“He walked through the fields,” but what did she do? The “Hebrew woman” in her own eyes and in the eyes of her contemporaries

Abstract

The metamorphosis undergone by Jewish women in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was the result of modernization, secularization, and education. Similarly, the offspring of the new Jewish woman, the “new Hebrew woman” was the embodiment of various schools of thought, in particular the liberal and the socialist, which were prevalent at that time. The new Hebrew woman offered a feminist interpretation of the malaise of the Jewish people in general, and of Jewish women in particular, challenging the roles designated to her by her male peers and offering her own alternative interpretation. She chose Eretz Yisrael and Zionism, to “auto-emancipate” herself rather than waiting passively for her emancipation by others. In this sense, the new Hebrew woman collaborated with and reflected the hegemonic Zionist ideals and priorities. This article aims to analyze the discourse of the new Hebrew woman, as manifested in Palestine-Eretz Yisrael in the first half of the twentieth century in order to shed light on the link between gender and nationalism in the Zionist context. In particular, it considers how men and women envisioned the new Hebrew woman; how class, political affiliation, and gender shaped their interpretation; and how the new Hebrew woman differed from her counterpart, the new Jewish woman.

Keywords:

• Yishuv
• gender equality
• new Hebrew woman
• Labor Zionist movement
• nationalism

Acknowledgments

This article was first published in Hebrew in Yisrael, no. 16 (2009): 195–225.

Notes

  1 Londer, Ha-yehudi ha-noded, 150.

  2 In this article I shall present a new interpretation of the term “Hebrew woman” which varies from the typical connotation of that term in European-Jewish enlightenment (Haskalah) discourse. For the traditional connotation see for example Feiner, Mahapekhat ha-ne'orut, 403–10; Adar-Bonis “Yaldut be-mishpahot yehudiyot.”

  3 Jabotinsky, “Derekh agav (Al ha-hevdelim bein ha-nashim ha-feministiyot veha-sufragistiyot)” (By the way [On the differences between feminist women and the Suffragettes]), in idem, Le-mahutah shel ha-demokratiyah, 79–84; Stanislawski, Zionism and the Fin de Siècle, 27–35. For the significance of the gender revolution in the Zionist movement, see Shilo, “Li-dmutah shel ha-ishah.”

  4 Azaryahu, Hitahdut nashim ivriyot, 57.

  5 >Azaryahu, Hitahdut nashim ivriyot, 8.

  6 Hedwig Gellner, “Hovoteinu klapei aliyat ha-ishah” (Our obligations towards the immigration of women), Ha-Ishah 1, no. 2 (1926): 3.

  7 See for example Dvorah Belansky-Levanoni, “Pe'ulah tarbutit betokh Histadrut Nashim ‘Mizrachi’” (Cultural activity in the Federation of Mizrachi Women), Amen, Jewish new year's eve, September 1943, 7.

  8 For a general discussion of gender and nationality see Yuval Davis, Gender and Nation, 3, 13, 45, 47; and Bloom “Gender and Nation in International Comparison.”

  9 I use the term hugim ezrahiyim to denote members of the urban and rural middle class, both secular and Orthodox, such as craftsmen, merchants, landlords, farmers, and professionals. See Drori, Bein yamin le-smol, 207–8; Giladi, Ha-yishuv.

 10 The voice of the right-wing Revisionist Party that seceded from the Zionist Organization in the mid-1930s is, however, not represented in this study. For the revisionist secession, see Tzhahor, “Ha-ma'avak.”

 11 Frieda Yaffe, “Ha-ishah ba-kongres ha-tziyoni” (Women at the Zionist congress), Ha-Ishah 2, no. 2 (1927): 3–6; Avner, “Nashim ba-kongres ha-tziyoni ha-rishon,” 212–13.

 12 Chatterjee, Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World. For other such influences see Rekem Peled, “Ha-tziyonut.”

 13 Yuval Davis, Gender and Nation, 60; Ofrat, Ganim tluyim, 11–24; Mosse, Nationalsim and Sexuality.

 14 The relationship between Jews and femininity was a common theme in late-nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century discourse. See for example Weininger, Min ve-ofi; idem, “Te'udah”; Shapira, “Ha-mitos shel ha-yehudi ha-hadash” (The myth of the new Jew), in idem, Yehudim hadashim, 155–74; Volkov, “Antishemiyut ve-anti-feminizm”; Gluzman, “Ha-kmihah le-heteroseksualiyut”; Boyarin, “Neshef ha-masekhot ha-koloni'ali.”

