the highest positions (see tables 2 and 3). For Hungarian Jews, newspapers published in their language were the center of their cultural life but also contributed to their long-term alienation from Hebrew.85 Bulgarian Jews adapted the most easily at the linguistic level, with very few requiring Bulgarian-language publications.86 The mass aliyah from Asia and Africa didn’t cause a rapid increase in press publications, since in this group there was a higher level of illiteracy than in other groups.87 In these waves of immigration there were many children who learned Hebrew very quickly. Older people who were readers of the press most often chose publications in Hebrew, and sometimes French (Jews from Morocco). Jews from Arab countries also
Foreign-language newspapers were distributed to the new immigrants in the towns where they had settled. The figures in table 3 show that the newly founded towns to which the olim were directed expressed themselves on an ethnic level – foreign-language newspapers helped them emphasize their cultural distinctiveness, thus contradicting the government’s “melting pot”88 policy. Examples include Beersheba, Lod, and Ramla. The information presented in table 3 shows that it was easier to help Jews from Europe integrate with press publications in Yiddish than in Hebrew. In Lod, the former reached nearly half the circulation of all Hebrew publications (see table 3: Lod) and in Ramla even exceeded it (see table 3: Ramla). The Yiddish-language press was mostly read by Jews from Poland, Romania, and Hungary. These groups settled in large numbers in Lod and Ramla, and to a lesser extent in Beersheeba (the community in Beersheba was very tight-knit and well organized, however), where in the first half of the 1950s there were few Jews from Poland (see table 3: only 40 copies of Yiddish press publications were imported there). Ramla had the highest, though still rather small, number of Polish readers (Polish Jews mostly settled in large cities, most often Tel Aviv). It should be remembered that in the first half of the 1950s there were aliyot of mostly nonassimilated Jews, which is why those who came from Poland more often read newspapers and magazines in Yiddish rather than Polish, especially since they encountered great antipathy in Israel towards the Polish language and the Yiddish press was more interesting, with higher-quality articles. There were many Bulgarian-language press publications in Lod, where the Bulgarian community had settled, as well as in Jaffa. Hungarians were scattered in many places. Jews from Morocco, mostly French-speaking, were more present in Beersheeba and Lod. Press publications in German and English were read by people from various countries, mainly intellectuals. German-language press was read by Jews from Hungary, who were in Lod, Ramla, and Beersheeba. There was a particularly large community of Hungarian Jews in Beersheeba, thus newspapers and magazines in
The daily circulation of press publications in three settlements inhabited by new olim at the beginning of 1952
| Lod | Ramla | Beersheba | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of inhabitants | 16,000 | 10,000 | 18,000 |
| Daily circulation of foreign-language press publications (number of copies) | |||
| Yiddish | 250 | 350 | 40 |
| English | 15 | 35 | 40 |
| Bulgarian | 200 | – | – |
| Hungarian | 100 | 120 | 225 |
| French | 100 | – | 130 |
| German | 30 | 25 | 35 |
| Romanian | 115 | 190 | 210 |
| Polish | 65 | 80 | 70 |
| Total circulation of all foreign-language press publications | |||
| 955 | 949 | 952 | |
| Circulation of Hebrew-language press publications | |||
| 548 | 593 | 915 | |
On the other hand, the lack of entertainment and contact with literature and the arts turned the new, scattered olim into eager readers of the foreign-language press, especially since it was also their main source of information.93 Stefan Lebenbaum, a journalist for Nowiny-Kurier, explained the need to create a traveling theater for new immigrants: “The hunger for entertainment is so great that on-screen trash of every kind is well-received, and every melodrama performed by a wandering troupe – miserably acted and reeking of naphthalene, with cheap tear-jerking tricks and a couple of stupid songs – attracts
The growth of the foreign-language press, which, apart from political capital, also brought financial profit to the parties, can be attributed to low publishing costs. In the case of the Hebrew-language press, the average editorial costs oscillated around 20,000 liras per month, while in the case of the foreign-language press they amounted to less than 2,000 liras. While carrying out the mission of promoting the Hebrew language, the Ministry of Industry and Trade obliged publishers of Hebrew-language newspapers and magazines to sell them at a very low price. At the same time, for an issue of a foreign-language newspaper, which was half the length, one had to pay more than twice as much – nine groszy. Thus, the result was the opposite of the original premise – the foreign-language press benefitted from the lowering of prices for Hebrew-language newspapers, subverting the Hebrew-language press market and undermining, to a great extent, the government’s efforts.98 The foreign-language press had only 20 percent of the Hebrew-language newspapers’ expenditures and their income was 200 percent higher. In these conditions, while Hebrew-language newspapers were struggling with the economic crisis, foreign-language newspapers flourished – an increasing number of people
Number of journalists employed in the Hebrew and foreign-language press
| Number of people employed as editors | Number of journalists | Number of correspondents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hebrew-language press publications | |||
| Davar | 56 | 29 | 12 |
| Haaretz | 52 | 20 | 12 |
| Ha-Boker | 34 | 14 | 7 |
| Foreign-language press publications | |||
| German | 6 | 4 | 0 |
| Hungarian | 12 | 4 | 0 |
| French | 7 | 5 | 0 |
The editorial offices of the foreign-language press brought together people working for newspapers on a freelance basis.101 This was possible because these newspapers used press agencies’ materials, often without paying for them, or based their articles on translations from the Hebrew press. In the case of the Polish-language press, copyrights were often infringed, not only by printing articles published earlier in Hebrew but also by reprinting
This is not a typical article. In all modesty, I must admit that I have not written a similar article for many years. […] It goes beyond the framework of an ordinary article, and for this reason an improbable thing will happen to it: it won’t be stolen. For this is what usually happens: a chap walks up to a newsstand – sometimes half a dozen similar fellows – and he takes out a few coins, buys a newspaper, puts it in his pocket and feels satisfied. Now he’s got something he can use to “do the job” and feed himself until the end of the week. You’re probably wondering: how can he make a living from Reb Ipcha Mistabra? Just between us: I don’t know how, but – he clearly knows. He takes scissors, cuts me out of the newspaper, translates me into Polish or another language, prints it and sells it without worrying about the fact that another Polish rag, one of his competitors, will do the same thing – they’ll steal the same article and also sell it, leaving it up to their esteemed readers to decide who is a better thief …107
Most of Carlebach’s articles were published in the Polish-language magazine Przegląd. However, looking at the foreign-language press as a whole, it seems that its status differed depending on the language. For example, one report stated, “The Jerusalem Post doesn’t resemble a Romanian newspaper, which is pornographic, just as the German aliyah doesn’t resemble the Turkish.”108
The critical assessment of the foreign-language press, in terms of both content and the growing number of publications, forced the Council of Editors to question the aim of its continued presence on the Israeli market: “Does it want to bring the new olim closer to the Hebrew language or reinforce hatred towards it?”109 In an article titled “104 Newspapers Are Spreading Foreign
Publishers of foreign-language newspapers and magazines defended themselves by comparing their significance to the status of Yiddish in the diaspora. Hebrew defenders responded that Yiddish signified the autonomy of Jews while living within another nation, while in Israel Jews should constitute one national entity: “If someone in the diaspora wanted to isolate him/herself, it wouldn’t be that bad, but linguistic isolation in Israel is bad.”112 Being unable to speak Hebrew led to an inability to function in Israel: to communicate, to find work, and even to seek work through advertisements. Not wanting to ban foreign-language publications, so as not to deprive the new olim of information about the country during the first period of their new lives there, authorities tried to find legal regulations that would allow them to use the press in languages of the origin countries to promote the Hebrew language and conduct a “national Hebrew language lesson” through it.113 On 12 December 1954, it was decided to prepare a proposal for the limitation of the foreign-language press, with the goal of including a program for popularizing Hebrew-learning in foreign-language publications.114 One idea was to devote, apart from advertisements, 10 to 23 percent of these newspapers to Hebrew-language content. Another was a proposal to start printing a foreign-language publication in a manner similar to the siddur prayer-book115 in some countries of the diaspora – half a page would be devoted to news in the language of the origin country of the new olim and the other half would contain its translation into Hebrew. Advertisements, except for private companies – thus, those concerning activities of the federal
Due to the need to respect freedom of speech, there was little desire to regulate the number of pages or content of the foreign-language press. New proposals to regulate it were abandoned with the assumption that the Hebrew language would eventually triumph as new generations arose – the social stigma accompanying the publication of foreign-language press in Israel was sufficiently high and its quality was so low that it could be expected to disappear with the decline in interest in the party between elections and the shifting of readers to the Hebrew press.117 After a short period of being used for purposes of integration and party propaganda, the foreign-language press – of marginal importance, politically dependent and culturally foreign – usually ended up serving solely as entertainment. It was not an “institution” with which the literary community wished to identify – both those writing in Polish who eventually switched to the Hebrew-language press and those who continued to write in Polish. The social reception of the foreign-language press and the increasing number of readers abandoning it led to its eventual decline.
