Mapaiâs Kurier [Courier] began a very successful period in Polish-language publishing in Israel. This was largely due to the size of the GomuÅka Aliyah and its specific character. The people who arrived at that time were, to a large extent, politically active and Polonized. Some of them consciously rejected Zionism and instead embraced another ideological alternative â communism, which had given them a greater chance for the assimilation in Poland that many of them desired. And, importantly, many of these olim arriving in Israel from Poland were members of the intelligentsia, as well as state employees, Polonized writers, and journalists â people with higher education who would make good personnel for political and publishing work. A new group of readers emerged who had been politically active very recently: former employees of Polandâs party and state apparatus, but also those who had voluntarily decided to leave the ranks of the communist system. Many elderly people arrived who had experienced the Holocaust and were overwhelmed by a feeling of helplessness, incapable of taking up professional activity or learning the Hebrew language: âWe are elderly people, exhausted by the German occupation, who have been in prisons and camps, who have lost children, loved ones, and our health during the war.â1 This is an example of the kind of statement made in letters written by the new olim from Poland asking for more help in their settlement process. One of the first goals of institutions dealing with the acceptance of new immigrants was to help them overcome their feelings of apathy and alienation.2 A newspaper published in the language of their country of origin could be very helpful to them. During that time of rapid transformation, the importance of the press in explaining the new order increased. The ability of institutions, organizations, and political parties to manage information also increased, especially when immigrants began to demand cultural content that suited them and, above all, information, so that â as one of the newspapers stated â they wouldnât âremain forever a generation of the desert.â3
3.1
The first newspaper with which Mapai reached out to the new olim from Poland was Fakty [Facts]. Filled with important announcements and basic information about the state, it had a modest design and resembled the Polish editions of newspapers issued by the Absorption Department for the new olim. It didnât satisfy the needs of the new readers who arrived in the GomuÅka Aliyah and didnât create enough of a platform for Mapaiâs propaganda, at least not the kind that could bring the party more support from the Polish-speaking community in the upcoming elections to the Knesset (1959). The founding of Fakty did not contribute to the creation of new jobs for journalists who had arrived in the last aliyah. The proof of this was that the editor himself, a new oleh from Poland, Moshe Tiger, while working for Fakty, also sent articles to a competing newspaper, Nowiny Izraelskie/ Nowiny Poranne [The Israeli News/ The Morning News], which, in response to requests from the Sochnut to facilitate the acclimatization of the new olim, offered jobs to some of them. The editorial office of Nowiny, which was published by the Mapai coalition party, was becoming crowded. Aleksander Czerski, a newly arrived journalist from Poland, demanded jobs at Nowiny for journalists from the last aliyah and âpolitical absorption of the intelligentsiaâ; part of this process was also meant to aid their professional development.4 In the ranks of former Polish United Workersâ Party activists, who after their arrival in Israel immediately joined the ruling party, there was hope for quick acclimatization with the help of the party, analogous to political advancement in postwar, communist Poland.
The vitality of Israeli public and political life, due to the demographic changes taking place in the dynamically developing society, required from political parties a constant readiness and permanent presence among those who had freshly arrived. The openness to political activity among those who had arrived in the GomuÅka Aliyah meant that the parties were able to channel their needs and transform politically undeveloped areas into their electorate. This was easy because the expectations of many of them corresponded with the interests of the party. The declarations of former communists were received by Zionists with extreme caution, but before the elections the political walls between the parties and the electorate crumbled. During elections, the parties appealed not only to the political identity of the voters but also to the culture of their country of origin. Pre-election campaigns were conducted
I met with the editors of all the newspapers to find out what was happening with the foreign press. [â¦] I met separately with each of the journalists who belong to our party, who could add something and raise the level of these newspapers. I also met with them about matters related to Israeli local affairs, about matters related to the organization of the party and the public activities of the various waves of the aliyah, so that our contact with the Jews who come from the diaspora will be friendly and very intense. I gave special attention to the aliyah from Poland.12
Gaining and then maintaining contact with the new aliyah was a mission of mid-level activists, whose political efficiency and usefulness to the party were measured by the number of voters they attracted to it for the next elections.
In recent weeks, we have seen an increase in interest in the problems faced by the aliyot. This is manifested both in the press and at political events. There are meetings, tea parties, evening discussions and various other gatherings. Malicious people claim that as the period of election campaigns for the Knesset approaches, interest will continue to grow. And this is perfectly natural. The only thing is that the new olim are the subject and object of the entire action. It is often forgotten that these are living people, many of whom possess serious mental and intellectual capabilities, and considerable observational and deductive skills.13
In this way, Israeli political groups were encouraged not only to try to obtain the votes of the new olim in the upcoming elections and satisfy the olimâs need to be politically active, but also to create their own electorate, in part through the promise of new jobs. This was especially important because acclimatization problems were radicalizing some of the new olim, and greater interest in the Israeli communist party seemed highly probable. The Israeli authorities were particularly afraid of Israeli communists having an influence on the GomuÅka Aliyah.14
Despite disappointment with communism among Jews from Poland, there were still many who supported it: âSome understood the essence of Israeli democracy, while others insulted it by elevating to the heavens the system from which they had just left.â15 It was noted at a Mapai meeting: âOur party does not yet hold a significant position, although we are very much looking after the new olim and working among them.â16 To weaken inclinations towards the Communist Party, the ruling party had to reach out to the new immigrants.
Mapai created new press publications in response to the foreign-language press being offered by other parties, as there was constant rivalry between them in outreach to the Jews who had recently arrived in Israel.17 According
Moshe Kitron, after his initial assessment of Nowiny, knew that it would be unable to attract readers from the last aliyah from Poland. In a letter to Mapaiâs leaders, he stated, âIâve talked with the intelligentsia among the new immigrants from Poland â they are ashamed that such a newspaper is being printed, in such poor Polish. This newspaper will not succeed, it will not attract the new refugees from Poland.â21 The specific characteristics of this aliyah created a new space on the reading market that, according to Kitron, should be filled with a Polish-language newspaper published by Mapai.
The choice is between having better relations with the Progressive Party or losing voters. We mustnât change our tactics, because weâve talked about it and have weighed all the pros and cons. Weâve decided that this is a very important matter for the party. We already have an editorial office, plans, new olim, and the exact date when the first issue will be printed [â¦]; we have a printing house ready, and if we quit now, there will be a protest among the serious, influential elite and intelligentsia from Poland.22
Kitron tried to maintain relations between the party and the new olim from Poland, taking into account the possible costs of losing future voters and his own position in the management of the Polish press sector.
Giora Yoseftal of Mapai tried to ease the tensions with the Progressive Party (a copy of his letter was sent to Moshe Sharett and Moshe Kitron): âWe donât want our newspaper to engage in a fight. Weâll try to make it competitive between journalists only: âwhoâs the best.â And if it becomes a dispute between us, weâll be able to discuss it, because we have a lot in common.â23 This proposal, which foretold media competition without political struggle, boiled down to publishing newspapers within the same language sphere, but without mutual criticism or evaluation. Kurier was supposed to maintain political tolerance for the coalition partner, but this did not apply during elections.24 Yoseftal wrote, âYou have to understand, the elections are happening soon, and weâll be working on the various issues concerning new immigrants, and then differences may arise. The new olim from Poland who have joined our party want â and have the right to want â their own newspaper.â25
In November 1957, it was announced that a new Polish-language newspaper would soon be published â Kurier.26 David Hartem, a journalist who was
3.2
The Polish writer Anda Amir-Pinkerfeld (Finkelferd)31 played a significant part in organizing Polish Jews in Mapai, including the editorial team of Kurier. She was especially active in the field of social support and mutual aid. In 1957 she became involved in helping new olim from Poland, especially writers, poets, and artists. She offered them not only spiritual but also material support. It was to her that many people owed their flats, work, and scholarships for education.32 It was no accident that she appeared among the people connected
Highly educated people comprised a large proportion of the GomuÅka Aliyah, and attracting them to Mapai required that the party send people from their country of origin to work with them and serve as examples of successful acclimatization. Anda Amir-Pinkerfeld served as a kind of authority among them; her strength grew out of belonging to the veteran community and having contact with the founders of the United Labour Movement, such as Berl Katznelson, the founder of the ideological platform. Her name on the electoral lists was supposed to add prestige to the party and attract as many people as possible, especially those who were making up their minds about Israeli politics for the first time â the new olim from Poland.
Apart from the editor-in-chief of Kurier â Shalom Yedidiah (Gotlieb), who immigrated to Palestine before the creation of the state and was the editor of the illustrated weekly Chayei ShaÊ¿ah [Life of the Hour] and a member of the editorial team of Haaretz40 â the rest of the editorial team was recruited from among new olim, all of whom had come in the GomuÅka Aliyah. Kurier was contacted by people from various professions and with different kinds of
For journalists who did not know Hebrew, the prospect of establishing a newspaper in Polish gave them hope for continued work opportunities in their profession.53 People from various professions and with different kinds of experience, not necessarily journalistic, applied to work for Kurier. They were still just beginning to settle in their new country, in a period of constant change and decision-making, which meant that many of them left the newspaper after
The editors of Kurier faced some limitations; it was one of the foreign-language newspapers published by Mapai, which meant it was administered by the board of directors of the Pirsumim Society. In a letter sent on 2 April 1958 to Moshe Sharett, who was responsible in Mapai for information policies (as head of the Hasbara Department), it is stated that âthe Pirsumim Society was responsible for all foreign-language publications, organized the administration of press publications including bookkeeping, and also managed distribution. Pirsumimâs authorization did not end with administrative matters; it had the right to intervene in the content of these newspapers, in accordance, of course, with the partyâs expectations.â54 With its well-developed clientelism, the foreign-language press was one of the most important tools for maintaining contact between the patron and the client â especially, from a political perspective, for the ruling party. It was an important part of the communication network, not only with individuals but with an entire group. In the case of Kurier, this group was the new olim from Poland.
3.3 Clientelism
More than in any other political party, Mapaiâs Press Department attached importance to strategies for garnering a favorable public opinion in order to gain influence. It thus created a network of press contacts and used them as a foundation for disseminating propaganda.55 Through Kurier, Mapai was able to create a network of potential members, supporters, and clients from the
Among the various motives that led people to choose one party over another, at least in the first years after arrival, was conformism. The behavioral characteristics of client relations known from the communist system also existed in Israel, though in a different form.57 A sufficiently dense network of economic and political ties was created between the ruling party and the new olim during their first period of settlement, when they relied on the state for access to many necessary goods. Those olim who had formerly been âofficialsâ of Polandâs communist system tried to reestablish relationships of client dependence on the party, though in a different form from the communist mode. The new immigrants longed for a political path towards social advancement, as Ignacy Iserles noted: âThe âapparatus entityâ defines the âapparatus consciousness.â Finally, Iâve discovered the mystery of why people who came to Israel from a place where the apparatus was the alpha and omega of power immediately detected here such a familiar smell.â58
Before I present the participation of the olim from the GomuÅka Aliyah in the Israeli client system, it is worth saying a few things about the origin and nature of Israeli clientelism. Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt and Luis Roniger perceive it in the constitution of the prestate apparatus of power and in the transformations it later underwent after the creation of the state. The Israeli form of government was largely shaped under British rule (1922â48). At that time, the developing socio-ideological movements and social sectors tried to maintain autonomy, and all of them took part in laying the foundations for the federal institutions.59
This party affiliation rule existed for many years in the Sochnut, mostly in the Absorption Department (from 1948 to 1951), and thatâs how it worked, even in the maÊ¿abarot and refugee camps. Political rivalry in refugee camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy was so fierce, and there were so many arguments, that we wanted to set this matter straight. The new olim did not trust members who were not from their party. These people who had recently survived the Holocaust left the death camps unable to trust anyone anymore. Then it was decided that in every foreign camp there would be activists from four different parties.61 All of this just so there wouldnât be any accusations of political discrimination. Until 1951, I supported this proposal. At the end of 1951, the Adaptation Division canceled the party affiliation rules with regard to refugees from non-European countries. Anyone who was connected to the aliyah at that time understood why we did this.62
This method of distributing influence among the new olim did not apply to non-European Jews. Zionist organizations hadnât developed in their societies, and so their aliyot were primarily connected to religion; aliyah was for them the essence of Zionism and often the motivation for their emigration. In contrast, European Jews, including Polish Jews, were politically diverse with a rich
The creation of the State of Israel and the influx of new immigrants changed the political structure of Israeli society. The underdeveloped pluralism within certain sectors of the yishuv, with an increasing centralization of services under the aegis of state organizations, strengthened the role of those that had become part of the government.63 In the first years of Israelâs existence, many groups â both those that were relatively autonomous and those that were more dependent on clientele networks and state support â were transformed.64 The federal structure that governed the relationship between various groups in society was undermined by the power of the newly formed center of government, which was further strengthened by the development of state-run and public corporations. The distribution of wealth was channeled through a bureaucratic apparatus that was constantly evolving. On the one hand, peopleâs demands and expectations of it were growing, while on the other hand, in the opinion of the new olim, the bureaucratic institutions proved insufficient to respond to their needs. Both the bureaucratic apparatus (despite its inefficiencies) and the public authority under which various political parties and institutions offered goods and services weakened other social sectors, thereby hindering their access to power and allowing parties to have more control over resources and finances.65
The clientele network was especially entrenched around coalition parties and in monopolistic milieus (especially Mapai, the Labour Party, and religious communities), where the system of governance allowed for them to more broadly and effectively control the market and public goods. This not only encouraged the emergence of patron-client relationships but also, and more importantly, allowed them to flourish freely and regenerate themselves.66 Because the economic development of the country could not keep pace with the demographic growth from the new aliyot, there was an increasingly large number of olim who could potentially become clients.67 The patron-client relationship became stronger in areas where resources that were always in short supply (mostly housing and jobs) were located; thatâs where the highest number of new olim could be found.