 15 Shamir, Hu halakh ba-sadot, 190–91. On this novel see Shiffman, “Toda'ah nashit”; Gertz, Sifrut ve-idiologiyah, 54–70; and idem, Shvuyah ba-halomah , 22–66.

 16 Anita Shapira, “Dor ba-aretz” (The generation of the Land), in idem, Yehudim hadashim , 122–54; idem, Herev ha-yonah, 351–76; Raichel, “‘Shorashim’ o ‘ofakim’.”

 17 Hunt and Lessard, eds., Women and the Colonial Gaze, 3–15; Neumann, Teshukat ha-halutzim, 43–57.

 18 Hazleton, Israeli Women; Ofrat, Ganim tluyim, 62–64.

 19 Shamir, Hu halakh ba-sadot, 189.

 20 See for example Mishori, Shuru, habitu u-re'u, 73–93.

 21 For the “New Jew” archetype, see Shapira, “Ha-mitos.” For the female archetypes, see Matzov-Cohen, “Bein siah hevrati le-siah sifruti”; Almog, Pridah mi-Srulik, 2:963; Shilo, “The Double or Multiple Image”; idem, “Ha-ishah ha-ivriyah ha-hadashah”; Berlowitz, “Be-hipus ahar dyokan”; Elboim-Dror, Ha-mahar, 1:183–93.

 22 For ethnic representations of women in Zionism, see Margalit Stern, “Who's the Fairest of Them All?”; Elboim-Dror, Ha-mahar, 1:190; Ofrat, Ganim tluyim, 89–90; Berlowitz, “Dmut ha-teimani.” For the liberal middle class, see Shiloah, Merkaz holekh ve-ne'elam, 188–201, 219–28. For Russian radical doctrines, see Abraham, “Maria L. Bochkareva”; Zmora, Nashim ivriyot tziyoniyot, 111–12; Hanna Thon, “Ha-ishah ve-ahdut ha-am” (Women and the unity of the people), Ha-Ishah, no. 6 (1927): 6.

 23 A.R., “Yaldei ha-oni” (The children of poverty), Ozenu 1, no. 5, 1 December 1943, 10.

 24 Hyman, Ha-ishah, 47–79. For the Zionist and Jewish enlightenment movements’ attitude to women, see also Gez, “‘Zehavah’.”

 25 Parush, Nashim korot, 143–56; Cohen, Ha-ahat ahuvah, 11–31.

 26 Hanna Thon, “Ha-ishah ba-tzibur ha-eretz-yisre'eli” (Women in the Land of Israel public), Ha-Ishah, 1, no. 1 (1926): 5–6.

 27 P. of Kinneret, “1927,” in Katznelson, ed., Kovetz Divrei Po'alot, 221.

 28 P. of Kinneret, “1927,” in Katznelson, ed., Kovetz Divrei Po'alot, 221

 29 Berlowitz, “Lihiyot Ishah”; Bracha Slae, “Me-gemilut hasadim le-mosad refu'i.”

 30 Herzog, “Redefining Political Spaces.”

 31 On religious-Zionist women who joined the socialist camp, see Rosenberg-Friedman, Mahapkhaniyot, 35–42, 80–83. For the character of the bourgeoisie in Mandate Palestine, see Ben Porat, Heikhan hem ha-burganim ha-hem?

 32 Thon, “Ha-ishah ba-tzibur,” 7–6.

 33 Cohen, Ha-ahat ahuvah, 35–36; Shilo, Etgar ha-migdar, 258–77.

 34 Thon, “Ha-ishah ba-tzibur,” 6–7.

 35 See, for example, de Beauvoir, The Second Sex.

 36 Scott, “Deconstructing Equality-Versus-Difference.”

 37 For the scope of this agreement, see Sarah Glucklich, “Knesset Yisrael veha-ishah” (The Israeli Knesset and women), Ha-ishah 2, no. 7 (1928): 9–11. For religious Zionist women in opposition, see Rosenberg-Friedman, Mahapkhaniyot, 45.

 38 Fogiel-Bijaoui, “Ha-omnan ba-derekh le-shivyon?”; Boaz, “Parshat ha-ma'avak.”

 39 Cited in Berlowitz, Sipurei nashim, 133. For the earlier controversy on women's suffrage in the Yishuv, see idem, “London, Yerushalayim ve-Petah Tikvah.”

 40 For Theodor Herzl's expression of this idea in his Altneuland, see Elboim-Dror, “Ha-ishah ha-tziyonit,” 99–100.

 41 Shilo, Etgar ha-migdar, 241–57; idem, “Ha-ma'avak”; Friedman, Hevrah ve-dat, 170–84.

 42 P. Dickstein, “Ha-ishah ba-mishpat ha-ivri” (Women in Jewish law), Ha-Ishah 2, no. 4 (1928): 14–15. Most women affiliated with the Orthodox-Zionist Ha-Mizrachi Party did not participate in this struggle. Rosenberg-Friedman, Mahapkhaniyot, 43–49.