In Israel, the reception of the foreign-language press varied depending on the community. For a vatik, it meant an additional instrument of propaganda, the possibility of disseminating party information, another forum for party
1.3 The Polish Language in Israel
The Polish-language press appeared on the Israeli market with the arrival of Polish Jews who, in their country of origin, had supported acculturation and Polonization or had striven for assimilation. The prewar arrivals of Polish Jews in Eretz Israel did not lead to the creation of a Polish-language press. A larger wave of emigration from Poland, known as the Grabski Aliyah,118 was an aliyah of so-called “newsagents,” mostly Yiddish-speaking (apart from a small group from the Zionist avant-garde who chose “Hebraization” immediately upon arrival). They hid their “Polish origin” – usually by attaching themselves to larger European geopolitical centers or identifying themselves with specific Jewish towns and villages. For example, those from the Eastern Borderlands of the Republic of Poland said they were from the Russian empire,119 those from Southern Poland said they were from Galicia, and others hid behind the names of Polish cities – they were Cracovian Jews, Varsovian Jews, or Jews from Wrocław or small shtetls, but rarely “Polish Jews.” This geography of identity involved many issues, such as the lack of a Polish state until 1918, hence the greater attachment to a town or city of residence than to the state administration and apparatus, which was subject to change in this region. As a result,
Given the general atmosphere surrounding the topic of Poland right after the war, one cannot ignore the tensions that arose during the stationing of troops of the Second Polish Corps in Palestine (1941–1947). The chiefly left-wing yishuv establishment identified non-Jewish Polish refugees in Palestine with the prewar right-wing, treating them with the same hostility and suspicion as the Jewish right-wing.120 One of the reports stated, “The anti-Polish tension among Jews is evidenced by, among other things, the resentment encountered by Jews who were formerly Polish citizens, holding Polish passports. It is not even enough for them to declare their Jewish faith and nationality. Speaking Polish in the streets of Israeli cities gives rise to suspicion and resentment. There is probably not a single Pole left in any of the Jewish districts of Palestine. Even mixed Polish-Jewish married couples who decided to stay in Palestine permanently and had already become well-settled financially have left Palestine, with great sorrow, and have gone to Germany.”121 These events took place before the evacuation of the Polish Army from Palestine, just before the outbreak of Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, in conditions of extreme political and military tension. Previously, the situation had been much better. Refugees who had come to Palestine with the Second Polish Corps122 (Anders’s Army) lived alongside Jews who had migrated from Poland in the prewar aliyot and in the years 1939–1941, creating a unique community. It was unique due to the significant, unprecedented size of the Polish emigration but also due to its characteristic social and professional profile. The group of 6,000 Polish refugees comprised representatives of the highest state authorities, leading political and social activists, a large percentage of the intelligentsia, and members
Another group that can be considered both as an initiator and consumer of the Polish-language press in the first years after World War ii were the maʿapilim.124 Most of the immigrants who arrived in Eretz Israel between 1946 and 1948 were maʿapilim.125 When examining declarations concerning language use among Jewish refugees, one can see that there was no potential for the creation of Polish-language press publications in this period. Irit Keynan’s research on camps for Holocaust survivors in Germany shows that, for example, in the American occupation zone in 1945, as many as 70 percent of the survivors were from Poland, with the majority claiming that their everyday language was Yiddish and only 31 percent indicating Polish.126 Even those who spoke Polish were under no obligation to become readers of the press in that language. Holocaust survivors underwent Zionist indoctrination in refugee camps, one of the aims of which was to reject the language of their country of origin and to become more closely connected to Hebrew.127 In Israel, young
In the case of Polish Jews, the issues of identity, migration, and assimilation, as well as the processes of transformation and tension inherent in them, were moderated by two opposing drives: on the one hand, the rejection of the culture of the diaspora as a symbol of tragic experiences and the adoption of a newly created persona, and on the other hand the retaining of Polish
Every Friday we read the following advert in the newspaper: “Moshe Kalisz, matchmaker. Only for the Polish intelligentsia.” Indeed, Moshe Kalisz does not accept Jews from Morocco, South America, Romania, Latvia, or Yemen. Nevertheless, he’s very successful and has brought many couples together. He has told me many touching stories: how a “diamond daughter” came to him with a dowry of millions, as beautiful as a dream. And how her parents looked unfavorably upon a young man who was poor but from a good family. And how when they were in a room at the matchmaker’s place, they connected with the young man’s parents on the topic of Pińsk. “He has no money, it’s true,” said the “diamond mother.” “But do you know, Mr. Kalisz, what it means to me that they come from
Pińsk? Do you know that my father and his grandfather used to live on the same street? And that I can speak Polish with these people? Do you understand, Mr. Kalisz, what that means to us?”136
The representative reader was born in the eastern borderlands of Poland, survived the war in Russia, and came to Israel in 1949. The reader is 42 years old – he has survived a great deal, lost his family, married again and started a second life. His current wife was also born in Poland – she didn’t live in Russia; she survived a ghetto and concentration camps. The reader speaks Yiddish with his wife, but with their children – they have two children – the reader and his wife speak Hebrew. At work, the reader medabber rak ivrit,140 and with his neighbor he govorit po russki.141 The reader’s wife speaks Polish with her neighbors and Yiddish with shopkeepers. She reads a Polish newspaper and Polish novels. Her husband reads newspapers in Polish and Hebrew. He doesn’t read novels. He would like to read them, but he doesn’t have enough time. The reader counts in Yiddish and his wife counts in Polish. As for which language they think in – I don’t know.142
Multilingualism, weak links with Polish culture, and the fluidity of the community of Jews from Poland, which could not be transformed into a powerful political electorate or significant organization, were not conducive to the stable publication of Polish-language newspapers and magazines at the end of the 1940s. Making up a community that was engaged in social matters but politically divided and poorly integrated, Jews from Poland were dispersed among various Israeli political parties, especially since nearly all of the parties were led by their compatriots, and thus there was not a strong enough motivation for parties to issue Polish-language publications.
With each wave of emigration, groups of Polonized Jews reached Israel with a weakened sense of national belonging. The Polish intelligentsia that arrived between 1955 and 1960 was an extremely desirable group due to their high level of education and professional qualifications, but their attempts at assimilation in the diaspora, in part because of their connections to communism and rapid social advancement, did not inspire respect in Israel.145 The Polish aliyah of the second half of the 1950s was evaluated in the following way by Eliyahu Amikam (formerly Krzak) from Poland: “Very important people from Poland suddenly appeared: “academics,” “intellectuals,” “writers,” and “journalists” – yesterday’s Abramoviches with surnames that are purely Polish in terms of race and nationality.”146 The left-wing milieu of the Israeli newspaper Od Nowa tried to defend itself: “Intellectuals, writers, journalists, etc. – everything in quotation marks, i.e., it was all just a whopping lie because they were ordinary people, victims of de-Stalinization, former sowers of the “miasmas of communism” who, in Israel, in order to fool their rivals, simply reinvented themselves as intellectuals, journalists, etc., and so on. In addition, there were the crocodile tears of Mr. Amikam; we were actually the ones who had welcomed them with open arms (although it was seemingly Mr. Amikam who had welcomed them, it was really us who had made it happen).”147 On
Mrs. Dwora led me into an office and a moment later I signed a receipt for 15 pounds to pay the sherut150 to Hedera. Within a quarter of an hour the luggage was on the roof of an elegant taxi, and my family and I were sprawled comfortably in the spacious vehicle. The driver knew Russian. He pressed the starter and said: “Off we go!” As we drove, we passed the streets of Haifa, surrendering to intense emotions at the attractive sight of the beautiful houses, clean streets, palms and cedars, women in colorful dresses, and men in white shirts. “They’re all Jews,” I thought,
overcome with emotion and pride. […] On the right was the turquoise sea, and on the left was the desert with its oases of groves and settlements. We arrived. I opened the door and jumped out onto the sand. The driver helped me take the suitcases and bags off the roof and pile them up. “Is this Hedera?’” I asked the driver. He smiled and said, pointing: “Hedera is over there. This is the Givat Olga maʿabara.” I looked around and tried to gather my thoughts. We stood for a while on the sand, the children were clinging to my jacket, and my wife was crying. […] Olim Chadashim grabbed our suitcases and carried them to the house where the office was located. […] The sun was already setting when the clerk finally appeared. He carefully examined the papers and said drily, “Tzrif151 no. 7, there aren’t any keys yet, the tzrif isn’t ready, but you can already live there, there’s water close by.” With the help of some olim, we carried the luggage to tzrif no. 7. I dragged beds, mattresses, a table, two chairs and other essential things from a storeroom. We had a roof over our heads. There were no windows, there were rubble and lime on the floor, pieces of wooden boards, and thousands of flies in the air. We stood inside and looked at each other without saying a word. […] Bitten and swollen, we welcomed the first daybreak. […] My wife and I have 25 family members in Israel. Uncles, aunts, cousins. […] We sent some postcards to them. Address: Tel Aviv. We are in Givat Olga. Come immediately. We didn’t know what to do. We waited. We didn’t have to wait long, for two days later we had our first family meeting. […] A decision was made. “The children can’t stay here. I’ll take them to Tel Aviv.” We didn’t object. “You can come on Saturday, and everything will work out somehow.” Then we were alone. […] Of the eight pounds we’d received, a few piasters were left, and a period of local trade began. Sausage from Kraków – and the first 30 pounds of our own money. […] Wednesday and Thursday passed, then it was Friday. Elegantly dressed, with a bag stuffed with gifts (sausage, ham, vodka) and two pounds in our pockets, we headed to the station. It took us two hours to reach Tel Aviv.152