Polish Jews, both in Poland and in Israel, became clients under largely similar conditions: scarcity of resources (housing, livelihoods), mobility of human capital (emigration, resettlement, and movement of human masses between centers after World War ii), and a deep sense of insecurity.70 The main difference between them was that even though there was a well-developed pattern of patron-client relations in Israel in the 1950s and 1960s, when a large number of new immigrants from Poland arrived, such relations were usually an additional type of behavior, unlike in Poland, where, although the system itself appeared to be officially and ideologically opposed to clientelism, it was ubiquitous and long-lasting.71 Upon arriving in Israel, some Polish Jews rejected the idea that people should have unrestricted access to the resources potentially at their disposal, and they established close relationships with their patron and the institutions staffed by its members. So when the new Polish olim, who were
Undoubtedly, Mapai was the party that had the most to offer the new olim in the 1950s. The struggle between the Israeli parties for the âsoul of the new olimâ had already begun on the ships they had traveled on, and Mapai, as the dominant party, had the greatest opportunities for sending emissaries to the immigrants and making offers to them, since it had the largest share in the state structures.72 The apparatus of the ruling party was also supported by the work of its members at diplomatic outposts. For the olim who arrived after 1956, however, the strongest impulse to join the dominant political party came from their experiences working in the administrative and political apparatus of the Polish Peopleâs Republic. They were âPolish political activists known in their regions â members of cooperatives, trade workers, intelligentsia â working people of various calibers. Only yesterday, they were responsible for some broader part of social or economic life. Only yesterday, they were making authoritative decisions and were âauthoritativelyâ summing things up. Close your eyes and itâll seem like weâre sitting in WrocÅaw, WaÅbrzych, or Åódź, at one of the âactivist gatherings,ââ73 recalled a new oleh from Poland. These people had lost their high positions in the social structure and feared they could not obtain such stature again in Israel. The communist political system introduced in Poland after the war, together with its administrative apparatus and special services, had empowered an elite whose essential âqualificationâ â at least for some of them â was merely their political views. In the assessments made by the communist authorities, professional usefulness was inseparable from political loyalty. After leaving that system and settling in Israel, some of these people remained in a political and professional vacuum, unable to redefine their usefulness or aptitude. The Israeli political scene, comprised of many small factions, made it possible to reconcile left-wing values (if any had been declared) with the dream of a âJewish homeâ in Palestine, but the combination of their communist experience, still vivid for many immigrants from Poland, and their tenuous, albeit strongly expressed confidence in national values did not sound credible; it was viewed negatively in Zionist political parties, which were based on the chalutz ethos. It was stated in the press that
A communist past, unfavorably perceived in the public sphere, needed to be superseded by a new political aspiration â this time a Zionist one. Eliyahu Amikam (formerly Krzak), who came from Poland, assessed the Polish aliyah in the second half of the 1950s as follows: âVery important people from Poland suddenly appeared: âacademics,â âintellectuals,â âwriters,â and âjournalistsâ â yesterdayâs Abramoviches with surnames that are purely Polish in terms of race and nationality.â75 The intelligentsia who had arrived in the GomuÅka Aliyah was a highly desirable group, but their attempts to assimilate in the diaspora, including through communism and rapid social advancement, did not inspire respect in Israel.76 The left-wing milieu of the Israeli newspaper Od Nowa tried to defend itself: âIntellectuals, writers, journalists, etc. â 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 âmiasmas of communismâ who, in Israel, in order to fool their rivals, simply reinvented themselves as intellectuals, journalists, 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).â77
We must not ask too many questions here and scrutinize their past political affiliations. It is clear that the best people among the olim were not indifferent to what was happening around them. If they were communists, it was out of sincere conviction. It is good that they understood their mistake and came to us to take part in the difficult and honest hardship of building our country. So let us help them forget their mistakes and difficult experiences; let us make it easier for them to return to their nation and work, to take root in Israeli society, so that their children will be the same tanned, healthy âsabrasâ as the others who have only one, sole homeland.82
Typical for this group, among both readers and the journalistic community, were attempts to deny recent communist activity and calls to actively forget about it, which reflected a general desire to erase their diaspora pasts. Former communists felt like the state was a jigsaw puzzle, but not all aspects of their
In his article, Mr. Joffe requests âamnestyâ for the communists who came from Poland and tells people not to remind them of their past. We thank Mr. Joffe for his âgood heart.â We have no reason to be ashamed of our past. It is Mr. Joffe who should be ashamed of his present situation! [â¦] Mr. Joffe, remember that the newspaper for which you worked in the Polish Peopleâs Republic mobilized public opinion against the revival of the German Wehrmacht. [â¦] Let us be ashamed of those who cooperate with the âanti-Israeli activity commissionâ and those who are turning the social and political life in our country towards fascism: those who create ghettos for the Arabs, and those who persecute the new olim for their political convictions.85
If one were to believe all those who declare about themselves that at a ripe old age they drained swamps and built roads in Israel â then half the Mediterranean Sea must be drained by now, and the roads that have been built would probably reach Mars. This is how it is now that in the shadow of true pioneering, heroism, and sacrifice, a certain type of âbraggart soldierâ has arisen, with a made-up â falsified or entirely fictitious â biography. At first, such a guy invents a heroic biography for himself, with a bit of fantasy, just so he could shine in the company of people who didnât know him, and over time he starts to believe it himself. Then a legend grows in his family, and then in his community â and it even sometimes happens that the guy finds his way into an encyclopedia. I know a certain construction entrepreneur who, during the mandate period, was working with the English, and every time he managed to swindle them in a transaction, he proclaimed it as a âpolitical feat.â âYes, yes, yes â I fought the English, I risked my neck.â In postwar Poland, there was a fashion among non-Jewish Poles to describe their wartime âparticipation in the resistance movement,â or âsaving Jews,â and so on. But during the occupation, what a scoundrel was really doing was lining his pockets through theft in German warehouses, or âsellingâ a loaf of bread to a starving Jew in the ghetto for a three-carat diamond or a sheepskin coat. After the war, he would say out of the corner of his mouth, with sly modesty: âWell, I stuck my neck out,â âThe Krauts have collapsed,â âOur misfortunate brothers were rescued,â and so on. In short, âItâs all because of us.â When, in the Polish Peopleâs Republic, the prewar revolutionary training period was included in the price, a horde of âold communistsâ appeared from underground. Simple inflation. For a phony, scoundrel, and hustler will always infallibly get wind of âthe color of the timeâ and create a âmarketableâ biography for himself on cue. One must admit that in our country, a fabricated âheroic pastâ doesnât get very far. The country is small and people know one another; we know who really drained the swamps and built the roads, who was in the Palmach, who defended Negby and Jerusalem, who took Beʾer Sheva, etc. [â¦] In Poland, it âpaid offâ to be âa former political
prisonerâ; in Israel it âpays offâ to be âa former prisoner of Zion.â It brings honor, it comes with privileges. So, thereâs nothing easier to do than to dig up the old Zionist past that was shrugged off long ago, diplomatically conceal the real reason for your prison escapade, lightly colorize it and ⦠a legend is created of a newly minted âmartyr for the idea of Zionism.â Of course, everything will be revealed in the long run, but for now it shines brilliantly, and it works.86
The new olim unscrupulously rid themselves of their cumbersome past, creating new personas with elaborate âZionistâ biographies, often under different names. In the case of former communists, it was convenient to do it while joining the ruling party. The transformation of former communists who joined Mapai, covering up their previous communist involvement with loyalty to another political party, was sometimes so zealous that it included not only extreme right-wing rhetoric that sounded radical and nationalistic but also elements of racism and discrimination (towards Arabs). This mindset concerning racial matters appeared in Nowiny-Kurier after the end of the Six-Day War and originated in the community associated with the former newspaper Kurier. It was a desperate effort to supplement insufficiently Zionist biographies with patriotism.
The aliyot was divided in their stance toward the dominant ruling party in Israel, into those who felt deterred by the party because it reminded them of their previous imprisonment in a nondemocratic system and their disappointment with it, and those who were enticed by a career, especially since their previous one, in Poland, had been interrupted by their emigration. The political profile of this group of people also had an influence on their decision of whether or not to join Mapai. It was a dynamic and anti-dogmatic party, which could be seen, for example, in its coalition mobility. Party activists, in particular David Ben-Gurion, declared a departure from elitism towards statism. The priority of the party was to build a state beyond social divisions, in which socialism was restricted to supporting cooperative organizations, kibbutzim and moshavim; foreign capital was allowed to flow freely, supporting social economic initiatives; and a liberal approach to religion was embraced. The broad political platform allowed for the dynamic development of Mapai, which soon became a mass movement. This in turn made it attractive to the new immigrants from the GomuÅka Aliyah â both former communists and those who did not identify with this ideology.
Truncheons are being used on starving people who are seeking jobs in order to force them to become active in one of Israelâs political parties. Weâre referring here to the ruling party, Mapai, whose members hold managerial positions in nearly all institutions. It is these people who, when they are being approached for work or in other urgent matters, they ask, first and foremost, whether in this matter they have been to see the person responsible for the absorption of the miflag [party â E.K.]. [â¦] In Beʾer Sheva, when you go to the Sochnut, the department of klit [absorption â E.K.], an employee from Poland who works there, Mr. B., calls you aside and asks if you have contacted Mr. Tzvi yet, the main âguardianâ and âbenefactorâ of the olim, or if you have received a card from him. And it continues like this in all the institutions you appeal to. It turns out that Mr. Tzviâs pen has a magical power that opens up the doors of bureaucratic offices and the hearts of the clerks working there. [â¦] The same anguish has been experienced by the olim from Romania and Hungary, for whom the âbenefactorâ is Mr. Wajn. [â¦] Thinking often about the fact that the clerks in these offices sit idly all day long and none of their superiors care, we came to the conclusion that an assessment of the work by the aforementioned employees must be based on not the number of cases dealt with but the number of voters recruited to the party. Recently, Tzvi the âbenefactorâ has disappeared from Beʾer Sheva, and in his place has appeared another âbenefactorâ of the new olim, Mr. Kopelmajster. [â¦] The words âour partyâ [â¦] have remained on his lips so persistently that there isnât a single sentence in which they donât appear. [â¦] In Poland, he used this term deceitfully to keep his sinecure, and here he uses it in order to obtain a suitable sinecure for himself. [â¦] In the fervor of his orations, this brand-new âpatriotâ convinces the new olim that they shouldnât have contact with members of âMakiâ because theyâre âtraitors to the homeland,â and Mapam should also be avoided because they gaze fondly towards Moscow ⦠Although the elections are still far off, at the last meeting he was already shooting off preelection rhetoric. In his speech, he warned the Polish olim about Jews from the East, âthe blacks,â the Hungarians, and the Romanians, since they all want to push âusâ aside and take away âour power.â He called on all Polish olim to mobilize themselves and join Mapai because itâs the only party that has
a monopoly on work, housing, and loans and is the only âpatrioticâ party in the country.90
And although Mapai announced in a party brochure that it wasnât promising Israel or its citizens any luxuries, it was offering much more to its members than to those who were not.91 In the process of adapting to the rest of society, the new olim encountered, as the earlier example illustrates, a whole host of âparty officialsâ involved in the distribution of resources. After the creation of the state, Mapaiâs leaders â David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Levi Eshkol, and Moshe Sharett â joined the government. During the generational shift, power was transferred to representatives of the Third Aliyah, the so-called second league, comprised of party activists and middle-class activists. The latter represented the new olim in the partyâs forum, thus emerging from its ranks and becoming useful, or even essential, in forging connections with freshly arrived immigrants. They strengthened their position in the party and developed their administrative influence, which increased the power of the political apparatus through its centralization and resulted in the liberation of hierarchical processes. The activists became more snobbish, trying to influence the new olim in different linguistic and ethnic groups, while at the same time keeping them away from positions of power in the party. The âmanagement of votersâ took on a remarkably paternalistic character, which did not include the political promotion of a new oleh. Patron-client relations were established for mutual benefit but were based on imbalanced relationships, usually in the form of an instrumental exchange, with ostensible solidarity expressed in personal dependencies.92 The power of activists, as well as state and party institutions, grew proportionally to the mass aliyot, and was also fed by the feeling that the new olim were being lost. Ignacy Iserles described it vividly: âTechnocratic desires, the apotheosis of the so-called power elites, in which the elite are those sitting on Mount Olympus, in the cabinets of ministries and departments, and whose task is to pull the strings, at the other end of which dangles the citizen â a puppet.â93
The arrival of a new aliyah activated middle-ranking officials and raised their status in the party, since every matter they successfully dealt with â connected with employment or housing â automatically extended the list of party members and their merits. It was the bureaucrats and party activists who
Common acts of protection â the ârecommendation cardâ â linking the new olim to a party or other social group, not necessarily political, which were used in order to share wealth, became proof of Israeli clientelism and protectionism. For new citizens who were lost trying to navigate this system, these organizations provided an identity that was highly significant in the new conditions in that it provided familiarity and support. The distribution of wealth built up the power of the ruling party â workers employed in factories and workshops were subordinated to the party. âMapai sends a whole team of agitators to the new olim settlements, whose task is to ârecruit votersâ for Mapai, at the cost of promises of work, shikun, and loans.â95 The communist paper Walka added: âThe Mapai apparatus is growing week by week. Itâs quietly recruiting informantsâ â which, it should be added, were particularly feared by the Israeli communists.96 Obtaining employment through preferential treatment, when there was high unemployment and a shortage of jobs, turned the new olim into loyal members of the party â loyal enough, at least, to vote for it in elections. Moshe Wertman, secretary of the trade union (Histadrut) in Haifa and member of Mapai, recalled, âThere was a Mapai section in every workplace, and when the elections were held, we had all the employees counted. Our people were in every election commission â we were able to take note of everyone. When someone was missing, it was always possible to find him and hand him over.â97
Mapai doesnât matter to anybody or anything. Imagine that the director of the institution I work for, which is, of course, the institution that controls Mapai, summoned the workers today and simply announced that
because the party needs funds, each of us will pledge a certain sum â 50, 80, or 100 pounds. To make it easier for us to give this âvoluntaryâ donation, the management has arranged a loan for each of us, which we can repay by monthly deductions. [â¦] The eagerness shown by our manager to make it easier for us was quite touching. Also, in order to save us âtime and unnecessary walking,â he gave us declarations to fill in.98
