The aim of this book was to determine the significance of the Polish-language press in the process of cultural integration of Polish Jews in Israel from 1948 to 1970. Moreover, the focus on party-affiliated foreign-language press publications in the context of immigrants’ integration shed light on Israel’s political system. In the first decade of Israel’s existence, its political system replicated the model of a party-oriented state, in which political groups have a huge impact on citizens’ lives. The system in which the foreign-language press functioned was one of many examples of this.
My research shows that the establishment of the foreign-language press in Israel served to maintain contact between new immigrants during their period of adaptation and the Hebrew section of society. The mission of foreign-language newspapers was to redirect the attention of new olim away from issues concerning the diaspora and towards the internal affairs of Israel. The publishing language was Polish, but the content concerned almost exclusively Israeli issues. The function of the Israeli foreign-language press was to stimulate readers to seek community with the Hebrew-speaking majority. The creation of Israel and the evolution of its society towards statehood took place alongside the rejection of diasporic traditions and the habits derived from them. In the Polish-language press there were attempts to adapt new immigrants to the rest of society, alter their habits and customs from those of the galut, and encourage them to adopt new values, rid themselves of doubts related to the adoption of new customs and culture, and become accustomed to the climate. Hence, the new olim’s still-vivid memories and even the relations maintained with their country of origin were rarely discussed in these newspapers. The early settlers did not want to focus on the cultures of their countries of origin, which would leave the nation split into different groups or factions, divided culturally and politically, clustered into a multitude of agglomerations or communities modeled on “homeland associations.”1
The foreign-language press was not an institution with which the professional journalistic community wished to identify – neither those writing in Polish who switched to the Hebrew-language press after some time, nor those who continued to write in Polish. The Hebrew language was meant to be a strong bond between diasporas and a tool for integration with the state. The Polish-language media, by contrast, did not become an impetus for the
One topic of my research was the publishing tradition of Polish Zionist organizations in Israel, as exemplified by the newspapers published by the Progressive Party and the General Zionists. The Israeli versions of Opinia and Nowiny were connected with the activity and fate of activists recruited from the General Zionist movement in Poland – the Ichud Union of Zionist Democrats. This book presents completely new material on the history of the Union of Polish Jews in the Progressive Party, showing its activity against the backdrop of the structures of Jewish associations from other countries within the party.
Examining Kurier, published by the ruling party, Mapai, allowed me to show the pace of demographic and ethnic changes taking place in Israeli society, as well as Mapai’s efficiency in calibrating political tools to the identity, professional structure, and expectations of each ethnic group separately. The Hebrew-speaking society was systematically reinforced by successive waves of aliyot from various countries adapting and learning Hebrew, and the foreign-language press was a natural forum for assisting new olim to achieve this end. Press policy, especially that of the ruling party, had to respond to rapidly changing needs. A good example of this was the extensive foreign-language press sector owned by Mapai. According to the minutes from their meetings, political parties, including Mapai, preferred to publish their own foreign-language newspapers and control their content rather than endorse émigré publications – which would, in a sense, be a return to the diaspora.
The nature of the foreign-language press was also shaped by the new olim and their attempts to remain politically active in their new homeland. I highlighted the importance that clientelism and protectionism played in the settlement and acclimation of new olim from Poland who attached themselves to Mapai.
The competition between Nowiny and Kurier demonstrates the mobility of the foreign-language press market, which was caused by diversity among immigrants from the same country of origin and their different needs for reading material. The waves of immigrants who arrived in Israel differed in terms of human capital, professional composition, and specific sense of cultural and social identity. Mergers between the publishers of Polish-language newspapers and political parties went hand in hand with political coalitions and financial gains. Due to a limited number of readers, the Progressive Party and Mapai decided to merge two of their publications into one newspaper, titled Nowiny-Kurier. This was further evidence of the instrumental use of the foreign-language press by Israeli parties and its function amid changing political circumstances. Another example was the so-called “Lavon affair,” which divided the coalition partners and caused changes in the agreement for the publication of the paper. The editors of this newspaper assembled in its pages a unique combination of Zionist traditions and postcommunist practices. Between 1968 and 1970, the community of journalists connected to this newspaper consisted of three different groups, and tracing the content published in the newspaper shows differences in their ideology, political culture, viewpoints, and ability to use propaganda tools such as the press in helping olim in the process of adaptation.