His professional engagement was as follows: “The next day I was added to the list of people registered in patwa.153 How amazed I was when I found
The Gomułka Aliyah included people who were mostly disappointed with communism. With an unstable political identity, this aliyah seemed to be the ideal future electorate for the Israeli political parties.160 Due to its character, these immigrants were courted not only by the ruling party (Mapai) but also by the left-wing parties – to a much lesser extent by the General Zionists and the Progressive Party (it seems that their period of accepting members from Poland was ending at that time), and barely at all by Cherut, which was trying to strengthen its position among Mizrachi Jews. The assimilation and political attractiveness of the “Polish” electorate, especially before the 1959 election, were the main reasons for the increase in the number of press publications in Polish. In the years 1956–1960, apart from the infrequent Polish versions of Hebrew-language newspapers, supplements to Friday editions, and political party bulletins more resembling informative leaflets than regular newspapers, 21 newspapers and magazines were published in Polish, some of which were printed on a mimeograph and appeared irregularly.161 The creation of so many press publications in Polish was easy because many journalists were arriving from Poland at that time, with no objections to working for a party-affiliated newspaper: “‘We’re home at last,’ Bruno Glick repeated several times. He’s a 37-year-old chemist who arrived yesterday from Poland with his family. His wife, a journalist who worked for five years as a Warsaw radio correspondent, wishes
In Israel, new immigrants from Poland required an active political life and cultural events – theater and cinema – as well as books, newspapers, and magazines in Polish. Among the arrivals to Israel were both those who had abandoned communism in the midst of the Polish October163 and party activists who still had strong faith in communism. There were also groups that were opportunistically connected to power and ready to follow a new current in Israel, this time with Mapai. They weren’t against taking advantage of party channels to arrange their lives in their new homeland; on the contrary, they strove for closer ties with party structures and quickly, although not painlessly, underwent linguistic absorption. After some time, the Polish-language press was of secondary importance to them; the intelligentsia from Poland, not wanting to live on the margins of society, eventually switched to reading Hebrew newspapers and magazines.164
The emptiness felt by those who, for various reasons, did not experience successful language absorption was replaced by what was known as “unique Polishness.” One of them explained it as follows: “This is not related to Poland as a living and changing country, but to Poland from two or three years ago. Quite simply, the legend of Poland that has existed and even, frequently, not existed. […] ‘Polishness’ is a defense against emptiness, a defense against being ‘unremarkable.’”165 Maintaining the distinctive traits of such Polishness
After 1967, the arrival of people who had strongly assimilated into Polish culture did not cause major changes on the Polish-language press market. With the exception of Biuletyn Związku Długoletnich Działaczy Rewolucyjnego Ruchu Robotniczego [Bulletin of the Union of Longstanding Activists of the Revolutionary Workers’ Movement], created for the election period by a group of communists from Poland with little support from the Israeli communist party (Maki), no newspaper or magazine was created that would meet the needs of Polish Jews who had arrived in Israel after 1967. The creation of new press publications for them by Israeli political groups, as happened in the case of the Gomułka Aliyah, was not a profitable move. The March Aliyah was small and was divided into groups and factions according to the degree and manner of their involvement in communism, and the Israeli parties at that time set themselves more far-reaching goals than the political cultivation of a “handful” of Polish Jews. Moreover, the concept of political parties having their own
The political potential and capital of the Israeli parties also depended on the exploitation of the euphoria and social atmosphere after the Six-Day War. The state faced new challenges, territorial changes and security issues and was focused on existential issues, and although journalists were still writing about the necessity of helping immigrants settle in Israel, the methods of absorbing newcomers had changed due to the state’s well-developed social system, and political parties were certainly dealing with this issue to a lesser extent than in the first decade of the state’s existence. And most importantly, after Poland broke off its diplomatic relations with Israel and thus when political affairs that the Polish press could have served came to an end, there was a social boycott of the “Polish subject” – there were no longer any political gains for Israeli parties to make from it.
Furthermore, the foreign-language press was affected by a depreciation in yet another respect during the Six-Day War. In contrast to the press during the War of Independence (1948), which was a natural phenomenon due to the multilingualism of the volunteers from different parts of the world, the new generation of fighters who took part in the Six-Day War mostly spoke Hebrew. Taking into account the feelings of social solidarity and patriotism that arose during the war in 1967, the presence of press publications in languages other than Hebrew was jarring, highlighting nonconformity and the lack of a national ethos. The political provenance of the newspapers and magazines meant that
In addition, the March Aliyah, consisting of educated, Polonized members of the intelligentsia with liberal views and universal values, was difficult to win over politically or cultivate nationally, especially in a country that was striving for cohesiveness on the level of patriotic discourse. Polish Jews who arrived in Israel after 1967 questioned their identification with the nation because of their ancestry, which prevented Zionist parties – at the basic, national level – from winning their favor. The feeling among newly arrived immigrants that their stay in Israel was temporary, combined with their tenuous connections to the Jewish state due to the numerous problems and obstacles they faced while settling in Israel, weakened their need to get involved in new press initiatives, especially since Nowiny-Kurier had appeared on the market, which was weak in terms of content but financially stable. On the other hand, the victory in the Six-Day War accelerated the process of adaptation for new members of Israeli society. People did not want to live on the margins of society in a state that had achieved success; they preferred to become part of it, because it turned out that the Jewish state was able to defend them, which was extremely important after the Holocaust. After the Six-Day War, people returned to forgotten Jewish traditions and grew closer to Hebrew culture,171 and the broad rejection of the Polish language, which was associated with anti-Semitism, caused children to become reluctant about speaking to their parents in Polish.172
The functioning of the Polish-language press in Israel was a product of political interests and the needs of readers for whom the Polish language was an integral part of their identity, as well as journalists from Poland who had not undergone a successful professional adaptation. Newspapers were a hybrid form, expressing Israeli content in Polish – allowing new immigrants, on the one hand, to distance themselves from Polishness and, on the other hand, to reduce the distance between them and Jewish society in Israel. In this way, attempts were made to free the new olim from the complex of Lot’s wife – with their “gazes turned back,” returning to memories of the diaspora.173
The Jewish community in Palestine before the creation of the State of Israel.
The Jewish diaspora.
Newspapers and magazines published in English and Arabic were not included in this analysis of the foreign-language press. The former was the official language during the period of the British Mandate in Palestine, while the latter was the national language of the Arab citizens of Israel. Israel State Archives in Jerusalem (hereinafter: isa), file 5498/1 (gimel), a memo by the Minister of the Interior from a government meeting on 12 December 1954 and a proposal of the Council of Editors, Information from the Bureau of Commerce and Industry.
Histadrut (Hebrew: Ha-Histadrut ha-Klalit shel ha-Ovdim be-Eretz Yisraʾel) was an Israeli trade union organization established in 1920. It was the most important institution and economic organization in the country, bringing together representatives of entities from the public and private sectors. It had a strong influence on politics and social life. Its leadership was first dominated by Mapai and then by the Labour Party.
R. Rożański, “‘Ha-omnam safah zarah ve-tzoremet’? Le-sheʾelat yachaso shel Ben-Gurion le-yidish le-achar ha-Shoʾah” [Is It Really a “Strange and Whistling Language”? On Ben-Gurion’s Approach to Yiddish after the Holocaust], Iyunim Bitkumat Israel [Thoughts on the Creation of Israel] 15 (2005): 463.
Lejwik Halpern (Levi Halpern) was a Yiddish writer and journalist. He was born on 25 December 1888 in Igumen (now Chervyen), Belarus, and died in New York in 1962. He was a Bund activist in his youth and was arrested in 1906 and deported to Siberia for organizing rallies and demonstrations. He fled to the USA in 1913, where he lived until his death. Leksikon fun der noyer yidisher literatur (New York, 1963), 107–28; Rożański, “Ha-omnam safah zarah ve-tzoremet?,’” 463–82. Halpern’s stay in Israel is recorded in a document from 19 May 1950: Report by Consul Marek Thee (Tel Aviv) from an interview with Mapam activist Adolf Berman, inter alia about the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising and relations with the Polish United Workers’ Party. In Stosunki polsko-izraelskie (1945–1967): Wybór dokumentów, wybór i opracowanie [Polish-Israeli Relations (1945–1967): A Selection of Documents and Commentary], ed. S. Rudnicki and M. Silber (Warsaw, 2009), 486.