Polish Jews, having many opportunities for support from their compatriots, were in a much better position than groups from other countries â they could strengthen clientelism or replace it with protectionism. The first type of behavior could be favorable to the other, complementary to it, or both could function independently of each other.99 âThe new olim [from Poland] criticize very sharply the protectionism in Israel. Indeed, protectionism exists in this country. There is objective protectionism, which seems inevitable in this country of great aliyot. [â¦] The olim from Poland benefit from objective protection. The state, guided by political and national considerations, cared about finding housing and work for them, to a much greater extent than for other olim (which caused great bitterness among the Eastern Jews),â admitted Kitron.100 In the case of Polish Jews, the system of individual protectionism was supported by a large network of homeland associations â organizations supporting the acclimatization of Jews from a specific country of origin (e.g., the Committee for Assistance to Immigrants from Poland chaired by Yitzchak Grünbaum and the Social Committee established on the initiative of the Alliance of Polish Jews in Israel chaired by Anzelm Reiss).101 The protectionism policy was viewed as having value for the state in the acquisition of a highly qualified workforce from the aliyot. As Moshe Wertman, from Tomaszów Lubelski, recalled, âWhen the GomuÅka Aliyah arrived, we [the Jews from Poland] were so influential that we were able to arrange jobs in power plants for Polish engineers. We added job positions, even unnecessary ones, to give them work. And when we were asked: what are they going to do? We answered: the same as everyone else. All of this was so that we could hire Jews from Poland.â102
New immigrants from the GomuÅka Aliyah demanded a politically active life; they dreamed of being in the ranks of a strong, leading party. Contrary to the Zionist ethos, they desired social advancement and aspired to positions in political parties. Former communists, apart from their lack of Zionist experience and inability to understand its ideology, did not have much chance at the kind of political advancement they had experienced in Poland, where party membership had been sufficient to secure jobs. In such a strongly hierarchical party as Mapai, there was no room for new members to develop careers, above all because of their lack of Zionist entitlement to such advancement. And although â as reported by the Polish security services operating in the Polish Peopleâs Republicâs embassy in Tel Aviv â a group of fifty new olim from the GomuÅka Aliyah organized themselves around Mapai at that time (âpeople who âhave become convincedâ and âhave seen it with their own eyes,â neophytes actively trying âto rehabilitate themselvesâ with âfervorâ after their former communist activityââ),105 they had no chance of a political career. Among those
Mapaiâs method of recruiting and organizing new olim from Poland carried the stigma associated with patron-client relations known from Poland. In the initial stage of settling in Israel, it was a familiar way of arranging their lives
3.4 Language, Politics, and Propaganda
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs [headed by Golda Meir â E. K.] talked to us about the content of the Polish newspaper. This newspaper must strive for good relations between Israel and the Polish government. The newspaper must not attack the Polish government or advise it on what to do. The main article in the first issue should highlight the rapprochement between GomuÅkaâs government and Israel. Yes, itâs true that the primary aim of this newspaper is to reach immigrants from Poland, but we must not forget that the Polish embassy will inform all of Polandâs institutions about anything offensive to the Polish government. Somebody has to be responsible for the content and style of Kurier.107
The close ties between Israeli journalists and the legation of the Polish Peopleâs Republic in Tel Aviv allowed the materials prepared by the Polish diplomatic authorities to be spread. The Polish authorities informed the headquarters in Poland: âNewspapers published in Polish in Israel generally focuses on Poland and its affairs. The articles that are published are mainly based on other press publications and materials supplied and inspired by the Polish legation.â110 In Israel, there were particularly good conditions for monitoring press policies and stimulating positive propaganda campaigns about the communist regime in Poland. The political scene at the time had a well-developed left wing with a strong representation in the press that was eager to take up Polish issues, especially since a large number of journalists were from Poland. Moreover, many Israeli journalists, because of their family and former professional ties with their country of origin, sooner or later considered visiting it and therefore had to remember that one day â perhaps â they would be forced to ask for a Polish visa. Another reason for journalists to follow favorable press policies was simply their longing for their country of origin. After a short time in Israel, a desire to visit Poland often struck them, for tourism or even business purposes. The number of people willing to return to Poland allowed the legation of the Polish Peopleâs Republic to select from among the Israeli press community those journalists who were most useful and dedicated to them: âThe local correspondent of the official French Agency and Le Monde, Natan Gurdus (who also wrote under the pseudonym âthe Varsovianâ), speaks Polish perfectly and has friendly feelings towards us. Through Gurdus we often successfully promote our materials to the local press. Gurdus has often expressed a desire to visit Poland, which would be more beneficial to us than a visit from Filip Ben
Adnan Azhari, a Syrian envoy, visited me this afternoon and declared that he had received a sensitive mission from his government, asking me to submit to our government the matter he would present. The Syrian government is asking us to halt the mass exodus of Jews to Israel, as the rapid and substantial increase in the population of the aggressive State of Israel is seriously threatening the Arab states, and in particular Syria, of which Azhari is a representative. [â¦] So far, according to Azhari, the largest number of Jews who have immigrated to Israel are from Poland and Hungary, and now Hungary has already put a stop to emigration. They have found out, said Azhari, that apparently 40,000 Jews will emigrate from Poland in the near future to Israel, and therefore they hurried to us with the abovementioned request.115
Department V would like to inform you that the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a letter on 15 March [1960] to our Embassy in Baghdad protesting against the emigration of Jews from Poland and the ussr via Poland to Israel. [â¦] They point out that, if the news is true, the immigration to Israel is a fact that is irreconcilable with the spirit of friendship in relations between the Polish Peopleâs Republic and Iraq, as it strengthens the hostile position of Israel and increases tension in the Middle East. The Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs expects that the Polish authorities will prevent the expansion of the immigration campaign to Israel. The Ambassador of the Polish Peopleâs Republic in Baghdad was instructed to explain to the Iraqis that the data concerning the alleged emigration of Jews from Poland is inaccurate. The problem of emigration was ended long ago, and nowadays there are only sporadic trips taken by Jews to Israel as part of family reunification. Should the Iraqi Foreign Ministry return to this issue, our ambassador is to take a principled stance towards the Iraqis, emphasizing that this is an internal Polish matter.116
It can be clearly seen that our country is of great interest to Israel and will probably remain as such for a long time to come. However, there are also very unpleasant elements here that try to take a firmer stance towards Poland, in accordance with the principle of dealing with someone âas an equal.â But as long as G[olda] Meir, [Yisraʾel] Barzilai and others remain influential, this course will not change. The Prime Minister does not overlook the opportunity to positively distinguish Poland from among all the countries of the Eastern bloc.120
Critical or flattering articles about Poland and Polish-Jewish relations appeared at politically desirable moments, reflected the state of interests and needs of the Israeli government, and sometimes were simply a signal sent in Polandâs direction â of acceptance or protest. Very little autonomy remained in the party-affiliated press, since it was severely limited by the formulas dictated by the party: declarations, speeches, and resolutions. Collective campaigns were
Within the general atmosphere of glorification of Zionism and directives from the party, the instances of journalists discussing their country of origin soon disappeared from press publications. Kurierâs journalists admitted their positive feelings towards their former homeland rarely and with shame. The shortage of reminiscences, reflections on the diaspora, and statements about Polish-Jewish relations resulted from the internal censorship applied by the editorial team, which was fully subordinated to the objectives of Israelâs acclimatization policy. Critical remarks in readersâ letters to the editors disappeared in the midst of Zionist propaganda slogans. As a result, little could be learned from the newspaper about the group of new olim from the GomuÅka Aliyah; its problems were covered up by the formalism of general affairs. Their past was repressed in order to enable their acclimatization to their new living conditions in Israel. The press was focused on present-day life, and if any events from the diaspora appeared in it, they served to mobilize the new olim and achieve a goal in present-day politics. The press mobilized people to make sacrifices and double their efforts, at least in the most important matter â to remain in the Jewish state.
It is a puzzling thing: when an oleh from France confesses, âOh, how I miss Paris!â everyone smiles in sympathy. No one would ever think of saying to him, âHow are you not ashamed, sir? Have you forgotten about the protests by Parisian policemen who walked through the streets shouting, âDeath to the Jews!â?â [â¦] But when a Polish oleh says, âOh, how I miss Warsaw!â some people are outraged. They say, âYou should be ashamed! Have you forgotten about the anti-Semitism in schools, and about Zenon Nowakâs speech about national regulation?â It is not only that anti-Semitism is more deeply rooted and much more widespread in Poland than in France. The point is that for many people, the honest attitude of a Polish oleh towards his former homeland is unbearable. For the same people, a man who in one breath curses everything that connected him with Poland and at every step is delighted by the Israeli reality is closer to the âpositive olehâ formula. However, I wouldnât be so enthusiastic about this kind of patriotism, which â not always, but often â is the jingoism of a social climber who, in Poland, was probably also delighted by âthe powerful breath of Nowa Huta.ââ122
Anti-Semitism, depending on the objectives of Israeli politics, also became the subject of anti-diaspora campaigns, juxtaposed with historical scenes of Polish-Jewish coexistence that proved, to a greater or lesser degree, that assimilation among Polish Jews did not enable them to defend themselves against acts of hatred.123 Falsified articles were often printed, linking the present with the past; their aim was to help the new olim overcome the difficulties they faced in Israel by reminding them of the persecution Jews faced in the
We know that relations with our journalists are not easy. Their journalistic desires cannot always be overcome, but in matters concerning aliyot from the Eastern bloc, journalists show goodwill and discipline. As I have already mentioned in one of our reports, until recently we have been deliberately providing information on anti-Semitism. There is no doubt that this information has influenced public opinion, which was the voice of opposition to anti-Semitism and has led to conciliatory acts by Eastern
diplomats. As you know, we are not blocking the efforts of these ambassadors to earn a positive opinion, but nothing for free. What I have said primarily concerns Poland, and especially the activities of Mr. Wolniak.126 If something is moved along in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is the result of pressure from public opinion here â in Israel. If these promises are fulfilled, then we are ready to accept this gift and do what is necessary âto calmâ journalists. Even more, if Poles do what they have promised, we will specially commission positive articles â we will stop harassing Poland in our Israeli newspapers. [â¦] In light of what I have said, we think it will be good if you tell the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs that our journalism is free journalism. Facts are facts, and therefore there is no doubt that when relatives and close friends start coming here, journalists, entirely of their own accord but also under our influence, will change the image of Poland, in order to improve our relations.127
Kurier implemented the foreign policy of the Israeli government and was an instrument used to communicate with the Polish government. Clichés were deployed in Kurier and certain formulaic patterns and ready-made interpretations were repeated, both those concerning the glorification of Israel and the contestation of the diaspora. This type of press filled too many functions to remain apolitical.
3.5 Nowiny versus Kurier
Mapai did not intend for Kurier to simply coexist with its coalition partnerâs Polish-language newspaper, Nowiny; it was hoped that Nowiny would not survive the competition and would cease to be published.128 In the sphere of the Polish-language press, the rivalry between Mapai and the Progressive Party went beyond political contact. A note was sent from the Atlas company to Mapai, stating, âOne of our people owns a department store in Bat Yam. He sells books and newspapers there. His name is Yakub Ashkenazi, and he told us that two people, one from Nowiny and the other from the Gad company, visited him before dinner and were angry at him for selling Kurier. They threw the
According to its publishers, Kurier was a spectacular success, but this was true only of the first issue, which was bought out of curiosity. The community of Polish-language press readers was estimated at 60,000 to 80,000; the first edition of Kurier, however, was cautiously set at 5,000 copies, though it is possible to see in the publishing data that it actually exceeded 20,000.130 According to the information provided by Mapaiâs Press Department, Nowiny was popular among earlier immigrants from Poland, while Kurier was mostly read by those who had arrived after 1956.131 It seems that reading preferences were determined primarily by habits, but also by the requirements and expectations of readers connected to their education or profession. What mattered the most was language. When copies of Kurier ran out in Nazareth, where 156 families from Poland lived (and thus, in the opinion of Mapai activists, its potential readers), everyone read Nowiny.132 Hungering for the Polish language, readers bought every newspaper published in Polish, but Israeli parties, especially before the elections, tried to divide them into sectors according to political and party lines. There were also cases of new olim, especially those who knew the power of party membership and belonging to a political clique, demonstrating their full support for Mapai by boycotting the newspapers published by other parties: âI read Kurier all the time; as soon as it started being published, I stopped buying Nowiny.â133 âIâve been in the country for eight years but havenât mastered Hebrew yet, which is why I read the Polish press. Until recently I read Nowiny, but Iâm happy to say that your newspaper is much more interesting and thatâs why Iâve become your regular reader.â134 These are only a few examples of statements made by the readers of Polish-language newspapers, which could also serve well as excerpts of inspirational texts in the struggle to
The relative success of Kurier, considering the short period of its presence on the Israeli press market, did not bring the financial benefits to the party that had been expected, but profitability was a secondary issue; more crucial was its utility for achieving the partyâs political goals. Mapai used its newspapers to weaken the press initiatives of its political competitors, and for the same reason, despite financial losses and poor reception, they were kept on the market.136 The analysis of Mapaiâs press policy clearly indicates that the decision to merge Nowiny and Kurier was made after calculating the political costs in relation to the partyâs goals. At that time, Mapai was publishing several unprofitable newspapers in various foreign languages that were also unpopular with readers, maintaining them only in order to prevent their political competitorsâ newspapers from becoming stronger. It was not worthwhile for Mapai to weaken its future coalition partner, so the original plan to cover the costs of publishing Kurier until the elections in the autumn of 1959 was canceled, in return for seeking cooperation with the Progressive Party. Departing from Moshe Kitronâs principle that âa newspaper can be discontinued, but never before an election,â Mapai entered into a coalition with the Progressive Party â at the level of press publications â before the election campaign for the Knesset began.137
3.6 Nowiny-Kurier
On 17 October 1958, an agreement was signed for the publication of Nowiny-Kurier. The parties to the contract were the previous publishers, institutions, and individuals who had owned the rights to the Polish-language newspapers. On behalf of the Pirsumim Society,138 the contract was initialed by Joshua Levi and Shabtai Himelfarb, and on behalf of the Tushiyah Publishing House â Hillel Zeidel, a Progressive Party activist, member of the board in Histadrut, and cofounder of the Progressive Partyâs Alliance of Jews from Poland. Zeidel had also taken part in establishing the first Polish-language newspapers in Israel (Opinia and Nowiny). Pesach Luski, a member of the Progressive Party who had a permit to publish Polish-language press, also initialed the agreement on behalf of Tushiyah. The third party to the agreement was the Progressive Party, represented by Saul Langnas and Idov Kohen.139 In fact, Tushiyah Publishing House was connected with the Progressive Party and both of these entities should be regarded as one party to the agreement.140 The other party was represented by Pirsumim, which belonged to Mapai and was involved in some of the economic initiatives indirectly connected with this party.