 43 Sara Azaryahu, “Hitahdut nashim le-shivui zkhuyot be-Eretz Yisrael” (The Union of Women for Equal rights in Eretz Yisrael), Ha-Ishah 2, no. 6 (1928): 12–16.

 44 Folbre, “‘Holding Hands at Midnight.’”

 45 Freedman, “Separatism as Strategy.”

 46 Thon, “Ha-ishah ve-ahdut,” 6.

 47 Kennedy and Tilly, “Socialism, Feminism.”

 48 See for example Thon, “Ha-ishah ve-ahdut,” 8.

 49 Rachel Katznelson, “Al ha-bamah ha-politit” (On the political stage), Dvar ha-Po'elet 4, nos. 6–7 (1937): 116.

 50 As in the case of vocational training institutions which were established at that time. See Maimon, Hamishim shnot ha-po'alot, 99, 102–8; idem, Ayanot , 22–31.

 51 Zmora, Nashim ivriyot tziyoniyot, 113.

 52 Such as the effort of teaching personal hygiene to immigrants in order to develop the desirable traits of the “new Zionist” type. See Stoller Liss and Shvarts, “Nilhamot ba-ba'arut.”

 53 Margalit Stern, “Haverot le-mofet.”

 54 Thon, “Ha-ishah ba-tzibur,” 7–8.

 55 Hanna Thon, “Tshuvah le-Ya'akov Rabinowitz” (Reply to Ya'akov Rabinowitz), Ha-Ishah 2, no. 1 (1927): 10–12; D. Milikowski, “Min ha-be'ayot ha-meyuhadot la-ahot ha-ivrit ba-aretz” (Some of the special problems of the Hebrew nurse in the country), Ha-ahot (Elul 1938), 6–7; see also Siton, “Bein feminizm le-tziyonut.”

 56 Thon, “Ha-ishah ba-tzibur,” 7–8; idem, “Ha-ishah ve-ahdut,” 9.

 57 Shchori-Rubin and Shvarts, “Hadassa” li-vri'ut ha-am, 173–85.

 58 Adina Kahanski, “Yahasenu el avodat ha-bayit” (Our attitude to housework), Ha-Ishah 1, no. 8 (1927): 26–28.

 59 Margalit Stern, Ge'ulah bi-kvalim, 201–4, 214–15.

 60 Ze'ev Jabotinsky, “Eglat ha-klei zemer” (The klezmer's cart), in idem, Le-mahutah, 129–35.

 61 Adina Kahanski, “Le-huledet tnu'at ha-po'alot be-artzenu” (On the birth of the women workers’ movement in our land), Ha-Ishah 3, no. 2 (1929): 39–41. See also Meir, Hayai, 66.

 62 The Kinneret farm was active in 1911–17. See Shilo, “Havat ha-alamot”; Carmel-Hakim, Shalhevet yerukah, 51–65.

 63 Shilo, “Havat ha-alamot.”

 64 Yuval-Davis, Gender and Nation, 45; Katz, Women and Gender, 7; Baron, Egypt as a Woman, 1.

 65 Thompson, Colonial Citizens, 143.

 66 Lerner, The Creation of Feminist Consciousness, 116–37.

 67 Offen, European Feminisms, 188–200.

 68 “Tehezaknah” (Be strong), Amen, Jewish New Year's eve, 1943, 1. See also Elboim-Dror, Ha-ishah ha-tziyonit; Lahav, “Kshe-ha-palyativ rak mekalkel.”

 69 “Hatzi shanah shel ha-yarhon Ha-Ishah” (Half a year of the monthly Ha-Ishah), Ha-Ishah 1, no. 6 (1927): 5.

 70 Thon, “Ha-ishah ba-tzibur,” 7.

 71 Kahanski, “Yahasenu el avodat ha-bayit.”

 72 Kahanski, “Yahasenu el avodat ha-bayit.” [An anonymous Pardes-Hanna resident], “Ha-ishah ha-le'umit datit ba-kfar” (The national-religious woman in the village), Amen, Pesach 1943, 3–4.

 73 Matthews, “Just a Housewife,” 145–71.

 74 Kahanski, “Yahasenu el avodat ha-bayit.”

 75 Kahanski, “Yahasenu el avodat ha-bayit.” See also Margalit Stern, “Hinukh nashim.”

 76 From a speech by Dvorah Nosovitsky at a meeting of the women workers' council, 16 January 1937, Labor Archives, Beit Berl (hereafter LA), IV-72-1-1980-250.