The meeting between Lejwik Halpern and Ben-Gurion took place on 29 April 1950.
Hebrew.
Rożański, “Ha-omnam safah zarah ve-tzoremet?,” 466.
Rożański, “Ha-omnam safah zarah ve-tzoremet?,’” 466–67.
The term Mizrachi (also spelled Mizrahi) was used to describe the Jews who came from North Africa, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. They were also referred to as Arab Jews.
Rożański, “Ha-omnam safah zarah ve-tzoremet?,” 475.
Rożański, “Ha-omnam safah zarah ve-tzoremet?,’” 476.
The Poale Zion Party, to which Adolf Berman belonged, proposed the recognition of Yiddish as the national language of Jews in Poland. This party supported the creation of a Jewish state with a communist system supported by the ussr, but it was also in favor of the development of Jewish life in Poland. After arriving in Israel, its members usually joined Mapam. Diaspora Archive in Tel Aviv (hereinafter: da), Adolf Berman’s Team, file p-70/3053, content of Adolf Berman’s speech at a Mapam conference in Haifa, 2 June 1951.
One of the main Zionist slogans, meaning the gathering of diasporas and creation of a Jewish state.
da, Adolf Berman’s Team, file p-70/3053, content of Adolf Berman’s speech at a Mapam conference in Haifa, 2 June 1951.
A. Landau-Czajka. Syn będzie Lech … Asymilacja Żydów w Polsce międzywojennej [Our Son’s Name Will Be Lech … The Assimilation of Jews in Interwar Poland] (Warsaw, 2006), 52–60.
The name comes from Władysław Gomułka, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party. After a long period during which no permits were issued for emigration from Poland to Israel, the first emigrant was recorded in January 1955. Emigration gained momentum about a year later, reaching its maximum in 1957. It began before Władysław Gomułka came to power (he became the first secretary of the Polish United Workers’ Party in October 1956), but the emigration reached its peak under the Gomułka government, which is why it was called the Gomułka Aliyah in Israel. D. Stola, Kraj bez wyjścia? Migracje z Polski 1949–1989 [A Country with No Exit? Migrations from Poland, 1949–1989] (Warsaw, 2010), 129–33.
The term “March Aliyah” is explained in footnote 16 of the introduction.
Quoted from A. Grabski and M. Rusinek, “Język żydowski jako przedmiot sporów politycznych wśród polskich Żydów” [The Yiddish Language as a Subject of Political Disputes among Polish Jews], in Jidyszland – polskie przestrzenie [Yiddishland – A Polish Region], ed. E. Geller and M. Polit (Warsaw, 2008), 273; N. Aleksiun, “Bund a syjoniści w Polsce po drugiej wojnie światowej” [The Bund and Zionists in Poland after World War ii], in Bund: 100 lat historii 1897–1997 [The Bund: One Hundred Years of History, 1897–1997], ed. F. Tych and J. Hensel (Warsaw, 2000), 325–45.
A. Grabowska, “Między Wisłą a Jordanem” [Between the Vistula and the Jordan], Kultura 288, no. 9 (1971): 106; Archive of the Literary Institute in Maisons-Laffitte (hereinafter: ali), letter from Alina Grabowska to Jerzy Giedroyc, 17 November 1969; J. Jaakow, “Absorpcja winna objąć również aktorów” [Absorption Should Also Include Actors], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 66 (1961): 3.
T. Hatalgi, “Jeszcze o polskim i o hebrajskim” [More about Polish and Hebrew], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 18 (1961): 4.
Archive of the Labour Party in Beit Berl (hereinafter: alp), file 2/7/1968/119, meeting of the Labour Party’s Press Commission, 9 May 1968 (from a statement by Moshe Lindner).
alp, file 2/25/1950/13, meeting at the Mapai Party’s office, 26 April 1950.
Rożański, “Ha-omnam safah zarah ve-tzoremet?,’” 473; An interview with Mordechai Yeshayahu Tsanin in June 2007, materials from the author’s collection; alp, file 2/949/1958/8, report by Moshe Kitron for the period of November 1957 to March 1958 on the activities connected to the foreign-language press, sent to the party’s secretary, Giora Yoseftal, 17 March 1958; alp, file 2/932/1966/4110, proceedings of the meeting of editors of foreign-language press publications with Golda Meir, 28 December 1966.
alp, file 2/7/1968/119, meeting of the Labour Party’s Press Commission, 5 April 1968 (report for the Shabtai Himelfarb Commission).
The Hashomer Hatzair Archive in Givat Haviva (hereinafter: hha), file 8/65/90, meeting of the Mapam Party’s secretarial office, 30 March 1964; B. Heller, “Miejsce języka żydowskiego w Izraelu” [The Position of Yiddish in Israel], Od Nowa, no. 5 (1959): 5. An example of the equivocal attitude towards Yiddish in Israel was the question of Jewish theater. Yiddish-language theater was gaining popularity due to its comedic aspects and sharp political satire. This was disadvantageous to Hebrew-language theater, which was still poorly developed. Administrative restrictions on staging plays in Yiddish were thus applied. Two popular satirists from Łódź, Szymon Dżigan, and Israel Schumacher, left Israel in protest. At the same time (1951), David Ben-Gurion defended the work of Yiddish-language poets and prose-writers, as well as Yiddish culture in general, in the ussr. Bearing in mind the political context, one can see that the Israeli establishment had equivocal attitudes towards Yiddish due to the different functions and significance of this language in the diaspora and in the Jewish state.
da, Adolf Berman’s team, file P 70/3053, content of a speech at a Mapam conference in Haifa, 2 June 1951.
isa, file 716/49 (gimel), letter from M. Zakhaim to the Minister of the Interior, April 1951.
E. Bora [Dow Eppel], “Żydzi, Hebrajczycy, Izraelczycy” [Jews, Hebrews, Israelis], Od Nowa, no. 15 (1958): 2–3.
“Ach, te ‘sabry’” [Ah, These “Sabras”], Opinia: Tygodnik Społeczno-Polityczny, no. 4 (1950): 5–6; O. Almog, Ha-tzabbar: Diokan [Sabra: A Portrait] (Tel Aviv, 1997), 16; N. Gertz, “From Jew to Hebrew: The ‘Zionist Narative’ in the Israeli Cinema of the 1940s and 1950s,” in In Search of Identity: Jewish Aspects in Israeli Culture, ed. D. Urian and E. Karsh (London, 1999), 175–99; L. Weissbrod, Israeli Identity: In Search of a Successor to the Pioneer, Tsabar, and Settler (London, 2002), 47–70.
A round cap that protected against the sun.
“Zbliżenie ‘polsko-egipskie’” [Polish-Egyptian Relations], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 112 (1960): 2.
The book in question was actually Stanisław Szober’s Dictionary of Correct Polish Language.
Shmuel Agnon (1888–1970), also known as Shmuel Yosef Czaczkes, was an Israeli prose writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1966. He received the Israel Prize twice – in 1954 and 1958.
Nathan Shaham (born 29 January 1925 in Tel Aviv, died 18 June 2018 in the Beit Alfa kibbutz) was an Israeli writer and playwright. He received many awards, including the Israel Prize for Literature, the Bialik Prize and the American National Jewish Book Award.
Nathan Shaham, Shikun vatikim [Veterans’ Housing] (Sifriat Poalim, 1958).
Julian Tuwim was one of the most popular writers of the interwar period in Poland. He was born in Łódź on 13 September 1894 into an assimilated Jewish family and died in Zakopane on 27 December 1953. He wrote many songs and librettos. “W polskich księgarniach” [In Polish Bookshops], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 79 (1959): 3.
During the aliyah period from January 1956 to 30 March 1960, i.e., at the time when the largest wave of Jews came from Poland, the highest percentage – 41.3 percent – were people 17 years old and younger. Another 36 percent were people 18 to 44 years old, i.e., young people and those of working age. “Reports for the Period of January 1956–March 1960 Submitted to the Twenty-Fifth Zionist Congress in Jerusalem” (Jerusalem, 1960), 141, 144.
Orchards.
“Tegoroczny Pesach – nasze dziesięciolecie” [This Year’s Passover – Our Tenth Anniversary], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 97 (1967): 5.
E. Kishon, “To jest mój kraj” [This Is My Country], Kurier Powszechny, no. 82 (1958): 3 (translated into Polish by J. Shalitt).