According to the agreement, the joint newspaper was to be published by the Baldar Chadashot Association, which was established for this purpose. The Progressive Party and Mapai each appointed four members of an eight-member council, from which a four-member board was then appointed, chaired by
Despite provisions aimed at ensuring that the two parties received equal political benefit from their shared newspaper, from the outset it was clear that there were points in the agreement and on the level of its practical implementation that weakened the Progressive Partyâs position. The main positions in the Baldar Chadashot Associationâs administration were held by Mapai activists and members. Due to the limited number of readers, the agreement obliged all parties to relinquish their rights to publish newspapers in Polish that had been previously obtained from the Ministry of the Interior.145 This primarily concerned members of the Progressive Party, who possessed several such permits. The parties to the agreement also agreed to refrain from any independent publication in the Polish language during the existence of Nowiny-Kurier.146
Getting rid of so many press publications in favor of one newspaper, published jointly with Mapai, could be considered unfavorable for the Progressive Party. In practice, however, this was not a major detriment to the party â all of these newspapers and magazines, with the exception of Nowiny, were published weekly or biweekly or appeared irregularly due to a lack of paper and limited financial resources. Typed and printed on a mimeograph, they resembled
The editorial team of Nowiny-Kurier was formed from the earlier, separate journalistic circles of Nowiny and Kurier. According to the agreement, each party appointed an editor and a secretary. The registration application for Nowiny-Kurier included the names of two editors: Saul Langnas and Shalom Yedidiah.147 The appointment of the editors was merely a political matter: the first one represented the interests of the Progressive Party, while the other represented Mapai. No information about Shalom Yedidiah has been preserved in the Mapai archive in Beit Berl. From Dov Yohannesâs accounts, we know that he came to Palestine just after the war, before the creation of the state. He was, as Yohannes recalls him, a âcompetent personâ who could work in a team. He did not bother anyone and tried to be impartial.148 Edward Rostal149 became the secretary from the Progressive Party, and Aleksander Klugman was the secretary from Mapai (until 1961).150 Foreign-language press publications were controlled by Mapaiâs Press Department and centrally managed; therefore the influence of the editors of Nowiny-Kurier was clearly limited to the management of insignificant matters outside the field of party interests, concerning the Polish-speaking community. The editorsâ tasks included, above all, keeping an eye on the political interests of his own party, which is why content of a political nature could only be printed with the agreement of both editors. Lack of agreement from one of them triggered an arbitration procedure from the leaders, Moshe Sharett (Mapai) and Moshe Kol (Progressive Party). Therefore, in almost every issue, at least at the beginning, there were parallel articles by both editors.151 The person supervising the editorial work was the director of the Baldar Chadashot Association, Shabtai Himelfarb, and the
Who was Shabtai Himelfarb? No personal documents concerning him have been preserved in the Labour Party Archives in Beit Berl; I managed to collect only rudimentary information about him.154 He came to Israel in 1948 together with the Aliyat ha-NoÊ¿ar youth movement. He was born on 31 August 1919 in Otwock and died on 27 September 2000. He was a history teacher by profession. From a passport issued to him by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it appears that he kept his surname from the diaspora and accepted only the Hebrew version of his first name â he changed StanisÅaw to Shabtai.155 Before his departure for Israel, he lived in Åódź. Himelfarb was an activist of the middle party level. He did not perform any political functions in Mapai. His position resulted from his close relations with the Gush156 community in Tel Aviv, and his control over the regionâs economy also gave him political power. His work in a printing house was also proof of these political
Himelfarb was consumed by the printing houseâs economic matters. He managed the foreign-language publications as a prosperous enterprise, not caring very much about forging a team among the press staff but rather concentrating on purely organizational activities: supervising the staff, ensuring the political correctness of articles, and taking care of advertisements and announcements. He was only interested in administration: management of all the foreign-language publications from the printing houseâs perspective and coming up with complex solutions. According to Yohannesâs memoirs, Himelfarb spoke Polish poorly. From the accounts of Himelfarbâs daughter, Shaula Ashkenazi, we know that Yiddish had been spoken in his family home in Poland, but he attended a Hebrew grammar school and spoke Hebrew fluently before immigrating to Israel. Paradoxically, despite dissociating himself from the Polish language, he was involved in editing the newspaper â he focused on whether headlines properly matched content, the quality of content, and even the language that was used. Later, he even began to write introductory articles in Hebrew and then demanded that they be translated into Polish.157
Apart from the official editorial staff, many names were mentioned on the pages of Nowiny-Kurier, but they were not full-time employees of the newspaper. The official team included translators (articles, especially political ones from news agencies, were written in the same way for all foreign-language newspapers and then translated into different languages), typists, and journalists, most of whom worked only occasionally and irregularly. The most frequent journalists of Nowiny-Kurier in the first years of its publication were Mina Tomkiewicz (who wrote for Nowiny before the merger; although she did not receive a permanent post with Nowiny-Kurier, her articles were often published in it), Maria Hochberg-MariaÅska (pseudonym âOsaâ [Wasp]), Janina
Journalists from the Progressive Party who had previously written for Nowiny began to write for Nowiny-Kurier, and the newspaperâs overall concept emerged from their expectations, including Zionist ones. Until the merger of the newspapers, a café on Allenby Street164 had been a frequent venue for the meetings of the editorial staff of Nowiny. With a decision made on 15 December 1958, Himelfarb tried to move them to the headquarters of all of
The former journalists of Nowiny did not want to agree to such a situation. They were people who knew one another from the Polish Ichud or prewar Zionist organizations and were often still on friendly terms. Though not devoid of friction and rivalry, their relationships were very close and, above all, not hierarchical. In response to Himelfarbâs letter, on 24 December 1958 Dov Yohannes, who worked on the editorial team as a translator of texts from Hebrew into Polish, clearly pointed this out, reminding everyone that until the merger of the newspapers, there were liberal, friendly relations among the editorial staff of Nowiny, which did not harm the interests of the newspaper.167 Although in the correspondence conducted in earlier years by Nowiny journalists one can find traces of numerous disputes between colleagues from the former Polish Ichud, they settled controversial issues among themselves, outside of the official structures. Shortly after the agreement was signed with Mapai, there were rebukes and disputes that led to a decision to keep an attendance list in the editorial office, scrupulously note delays, and write quite detailed instructions for performing editorial duties. The Progressive Party proposed the creation of close relationships based, to a certain extent, on homeland
The different conditions that led to the formation of the separate journalistic communities connected to Nowiny and Kurier â political aspirations, positions in political parties, the time and motivations for aliyah, and personal experiences in the past â all caused tensions. To this should be added another level of conflict â competition between the journalists to gain permission for their articles to be published. On 11 December 1958, two months after the agreement was signed, Himelfarb wrote, âI have great difficulty in running this board of directors properly. We cannot run this newspaper well together; there are conflicts all the time; there is constant turbulence connected with conspiracies and intrigues â everyone argues with everyone else. [â¦] We constantly have to mediate between everyone and seek compromises. This is not good for the newspaper.â169 The political compromise described in detail in the agreement did not guarantee that the editorial staff would carry out their work in a consistent manner. Differences quickly appeared concerning the purpose, authenticity, and function of articles printed in the newspaper, as well as the newspaperâs overall objectives. Soon after signing the agreement, Shabtai Himelfarb drew attention to articles appearing in Nowiny-Kurier that were inconsistent with things that had been agreed upon by the political coalition. For example, until there was a coalition agreement on taxes, there was
3.7 The Lavon Affair and the Coalition Crisis
Two events dominated political life in Israel in 1961. The first was the Lavon affair, and the second was the merger of the General Zionists and the Progressive Party into the Liberal Party. These facts had an impact on the fate of Nowiny-Kurier and changed the relationship between Mapai and the Progressive Party, the newspaperâs shareholders. After merging with the General Zionists, the Progressive Party started leaning slightly to the right, shifting away from the center and thus also from Mapai. With the two parties moving away from each other in political ideology, it was difficult to continue managing a newspaper governed by a coalition-like agreement, and this inevitably led to confrontation. Tension between the parties shifted disputes and conflicts from the main level of Israeli politics to the lower level of foreign-language media and ethnic conflicts within the community. The differing reactions of Mapai and the Progressive Party to the Lavon affair caused a crisis in their relations and contributed to the political dissolution of their recent coalition.174 At the
The new olim, limited in terms of language to their own communities, seemed to be ideal recipients of political propaganda. Both parties wished to use Nowiny-Kurier in the upcoming elections â all the more so because the Progressive Partyâs activists had noted the newspaperâs positive influence on Polish Jews in the previous election (1959). Yitzchak Artzi, the leader of the Romanian faction of the Progressive Party, in a letter sent to the editorial office
They write that if it werenât for Ben-Gurion, Eichmann wouldnât have been caught. They are trying to spread the word that without Ben-Gurion, the country would not have moved forward. What does that mean? It means that those who want Israel to develop must vote for Mapai. As for prosperity, we all play a part in this: those who pay taxes, collect money, give loans, or seek compensation from Germany. All of this happens under the influence of [Nachum] Goldmann.188 If we wanted to continue along
the demagogic path that Mapai is following, we could say what role the minister of justice ([Pinchas] Rosen) and the chief prosecutor (Gideon Hausner), both members of our party [the Progressive Party â E. K.], have played. The fact that Eichmannâs trial is going ahead is thanks to Hausner, as it could have ended in the same farcical manner as it did for Kastner.189
It seems that both political administrators of Nowiny-Kurier were willing to make use of Eichmannâs trial in the election campaign. In Mapaiâs case, however, the fact that its former member Rudolf Israel Kastner had been accused by an Israeli court of collaborating with Eichmann cooled the partyâs enthusiasm for exploiting Eichmannâs trial in party propaganda, at least in a Polish-language newspaper in 1961. Another reason to distance themselves from Eichmannâs trial was the fact that although the topic of the Holocaust was still being discussed in the Polish-Jewish community, it was not a dominant theme in the press, and, moreover, it had even been completely marginalized in Nowiny-Kurier. The problem of the selective treatment of Holocaust recollections is a topic for a separate study; here, I will give only one example of the instrumentalization of memory.190 Marek Drzewiecki survived the Vilnius ghetto and German concentration camps and was a witness at the trial of Eichmann. He wrote an article titled âJa czÅowiek Mapajâ [Iâm a Man of Mapai]191 in which, although
Competition between Mapai and the former Progressive Party was quite fierce, but it was focused primarily on current political issues. At the beginning of May 1961, the Liberal Party was preparing for its inaugural congress and expected the event to be appropriately promoted in its newspaper, especially in light of the fact that difficulties had been growing since the very beginning â for example, with the development of a coherent political program. The coediting agreement, modeled on the political coalition, soon fell apart. The circumstances had changed â the recent coalition partner had become a political opponent. It was very difficult to fit competitive content into one newspaper.193 Shabtai Himelfarb, the manager of the newspaper on behalf of Mapai, used every possible opportunity to weaken the statements made by members of the Progressive/Liberal Party, printing only rudimentary information about it and expressing skepticism about its unification with the General Zionists. He unscrupulously blocked material from the leaders of this community. Moshe Kolâs speeches, both at congresses abroad and at home, were taken off the galley proofs at the last minute â in the printing house â with the justification that ideological articles written by party spokesmen could only be published when the other side (Mapai) had prepared its own statement on the particular matter.194 If there was no such statement, the Liberal Partyâs content was removed. In the opposite situation, however, Himelfarb did not react and was much less fastidious about balancing the two different voices of the newspaperâs shareholders.195 The Liberal Party hesitated to publish anything connected to its political agenda, while Mapai described the newspaperâs aim as âto polemicize against parties whose agenda and activities are incompatible with the goals of the nation and the state.â196 When the final postulate was implemented, it was aimed directly at the interest of the newspaperâs co-owner â the Progressive/Liberal Party, whose weak condition made opposition impossible. These were mostly publications in which one of the main political
Iâve always voted for the Progressive Party and was sure I would vote for the Liberal Party in future elections until I started reading your advertisements in the newspapers. You use so many words in your advertisements; theyâre boring. Iâve never met anyone who could read them to the end. Youâre directing your messages to university professors â who will vote for the Liberal Party anyway â and youâre not talking to the people on the streets, to people who are now looking for an alternative to Mapai. Iâve met people who have read your advertisements and say they wonât vote for the Liberal Party because you have no idea whatâs happening at all, you donât know what reality is like. Donât you have better propaganda experts?202
The Mapai faction of Nowiny-Kurier destroyed the electoral strategy of its recent coalition partner, the Progressive Party (then the Liberal Party). Compared to the ruling partyâs image of strength, the weakness of the newly formed Liberal Party became clear, its shortcomings and the meagerness of its support were revealed, and the ideas of consolidation and unification were ridiculed, which was all intended to discourage potential voters from supporting it.203 The editor representing the Progressive Party, Saul Langnas, could not do much about it, since the newspaper was prepared for publication at the Mapai printing house and its contents were changed without his knowledge.204 Despite his persistent efforts, the matter was not on the agenda of the meetings of Baldar Chadashotâs board of directors.205 This situation was viewed as a blow to the political interests of the former Progressive Party, as they were still in the midst of forging a new political force with the General Zionists and needed to be able to sway public opinion in favor of the new Liberal Party.206 Mapaiâs behavior was bluntly called âfascist.â Although this term is deprived of its fundamental
[The Progressive Party] did not have to worry about the political direction because Mapai had total power over the newspaper. One could feel its soul and thoughts there. Every sentence was under Mapaiâs control. It was enough for Mapai to throw a bone to the Progressive Party from the table. And they accepted the government with all their love in the
newspaper. [â¦] They agreed to personnel purges in the newspaper, allowed total politicization, and now theyâre screaming: âRape!â In this Polish newspaper, Mapai is running a dictatorship. But we want to remind the Progressive Partyâs people of their Hottentot morality, because they have been cooperating with Mapai the entire time. Now that Murzyn has done so much good for Mapai, they want to kick him out because there are no Progressive Party people left.210
The party that existed under the name of âProgressiveâ does not exist anymore, but it doesnât matter. It has the right to call itself whatever it wants; these are its own affairs. The agreement [for the publication of Nowiny-Kurier â E. K.] cannot âbind handsâ in the creation of the Liberal Party, just as it cannot do so when it joins any other party. Pirsumim has no right at all to interfere in the political life of the Liberal Party or the Progressive Party. Besides, you knew that the Progressive Party belonged to the General Zionists, when you spoke of the World Zionist Congress.213
At a court session on 17 May 1961, the interparty press dispute was analyzed. Judge Yosef Lam deemed the actions of one partner against the other unethical, with a caveat that since a newspaper is not a company with an economic character, the specific nature of the press may create competition and allow the expression of divergent opinions that are contrary to the intentions of the co-owner. According to Judge Lam, criticism remains an inseparable feature of the press even when the partners are political parties, and even if they have agreed in a contract, like in a political coalition agreement, to reach a common position.214 In the case of Nowiny-Kurier, the aim was to use the press to achieve political goals, and having open discourse on its pages was not in line with how foreign-language press should be managed. In the disputes and the practical execution of the ruling, Judge Josef Lam referred to the arbitration between Moshe Kol and Moshe Sharett.215 They decided to divide the newspaper as follows: two-thirds belonged to Mapai and one-third belonged to the Progressive/Liberal Party. The prevention of press publications was upheld; they could only be published with the consent of both political parties.216 Each party was supposed to cancel its nomination of an editor and editorial secretary (until then
After the elections, it was expected that the dispute would end on its own, even if only with the signing of another coalition agreement, which the supporters of the former Progressive Party were hoping for more than those of the General Zionists. It seems that this section of the Liberal Party still wished to maintain cooperation with Mapai, even in a niche newspaper such as Nowiny-Kurier.217 The Liberal Party expanded its political support â in the 1961 elections it won 17 seats, while the Progressive Party and the General Zionists had won a total of 14 seats in the Knesset in 1959, when they had run separately. However, the Knesset expressed a majority vote of confidence in Ben-Gurionâs new government, in which the Liberal Party was not present.218 The trial
The conflict surrounding Nowiny-Kurier was mainly the result of the electoral clash, after which the political rivalry for the newspaper lost its importance because the struggle to gain the votes of Polish olim had ended â or was at least temporarily suspended. After the elections, the political format of the newspaper began to weaken, and Nowiny-Kurier increasingly became a newspaper serving entertainment and gaining financial capital instead of political capital. Nowiny-Kurierâs journalists diligently fulfilled â depending on the circumstances â readersâ entertainment needs or the political directives of its publishers. The Lavon affair and the establishment of the Liberal Party had an effect on politics, both on a large scale â the fate of the coalition in 1962 â and a small scale â the way in which the publishing agreement for Nowiny-Kurier was implemented. In Israeli politics, the Lavon affair became a backdrop for the discourse in political circles and social groups, continuing long after 1961. In the case of Nowiny-Kurier, this event became a turning point leading to a new arrangement between the political administrators of the newspaper â proportionate to their real power on the political scene.
âCzytelnicy piszÄ â [Readers Are Writing], Kurier Powszechny, no. 106 (1958): 3.
H. Zeidel, âZatrudnienie â a wiekâ [Employment â And Age], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 43 (1970): 3.
R. Frister, âDo kultury wstÄp wzbronionyâ [No Access to Culture], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 60 (1959): 7.
A. Czerski, âO politycznÄ absorpcjÄ inteligencjiâ [The Political Absorption of the Intelligentsia], Nowiny Izraelskie, no. 103 (1957): 4.
Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw (hereinafter: amfa), folder 21, file 711, bundle 50, report for the period from 1 July to 31 December 1958 sent by the Peopleâs Republic of Poland deputy in Tel Aviv to the Press and Information Department, 19 December 1958, card 12.
See footnote 164 in chapter 1.
Press organ of the Polish United Workersâ Party (hereinafter: puwp) and of the communist authorities in Poland after World War ii.
A. LeszczyÅski, âNie ma siÄ czego wstydziÄâ [Thereâs Nothing to Be Ashamed Of] (in the column âCzytelnicy piszÄ â [Readers Are Writing]), Kurier Powszechny, no. 8 (1958): 3.
alp, 2/949/1957/8, letter from Moshe Kitron to Giora Yoseftal, 1 January 1958.