 77 Margalit-Stern, Geulah bi-kvalim, 324–44.

 78 Hecker-Palgi, Me-i-mahut le-imahut, 303–35.

 79 Katznelson-Shazar, Adam kmo she-hu, 276. For her views of motherhood, see also Schechter, “Imahut.”

 80 Katznelson-Shazar, Adam kmo she-hu, 311.

 81 Lecture Protocol, LA, IV-2367-1-72-250a.

 82 Tzila Rotblit, “Hakhsharatan ha-miktzo'it shel ha-olot” (Vocational training of women immigrants), Ha-Ishah 1, no. 2 (1926): 11.

 83 See for example Biale, Eros and the Jews; Gilman, “Max Nordau, Sigmund Freud.”

 84 Rachel Margolit, “Ha-ishah veha-atletikah ha-kalah” (Women and athletics), Ozenu 1, no. 1 (October 1939): 16–17.

 85 Shilo, Etgar ha-migdar, 242–45.

 86 Cited in Shilo, Etgar ha-migdar, 242–45

 87 Ortner, “Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?” 67–87; Chapman Catt and Rogers Shuler, Woman Suffrage and Politics, 6–7.

 88 Shamir, Hu halakh ba-sadot, 190–91.

 89 Lilia [Bassewitz], “Shanah im ‘Dvar ha-Po'elet’” (A year with Dvar ha-Po'elet), Dvar ha-Po'elet 2, no. 1 (March 1935): 27–28.

 90 Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, 124–54; Key, Love and Ethics, 7–30; Offen, European Feminisms, 193–96.

 91 Emmanuel Harussi, “Uvekhen? Sipur me-hayei ha-kvutzah” (And so? A story from the life of the kvutzah), Ha-Shavu'ah: Shavu'on la-mishpahah vela-am, no. 15 (April 1932): 267.

 92 Shamir, Hu halakh ba-sadot, 190–91.

 93 Harussi, “Uvekhen.” In that period, the Hebrew word bahurah denoted an unwed woman. Today it may denote all young women.

 94 Gilbert and Gubar, “The Queen's Looking Glass”; Weibel, Mirror Mirror, 177–99; Wolf, The Beauty Myth, 9–19.

 95 Thon, “Ha-ishah ba-tzibur,” 6–7.

 96 Hanna Thon, “Skirot” (Surveys), Ha-Ishah 2, no. 6 (1928): 10–11.

 97 Hanna Thon, “Skirot” (Surveys), Ha-Ishah, 2, no. 6 (1928); Zmora, Nashim ivriyot tziyoniyot, 112–13.

 98 Thon, “Skirot.”

 99 See for example Cavalion, “Aliyato u-shki'ato”; the articles by David De Vries and Talia Pfefferman, and by Tamar S. Hess in Pekelman, Hayei po'elet ba-aretz; and Almog, Ha-tzabar, 341–50.

100 Dr. Z.N., Dvar ha-Po'elet 1, no. 12, 24 February 1934, 266–68; Harussi, “Uvekhen.” See also Opaz, “‘She'elat ha-ishah.’”

101 Cited in Margalit-Stern, Ge'ulah bi-kvalim, 382.

102 Gerda Arlozorov-Goldberg, “Li-ve'idat ha-po'alot” (On the women workers' conference), Ha-Ishah 1, no. 2 (1926): 18–19.

103 Shavit, “Ha-roved ha-tarbuti ha-haser.”

104 See Yehudit Harari (Eisenberg), “Bein ha-kramim” (Among the vineyards) (1903), in Berlowitz, ed., Sipurei nashim, 151–54; Rabbi Moshe Ostrowski, “Hashpa''t ha-ishah al ha-hinukh” (Women's influence on education), Amen, Jewish new year's eve, 1943, 2.

105 Cited in Alper, Korot mishpahah ahat, 50.

106 Margalit Stern, “Hinukh nashim”; Zmora, Nashim ivriyot tziyoniyot, 114–17; Rotblit, “Hakhsharatan ha-miktzo'it shel ha-olot,” 11.

107 Parush, Nashim korot, 207–35.

108 In 1926, around 41% of urban women workers were proficient in Hebrew, as compared to 71% of the men. In 1937, the figures were around 80% and 86% respectively. Stern, “Hinukh nashim.” See also Lutetia Levinson, “Ya'akov Rabinowitz veha-‘sarot veha-sganot’ shelo” (Ya'akov Rabinowitz and his “women ministers and deputies”), Ha-Ishah 2, no. 1 (1927): 18–20; M. Ben Eliezer, “Ha-nashim ve-ha-dibur ha-ivri” (Women and spoken Hebrew), ibid., 2, no. 6 (1927): 17–20.