The first ulpan was established in mid-September 1949 in the Etzion Immigrant Home in Jerusalem, and the second was opened in Machane Israel, with its services largely used by Jews from Poland. In the first half of the 1950s, more ulpanim were opened – for example, in Kiryat Motzkin (which moved to Bat Galim in 1954), Nahariya (which moved to Netanya in 1953 and was exceptionally popular among foreign tourists), Safed, Hader, Netanya, Kfar Saba, Haifa, and Tel Aviv. A kibbutz for religious Jews in Ramat Aviv was also established in 1951, but it didn’t last long. Due to an increase in Moroccan Jews, mostly from religious families, an ulpan was opened in Negev in 1954.
“The Executives of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency for Palestine: Reports Submitted to the Twenty-Fourth Zionist Congress in Jerusalem in 1956” (New York, 1956), 33; “Reports for the Period of April 1951–December 1955 Submitted to the Twenty-Fourth Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, April 1956” (Jerusalem, 1956), 169–71.
“Reports for the Period April 1951–December 1955 Submitted to the Twenty-Fourth Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, April 1956” (Jerusalem, 1956), 171.
Maʿabarot are temporary camps organized for newcomers; Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem (hereinafter: cza), file S 42/230, letter from Bargiński to Zalman Shazar, 26 July 1956.
The Israeli lirah – Israel’s currency from 1952 to 1980.
Chwila, no. 57 (1952): 4 (a letter from a reader).
N. Gross, “Protekcja” [Favoritism], Kontury, no. 4 (1993): 51; cza, file S 42/230, Language as a Factor in Integration and Rehabilitation, 1955.
“Reports of the Executives Submitted to the Twenty-Third Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, August 1951” (Jerusalem, 1951), 409; “Reports for the Period of April 1951–December 1955,” 171; cza, file S 42/230, letter from Leo Krowna to Giora Yoseftal, 22 December 1952; cza, file S 42/230, Language as a Factor in Integration and Rehabilitation, 1955.
cza, file S 42/230, letter from Bargiński to Giora Yoseftal and the Absorption Department, 22 January 1956; cza, file S 42/230, letter from Giora Yoseftal to Cygiel, 18 January 1956; cza, file S 42/230, letter from R. Golan of the Ulpan Department to Giora Yoseftal, 11 December 1955.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), letter from the Minister of the Interior to members of the government, 7 December 1953; isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), “Report of the Council of Editors: Foreign-Language Newspapers in Israel, Information from the Bureau of Commerce and Industry”; isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), directive letter from the Minister of the Interior with statistical material on foreign-language publications in relation to the Hebrew-language press, 11 December 1953; isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), meeting of the Government Committee for the Foreign-Language Press on 9 December 1953.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), memo from the Minister of the Interior from a government meeting, 12 December 1954; alp, file 2/949/1958/8, report by Moshe Kitron from November 1957 to March 1958 on activities in the foreign-language press, sent to the secretary of the party, Giora Yoseftal, 17 March 1958.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), information about a government meeting on 9 December 1953; isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), letter from Israel Rokach, the Minister of the Interior, to the government’s secretarial office, 7 December 1953.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), letter from Israel Rokach, the Minister of the Interior, to the government’s secretarial office, 7 December 1953.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), letter from Israel Rokach, the Minister of the Interior, to government ministers, 7 December 1953.
isa, file 717/7 (gimel), folder titled Kisilow, a document attached to a letter written by Moshe Goldstein, Director of Propaganda (Hasbara), 1 June 1950.
isa, file 717/7 (gimel), folder titled Kisilow, a document attached to a letter written by Moshe Goldstein, Director of Propaganda (Hasbara), 1 June 1950.
isa, file 717/7 (gimel), folder titled Kisilow, a document attached to a letter written by Moshe Goldstein, Director of Propaganda (Hasbara), 1 June 1950.
isa, file 717/7 (gimel), folder titled Kisilow, a document attached to a letter written by Moshe Goldstein, Director of Propaganda (Hasbara), 1 June 1950.
isa, file 717/7 (gimel), folder titled Kisilow, a document attached to a letter written by Moshe Goldstein, Director of Propaganda (Hasbara), 1 June 1950.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), “Report from the Council of Editors”; isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), meeting of the Ministry of the Interior, 12 December 1954; D. Giladi, “104 itonim mefitzim la-az be-Yisraʾel” [104 Newspapers Are Spreading Foreign Language Usage in Israel], Maariv, 1 January 1954, 8.
isa, file 717/7 (gimel), folder titled Kisilow, a document attached to a letter written by Moshe Goldstein, Director of Propaganda (Hasbara), 1 June 1950. The difference in the number of titles provided in the document could result from the counting method that was used. Alternately published newspapers and magazines might have been counted once as one title, but later as two separate ones. Therefore, the data presented in table 1 is only an estimate.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), memo by the Minister of the Interior from a government meeting on 12 December 1954 and a proposal from the Council of Editors.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), A government meeting on 12 December 1954 concerning the foreign-language press, “Report by the Council of Editors.”
A statement by Eliezer Livneh on the control of Davar by Mapai; alp, file 2/26/1953/13, meeting of Mapai’s Political Council, 25 June 1953.
alp, file 2/21/1950/32, meeting of Mapai’s Organizational Council, 18 May 1950.
alp, file 2/7/1950/194, meeting of Mapai’s Organizational Council, 11 June 1950.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), “Report by the Council of Editors.”
In 1960, Mapam had 84 kibbutzim that were considered to be affiliates of the party; hha, file 3/65/90, meetings of Mapam’s secretarial office, 30 March 1960.
isa, 717/7 (gimel), folder titled Kisilow, a document attached to a letter written by Moshe Goldstein, Director of Propaganda (Hasbara), 1 June 1950.
alp, file 2/26/1953/13, a statement by Eliezer Livneh at a meeting of Mapai’s political council, 25 June 1953.
Different claims about Davar’s affiliation were made, depending on the accusations that were made about it. When it was attempted to discredit Mapai’s service in the propagation of Hebrew, it was claimed that Davar didn’t belong to Mapai, while at other times – in the context of political domination and attracting new party members – it was claimed that Davar was a Mapai-affiliated publication. Indeed, it was under the firm control of Mapai.
I. Remba, “Mapai ve-ha-musar ha-hotentoti shel Ha-Progresivim ha-Liberaliyyim” [Mapai and the Hottentot Morality of the Progressive-Liberal Party], Cherut, 28 May 1961, 2. Mapai fought against the anti-Ben-Gurion politics of Mordechai Tsanin, the editor of Letzte Nayes. This is why it attempted to buy up shares in the newspaper, put its journalists in the editorial office, and weaken the newspaper’s influence on the new olim by establishing its own Yiddish-language publication. When Letzte Nayes weakened, Mapai bought 50 percent of its shares with the stipulation that Tsanin would be able to publish articles freely, without any censorship from Mapai – and this was indeed the case. Tsanin published anti-Ben-Gurion articles in the “From the Editor” column, despite Mapai’s coownership, which was very disappointing for Mapai’s press policy-makers. When the editors met with the prime minister, objections were made to Tsanin, but they had little impact on what he printed. When Levi Eshkol became the prime minister, the Tsanin treated him more leniently than Ben-Gurion. alp, file 2/949/1958/8, report by Moshe Kitron for the period from November 1957 to March 1958 on activities concerning the foreign-language press, sent to Giora Yoseftal, secretary of the party, 17 March 1958; alp, file 2/7/1968/119, Labour Party Press Committee Meeting, report by Shabbetai Himelfarb to the Press Department Committee, 5 April 1968; alp, file 2/932/1966/410, minutes of the meeting of foreign-language press editors with Golda Meir, 28 December 1966.
“Podsłuchany folklor ‘olimowski’” [Discovering Olim Folklore], Od Nowa, no. 14 (1958): 3.
alp, file 2/949/1958/8, a report by Moshe Kitron on foreign-language press activities from November 1957 to March 1958, sent to party secretary Giora Yoseftal, 17 March 1958. Mapai was the dominant party after the first elections in 1949. Its dominance in Histadrut, the World Zionist Organization, and the Jewish Agency created a network of influences in which the new olim were often involved while they sought homes, jobs, and – among the more ambitious – social advancement. The priority for this party was to build a state beyond social divisions, while the socialist agenda was confined mainly to supporting cooperative organizations, kibbutzim and moshavim, while at the same time offering an open flow of foreign capital and supporting socioeconomic initiatives, as well as presenting a liberal approach to religion. Mapai had 29,947 members in September 1946, 67,132 four years later, and 93,927 in January 1951. This means that between 1946 and 1951 the number of party members increased by more than 213 percent. The rising number of new olim in this party was to some extent a response to its political capacities, and thus the greater opportunities for aid that it offered to new immigrants than other parties. A. Bareli, Mapai be-reishit ha-atzmaʾut (1953–1948) [Mapai at the Beginning of Independence (1948–1953)] (Jerusalem, 2007), 70, 71; quoted after M. Lissak, “The Demographic-Social Revolution in Israel in the 1950s: The Absorption of the Great Aliyah,” Journal of Israeli History 22, no. 2 (2003): 6.
alp, file 2/26/1953/13, meeting of Mapai’s Political Council, statements by Zalman Aran, Eliezer Livneh, and Haim Shoer (Szoer), 25 June 1953.
isa, file 717/33 (gimel), Kilinow from the Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of Justice, 29 July 1948. In 1948, the circulation of Al HaMishmar fluctuated at around 9,000–10,000 copies (and 11,000–12,000 for special holiday editions), but by 1953 it had increased to 16,000 copies.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), government meeting on 12 December 1954 on the foreign-language press, “Report by the Council of Editors”; isa, file 717/33 (gimel), Kilinow from the Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of Justice, 29 July 1948; Giladi, “104 itonim mefitzim la-az be-Yisraʾel,” 8.