PiÅsk was in Poland until 1939. It is now in Belarus.
In the Mapai party, Moshe Kitron was also involved in the absorption of groups of Jews from other countries and was particularly involved in helping the Eastern Jews. N. A. Kitron, Personal Saga: The Life of Moshe Kitron/ Ben shalosh yabashot (Jerusalem, 2005), 239, 242, 281.
alp, file 2/949/1958/8, report by Moshe Kitron for the period from November 1957 to March 1958 on his activities in the field of the foreign-language press, sent to Giora Yoseftal, 17 March 1958.
âNiech mówiÄ czynyâ [Let Deeds Speak for Themselves], (in the column âGÅos nowego oleâ [Voice of a New Oleh]), Nowiny Izraelskie, no. 115 (1957), page number illegible.
Maki (Mifl aga Komunistit Israel), the Israeli Communist Party, was established after the creation of the state. Its members were both Arabs and Jews. After the War of Independence, which it considered to be defensive, it fought against Zionism. It supported the politics of the ussr.
âTegoroczny Pesach â nasze dziesiÄciolecieâ [This Yearâs Passover â Our Tenth Anniversary], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 97 (1967): 5.
alp, file 2/929/1958/8, letter from Moshe Kitron to Giora Yoseftal, 1 January 1958.
A. Bareli, Mapai be-reshit ha-atzmaʾut (1953â1948) [Mapai at the Beginning of Independence (1945â1953)] (Jerusalem, 2007), 70, 71; quoted after M. Lissak, âThe Demographic-Social Revolution in Israel in the 1950s: The Absorption of the Great Aliyah,â Journal of Israeli History 22, no. 2 (2003): 6; Mapai: The Israel Labour Party (Tel Aviv, 1956), 1â26.
alp, file 2/949/1958/8, report by Moshe Kitron for the period of November 1957 to March 1958 on the activities of the foreign-language press, sent to Giora Yoseftal, 17 March 1958.
Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance (hereinafter: ainr), file 01649/175/J microfilm, Gefen Maurycy, card 106.
Tel Yitzhak Historical Archive in Israel (hereinafter: tyha), file 102/1 (mem), letter from Yitzhak Artzi to Giora Yoseftal, 31 December 1957.
alp, 2/949/1957/8, letter from Moshe Kitron to Giora Yoseftal, 1 January 1958.
alp, file 2/949/1957/8 (9/49/57), letter from Moshe Kitron to Giora Yoseftal, 1 January 1958.
alp, file 2/949/1957/8 (9/49/57), letter from Giora Yoseftal to Yitzhak Artzi, 6 January 1958.
alp, file 2/949/1957/8 (9/49/57), letter from Giora Yoseftal to Yitzhak Artzi, 6 January 1958.
alp, file 2/949/1957/8 (9/49/57), letter from Giora Yoseftal to Yitzhak Artzi, 6 January 1958.
alp, file 2/949/1957/8 (9/49/57), letter from Fakty journalist Moshe Tiger to Mapai (Moshe Livne and Eli Ostrowski), 17 November 1957; alp, file 2/949/1957/8 (9/49/57), letter from Moshe Kitron to the Mapai Press Department, 9 December 1957; alp, file 2/949/1957/8 (9/49/57), letter from Shabtai Raviv to Mapaiâs Central Committee, January 1958; alp, file 2/929/1958/8, letter from Moshe Tiger to Mapai, 17 November 1957. The restrictions on the publication frequency of foreign-language press in Israel were observed by publishing Kurier every second issue as Kurier Powszechny, while Kurier Niezależny, which was practically the same newspaper with an identical masthead and graphic layout, edited by the same editorial team, was published six times a week. Starting with issue 96, on Fridays it was supplemented with Kurier Ilustrowany.
Quoted after LeszczyÅski, âNie ma siÄ czego wstydziÄ,â 3.
alp, file 2/26/1953/13, meeting of Mapaiâs Political Committee, 25 June 1953.
alp, file 2/26/1953/13, speech by Gershon Agron.
B. Akzin, âThe Role of Parties in Israeli Democracy,â Journal of Politics 17, no. 4 (1955): 507â45.
Anda Amir-Pinkerfeld was born in 1902 in Rzeszów, Poland, into a family of wealthy Jews who identified with Polish culture. She returned to Jewish life when she became involved in the Hashomer Hatzair Zionist scout movement. She immigrated with this organization to Palestine in 1920, without graduating from high school. She settled in the Beit Alfa kibbutz and worked on drying the marshes. She fell ill with malaria and after a short time returned to Poland, passing her final high school exams and beginning studies at the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Lwów and then in Leipzig. In 1924 she returned to Palestine and settled in the Kiryat Anavim kibbutz and then moved to Tel Aviv. She returned to Poland for a short time to complete her studies and then returned to Palestine. In 1946â1947, on behalf of Sochnut and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, she was in Germany taking care of children in the camps, from which she wrote for the childrenâs weekly magazine Davar le-Yeladim. The Holocaust occupied a significant place in her works. Anda Pinkerfeld-Amirâs aim in mutual aid, especially in cultural activities, was to activate women â in 1967 she founded Dom Mani Bialik (The Mani Bialik House â named after Chaim Nachman Bialikâs wife), a womenâs culture club where she organized events. Her works have become prominent in the mainstream of feminism that is now popular in Israel. The ethos of the state that is strongly emphasized in her work, with particular reference to the Holocaust, is so strong that it has become attractive to the Israeli right wing. She actively participated in the life of Mapai, above all in the field of culture and education. To some extent, her work responded to the propaganda needs of the young state. In addition to childrenâs books, she also wrote politically engaged works. Her poems about the Holocaust evoked disapproval among prominent writers such as Lei Goldberg, and she was criticized for her pathos, which was exaggerated and sometimes jarring. After the war in 1948, she collaborated with the Ministry of Defense on the publication of Izkor, a book devoted to the memory of those who had died. She was also the editor of the book Mi-Palmach ad Tzahal [From Palmach to the Israeli Army], published in Tel Aviv in 1953. In April 1978, she received the prestigious Israel Prize. Her other awards include the Arthur Ruppin Award from the City of Haifa. For more on her work, see H. Cohen, âAnda Pinkerfeld-Amir, a Monographâ [in Hebrew], (Ph.D. thesis, Bar-Ilan University, 1998), 231â70, 238â39, 301â30; see also alp, file 2/914/1953/105, curriculum vitae of Andy Amir-Pinkerfeld, 1953; âLiterary Chronicle,â Kurier Izraelski, no. 1 (1954): 7; alp, file 2â013/1965/1269 (alef); alp, file 2/024/1953/38, minutes of a meeting of the Mapai secretary office, 20 February 1953.
F. Shlang, âWybór wierszy Andy Amirâ [A Selection of Poems by Anda Amir], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 60 (1961): 7.
alp, file 2/023/1957/70, minutes of a meeting of Mapaiâs Party Center, 23 March 1957.
alp, file 2/013/1959/545, minutes of a meeting of Mapaiâs Party Center, 16 July 1959.
Józef Kielski, son of Bensjan and Mirla, née Braun, was born on 8 February 1923 in Nowy SÄ cz. He was an associate professor of economics at the University of WrocÅaw, member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workersâ Party, head of the night school at the Central Committee of the Polish United Workersâ Party, and a reserve officer. After arriving in Israel, he adopted a very negative attitude toward Israeli communists. It is said that he was also a lecturer at the Agricultural School in Beʾer Sheva. ainr, file 01237/121, Kielski Józef, card 1â20; ainr, file 01681/70/D, Rogowski Marian, card, no. 19 (a duplicate of correspondence from Tel Aviv, 11 January 1958); ainr, file 2386/15141, folder crypt, âZionistsâ concerning former senior officials of the state apparatus who had immigrated to Israel, a case conducted by the Head of the Military Internal Service, 1959, card 24; ainr, Ministry of the Interior ii, file 10884, data concerning Jewish citizens in the period of 1946â1964, card 19.
Shlang, âWybór wierszy Andy Amir,â 7.
Mapai had the following press publications at that time: Information (in French), Israel Tag Ein Tog Ain [Past and Future Days of Israel] (a free newspaper in Yiddish, later changed to Israel Letter â Pages from Israel), Viatza Noastra (in Romanian), Fakla (in Romanian), Chayeinu (in Hebrew), Narodnoje dzeÅo (in Bulgarian), El Tiempo (in Spanish), Gwiazda Wschodu (in Persian), Kochava Mizrachi (in Persian), and Achad (in Hungarian); alp, file 2/929/1958/8, letter from Moshe Kitron to Giora Yoseftal with an attached report on the foreign-language press, 17 March 1958.
alp, file 2/929/1958/8, letter from Moshe Kitron to Giora Yoseftal with an attached report on the foreign-language press, 17 March 1958.
Echo Tygodnia, no. 43 (1958): 5.
ainr, file 01649/175/J microfilm, Gefen Maurycy, card 106.
Romuald Paporisz (Rozen) was born in 1907 in Ternopil. He earned an ma in Social Sciences and then studied law at the Jagiellonian University. He worked for the State Enterprise of Stage Events and was also a part-time employee of Polish Radio in Katowice. He was a satirist and prose writer under his pseudonym Jan Polityk. He left for Israel in 1957. He died in 1988 in Freiburg. ainr, file 2386/15141, folder crypt, âZionistsâ concerning former senior officials of the state apparatus who had immigrated to Israel, the case conducted by the Head of the Military Internal Service, 1959, file 35.
Aleksander Klugman, son of Henryk Joachim and Zofia Mortenfeld, was born on 5 May 1925 in Åódź. His travel documents show that his name was changed from Aron to Aleksander (on 17 August 1951 in the office of the Mokotów district of Warsaw). In Poland, he worked as a journalist for GÅos Pracy and Trybuna Mazowiecka, served as director of the economic department, and was a member of the editorial board. He was a member of the Polish United Workersâ Party. He left for Israel as a tourist in January 1957, after which he applied for a permanent residence permit. In Kurier he also wrote under the pseudonyms Dr. A. Kraft and Aleksander Tosin. Aleksander Klugman was not, as the authors of a lexicon state, a journalist for the Hebrew press (he did not work for the newspapers Davar, Omer, or Mabat). K. Famulska-Ciesielska and S. J. Å»urek, Literatura polska w Izraelu: leksykon [Polish Literature in Israel: Lexicon] (Budapest, 2012).
PaweÅ Klarman, son of StanisÅaw, was born in 1913 in Chmielnik. He was a member of the Communist Party of Poland, then the Polish United Workersâ Party. In 1952 he became a section head for the WrocÅaw-based daily newspaper Gazeta Robotnicza. After October 1956, he managed the Regional Committee of the Polish United Workersâ Party in WrocÅaw. He came to Israel in 1957, became a member of Mapai, and joined the editorial office of Kurier. According to sources both from Mapai and the Polish security services, he was the secretary of this newspaper. ainr, file 2386/15141, folder crypt, âZionistsâ concerning former senior officials of the state apparatus who had immigrated to Israel, the case conducted by the Head of the Military Internal Service, 1959, card 25.
A. Klugman, âZe wspomnieÅ redaktora. W czterdziestÄ rocznicÄ ukazania siÄ pierwszego numeru âIzraelskich Nowin i Kurieraââ [From the Editorâs Memoirs: On the Fortieth Anniversary of the Publication of the First Issue of Izraelskie Nowiny-Kurier], Kontury, no. 6 (1998): 90â91; see also A. Klugman, Spojrzenie wstecz [Looking Back] (Åódź, 2000), 9â15.
Marian Rogowski (formerly Nacht), son of Karol, was born in Lwów on 22 October 1913 (the year 1916 also appears as the date of his birth on some documents). According to a report by the Polish secret service, it was Rogowski who, upon his arrival in Israel, became involved in the creation of an association of creative workers in the fields of science and culture in Mapai, and he was meant to become the chairman of this association. Rogowski worked for Kurier for a short time. In 1959 he immigrated to West Germany. ainr, file number 01681/70/D, Rogowski Marian, card 19, 31, 36 (a duplicate of correspondence from Tel Aviv, 11 January 1958); ainr, file 1547/761, Passport Files: Rogowska Józefina; ainr, file 1218/26773, Rogowski Marian, 1â33, ainr, file 1532/6225, Rogowski Marian, cards 1â87.
Mojżesz (Moshe) Tiger (a.k.a. BolesÅaw Kaczmarek), son of Eisie, was born 1924. He was the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Robotnicza in WrocÅaw. He left for Israel in 1957 and became a member of Mapai. ainr, file 2386/15141, folder crypt, âZionistsâ concerning former senior officials of the state apparatus who immigrated to Israel, the case was conducted by the Head of the Military Internal Service, 1959; ainr, file 01237/109/D, Tiger a.k.a. Kaczmarek Mojżesz, cards 9â14; alp, file 2/949/1957/8, letter from Fakty journalist Moshe Tiger to Moshe Livne and Eli Ostrowski, 1 November 1957.
Fabian Shlang, son of Tobiash and Teofila (Tauby), was born on 18 October 1907. He graduated from pedagogical studies in Vienna (1933) and worked until 1939 as a teacher at the Secondary School of Trade and Commerce and then at the Merchant Junior High School in Kraków. He survived the war, first working on the Eastern Railway, then in the camps in Prokocim and PÅaszów. He escaped from a camp and most likely hid in DziaÅoszyce (Kielce Province) and Lwów until January 1945. During the war, he lost his closest family. From 1948 to 1950 he was a lecturer of journalism studies at a Higher School of Social Sciences and Humanities (in the documents concerning him, there is no mention of where this school was). In February 1951, he joined the Provincial Board of Municipal Retail Trade in Kraków as head of the planning department. From 1954, he was the editor of the magazine department at one of the state publishing houses in Kraków. ainr, file 01237/53/J microfilm, Shlang Fabian, also known as Shlang Feiwel, card 10, 14â15; ainr, file 2386/15141, folder crypt, âZionistsâ concerning former senior officials of the state apparatus who had immigrated to Israel, the case conducted by the Head of the Military Internal Service, 1959, card 44.
ainr, file 01237/53/J microfilm, Shlang Fabian, also known as Shlang Feiwel, card 10, 14â15.
ainr, file 1368/2105, foreignerâs personal file: Turkow Izaak, Beer BrasÅawska, Walery Turkow, cards 14, 20, 30, 32.
J. Waglewski, ed. and coll., Wspomnienia niekontrolowane z historii PRL, vol. 2, Dziennikarze [Uncensored Recollections from the History of the Peopleâs Republic of Poland, vol. 2, Journalists], with an introduction by J. Eisler (GdaÅsk, 2006), 142.
ainr, file 01227/73, Joffe Henryk, cards 10â11, 13, 14.
ainr, file 2386/15141, folder crypt, âZionistsâ concerning former senior officials of the state apparatus who had immigrated to Israel, the case conducted by the Head of the Military Internal Service, 1959, cards 11â45; ainr, file 01649/175/J microfilm, Gefen Maurycy, card 107.
For information on the Association of Warsaw Jews in Israel, see âZwiÄ zek Warszawian ma wielkie planyâ [The Association of Warsaw Jews in Israel Has Big Plans], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 265 (1961): 3.
