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Abstract
The novel Circles (1945) by David Maletz, a founding member of Kibbutz Ein Harod, created a furor both in kibbutz society and among its readers in the Yishuv. The angry responses raise numerous questions about the status of kibbutz society at the time and the position of the writer in it. This article examines the reasons for the special interest in Maletz's book and considers its literary qualities. On the basis of the numerous responses to the book, it analyzes how kibbutz society was viewed in that period, both by its own members and by the Yishuv in general, and addresses the special dynamics of the work's reception in a totally ideological society. The case of Circles sheds light on the ways in which kibbutz literature participated in the ideological construction of the new society, while at the same time criticizing its most basic assumptions from within.
Notes
1 This article is a revised and abridged version of chapters from my book, Ha-mahteret ha-nafshit, 144–61, 212–42.
2 For an extensive review of the novels published in the 1920s and 1930s, see CitationShaked, Ha-siporet ha-ivrit, 1880–1980, 2:280 ff. For his view on Circles and its place in the “settlement novel” genre, see 287–93. In the discussion that follows I critically address the novel's definition as a “settlement novel.”
3 On the paucity of literary writing in the kibbutz, see Keshet, Ha-mahteret ha-nafshit, 39–54.
4 CitationMaletz, Ma'agalot, 260. (Subsequent references to quotes from this novel will appear in the text.) For varying optimistic closures to kibbutz critical novels and stories, see CitationMilner, “‘Agitated Orders,’” 167.
5 Takatch to Maletz, 20 January 1945, Maletz Archive (hereafter MA). The Maletz Archive was transferred to the Genazim Archives of the Israeli Writers Union in Tel Aviv and the Yad Tabenkin Archives, Ramat Efal.
6 “Se'arat vikuhim ba-kibbutzim beshel sifro shel Maletz,” Ha-Boker, 11 February 1945.
7 See Moti Zeira's recent biography of David Maletz, Af be-knafayim shvurot.
8 Maletz, Misaviv la-ikar, 13–15. On Maletz's response to the condition of modern man who has lost his God, see also CitationZeira, Kru'im anu, 76–80.
9 Ze'ev Dorsini, in Citation David Maletz hoveret zikaron, 31–32.
10 On Gordon's demand to focus on the new pioneering life as the true creative activity, and particularly on tilling the soil as personal redemption, see, Gordon, “Be-inyanei sifrut” (On matters of literature), Ha-Po'el ha-Tza'ir, 17 (1924): 3–5, 26–27; idem, “Ha-sofrim veha-ovdim” (The writers and the workers) [1928], in idem, Kitvei A.D. Citation Gordon , 2:140–57; idem, “On Reading,” in ibid., 1: 210–37.
11 Ruhama Maletz (Maletz's wife), in David Maletz, hoveret zikaron, 8.
12 Maletz, “Aleinu ve-al yeladeinu” (On us and our children) [1929], in idem, Misaviv la-ikar, 40.
13 CitationMaletz, “Li-dmutenu ha-ruhanit.”
14 In his second novel, Citation Ha-sha'ar ha-na'ul (The locked gate, 1959), the protagonist attempts to “convert” an entire kibbutz to Spinozan belief.
15 On the similarity of this model to that of the protagonist in social satire, see CitationEven, Ha-dmut be-siporet.
16 E. Ben-Ezer, “Be-ein motza la-adam” (No way out for man), Davar literary supplement, 16 October 1981.
17 See the chapter on reader expectations in Keshet, Ha-mahteret ha-nafshit, 36–55.
18 Katznelson, letter to Maletz, Passover 1945, MA.
19 CitationFreund, The Return of the Reader, 96.
20 On the atmosphere on the eve of the split in the kibbutz movement, see CitationNear, The Kibbutz Movement, vol. 2, chap. 18, “Politics and Crisis, 1949–1954,” 446–68; and CitationKanari, Sanverim.
21 D.B. Malchin, “Vikuah gadol al sefer katan” (A big debate about a little book), Al ha-Mishmar, 28 and 30 March 1945.
22 Maletz to Katznelson, 19 October 1943, MA.
23 “Nitzotz,” “Lo, lo kedai!” (No, not worthwhile!), Ha-Boker, 30 March 1945; P. Ironi, “Ribu'a ha-ma’agal” (Squaring the circle: Critical remarks on D. Maletz's book Circles). The booklet in which this article appeared was given to me for study from Maletz's personal archive. The booklet is not available in libraries and stores.