Between the years 1933 and 1939, 55,000 Jews came to Israel from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. S. Erel, Ha-yekim: Chamishim shenot aliyat dovrei germanit [50 Years of the German-Speaking Aliyah in Israel], Jerusalem, 1985, 31–32.
Erel, Ha-yekim, 21–23, 128–29.
Melchior Wańkowicz was a writer and journalist. During World War ii, he arrived in Jerusalem as a refugee (reaching it via Romania and Cyprus). When General Anders’s Army (the Second Polish Corps) arrived in Palestine, he joined it and served as a military correspondent in the Middle East. He was interested in Jewish history and martyrdom. While living in Palestine, he published several books, including De profundis (Tel Aviv, 1943) and Wrześniowym szlakiem [Along the September Route] (Jerusalem, 1943), under the pseudonym Jerzy Łużyc. For more on this subject, see A. Ziółkowska-Boehm, Na tropy Wańkowicza – po latach [Following the Path of Wańkowicz – Many Years Later] (Warsaw, 2009).
M. Wańkowicz, De profundis; Ziemia za wiele obiecana; Wojna i pióro [De profundis; The Land Too Promised; War and Pen], introduction by M. Kula and W. Jagielski, afterword by A. Ziółkowska-Boehm (Warsaw, 2011), 250.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), government meeting on 12 December 1954 on the foreign-language press, “Report by the Council of Editors”; alp, file 2/949/1958/8, report by Moshe Kitron on activities in the foreign-language press from November 1957 to March 1958, sent to Giora Yoseftal, secretary of the party, 17 March 1958.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), government meeting on 12 December 1954 on the foreign-language press, “Report by the Council of Editors.”
The State Statistical Office announced that in 1958, 17% of the Israeli population over 14 years of age could neither read nor write. The illiterate percentage of the Jewish population was 13.4% – 38,000 men and 86,000 women, a total of 124,000 people (out of a population of about two million). The highest percentage of illiteracy was in maʿabarot – 22% of men and 48.6% of women – while in cities, the highest percentage was in Jerusalem and the lowest in Haifa. Among the olim from Asia and Africa, the illiteracy rate was 20.8%, while among the olim from Europe and those born in Israel/Palestine it was 1.8%. Among the non-Jewish (mainly Arab) population, the illiteracy rate was 53%. “Analfabetyzm w Izraelu” [Illiteracy in Israel], Walka, no. 9 (1958): 7.
In a heterogeneous society, ethnic groups participate in cultural exchange, and the differences between them decrease, resulting in a homogeneous nation.
In the cited document, circulation not only included the languages listed in the table but also seems to have included newspapers and magazines in other languages published in these towns. Therefore, the sum presented for the foreign-language publications doesn’t correspond to the total number of foreign-language publications in these places. The circulation figures can only be treated as estimates.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), government meeting on 12 December 1954 on the foreign-language press, “Report by the Council of Editors.”
“Czy trzeba ‘oddzielnie’”? [Do We Need to Do Things “Separately”?], Kurier Niezależny, no. 8 (1958): 2.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), government meeting on 12 December 1954 on the foreign-language press, “Report by the Council of Editors.”
H. Joffe, “Być albo nie być?” [To Be or Not to Be?], Kurier, no. 66 (1958): 4.
S. Lebenbaum, “Muzycy i śpiewacy ostatniej alii” [Musicians and Singers of the Last Aliyah], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 261 (1961): 3; Lebenbaum, “A może by tak kluby?” [Or Maybe Clubs Like These?], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 112 (1960): 2.
Leo Lipski (Lipschütz) was born in Zurich in 1917. He lived with his parents in Kraków, where he studied at the humanities-oriented Saint Jacek Gymnasium (earlier he had been a pupil at the Adam Mickiewicz Gymnasium). Then he started studying philosophy and psychology at the Jagiellonian University (in 1939 he was a fourth-year student of psychology). After the outbreak of the war, he fled to Lwów and then to Russia, where he was arrested by the Soviet authorities. After joining General Anders’s army, he made his way to the Middle East and reached Palestine. He lived in Tel Aviv. H. Gosk, Jesteś sam w swojej drodze: O twórczości Leo Lipskiego [You Are Alone on Your Road: The Work of Leo Lipski] (Izabelin, 1998), 7–10; ali, letter from Jerzy Giedroyc to Leo Lipski, 29 April 1958.
ali, letter from Leo Lipski to Jerzy Giedroyc, 15 November 1957; L. Lipski, “Ludzie z Maisons-Laffitte” [People from Maisons-Laffitte]. Kontury, no. 4 (1993): 105–10; Nowiny Izraelskie, no. 44 (1953): 1.
I. Iserles, “Kawałek serca” [A Piece of Heart], Od Nowa, no. 33 (1960): 8.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), government meeting on 12 December 1954 on the foreign-language press, “Report by the Council of Editors.”
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), government meeting on 12 December 1954 on the foreign-language press, “Report by the Council of Editors”; Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw (hereinafter: amfa), file 21, folder 713, bundle 50, “Magazines (and Newspapers), Characteristics of Israeli Newspapers: Report Prepared by the Press Attaché of the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Tel Aviv.”
Only permanent editorial staff are listed in the table, while freelance journalists are not included. The report does not indicate the time period that the employment summary concerns, but it can be concluded from the context of the report that it covers the years 1952 and 1953.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), government meeting on 12 December 1954 on the foreign-language press, “Report by the Council of Editors.”
Marek Hłasko (born in Warsaw on 14 January 1934, died in Wiesbaden on 14 June 1969) was a Polish prose writer and screenwriter. He wrote many novels and short stories, including Pierwszy Krok w Chmurach [First Step in the Clouds], Cmentarze [Cemeteries] and Następny do raju [Next to Paradise]. He became the voice of a generation and of the transformations that occurred in Poland in 1955 and 1956. In 1958 he emigrated from Poland and lived in various places: France (Paris), Germany, California, and Israel. He felt at home and at ease among Polish immigrants in Israel. It was there that he wrote his novels Opowiem wam o Esther [I Will Tell You About Esther] and Drugie zabicie psa [The Killing of the Second Dog], in which he goes against accepted conventions and norms – a tendencey that was in Hłasko’s nature and characteristic of his work. In Israel, among Jews from Poland, especially the Gomułka Aliyah, he enjoyed great popularity and led a rich social and emotional life, providing the local Polish-language press with sensational stories. More on this subject can be found in chapter 5.
Jerzy Giedroyc (born 27 July 1906, died 14 September 2000) was the founder and editor of Kultura and founder of the Instytut Literacki [the Literary Institute] located in Maisons-Laffitte, near Paris. Kultura was the most important literary magazine of the postwar Polish emigration. During the war, Giedroyc reached Palestine through Romania and Istanbul, and he joined the Polish army stationed there. In his later activity he often returned to the time he spent in Palestine and had a keen interest in Israel. I explored this subject in more depth in an article: E. Kossewska, “‘Kultura’ w Izraelu” [Kultura in Israel], Archiwum Emigracji, nos. 1–2 (2015): 197–209.
ali, letter from Marek Hłasko to Jerzy Giedroyc, 26 April 1962; ali, letter from Jerzy Giedroyc to Marek Hłasko, 30 April 1962; ali, letter from Marek Hłasko to Jerzy Giedroyc, 5 June 1962; ali, letter from Jerzy Giedroyc to Marek Hłasko, 9 July 1962; ali, letter from Marek Hłasko to Jerzy Giedroyc, July 1962 (the day is not noted). Jerzy Giedroyc conducted negotiations with the editors of Nowiny concerning the publication of Cmentarze [Cemeteries], but before he concluded them, another Polish magazine, Echo, printed it without any effort to obtain the copyright. ali, letter from Henryk Dankowicz to Jerzy Giedroyc, 31 May 1958. On the day of his death, without the author’s consent, Od Nowa reprinted it (no. 21 [1962]: 6; no. 22 [1962]: 5–6; no. 23 [1962]: 5).
ali, letter from Marek Hłasko to Jerzy Giedroyc, 1966 (the day is not noted), sent from California.
ali, letter from Jerzy Giedroyc to Marek Hłasko, 23 June 1963.