The Pirsumim Society was registered in November 1957. Formally, it was supposed to be independent of Mapai, but in reality, only members of this party were appointed to the board of directors. Mapai commented on the misunderstandings between Pirsumim and the partyâs printing house about the preparation of foreign-language press as follows: âLet the publisher and the printing house take into account that they belong to the same movement; the publication of foreign-language newspapers is very important, and their popularity must not be damaged by quarrels and lack of coordination.â alp, 2/929/1958/8, letter from Moshe Kitron to Moshe Sharett, 2 April 1958; alp, 2/929/1958/8, report by Moshe Kitron from the period of November 1957 to March 1958 on the activities connected to the foreign-language press, sent to the secretary of Mapai, Giora Yoseftal, 17 March 1958.
alp, 2/929/1958/8, letter from Moshe Kitron to Giora Yoseftal with an attached report on the foreign-language press, 17 March 1958.
Patronage is a complex set of social and political relations between a patron and a client, in which the latter, in exchange for political loyalty, receives access and a share in the distribution of goods within the reach of the former. Political patronage is an informal network of personal and political links, binding both sides, but not equally. I use the terms âpatron,â âclient,â and âpatronageâ according to the definitions in A. Weingrod, âPatrons, Patronage, and Political Parties,â in Friends, Followers, and Factions: A Reader in Political Clientelism, ed. S. W. Schmidt et al. (Berkeley, 1977), 323â37.
J. Tarkowski, âPoland: Patrons and Clients in a Planned Economy,â in Political Clientelism, Patronage and Development, ed. S. N. Eisenstadt and R. Lemarchand (Beverly Hills, 1981), 174, 400; E. R. Wolf, âKinship, Friendship and Patron-Client Relation in Complex Societies,â in The Social Anthropology of Complex Societies, ed. M. Banton (New York, 1966), 18; Weingrod, âPatrons, Patronage, and Political Parties,â 323â26.
I. S. [I. Iserles], âPartie: SiedemdziesiÄ t tysiÄcyâ [Parties: Seventy Thousand], Od Nowa, no. 22 (1962): 1.
S. N. Eisenstadt and L. Roniger, âClientelism in Communist Systems: A Comparative Perspective,â Studies in Comparative Communism 14, nos. 2â3 (1981): 241.
Eisenstadt and Roniger, âClientelism in Communist Systems,â 241; Tarkowski, âPoland,â 173â88. For examples of forms of clientelism in various countries, see S. W. Schmidt et al., Friends, Followers, and Factions (Berkeley, 1977); S. N. Eisenstadt, Israeli Society (London, 1967), 34â58; E. Ben-Rafael and S. Sharot, Ethnicity, Religion and Class in Israeli Society (Cambridge, 1991), 105â16.
It seems these were the parties that were in the Sochnut: Ahdut HaAvoda, Mapai, and the Progressive Party (General Zionists).
cza, file S42/234, letter from Giora Yoseftal to Rapoport, an inspector in the Sochnut, 3 February 1955.
Eisenstadt and Roniger, âClientelism in Communist Systems,â 242â43.
Eisenstadt and Roniger, âClientelism in Communist Systems,â 242â43.
Eisenstadt and Roniger, âClientelism in Communist Systems,â 242â43.
Eisenstadt and Roniger, âClientelism in Communist Systems,â 242â43.
Eisenstadt and Roniger, âClientelism in Communist Systems,â 242â43.
Eisenstadt and Roniger, âClientelism in Communist Systems,â 242â43.
Eisenstadt and Roniger, âClientelism in Communist Systems,â 244; S. N. Eisenstadt, The Transformation of Israeli Society: An Essay in Interpretation (London, 1985), 425â40.
On the topic of clientelism in Poland, its characteristics, and its structure, see Tarkowski, âPoland,â 174, 400.
On the topic of clientelism in communist countries compared to Israeli clientelism, see Eisenstadt and Roniger, âClientelism in Communist Systems,â 233â45; J. P. Willerton Jr., âClientelism in the Soviet Union: An Initial Examination,â Studies in Comparative Communism 12, nos. 2â3 (1979): 159â83; Rigby, T. H. âThe Need for Comparative Research on Clientelism: Concluding Comments,â Studies in Comparative Communism 12, nos. 2â3 (1979): 204â11.
ainr, file 1585/93, Committee of the Ministry of the Interior to the Security Services â sessions in 1959, minutes, list of issues discussed at the meetings, drafts of instructions, information, card 25; hha, file 7/62/90, minutes of the Mapam secretarial meeting, 8 July 1957; âCena karieryâ [The Price of a Career], Od nowa, no. 6 (1959): 7.
âRozmowy z czytelnikamiâ [Interviews with Readers], Od Nowa, no. 7 (1958): 3.
K. Jaworski, âW odpowiedzi âprokuratorowiââ [In Response to the âProsecutorâ], Kurier Niezależny, no. 171 (1958): 5.
Quoted from âHuzia na Å»ydaâ [Sic on a Jew], Od Nowa, no. 1 (1960): 1.
See E. Kossewska, âA Polish Cactus on Israeli Soil: Immigrant Adaptation, 1956â1960,â Gal-Ed 24 (2015): 117â49.
âHuzia na Å»ydaâ [Sic on a Jew], Od Nowa, no. 1 (1960): 1.
âNowi olim piszÄ : Bolesny problemâ [The New Olim Are Writing: A Serious Problem], Walka, no. 12 (1958): 8; âRozmowa z nowymi olim na tematy ideologiczneâ [An Interview with the New Olim on Ideological Questions], Walka, no. 5 (1958): 4.
K. Studencka, âOskarżeni i oskarżycieleâ [Defendants and Accusers], Kurier Niezależny, no. 177 (1958): 5.
This is what the Jewish communists were called who had worked for the communist government in Poland after World War ii, as well as the Jewish organizations that supported the government. Earlier, this term had been used to describe the Jewish Affairs Commission, established by the Peopleâs Commission for Ethnic Minorities, which had functioned in Soviet Russia and the ussr from 1918 to 1930.
S. Rosnau, âCzy wolno zapomnieÄ? W zwiÄ zku z artykuÅem Andy Amir pt. âOn byÅ komunistÄ ââ [Are We Allowed to Forget? In Connection with Andy Amirâs Article Titled âHe Was a Communistâ], Kurier Niezależny, no. 171 (1958): 5; Studencka, âOskarżeni i oskarżyciele,â 5; H. Joffe, âInkwizycja w nowoczesnym wydaniuâ [A Modern Form of Inquisition], Kurier Powszechny, no. 183 (1958): 4; S. Rosnau, âMoje ceterum censeo i krótki apelâ [My Ceterum censeo and a Brief Plea], Kurier Niezależny, no. 177 (1958): 5.
A. Amir, âOn byÅ komunistÄ â [He Was a Communist], Kurier Niezależny, no. 141 (1958): 5; see also Rosnau, âCzy wolno zapomnieÄ?,â 5; Ignis [I. Iserles], âO cnocie przebaczeniaâ [The Virtue of Forgiveness], Od Nowa, no. 10 (1958): 2.
Sigma [I. Iserles], âWiÄźniowie Syjonuâ [Prisoners of Zion], Od Nowa, no. 39 (1959): 3.
Joffe, âInkwizycja w nowoczesnym wydaniu,â 4.
âNowi olim piszÄ : Bolesny problemâ [The New Olim Are Writing: A Serious Problem], Walka, no. 12 (1958): 8.
Sigma [Iserles], âWiÄźniowie Syjonuâ 3.
amfa, folder 12, file 926, bundle 38, ââDawarâ sprawy wewnÄtrzneâ [âDavarâ Internal Matters], 25 January 1958, card 8.
I. S. [Iserles], âPartie,â 1.
J. Lipski, âRzÄ d a nowi olimâ [The Government and the New Olim], Walka, no. 3 (1958): 1. The process of acclimatization was usually like this: âIsraelâs embassy in Warsaw collects data on people applying to immigrate to Israel and sends it to the appropriate agencies in Israel. At the liaison office of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kiria, Tel Aviv, a special office dealing with the interrogation of immigrants from Eastern European countries has been set up. In Tel Aviv, people are questioned who have been singled out by the Israeli embassy in Warsaw, as well as those who have been deemed âmore interestingâ during previous interrogations. The questioning is conducted by employees who know the language of the immigrantâs country of origin, as well as the problems of the specific country. The work with immigrants in Israel is carried out in a systematic and organized manner. It should be mentioned that immigrants are recognized and won over by intelligence workers who appear under the guise of Sochnut employees already when they are on ships or at stopover points in Vienna, Rome, or Venice. Upon arrival in Israel, people are tentatively singled out in hotels where they are interviewed or are asked to write texts on specific topics. [â¦] In addition to the abovementioned people, those who are suspected of being intelligence agents are interviewed and each candidate for employment in the Israeli government is examined thoroughly. [â¦] Some former employees of the Citizensâ Militia, Ministry of Public Security, or Polish Army, who provide exhaustive information required by Israeli intelligence, are sent to work in the police, Regional Committee, or army, or to receive intelligence training.â
ainr, file 1585/93, Committee of the Ministry of the Interior to the Security Services â sessions in 1959, minutes, list of issues discussed at the meetings, drafts of instructions, information, card 25; amfa, folder 12, file 344, bundle 14, card 3; amfa, various issues related to the immigration of Jewish people to Israel, 1957, card 35.
âListy do redakcjiâ [Letters to the Editor], Walka, no. 2 (1959): 8.
Mapai: The Israel Labour Party, 2.
Eisenstadt and Roniger, âClientelism in Communist Systems,â 234, 235.
I. S. [Iserles], âPartie,â 1.
Weingrod, âPatrons, Patronage and Political Parties,â 323.
E. SÅucka-Kestin, âBrzÄczÄ srebrnikiâ [The Enticing Clink of Silver Coins], Walka, no. 12 (1958): 9.
SÅucka-Kestin, âBrzÄczÄ srebrniki,â 9.
An interview with Moshe Wertman, 20 February 2009, from the authorâs archive.
âMagbit na âchamaââ [Magbit for a Lout], Od Nowa, no. 37 (1959): 4.
Eisenstadt and Roniger, âClientelism in Communist Systems,â 233.
M. Kitron, âWyjaÅnienia zamiast monologówâ [Explanations Instead of Monologues], Kurier, no. 23 (1958): 3.
amfa, folder 12, file 344, bundle 14, âNotatka dotyczÄ ca absorpcji emigrantów z Polski i powrotu do Polskiâ [Note Concerning the Absorption of Immigrants from Poland and the Return to Poland], 26 February 1957.
An interview with Moshe Wertman, 20 February 2009, from the authorâs archive; see also N. Gross, âProtekcjaâ [Favoritism], Kontury, no. 4 (1993): 48â56.
An interview with Moshe Wertman, 20 February 2009, from the authorâs archive.
Kurier Niezależny, no. 60 (1958): 4.
ainr, file 01227/73/J (microfilm J-2880), Joffe Henryk, card 14.
Exceptions to this attitude were made for olim who were suspected of having committed crimes against the Jewish nation in their diaspora lives.
alp, file 2/949/1957/8 (previous number: 9/49/57), letter from Giora Yoseftal to Moshe Kitron, 31 January 1958.
Kurier, no. 1 (1958): 2.
ainr, file 01681/70/D, Rogowski Marian, card, no. 19 (duplicate of correspondence from Tel Aviv, 11 January 1958).
amfa, folder 21, file 712, bundle 50, report sent from the legation of the Polish Peopleâs Republic in Tel Aviv to the Press and Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw for the period from 1 January to 31 July 1959, 6 August 1959.
amfa, folder 21, file 718, bundle 50, dispatches, telegrams, articles, and bulletins to the foreign press, a document from the legation of the Polish Peopleâs Republic in Israel to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 29 September 1961.
amfa, folder 21, file 717, bundle 50, Antoni Bida to Zygfryd Wolniak, the director of Department V of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 4 November 1960.
amfa, folder 21, file 717, bundle 50, dispatches, telegrams, articles, and bulletins to the foreign press, Davar, 5 August 1960.
In the second half of the 1950s there were Jews who arrived as part of a repatriation campaign from the ussr; for more information on repatriation, see J. Czerniakiewicz, Repatriacja ludnoÅci polskiej z ZSRR 1944â1948 [Repatriation of the Polish Population from the ussr, 1944â1948] (Warsaw, 1980); M. Ruchniewicz, Repatriacja ludnoÅci polskiej z ZSRR w latach 1955â59 [Repatriation of the Polish Population from the ussr, 1955â59] (Warsaw, 2000); Repatriacja ludnoÅci polskiej z ZSRR 1955â1959: Wybór dokumentów, wybór i oprac [Repatriation of the Polish Population from the ussr, 1955â1959: A Selection of Documents], ed. B. KÄ cka and S. StÄpka (Warsaw, 1994); T. Bugaj, Dzieci polskie w ZSRR i ich repatriacja 1939â1952 [Polish Children in the ussr and Their Repatriation, 1939â1952] (Jelenia Góra, 1986).
amfa, folder 12, file 344, bundle 14, letter from the Embassy of the Polish Peopleâs Republic in Prague to the General Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Wierna, signed by the ambassador of the Polish Peopleâs Republic in Prague, A. Cuber, Prague, 26 June 1957.
amfa, folder. 12, file 945, bundle 39, memo from the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Head of Section iii of Department V in the matter of Jewish immigrants to Israel, 6 June 1960.
alp, file 2/932/1966/4110, a meeting between the Mapai secretary and delegates of the foreign press, 28 December 1966.
The document mentions Reitman, but it seems that this is a mistake and the name Ritterman-Abir should have been written (who was indeed one of the editors of Nowiny). An account by the director of the Department of Eastern Europe of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Shlomo Leibowicz (Jerusalem) for the envoy Katriel-Katz (Warsaw) from a meeting of the Minister of Foreign Affairs G[olda] Meir with the editors of Polish-language Israeli newspapers, 19 February 1958, in S. Rudnicki and M. Silber, eds., Stosunki polsko-izraelskie (1945â1967): Wybór dokumentów, wybór i oprac [Polish-Israeli Relations (1945â1967): A Selection of Documents and Commentary] (Warsaw, 2009), 486.
Rudnicki and Silber, Stosunki polsko-izraelskie, 486â87.
amfa, folder 21, file 712, bundle 50, report by the legation of the Polish Peopleâs Republic in Tel Aviv sent to the Press and Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw for the period from 1 August 1959 to 1 March 1960.
amfa, folder 21, file 712, bundle 50, report by the legation of the Polish Peopleâs Republic in Tel Aviv sent to the Press and Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw for the period from 1 August 1959 to 1 March 1960.
Nowa Huta, a city near Kraków, Poland, became a symbol of the propaganda success of the communist leaders in Poland, the reconstruction of the country after the war, the development of industry, and faith in communism. W. Cygielman, âHeretyków trzeba paliÄ â czyli o patriotyzmie nieschematycznieâ [Heretics Must Be Burned: A Nonconventional Approach to Patriotism], Kurier Niezależny, no. 1 (1958): 2 (the numbering was not consistent, but the sequence indicates that this is issue no. 190 from September 14, 1958).
âDalsze przeÅladowania Å»ydów w Marokoâ [Further Persecution of Jews in Morocco], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 192 (1961): 2.
B. ChuÅkowska, âBat Jamâ [Bat Yam] (in the column âCzytelnicy piszÄ â [Readers Are Writing]), Kurier Powszechny, no. 13 (1958): 4.
alp, file 2/932/1966/4110, minutes of a meeting of foreign press editors with Golda Meir, Mordechai J. Tzaninâs statement, 28 December 1966.