The examination of Od Nowa was a study of the fate of former communists who reviewed their viewpoints after arriving in Israel and, although they still remained on the left side of the political spectrum, abandoned communism. The community around Od Nowa was based on intellectualism, experience in political and public life, crystallized views, and political maturity. The Od Nowa team, especially the editor and writers, held a strong position in the political movements and left-wing ideology of the twentieth century. The presentation of postcommunist discourse in Od Nowa was shaped by this group’s
Another issue I examined was the split that occurred in Maki, the Communist Party of Israel, chiefly along ethnic lines, into “Jewish” Maki and “Arab” Rakach. I also discussed the history of the Union of Longstanding Activists of the Revolutionary Workers’ Movement, created by a small group of Polish communists who arrived in Israel after 1969, along with their Biuletyn Związku Długoletnich Działaczy Rewolucyjnego Ruchu Robotniczego [The Bulletin of the Union of Longstanding Activists of the Revolutionary Workers’ Movement]. I considered how these communists conveyed the mood of this faction in print. Through examining the problems immigrants of the March Aliyah experienced assimilating, I was able to draw distinctions between the olim from Poland who arrived in the 1950s and those who arrived at the end of the next decade. My examination revealed that the arrival of immigrants who were strongly assimilated with Polish culture did not cause any major changes in the Polish-language press market.
Given the left-wing character of the Gomułka Aliyah and the March Aliyah, an important aspect of my research was to show the attitude of the Israeli communists towards these two large groups of olim. Presenting the role of the communist press against the backdrop of important events in the history of Israeli communists, especially their place in the social and political life of Israel, was a way to show their potential for integration and the possibility of Maki bringing Polish Jews together. Ethnic issues were not without significance in the rivalry for the “Polish electorate.” As I was able to establish during my research, when the Arab electorate cut itself off from Maki, it decided to try to expand its electorate by attracting communists among the new olim who had arrived from countries of the former Soviet bloc. Certainly, in the first years after the creation of Israel, the Israeli communists relied primarily on the Arab sector for support, but not wanting it to be the only group to increase in size, they showed great determination to gain the support of Jews coming from Eastern Europe. The experience and memories of the Holocaust and anti-fascist movements were very important to these olim from Poland, and the Israeli communists showed great sensitivity to these issues. Many of these olim joined Maki shortly after arriving in Israel, but they received very little support from the party, due to its scarce resources. Another serious problem
Po Prostu was financially connected with the Israeli Bund. But it did not give the party a major political advantage in the elections; this newspaper was meant to reach those who new olim who yearned to return to Poland rather than stay in Israel, those who had not come by choice. The Israeli Po Prostu, drawing on the title of an influential periodical in Poland, had symbolic meaning for this segment of the aliyah. However, only six issues of the newspaper were published in total. My research shows that the strong and well-developed segment of the Polish-language press market was dominated by the left-wing political parties. The Polish-language press appeared on the Israeli market with the arrival of those Polish Jews who had striven to acculturate and assimilate in Poland, and who were as a result most often connected to left-wing parties. I explored how they addressed issues of identity and transformation, how they attempted to define national affiliation in their new place of residence, and what factors mobilized them in this kind of transformation.