Reb Ipcha Mistabra, Opinia, no. 22 (1951): 3 (article reprinted from Maariv).
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), government meeting on 12 December 1954 on the foreign-language press, “Report by the Council of Editors.”
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), government meeting on 12 December 1954 on the foreign-language press, “Report by the Council of Editors.”
Giladi, “104 itonim mefitzim la-az be-Yisraʾel,” 8.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), government meeting on 12 December 1954 on the foreign-language press, “Report by the Council of Editors.”
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), government meeting on 12 December 1954 on the foreign-language press, “Report by the Council of Editors.”
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), government meeting on 12 December 1954 on the foreign-language press, “Report by the Council of Editors.”
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), memo by the Minister of Internal Affairs from a government meeting on 12 December 1954 and a proposal from the Council of Editors.
A siddur contains prayers for weekdays and common sabbaths.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), memo by the Minister of Internal Affairs from a government meeting on 12 December 1954 and a proposal from the Council of Editors.
isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), memo by the Minister of Internal Affairs from a government meeting on 12 December 1954 and a proposal from the Council of Editors.
This was the emigration between the years 1924 and 1926, caused by an economic depression in Poland and the reforms of Prime Minister Władysław Grabski, which contributed to an increase in taxes and led to the significant impoverishment of many merchants and craftsmen. As characterized by Szymon Rudnicki, it was not a mass aliyah – it included no more than 30,000 people. The emigration mostly included people from large cities, and the reasons for the emigration were strictly economic. S. Rudnicki, “Linking the Vistula and the Jordan: The Genesis of Relations between Poland and the State of Israel,” Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs 8, no. 1 (2014): 106.
The first members of the HeChalutz in Eretz Israel came from Russia, so it seemed ennobling to claim a similar origin.
apism, A.11.E/1230, memo about Palestine prepared by W. Zacharasiewicz, sent to London, 27 June 1948; apism, file A.49/93, sign 445; M. Kol, “‘Nowiny’ – pomostem między Izraelem a Polska Ludową” [Nowiny – A Bridge Between Israel and Poland], Nowiny Poranne 1000, no. 40 (1956); R. Wernik, Z Chamsinu w mgłę [From Khamsin Into the Fog] (London, 1988), 107.
apism, file A.11.E/1230, letter from Dr. Zawadowski in Beirut to A. Tarnowski in London, 2 March 1948; apism, file A.11.E/1230, “Witold Hulanicki i Stefan Arnold: Przebieg i tło zbrodni (uzupełnienie)” [Witold Hulanicki and Stefan Arnold: The Course and Background of the Crime (Supplement)], insert no. 2 (to News Release, no. 5) from 16 February 1948.
The Second Polish Corps (Polish Armed Forces), created in 1943 from the Polish Army in the East, was dissolved in 1947. Its troops were stationed in various places, including Palestine.
apism, file A.11.E./1230, appeal from the Union of Jewish Combatants of the Polish Army in Palestine; apism, file A.11.E/87, telegram from Henryk Rosmarin to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in London, 15 February 1945.
Illegal Jewish immigrants who arrived before the creation of the State of Israel.
In 1946, there were 9,910 maʿapilim among 17,760 immigrants, in 1947 there were 14,252 among 21,542 immigrants, and in 1948 there were 15,065 among 17,165 immigrants. “Reports of the Executives Submitted to the Twenty-Third Zionist Congress,” 235.
I. Keynan, Lo nirga ha-raʿav: Nitzolei ha-Shoa ve-shlichei Ereyz Israel, Germania 1945–1948 [Hunger Did Not End: Holocaust Survivors and Envoys of Eretz Israel, Germany, 1945–1948] (Tel Aviv, 1996), 80–81. On the prevalence of Yiddish and press publications in this language among refugees, see also L. Jockusch, “A Folk Monument for Our Destruction and Heroism: Jewish Historical Commissions in Displaced Persons Camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy,” in “We Are Here”: New Approaches to Jewish Displaced Persons in Postwar Germany, ed. A. J. Patt and M. Berkowitz (Detroit, 2010), 56; Ziemia i chmury: Z Szewachem Weissem rozmawia Joanna Szwedowska [Earth and Clouds: Joanna Szwedowska Interviews Szewach Weiss] (Sejny, 2002), 47.
Gazeta Tymczasowa, no. 1 (1948): 2; “Od Redakcji” [From the Editor], Kronika Tygodniowa, no. 1 (1950): 1; T. Segev, Siódmy milion [The Seventh Million], translated into Polish by B. Gadomska (Warsaw, 2012), 168; “Niema [sic!] Marokańczyków i Polaków – są tylko Żydzi” [There Are No Moroccans or Poles – There Are Only Jews], Przegląd Wydarzeń w Izraelu, no. 33 (1949): 1.
“Niema [sic!] Marokańczyków i Polaków,” 1.
The reference is to Julian Tuwim’s book My, Żydzi Polscy [We, the Polish Jews] (Tel Aviv, 1944).
Gazeta Tymczasowa, no. 1 (1948): 2.
J. Bader, “1000 numerów – i więcej” [1,000 Issues – And More], Nowiny Poranne 1000, no. 40 (1956): 3.
Bader, “1000 numerów,” 3.
“Nowe życie w Ramle” [A New Life in Ramla], Przegląd Wydarzeń w Izraelu, no. 2 (1949): 6.
Excuse me (Hebrew).
“Meta. Jak ‘szary człowiek’ urządza się w Izraelu” [How Well the “Average Person” Is Doing in Israel], Nowiny Izraelskie, no. 3 (1952): 4.
A. Grabowska, “Raj utracony – raj odzyskany” [Paradise Lost – Paradise Regained], Kultura 267, no. 12 (1969): 118.
In the collection of the National Library in Jerusalem, I found Nowiny Dnia [The Daily News] (published by the General Zionist community), which was published on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and Nowiny Poranne [The Morning News] (also published by the General Zionist community – both newspapers were registered under the name of Wiktor Brandys), which was published on the remaining days of the week. There was also Nowiny Izraelskie [Israeli News] (published by the Progressive Party), Nowa Gazeta [The New Gazette] (edited by Pesach Luski, who was associated with the Progressive Party), Nasza Myśl [Our Thought], Przekrój [Cross-Section] – which was published interchangeably with Kronika [The Chronicle], then with Kronika Tygodniowa [The Weekly Chronicle], then the title was changed on 17 October 1952 to Kronika Izraelska [The Israeli Chronicle] (associated with the General Zionist community) – Słowo Izraelskie [The Israeli Word] (published by Saul Langnas and the Progressive Party), Głos Izraela [The Voice of Israel], Chwila [Moment] (published by the General Zionists), Opinia. Tygodnik Społeczno-Polityczny [Opinion: A Sociopolitical Weekly] (published by the Association of Polish Jews, operating within the Progressive Party), and Kurier Izraelski [The Israeli Courier] (1954) – which appeared alternately with Express Izraelski [The Israeli Express] (closely connected to the General Zionist community). Paweł Glikson also mentions Jednodniówka Związku Byłych Studentów Wyższych Uczelni Polskich w latach 1945–50 w Izraelu [The Daily Newspaper of the Association of Former Students of Polish Universities in 1945–1950 in Israel] and Nowa Polska [New Poland]. P. Glikson, Preliminary Inventory of the Jewish Daily and Periodical Press Published in the Polish Language, 1823–1982 (Jerusalem, 1983), 64–66; isa, file 715/3 (gimel), letter from the Ministry of the Interior, 17 October 1952; isa, file 5498/1 (gimel), letter from the Minister of the Interior to Ministers in Government, 11 December 1953; isa, file 715/3 (gimel), letter from the Ministry of the Interior canceling permission for Moritz Arnold Hasle, owner of Chwila, to continue publishing this newspaper; isa, permission for Sarah Świsłocki to publish Głos Izraela [The Voice of Israel], 21 January 1953; isa, letter from the Ministry of the Interior to the editorial board of Kronika Izraelska [The Israeli Chronicle], 26 January 1953; tyha, file 102/1 (mem), letter from Saul Langnas to Azriel Karlebach, editor of Maariv, 3 January 1954.
In the period from November 1949 to July 1951, 28,000 Jews emigrated from Poland to Israel; D. Stola, Kraj bez wyjścia? Migracje z Polski 1949–1989 [A Country Without an Exit? Migrations from Poland, 1949–1989] (Warsaw, 2010), 61.
“Nowe życie w Ramle,” 6.
Only speaks Hebrew.
Speaks Russian.