Zygfryd Wolniak, an envoy to Israel from 1954 to 1957.
Archive in the Lochamai ha-Getaʾot Museum, file 19.366 (5475), case: Aliyah from Poland and journalism in Israel, 9 March 1955, signed by Aroch, a letter sent from the Bureau of Foreign Affairs on 16 March 1955 (file no. in isa: mfo, rg 130, file 2502/12).
alp, file 9/929/1958/8, report by Moshe Kitron sent to Giora Yoseftal, 17 March 1958.
alp, file 2/949/1957/8 (9/49/57), letter from the Atlas company to Pirsumim, 4 February 1958.
Echo Tygodnia, no. 43 (1958): 5.
alp, file 2/929/1958/8, report by Moshe Kitron sent to Giora Yoseftal, 17 March 1958.
alp, file 2/929/1958/8, report by Moshe Kitron sent to Giora Yoseftal, 17 March 1958.
âMajÄ czasâ [They Have Time] (in the column âCzytelnicy piszÄ â [Readers Are Writing]), Kurier Powszechny, no. 49 (1958): 4.
âCzytelnicy piszÄ â [Readers Are Writing], Kurier Niezależny, no. 103 (1958): 3.
âDo naszych czytelników!â [To Our Readers!], Kurier, no. 76 (1958): 1.
alp, file 2/929/1958/8, letter from Moshe Kitron to Moshe Sharett with an attached document on the subject of Pirsumim, 2 April 1958.
The elections were held in November 1959.
alp, file 2/929/1958/8, letter from Moshe Kitron to Moshe Sharett, 2 April 1958.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), contract for the publication of Nowiny-Kurier; see also tyha, file 137/7 (mem).
tyha, file 137/6 (mem).
tyha, file 137/6 (mem).
tyha, file 137/6 (mem). See also the objectives of Mapaiâs press: alp, file 2/24/1953/35 (alef), minutes of a meeting of Mapaiâs Center Committee, 23 January 1953.
tyha, file 102/1 (mem), attachment to the contract, 5 September 1957.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), contract for the publication of Nowiny-Kurier; see also tyha, file 137/7 (mem).
On behalf of Mapai, Shabtai Himelfarb relinquished the authorization to publish Iskry magazine, Moshe Maksimilian Lehrer relinquished rights to Åwiat Sportu, and Mapai canceled the permission to publish Kurier Powszechny and Kurier Izraelski. tyha, file 137/6 (mem), contract for the publication of Nowiny-Kurier.
This point in the contract concerned the Progressive Party to a greater extent, which had received more permits to publish Polish-language newspapers, so potential competition from this party was eliminated. Gabriela Rosmarin renounced the right to publish Nowiny Poranne, while Pesach Luski gave up the right to publish Nowa Gazeta. The Progressive Party relinquished the rights to Nowiny Izraelskie and the rights to SÅowo Izraelskie, together with Saul Langnas. StanisÅawa Brandys, Wiktor Brandysâs widow, renounced Nowiny Powszechne. Additionally, the Progressive Party relinquished its right to publish NowoÅci Dnia. The newspaper Nowiny Powszechne was registered but was not issued. In the agreement concluded between the Progressive Party and Mapai, Wiktor Brandys is mentioned as the âcocreatorâ of the Polish-language press publications by the Progressive Party. tyha, file 137/7 (mem), cancelation of permits by Gabriela Rosmarin, Pirsumim and Tushiyah, Pesach Luski, Saul Langnas; tyha, file 137/7 (mem), declaration by Hillel Zeidel; tyha, file 137/7 (mem), information about the publication of newspapers (for Henryk Ritterman-Abir, NowoÅci Dnia); tyha, file 137/7 (mem), permission for Nowiny-Kurier. See also the issuing and cancelation of permits; tyha, file 137/6 (mem) and file 102/1 (mem); Archive of the Literary Institute in Maisons-Laffitte (hereinafter: ali), letter from Henryk Dankowicz to Jerzy Giedroyc, 23 June 1958.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem) and file 137/7 (mem), contract for the publication of Nowiny-Kurier.
Interview with Dov Yohannes, 15 May 2009, materials from the authorâs collection.
Edward Adam Rostal, son of Karol, born 19 May 1907; a passport for travel to Israel was issued to him on 6 February 1950. ainr, file K.pz-26, pz-4 (from the immigration card catalogue).
See footnote 123.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), contract for the publication of Nowiny-Kurier.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Dov Yohannes, 6 January 1959; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Shalom Yedidiah and Saul Langnas, 16 March 1960; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to the editors of Nowiny-Kurier, 12 January 1961; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Saul Langnas, 26 January 1961; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Shalom Yedidiah, 1 May 1959; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Shalom Yedidiah and Edward Rostal, 5 May 1959.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Shalom Yedidiah, January 1959. See also tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Shalom Yedidiah, Edward Rostal, and Aleksander Klugman, 5 May 1959; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Edward Rostal and Aleksander Klugman, 2 October 1959; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Dov Yohannes (on the subject of relations within the editorial team), 6 January 1959; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Aleksander Klugman, 10 September 1961 (on cancelation of his nomination for the position of editorial secretary; from 15 September 1961 onwards, he held the position of night editor four days per week).
Interview with Shaula Ashkenazi (Shabtai Himelfarbâs daughter), 6 August 2011, materials from the authorâs archive; interview with Shaula Ashkenazi (Shabtai Himelfarbâs daughter) and Chetz Himelfarb (Shabtai Himelfarbâs son), 23 February 2011, materials from the authorâs collection.
A copy is in the authorâs archive.
Hebrew for âblock.â P. Y. Medding, Mapai in Israel: Political Organisation and Government in a New Society (Cambridge, 1972), 136â52.
Interview with Shaula Ashkenazi (Shabtai Himelfarbâs daughter) and Chetz Himelfarb (Shabtai Himelfarbâs son), August 2011, materials from the authorâs collection.
Janina Markiewicz was born on 16 July 1930 in Kraków. In Poland, she was the head of the Kraków branch of the weekly magazine PrzyjacióÅka; she also cooperated with Gazeta Krakowska and Dziennik Polski. ainr, file 01227/496, Markiewicz Janina, cards 22â23.
Henryk Dankowicz, son of Leon and Franciszka, née Melenior, was born on 17 May 1918 in Sosnowiec. Before the war, his father worked in newspaper distribution. As he explained in his memoirs, after completing four years of primary school, he interrupted his education to help his father. In 1934 he returned to school and began his sixth year at the WyspiaÅski Gymnasium in Sosnowiec. In 1937 he graduated from high school, and a year later he went to study at the University of Warsaw, in the Faculty of Oriental Studies. According to his memoirs, his first choice was journalism, but he was not accepted to the Higher School of Journalism in Warsaw. During his studies, however, he tried to work as a journalist, collaborating with Czarno na BiaÅym. In September 1939, he fled to Kowel, and after being seized by the Red Army, he became the head of the House of Workers of Art and Culture, and also worked as an instructor at the local library. He worked for newspapers published in Kowel, Lwów, and Kiev. After the outbreak of the German-Soviet war, he left for Kazakhstan. In November 1944, he joined the Polish Army, was assigned to the editorial team of the Second Army newspaper and ran the current affairs journalism section there. In December 1944, he went to Lublin and was appointed head of the political section in the editorial office of OrzeÅ BiaÅy (the press organ of the Polish Second Army). In March 1945, he was sent to work in the Voivodeship Office of Information and Propaganda in Katowice as the head of the Press Department, and at the same time he worked as a correspondent for GÅos Ludu newspaper. In April 1946, he was appointed press attaché of the legation of the Polish Peopleâs Republic in Sofia. In December 1948, he returned to Poland and began working as the head of the independent Information and Press Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In October 1950, he began working as a journalist for Trybuna Ludu, and from April 1953 to March 1957 for PrzyjaźŠweekly. He began his political activity in 1934, joining the Communist Union of Polish Youth. In 1941 he was admitted to Komsomol in Kowel, and in May 1945 he joined the Polish Workersâ Party and then the Polish United Workersâ Party. After arriving in Israel, he joined the editorial team of Nowiny, then cooperated with Nowiny-Kurier. In 1959 he worked as a translator for the biweekly Przekrój Izraelski. He also prepared documents from the occupation period for the Yad Vashem Institute. He was also involved, according to the Polish security services, in the distribution of the Polish-language communist newspaper Walka, which he used to convince the Polish authorities to grant him permission to return to Poland. According to the secret service of the legation of the Polish Peopleâs Republic in Tel Aviv, after a brief period in Israel, he regretted his decision to emigrate and thought about returning to Poland. Working in the Polish-speaking community certainly made the process of acclimatization easier for him, but the merger of newspapers was not successful for him because he did not join the permanent group of journalists working for Nowiny-Kurier and lost his job. However, he still wrote for the newspaper so often that he could be counted among its collaborators. His lack of professional stability was disappointing, though; Dankowicz wanted to write more, belong to the community of influential journalists and go beyond the niche group of foreign-language journalists. Unable to work for the Hebrew press, he sought contact with Jerzy Giedroyc. His opinion columns were published in the book UÅmiech i zaduma [A Smile and Musings] (Tel Aviv, 1958). His memoirs are also interesting, including those concerning his journalistic activity in Poland. H. Dankowicz, Nieprzezroczysta klepsydra [An Opaque Hourglass] (Tel Aviv, 1970), 18; see also the ali, letter from Henryk Dankowicz to Jerzy Giedroyc, 23 June 1958.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to the editors of Nowiny-Kurier on the subject of not using commissioned press articles, 4 October 1960.
alp, file 2/7/1968/119, minutes of a meeting of the Mapai partyâs press department, 5 April 1968.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), payroll of journalists writing for Nowiny-Kurier.
The well-organized propaganda and information apparatus attracted the attention of party activists even before the creation of the state; see alp, file 2/25/1947/9 (alef), minutes of a meeting of Mapaiâs party office, 14 October 1947, cards 11â17. On the subject of monitoring press distribution, see alp, file 2/929/1958/8, letter from Moshe Kitron to Joshua Levi (Pirsumim), 9 March 1958. On the subject of the distribution of Kurier, see alp, file 9/48/57, letter from Moshe Kitron to a party branch in Poland, 9 December 1957; alp, file 9/48/57, letter from Moshe Kitron to a party branch in Haifa, 9 December 1957; alp, file 9/48/57, letter from Moshe Kitron to Petach Tikva, with distribution instructions, 19 December 1957; alp, file 9/48/57, letter from Moshe Kitron to activists, party secretaries in various regions, local clubs, cities, and villages, 26 February 1958; alp, file 2/929/1958/8, letter from Moshe Kitron to Giora Yoseftal, 17 March 1958; alp, file 2/7/1968/119, meeting of Mapaiâs Press Department, 5 April 1968, speech by Moshe Erem (Mapam member from Ahdut HaAvoda â Poale Zion; after the splitting of the party, he was a member of Ahdut HaAvoda, and then â after the merger of Ahdut HaAvoda, Mapai, and Rafi â the Labour Party).
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Dov Yohannes to Shabtai Himelfarb, undated, in response to a letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Dov Yohannes, 24 December 1958.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Dov Yohannes to Shabtai Himelfarb, undated, in response to a letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Dov Yohannes, 24 December 1958.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Dov Yohannes to Shabtai Himelfarb, undated, in response to a letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Dov Yohannes, 24 December 1958; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Dov Yohannes, 24 December 1958; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Shalom Yedidiah and Saul Langnas, 16 March 1960; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Saul Langnas, 4 March 1960.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Dov Yohannes to Shabtai Himelfarb, undated, in response to a letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Dov Yohannes, 24 December 1958; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Dov Yohannes, 24 December 1958.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Dov Yohannes to Shabtai Himelfarb, undated, in response to a letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Dov Yohannes, 24 December 1958; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Saul Langnas to Shabtai Himelfarb, 5 June 1960; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Saul Langnas, 3 June 1960; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), response from Saul Langnas, 5 June 1960.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to the board of Baldar Chadashot, 11 December 1958.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), contract for the publication of Nowiny-Kurier; tyha, file 137/7 (mem); tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Hillel Zeidel to Saul Langnas and Edward Rostal, 10 February 1959; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Hillel Zeidel, 19 January 1959.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Saul Langnas to Shabtai Himelfarb, 5 June 1960; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Saul Langnas, 3 June 1960; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Hillel Zeidel to Joshua Levi, president of the Baldar Chadashot Association, with a copy for Shabtai Himelfarb, director of Baldar Chadashot, 7 May 1961; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Hillel Zeidel to Baldar Chadashot and Shabtai Himelfarb, 12 January 1960.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Hillel Zeidel, 19 January 1959; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to the editors of Nowiny-Kurier, 10 January 1961; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to the editors of Nowiny-Kurier, 12 January 1961; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Dov Yohannes to Shabtai Himelfarb, undated, in response to Shabtai Himelfarbâs letter to Dov Yohannes, 24 December 1958; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Saul Langnas and Shalom Yedidiah, 26 January 1961.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Shabtai Himelfarb to Saul Langnas, 22 February 1960.
The Lavon Affair emerged on the Israeli political scene in 1954. In mid-1960, thanks to the testimony of witnesses in another trial, it was revived in public debate, provoking a fierce discussion in the media and ultimately leading to the break-up of the coalition. The origins of this scandal lie in an Israeli intelligence operation in Egypt intended to stop British troops from withdrawing from the region. Through a series of bombings in public places (a post office, a library), they sought to demonstrate instability in the region â and therefore the need for strict control of the Suez Canal by the international community, mainly the British â and to strengthen Israelâs own borders and security. The operation was ultimately unsuccessful in its goals and damaged the credibility of Israelâs government as well as its international and domestic interests. The authority of the state, above all the intelligence and the army, was significantly undermined, and it led to a change in the government. Pinchas Lavon, the Minister of Defense at the time, resigned, and David Ben-Gurion returned from his home in the Sde Boker kibbutz to replace him in the government in 1955. There was a dispute about whether Lavon had ordered the attacks or whether Benjamin Gibli, the head of military intelligence, had acted illegally, without the knowledge of his superior. The case was convoluted, the secret activities of the Israeli intelligence services and the Ministry of Defense were at stake, and the issues were further obscured by divergent witness statements and personal intrigue. Moshe Dayan and Shimon Peres (then the chief director in the Ministry of Defense) â both members of the later TzeÊ¿irei Mapai group (Young Mapai, sometimes also called NaÊ¿arei Ben-Gurion [Ben-Gurionâs Boys]), associated with the leader of Mapai, representing a new generation ready to take over power â gave testimony incriminating Lavon. The committee eventually appointed to investigate the matter did not prove his guilt. In April 1960, inaccuracies were found in the testimonies of Gibli and other witnesses. Referring to these inaccuracies, Lavon requested that he be acquitted of the charges, as there was now a shadow of suspicion cast over his political career. As a talented politician, a great speaker, and secretary of the Histadrut, he was mentioned among the future candidates for Prime Minister. Various ideas for a solution were shared by the Mapai community. Ben-Gurion was in favor of conducting a trial, which in turn was opposed by Lavon, forcing an alternative course of action â the establishment of a political parliamentary committee for security and defense. Things went according to Lavonâs wishes. Pinchas Rosen â a member of this parliamentary committee, the so-called committee of seven, the Minister of Justice, and leader of the Progressive Party â was of the opinion that the court procedure could have been used in 1955, but six years later there were no grounds for this procedure, and moreover the committee formed of ministers, chaired by Rosen, once again analyzed the evidence and reached a conclusion that was favorable to Lavon: that he âhad not given an explicit order.â According to Rosen, even if Lavon had given such an order, he would not have exceeded his authority, and moreover, by 1960, the statute of limitations had passed for prosecuting a case of an officer acting outside his authority, without the knowledge of his superior officer. Rosenâs explanations did not convince Ben-Gurion, who boycotted the committeeâs verdict â he did not attend the government meeting at the end of December 1960, when its conclusions were voted on. In response to the criticism and accusations made by Ben-Gurion, Rosen, like the other ministers of the committee of seven, announced his resignation. In turn, Ben-Gurion, unable to accept the committeeâs actions, went on a monthâs leave, hinting at the threat of resignation. The Lavon Affair had clearly destabilized the governmentâs work. See E. Chassin and D. Horowitz, Ha-Parashah [The Affair] (Tel Aviv, 1961); Z. Shalom, Ben Gurionâs Political Struggles, 1963â1967 (London, 2006), 23â35.