109 Ya'akov Rabinowitz, “Al ha-sarot veha-sganot” (On women ministers and deputies), Ha-Ishah 2, no. 1 (1927): 8–10.

110 Thon, “Ha-ishah ba-tzibur,” 6–7; idem, “Ha-ishah ve-ahdut,” 6.

111 Gellner, “Hovoteinu klapei aliyat ha-ishah” (n. 7 above), 3–4.

112 Belansky-Levanoni, “Pe'ulah tarbutit betokh Histadrut Nashim ‘Mizrachi,’” 7.

113 Belansky-Levanoni, “Pe'ulah tarbutit betokh Histadrut Nashim ‘Mizrachi,’” 7

114 R. Levin, “Teimanim le-‘Kofer ha-Yishuv’” (Yemenites to Kofer ha-Yishuv), Dvar ha-Po'elet 5, nos. 11–12 (February 1939): 217.

115 Rivka, “Ge'ulah” (Redemption), Dvar ha-Po'elet 6, no. 1 (March 1939): 40; Rachel Katznelson, “Al motah” (On her death), ibid., 40–41.

116 S.T., “Be-harheri bakh, Tirtzah ha-ktanah” (On thinking about you, little Tirtzah), Dvar ha-Po'elet 3, nos. 10–11 (January 1937): 234.

117 “Shloshim le-motah shel Tzvia Gordon” (Thirty days after the death of Tzvia Gordon), Dvar ha-Po'elet 4, nos. 11–12 (1938): 235. See also Sasson-Levi, Zehuyot be-madim, 9–22.

118 Sarah G., “Be-leil shmirah rishon” (On the first night of guard duty), in Bassewitz and Bat-Rachel, eds., Haverot ba-kibutz, 369.

119 Such as joining the Ha-Shomer community defense organization or enlisting for service in the Hebrew Battalion (Ha-Gdud ha-Ivri). See Shilo, Etgar ha-migdar, 181–92; Keren and Keren, “The Jewish Legions.”

120 See Oren, “Ha-hitnadvut le-khibush ha-aretz.”

121 Rachel Katznelson (R.K.), “Al ha-hitnadvut” (On volunteering), in idem, ed., Divrei po'alot, 75–76.

122 Goldblum, “Nashim bi-zman milhamah ve-shalom.” For moral dilemmas, see also Cohen, Sipurah shel lohemet, 60–71.

123 Katznelson, Al ha-hitnadvut, 77. See also Zertal, Ha-umah veha-mavet, 25–26; Bitan, “‘On Sagi poreah.’”

124 Shapira, Herev ha-yonah, 363–76; Avidar, “Hitpathuyot be-irgun ha-Haganah,” 112–21.

125 For the relation between citizenship and military service, see for example Sasson-Levi, Zehuyot, 15–22.

126 Esther Kushnir, “Ha-haverah ba-Haganah” (The woman member of the Haganah), Dvar ha-Po'elet 3, nos. 10–11 (January 1937): 237; “Ha-diyun be-moshav mo'etzet ha-po'alot ha-18 be-1939” (The discussion at the session of the 18th women workers' council in 1939), ibid., 6, no. 3 (June 1939): 63; [Anonymous], “Le-shituf ha-haverah ba-shmirah” (On women members' participation in guarding), ibid., 3, no. 8: (October 1936): 144.

127 For example, during the 6th convention of women workers in 1942. Maimon, Hamishim shnot ha-po'a lot, 196–97.

128 Rosenberg-Friedman, Mahapkhaniyot, 282–89.

129 In June 1942, only 1,000 women out of the total 10,000 recruits were registered. Gelber, Toldot ha-hitnadvut, 551; Sivan, Dor tashakh, 157. Regarding women and their place in the collective memory of that time, see Ratok, “Nashim be-milhemet ha-atzma'ut”; Maimon, Hamishim shnot ha-po'alot, 195.

130 Gover, “Hayalot mefuyahot,” 108.

131 See for example Mayer, “Ishah be-milhamah.”

132 Shilo, Ha-ishah ha-ivriyah, mentions the elusive nature of the Hebrew woman; Elboim-Dror, Ha-ishah ha-tziyonit, notes that Hebrew women were “beautiful” but does not expound on that point.

133 See for example Melman, “Re'alot shkufot.”