“Alona. Rozmowa z Czytelnikami” [Conversations with Readers], Nowiny Poranne 1000, no. 40 (1956): 14.
“Reports for the period April 1951–December 1955,” 169–71.
“Reports for the period April 1951–December 1955,” 79–80, 141, 169–71.
E. Kossewska, “A Polish Cactus on Israeli Soil: Immigrant Adaptation, 1956–1960,” Gal-Ed 24 (2014): 117–49.
Quoted from “Huzia na Żyda” [Sic on a Jew], Od Nowa, no. 1 (1960): 1.
“Huzia na Żyda” [Sic on a Jew], Od Nowa, no. 1 (1960): 1.
“Reports for the Period of January 1956–March 1960,” 149.
Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance (hereinafter: ainr), file 01649/175/J microfilm, Gefen Maurycy, card 110.
Taxi.
A barrack, usually constructed from wood or asbestos.
A. Czerski, “Kartki z pamiętnika nowego ole” [Pages from the Diary of a New Oleh], Kurier Powszechny, no. 13 (1958): 11.
patwa (Professional and Technical Workers Association) – an organization founded in England in 1944 with the aim of attracting highly qualified personnel for the Israeli economy. On the one hand, it mobilized educated workers in the diaspora who wanted to emigrate to Israel, and, on the other hand, it helped them to establish themselves in their new country. patwa facilitated contact between them and employers, mostly in technical professions from various branches of industry and freelance professions. In the diaspora, it supported students pursuing professions that could be useful for the development of the Israeli economy.
This was probably Miriam Akavia, who was in charge of the Gomułka Aliyah. At a later age, she began a writing career in Polish.
A. Czerski, “Pierwsze wrażenia i kontakty: Kartki z dziennika nowego ole” [First Impressions and Contacts: Pages from the Diary of a New Oleh], Kurier Powszechny, no. 17 (1958): 2. For more on this topic, see memoirs of the maʿabarot: H. Birenbaum, “Każdy odzyskany dzień: Wspomnienia” [Every Reclaimed Day: Memoirs], ed. I. Sariusz-Skąpska (Kraków, 1998), 31.
The journalists’ house in Israel.
Marek Gefen, a journalist working in the editorial office of Al HaMishmar, changed his name to Maurycy Weintraub after arriving in Israel (1949). He was born on 14 July 1917 in Brno. His parents moved to Kraków after the end of the First World War, where he attended primary school (in Podgórze), and in 1935 he graduated from Tadeusz Kościuszko High School. In 1937 he began studying at the Jagiellonian University, in the faculty of chemistry. During this time, he worked for Krakowski Kurier Wieczorny, a press organ of the Democratic Party. After the outbreak of the war, he made his way to Lwów to be with his parents, who had moved there shortly before the war. In 1940, he left for the ussr, where he remained until the end of the war. He lived in Bashkiria, Ufa and the surrounding areas. In 1946, during a repatriation initiative, he returned to Poland, first living in Dzierżoniów, then in Łódź. He published reports on the ussr in the magazine Wolność under the pseudonym U. Winn. He left for Israel in 1949 and became an editor of the Al HaMishmar newspaper. In Mapam, he belonged to the foreign affairs section. See ainr, file 01649/175/J microfilm, Gefen Maurycy, card 3, 25. For Marek Gefen’s statement on absorption, see M. Gefen, “Oskarżenie bolesne ale … nieprawdziwe” [A Painful Accusation but… Untrue], Od Nowa, no. 8 (1958): 7.
Paulina Appenszlak, previously the editor of Ewa magazine in Poland, wrote in Israel for Olam Haisha.
David Lazer was a journalist working on the editorial team of Maariv and one of the founders of the newspaper. For more on David Lazer, see E. Kossewska, “The Hebrew Translation of Mitologia [Mythology]: The Correspondence of Jan Parandowski, David Lazer and David Ben-Gurion,” Gal-Ed, no. 26 (2018): 1–24.
R. Frister, “Absorpcja, Achilles I … panny” [Absorption, Achilles and … Young Ladies], Nowiny Izraelskie, no. 82 (1958): 3. See also N. Gross, “Czytelnik polski w Izraelu” [The Polish Reader in Israel], Nowiny Izraelskie, no. 2 (1957) (illegible page number).
I also included newspapers published alternately and ones I managed to find in libraries: (1) Kurier Powszechny [The Daily Courier], (2) Kurier Niezależny [The Independent Courier], which was published by the left-wing Mapai party, (3) Nowiny-Kurier [News and Courier], which was run by both the Progressive Party and Mapai, (4) Po Prostu [Quite Frankly], published by the Bund, (5) Echo Tydzień [The Weekly Echo], published by the General Zionists, (6) Echo Izraela [Echo of Israel], (7) Fakty [Facts], published by Mapai, 8) Siedem Dni. Aktualności Tygodnia [Seven Days: The News of the Week], (9) Przegląd Miesiąca [Monthly Review], (10) Rimon, (11) Przekrój Izraelski [Israeli Cross-Section], (12) Od Nowa [A Fresh Start], published by Mapam, (13) Walka [The Fight], published by communist Maki, (14) Głos Informacyjny [The Informative Voice], and (15) Digest po Polsku [The Polish Digest]. In addition to the newspapers that I managed to find in archives and library collections, Paul Glikson has mentioned others: Co Najciekawsze [The Most Interesting Facts] (published monthly, 1956–1957), Co tydzień Powieść [A Novel Every Week] (1956–1957), Iskry [Sparks] (1961–1962), Kurier [The Courier] (1956–1957), and Życie Izraelskie [Israeli Life]. I managed to find two issues of La-Merchaw. Biuletyn – Partia Achdut ha-Awoda–Poalej Syjon [LaMerhav: Bulletin of the Ahdut HaAvoda–Poale Zion Party] in the Ahdut HaAvoda archive.
“Młodzi fachowcy przybyli z Polski” [Young Professionals From Poland], Nowiny Poranne, no. 37 (1955): 2.
The period between 1954 and 1955 is known as the October Thaw, the Gomułka Thaw, or the Polish October. As a result of changes taking place in the ussr after Stalin’s death, and then Khrushchev’s report (February 1956), the political system in Poland became liberalized. There were social demands to reject Stalinist models and institutions, which led to the reduction of state pressure on citizens, increased freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Journalists who had been compliant up until that time, writing in accordance with political guidelines, regained their subjectivity – they declared their support for actions aimed at greater democratization. The first indication of the Polish October was the release of detained people and prisoners. The culmination of the Polish October, and the turning point that immediately followed, was connected to the moment when Władysław Gomułka assumed power (October 1956). At first, Gomułka promised to support the pursuit of freedom, but soon he began to backtrack on this promise. The calls for freedom that had been increasing in intensity broke down when the Gomułka government, fearing Soviet military intervention in Poland after their intervention in Hungary, began to block the liberalization of the communist system.
J. Markiewicz, “Kto zaspokoi ten głód?” [Who Will Satisfy This Hunger?], Nowiny Izraelskie, no. 43 (1958): 3.
H. Wiss [R. Kislew] “Po trzech latach: Dzielnica czwartych do brydża” [Three Years Later: A District of Essential Men], Od Nowa, no. 16 (1960): 3.
ali, letter from Leo Lipski to Jerzy Giedroyc, 1 May 1969.
L. Jakir, “Piotruś” [Peter], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 140 (1961): 7.
ali, letter from Leo Lipski to Jerzy Giedroyc, 22 June 1969.
alp, file 2/7/1968/119, meeting of the Labour Party’s press department, 30 May 1968. See also alp, file 2/7/1968/119, statement by Zalman Aran at a meeting of the Labour Party’s press department, 24 April 1968; alp, file 2/7/1968/119, statement by Reuwen Barkat at a meeting of the Labour Party’s press department, 5 April 1968.
alp, file 2/7/1968/119, meeting of the Labour Party’s press department, 30 May 1968; alp, file 2/7/1968/119, statement by Reuwen Barkat at a meeting of the Labour Party’s press department, 5 April 1968.
A. Grabowska, “Raj utracony – raj odzyskany,” 120; The title of Grabowska’s article makes reference to an article by Arnold Słucki: A. Słucki, “Inteligencka absorpcja” [Intelligent absorption], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 80 (1969): 4.
The demand for Polish press publications was also decreasing. For example, the popular Przekrój magazine, which had a circulation of 800 copies before 1967, sold only 50 copies after the Six-Day War. See A. Grabowska, “Raj utracony – raj odzyskany,” 120; H. Birenbaum, “Wojna sześciodniowa” [The Six-Day War], Kontury, no. 4 (1993): 64–70; K. Bernard, “Epizody nieepizodyczne” [Nonepisodic Episodes], Kontury, no. 4 (1993): 75–83.
S. Szalem (I. Iserles), “Kompleks żony Lota” [Lot’s Wife’s Complex], Od Nowa, no. 1 (1958): 1.