The status of foreign-language newspapers that had been created by political parties depended both on the political positions of the journalistic circles within the party and on the skill of their journalists, which was measured by their ability to subsequently or concurrently get their work publish in the Hebrew press. In the case of particularly talented journalists in the foreign-language press, their articles were translated into Hebrew. An example was the Od Nowa community, whose journalists, upon arrival, also joined the Al HaMishmar editorial team. Some of them subsequently took part in the creation of another Hebrew-language newspaper, Chotam, which can be seen as further proof of their successful adaptation on professional, social, and political levels. However, these were sporadic cases and most often involved a small group of journalists from foreign-language newspapers and magazines, certainly those who were more talented and professionally and politically independent. Another example of the successful transition of journalists from
All party-affiliated newspapers and magazines published in Polish between 1948 and 1970 were subject to two strong filters – on the one hand, the party authorities responsible for the press, and on the other hand, official government policy. In particular, the press was shaped by the official government stance toward the Polish People’s Republic; in order to maintain good relations, materials concerning Poland published in the press were very often dictated by the Polish legation in Tel Aviv. This was particularly true of the communist newspaper Walka, which was fully available to the Polish authorities, Kurier, which was published by the ruling Mapai party, and Nowiny-Kurier (until 1967). The foreign-language press owed its prosperity on the Israeli market to various factors, but to especially party ownership, which ensured financial stability, efficient distribution through a network of party channels, and a stable group of readers, primarily party members. The success of party-affiliated newspapers in realizing the political goals of their owners depended to a large extent on satisfying the needs of mass readers – the party benefited financially and politically from this connection. Therefore, the efficient apparatus of the ruling party, combined with the commercial character of the newspaper, ensured that Nowiny-Kurier had the longest existence of any Polish-language party-affiliated newspaper on the market.
Despite the weakness of the Polish-language press in Israel, it could not be replaced by the Polish émigré press. The reading choices made by Polish Jews in Israel depended not only on who they felt they were, but also on the cultural and national direction in which they were heading. No matter which country they immigrated to, they did not want to live on the periphery of society. In Israel, immigrants did not want to identify themselves with a foreign-language newspaper with low quality standards, but they also did not intend to identify themselves with a community that did not have any political influence on their future, for example the Polish émigré community. Both the Gomułka Aliyah and the March Aliyah were dynamic enough to adapt quickly to the conditions of the country in which they had chosen to live and to join the general readership of the national press – Israel’s Hebrew-language press.
The year 1967 saw the breaking of diplomatic relations with Poland and the end of the political usefulness of the Polish press in the sphere of Israeli foreign policy. In turn, the Six-Day War pushed the foreign-language press to the far periphery of the Israeli media market – it was socially dysfunctional and increasingly marginalized. A space was created for press publications addressed to the young generation of Israelis who had been raised speaking Hebrew and wished to read newspapers free of political propaganda. The
Additionally, the political scene in Israel was being rebuilt. Coalitions were formed from the fragmented political parties, Mapam merged with Ahdut HaAvoda and then with Mapai to form the Labour Party, the communist party split, and the right-wing consolidated: the General Zionists merged with the Progressive Party and then Cherut to form Gahal, the predecessor to Likud. The left-wing soon fell out of power; thanks to the support of ethnic groups that were gaining an increasing amount of power in the country, the right-wing took over. All of this undoubtedly had an impact on the foreign-language press. The political nature and party affiliation of the publications meant that when the costs of publication were disproportionate to the political benefits, the parties lost their motivation to finance them. The functioning of Polish-language newspapers and magazines was therefore the product of political interests and the existence of a group of journalists from Poland for whom the Polish language was an integral part of their professional usefulness or who were less professionally active and therefore did not learn Hebrew quickly.
At the beginning of the 1970s, from a demographic point of view, the Polish-language press seemed unnecessary and politically meaningless, and with such large-scale changes happening, including the reorganization of the political parties that had historically supported these newspapers, it was unsustainable. Additionally, Israeli society at large, in which Hebrew played an increasingly important role, no longer cared about foreign-language publications. Most competent journalists wrote for the Hebrew-language press, and the attention of political leaders was attracted by a new electorate – a generation of readers born in Israel. Over the years, with every assimilation success of the new olim, the Hebrew-language press gained more readers, and the importance of the Polish-language press decreased – it lost its social and political significance. Taking into account the aim of establishing these newspapers and magazines – to help new olim from Poland in their process of adaptation – it can be concluded that they fulfilled their task, as evidenced by the fact that by the end of the 1960s there was no need to continue publishing them. Parents did not transfer the cultural heritage of their country of origin to their children. The second generation of Polish Jews born in Israel benefited from the cultural achievements of the diaspora to a very limited extent.
Associations comprised of people from the same country of origin.