âDelegacja Mapaj prosi Prezydenta o powierzenie D. Ben Gurionowi misji utworzenia nowego rzÄ duâ [The Mapai Delegation is Asking the President to Entrust D. Ben-Gurion with the Mission of Forming a New Government], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 33 (1961): 1; D. Giladi, âRozmowa Ben Gurion â Rozen wstÄpem do pojednaniaâ [A Conversation between Ben Gurion and Rosen as a Prelude to Reconciliation], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 35 (1961): 2.
The Progressive Party was absent from the coalition in the Third Government, in the period from 8 October 1951 to 24 December.
Official information about the merger of the Progressive Party with the General Zionists was provided on 25 April 1961. tyha, file 58/3 (mem), minutes from the Liberal Party for its first year of activity.
tyha, file 58/3 (mem), âWezwanie Partii Liberalnej do klubówâ [The Liberal Partyâs Call to the Clubs], 29 March 1962.
The merger of the two Jewish organizations from Poland with the Progressive Party and the General Zionists was reported as early as 1 June 1961 (by internal memorandum), and what was known as the organizational commission was operational starting 14 June 1961. tyha, file 119/2 (mem), letter from the Commission for the Unification of Jews from Poland, 1 June 1961; tyha, file 119/2 (mem), declaration and protocol of the unification of Jews from Poland with the Polish Government, June 1, 1961; tyha, file 119/2 (mem), declaration and minutes from a meeting of the Alliance of Jews from Poland (14 June 1961), sent to the Secretary of the Progressive Party on 20 June 1961; tyha, file 119/1 (mem), letter from Dov Yohannes and Saul Langnas to Yitzchak Arzi, 31 January 1962; tyha, file 119/1 (mem), letter from Dov Yohannes to Yitzchak Arzi and Yosef Tamir, 15 February 1961.
On June 1 1961, a meeting of the board of two Polish groups took place, organized by the General Zionists and the Progressive Party. A joint organizational committee was elected. On 14 June 1961, a conference was announced in the home of some American Zionists, where members and supporters of the Alliance of Polish Jews and all the clubs of the political parties in the country were to meet. Of course, during reconciliation, meetings, and congresses, large groups of Polish Jews were mobilized, so they had a double meaning â on the eve of the elections, they also provided an opportunity to canvass for the newly formed Liberal Party. tyha, file 119/1 (mem), letter from the board of the Alliance of Polish Jews to the secretary of the Liberal Party, 20 June 1961.
tyha, file 102/1 (mem), letter from Yitzchak Arzi to Nowiny-Kurier, 22 November 1959.
tyha, file 119/2 (mem), letter from Yitzchak Arzi to the Progressive Partyâs association groups, 26 June 1961.
alp, file 2/013/1961/854, minutes from a meeting of Mapaiâs foreign-language press editors, 18 May 1961.
tyha, file 119/2 (mem), declaration and minutes from a meeting of the Alliance of Polish Jews (14 June 1961) sent to the secretary of the Progressive Party, 20 June 1961, 5.
alp, file 2/013/1961/854, minutes from a meeting of Mapaiâs foreign-language press editors, 18 May 1961.
âMapaj i olimâ [Mapai and the Olim], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 154 (1961): 1 (âHoryzontyâ [Horizons] supplement).
âMapaj kontynuuje wysiÅki w celu stworzenia rzÄ du pod przewodnictwem D. Ben Guriona: Progresywni ustalajÄ dziÅ swe stanowiskoâ [Mapai Is Continuing Its Efforts to Form a Government under the Leadership of D. Ben-Gurion: Progressives Are Establishing Their Position Today], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 36 (1961): 1; tyha, no. 119/2 (mem), declaration and minutes from a meeting of the Alliance of Polish Jews (14 June 1961) sent to the secretary of the Progressive Party on 20 June 1961; L. Adler, Åladami Hannah Arendt [In the Footsteps of Hannah Arendt], translated into Polish by J. Aleksandrowicz (Warsaw, 2008), 227â35, 345â58.
Nachum Goldmann (1895â1982) was born in Lithuania. During World War i and between 1925 and 1933, he was an employee of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and from 1934 he was a representative of the Jewish Agency of the Permanent Mandate Committee of the League of Nations. From 1940 onwards, he lived in the USA. He was one of the founders of the World Jewish Congress and in from 1953 to 1977 served as its chairman. From 1965 to 1968 he was the president of the World Zionist Organization. See the biography of Nachum Goldmann in Rudnicki and Silber, Stosunki polsko-izraelskie, 630.
Rudolf Israel Kastner (1906â1957) was a Hungarian Jew and lawyer who worked as a journalist in Budapest. He was a Zionist activist associated with Mapai, spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Trade and Industry (1952), and Mapai candidate in the First and Second Knesset elections. In 1953 he was accused in Israel of collaborating with the Nazis (he was the best-known Israeli accused of collaborating, but not the only one), particularly with Adolf Eichmann, with whom he negotiated the rescue of almost 1,500 Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust. He was assassinated by Zeev Eckstein. For more on this subject, see T. Segev, Siódmy milion [The Seventh Million], translated into Polish by B. Gadomska (Warsaw, 2012); tyha, file 119/2 (mem), letter from the board of the Alliance of Polish Jews to the secretary of the Liberal Party, 20 June 1961.
See Segev, Siódmy milion.
Drzewiecki wrote the following: âDuring a discussion on the issue of compensation, I was one of those who organized a social committee of writers and intellectuals to fight against compensation. Not because I believe that we do not deserve repatriation, but because I was afraid that this step would not lead to closer relations with the German people, that it would not lead to diplomatic relations through trade and cultural relations. It was a moral blow to me to adopt a resolution on compensation. I came to the conclusion that such a resolution could be adopted in our country because honoring our nation has no emotional or spiritual coherence with those who experienced hell during that period â spiritually and physically. [â¦] I gave up all the compensation I deserved because of my experiences in the ghetto and seven concentration camps. [â¦] You can ask me how itâs possible that I, a member of Mapai, am against the transaction, while my party supports it. I think it hadnât occurred to any of my comrades from Mapai that I could support this transaction. I am also sure that in the end, it will reflect well upon Mapai that there are members within it who oppose compensation and transactions with the Germans. My opposition is a matter of my own conscience and morals. I believe that a great deal of awareness-raising work is needed so that the nation can know the full truth about the cruelty of the Nazi criminals. While immigrating to Israel, I felt happy that I â a survivor of death camps â had managed to reach my homeland, but I experienced a strange feeling when I stated that while the camp survivors who arrived in Israel feel a bond between them and the people of the country, they respect and recognize its fight and struggle, itâs quite the contrary â in this society there is no bond of any kind with those who, after many years of suffering, returned from there. [â¦] I do not consider the supporters of the transaction to be bad Jews, and I certainly do not think that way of Ben-Gurion, whom I consider to be an outstanding figure of the Jewish nation. And this is what causes my great personal pain, the fact that in this area, unfortunately, I, with my entire burden from the past, cannot agree with him.â
Drzewiecki, âJa czÅowiek Mapajâ [I am a Man of Mapai], Od Nowa, no. 27 (1959): 3. On the topic of the politics of remembering the yishuv, see D. Porat, Israeli Society, the Holocaust and Its Survivors. London, 2008, 337â50.
Y. Gorny, The Jewish Press and the Holocaust, 1939â1945: Palestine, Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union, trans. N. Greenwood (Cambridge, 2012), 267â71; A. J. Edelheit, The Yishuv in the Shadow of the Holocaust: Zionist Politics and Rescue Aliya, 1933â1939 (Boulder, 1996), 15â22.
tyha, file 137/7 (mem), letter from Hillel Zeidel to Joshua Levi (acting president of the Baldar Chadashot Association), lawyer David Fajgenberg (president of Tuszij), Shabtai Himelfarb (director of Baldar Chadashot), 7 May 1961; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Hillel Zeidel to Shabtai Himelfarb, 7 May 1960.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Hillel Zeidel to Saul Langnas, 21 December 1960.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Hillel Zeidel to Saul Langnas, 21 December 1960; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Hillel Zeidel to Shabtai Himelfarb, 26 October 1960.
Nowiny-Kurier, no. 154 (1961): 9 (âHoryzontyâ [Horizons] supplement).
tyha, file 137/7 (mem), letter from Hillel Zeidel to Joshua Levi (acting president of the Baldar Chadashot Association), lawyer David Fajgenberg (president of Tuszij), Shabtai Himelfarb (director of Baldar Chadashot), 7 May 1961; U. Keisari, âRefleksje o Partii Liberalnejâ [Reflections on the Liberal Party], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 107 (1961): 2; âWrzenie u Ogólnych Syjonistów po powstaniu Partii Liberalnejâ [Turmoil among the General Zionists after the Establishment of the Liberal Party], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 108 (1961): 2.
An outstanding professor of modern history at the University of Jerusalem, originally from Poland.
Keisari, Refleksje o Partii Liberalnej, 2.
Keisari, Refleksje o Partii Liberalnej, 2.
tyha, file 119/2 (mem), letter from the Hasbara Department (information politics) to the secretaries of the Liberal Partyâs clubs, 27 June 1961; tyha, file 119/2 (mem), letter from the Progressive Party to Nachum Goldmann, 9 June 1961.
tyha, file 119/2 (mem), letter from Dr. Levin to Yitzchak Arzi, 15 June 1961.
âWrzenie u Ogólnych Syjonistów po powstaniu Partii Liberalnejâ [Turmoil among the General Zionists after the Establishment of the Liberal Party], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 108 (1961): 2; âNie możemy przystÄ piÄ do LiberaÅów stwierdza dziaÅacz Partii Progresywnejâ [We Cannot Join the Liberals, States a Progressive Party Activist], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 109 (1961): 2.
tyha, file 137/7 (mem), letter from Hillel Zeidel to Joshua Levi (acting president of the Baldar Chadashot Association), lawyer David Fajgenberg (president of Tuszij), Shabtai Himelfarb (director of Baldar Chadashot), 7 May 1961.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Idov Kohen to Pirsumim, 1 May 1961; tyha, file 119/2 (mem), uncatalogued party materials, undated; âI Zjazd Partii Liberalnejâ [First Congress of the Liberal Party], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 96 (1961): 2.
tyha, file 119/2 (mem), uncatalogued party materials, undated; âI Zjazd Partii Liberalnejâ [First Congress of the Liberal Party], Nowiny-Kurier, no. 96 (1961): 2.
tyha, file 119/2 (mem), declaration and minutes from a meeting of the Association of Polish Jews (14 June 1961) sent to the secretary of the Progressive Party on 20 June 1961.
tyha, file 137/7 (mem), letter from Hillel Zeidel to Joshua Levi (acting president of the Baldar Chadashot Association), lawyer David Fajgenberg (president of Tuszij), Shabtai Himelfarb (director of Baldar Chadashot), 7 May 1961; tyha, file 137/7 (mem), letter from Hillel Zeidel and Yitzchak Arzi to Moshe Kol and Moshe Sharett with a request for arbitration, 9 May 1961.
tyha, file 137/7 (mem), letter from Hillel Zeidel to Joshua Levi (acting president of the Baldar Chadashot Association), lawyer David Fajgenberg (president of Tuszij), Shabtai Himelfarb (director of Baldar Chadashot), 7 May 1961.
Remba, I. âMapai and the Hottentot Morality of the Progressive-Liberal Partyâ [in Hebrew]. Cherut, 28 May 1961, 2.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Moshe Lindner to the Baldar Chadashot Association, 1 May 1961; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Hillel Zeidel to Joshua Levi (acting president of the Baldar Chadashot Association), lawyer David Fajgenberg (president of Tuszij), Shabtai Himelfarb (director of Baldar Chadashot), 7 May 1961.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Moshe Lindner to the Baldar Chadashot Association, 1 May 1961.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), letter from Idov Kohen to Pirsumim, 14 May 1961.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), Judicial material, court file 2448/61, trial, 17 May 1961.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), Judicial material, court file 2448/61; tyha, file 137/7 (mem), letter from Abraham Tori, lawyer for the Progressive Party, to Pirsumim, Baldar Chadashot and Shalom Yedidiah, 10 May 1961.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), arbitration by Moshe Kol and Moshe Sharett at the request of the secretary of the Progressive Party, Yitzchak Arzi, and Hillel Zeidel, 19 May 1961; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), arbitration by Moshe Kol and Moshe Sharett, June 1961.
tyha, file 137/6 (mem), arbitration by Moshe Kol and Moshe Sharett; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), arbitration by Moshe Kol and Moshe Sharett at the request of the secretary of the Progressive Party, Yitzchak Arzi, and Hillel Zeidel, 19 May 1961; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), confidential letter from Hillel Zeidel to Yitzhak Ari, Leon Doltzin, and Moshe Kol, 1 September 1961.
tyha, file 58/3 (mem), declaration of the Liberal Party, 14 November 1961; tyha, file 137/6 (mem), arbitration by Moshe Kol and Moshe Sharett. The Progressive Party seemed to be a good coalition partner for Mapai. Each year, however, the two parties became increasingly distant from each other. In the Liberal Party, a generational change took place, as the influence of German Jews â such as Pinchas Rosen, who was gradually retiring from politics â was weakened, and the most numerous groups came to power, especially Romanian Jews (Idov Kohen, Yehudah ShaÊ¿ari, Yitzchak Arzi) and Polish Jews (Moshe Kol, Hillel Zeidel). The Liberal Party was shifting increasingly toward the right. The next step was the creation of a political bloc with Cherut called âGachal,â derived from G (Gush â block), Ch (Cherut) and L (Liberals). National values and âhard Zionismâ were no longer the domain of Cherut; they were also embraced by members of the former Progressive Party, such as Gideon Hausner, the prosecutor in Eichmannâs trial, and Hillel Zeidel, who eventually found a place for himself in Likud. The Progressive Party became increasingly right wing. Cherut was keen to take over the liberals because the party â led by Menachem Begin and Yochanan Bader â thus gained legitimacy for the Zionist Israeli establishment, a proper attitude towards civil, constitutional, and economic matters.
tyha, file 58/3 (mem), declaration of the Liberal Party, 14 November 1961.