24 Ironi, “Ribu'a ha-ma'agal,” 15.
25 “Nitzotz,” “Lo, lo kedai!” (No, not worthwhile!), Ha-Boker, 30 March 1945; P. Ironi, “Ribu'a ha-ma-agal” (Squaring the circle: Critical remarks on D. Maletz's book Circles). The booklet in which this article appeared was given to me for study from Maletz's personal archive. The booklet is not available in libraries and stores, 8, 12.
26 Meri Abramson, Beit ha-Aravah, a letter to Maletz, 17 January 1945, MA.
27 Gittel Meisel, “Shnei sfarim al ha-kibbutz” (Two books about the kibbutz), Al ha-Mishmar, literary supplement, 23 March 1945.
28 Schnolen, a kibbutz member writing from Terezin, 11 July 1945, MA.
29 Haya Potash-Weichselbaum to Maletz (“May, in a foreign land, on the road”), MA.
30 CitationSuleiman, “Ideological Dissent from Works of Fiction.”
31 I took “underground soul” as the title of my book on the early kibbutz novel from the words of Menachem Dorman, one of the editors of the kibbutz journal Mibifnim: “Some things may be expressed solely in a work of art, revealing some things and concealing others. Without the article, the poem, or the story, the underground soul in our life will not be able to find expression. And we need this expression. Without it we face the danger of clogging the spiritual arteries of our social cells.” “Le-darkhei ha-mibifnim” (To understand the spirit of Mibifnim), Mibifnim (June–August 1938): 310.
32 “Leyad madaf ha-sfarim?” (On the bookshelf), Beinenu (February 1945): 35 (emphasis in the original).
33 S. Karel Shulamit, “Arba'ah sfarim al ha-kibbutz” (Four books about the kibbutz), Mibifnim (January 1946): 480–85.
34 David Maletz, “Al Ma'agalot” (On the book Ma'agalot), Davar, 4 May 1945.
35 Dov Glulov, Afikim bulletin, 22 February 1945.
36 Yosef, Genigar bulletin, 26 January 1945.
37 This can be compared with a similarly powerful event, the “Brenner Affair” (1911). See CitationGovrin, Me'ora Brenner.
38 From an undated letter by Nahum Steinhauer, a Jewish Brigade soldier who was not a kibbutz member, MA.
39 Letter from Pesach Kadishson to David Maletz, 5 February 1945, MA.
40 Letter from Uri Beit-Or to Maletz, 10 May 1953, MA.
41 The identity of the “censor” can be confirmed by comparing the editorial deletions with the discussion on some of them that appears in the correspondence between Maletz and Katznelson.
42 Katznelson, letter to Maletz from Arza, Passover 1945, MA.
43 The correspondence between Katznelson and Maletz is cited in full in an appendix to the chapter on the Circles affair in Keshet, Ha-mahteret ha-nafshit, 243–58. The citation here is on p. 250 (emphasis in the original).
44 The correspondence between Katznelson and Maletz is cited in full in an appendix to the chapter on the Circles affair in Keshet, Ha-mahteret ha-nafshit, 243–58. The citation here is on page, 249 (emphasis in the original).
45 On the tense atmosphere that preceded the book's publication both in the kibbutz movement and in Kibbutz Ein Harod, see Zeira, Af be-knafayim shvurot, 207–28.
46 See the response of Eliezer Slutzkin, Katznelson's brother-in-law and member of Ein Harod, as related by Maletz's widow, in CitationKeshet, Ha-mahteret ha-nafshit, 236.
47 Y. Meirson, “Im kri'at Ma-agalot” (On reading Circles), Mibifnim (June 1945): 129–33.
48 For these writings, see CitationMaletz, Misaviv la-ikar.
49 CitationBar-Or, “Hayenu mehaveyim omanut.”
50 CitationZeira, Af be-knafayim shvurot, back cover. The titles given by the authors to these two books are taken from articles by Maletz.
51 There is an urban kibbutz (“irbutz”) in Migdal Ha'emek and Nazareth Illit. These groups are engaged mainly in education. As part of their studies they discuss works by founders of the kibbutz, in particular Maletz's philosophy. Circles has become a textbook for the group in their attempts to construct a more effective communal group.