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ABSTRACT
This article explores Western Jews’ admiration for the new State of Israel on the basis of women’s representation. Pamphlets, biographies, and whole series of fundraiser films, produced by Zionist women’s organizations, depicted Jewish-Israeli women as carriers of democratic values, caring mothers for all of Israel’s population, and courageous fighters for their people’s survival. The Jewish-Israeli woman’s image as “a better human being” served as an intriguing symbol through which Diaspora Jews could identify with the Jewish state and overcome feelings of impotence after the Holocaust in Europe. The idealized representation of Jewish-Israeli women primarily suited Western Jewry’s need for Jewish empowerment.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Bar-David, Women in Israel: Hadassah Education Series, 1.
2. Ibid., 2.
3. Ibid., 1.
4. Bialer and Tlamim, “Israeli Foreign Policiy,” 3–8.
5. Ibid., 13–14, 17, 24–31.
6. Ibid., 41.
7. Aviv and Shneer, New Jews, 11.
8. Ibid., 3.
9. Ganin, An Uneasy Relationship, XVIII.
10. Aviv and Shneer, New Jews, 12.
11. Ibid., 12–13.
12. Ibid., 8–15.
13. Katz, Bringing Zion Home, 9.
14. Ibid.
15. Ganin, An Uneasy Relationship, XIX.
16. Shapira, Israel, 192–3.
17. Katzburg-Yungman, “Women and Zionist Activity in Erez Israel,” 165–72; and Shvarts and Shehory-Rubin, “On Behalf of Mothers and Children in Eretz-Israel,” 180–9.
18. Berkowitz, Western Jewry and the Zionist Project, 182–4.
19. Bar-David, Women in Israel: Hadassah Education Series, 97.
20. Berkowitz, Western Jewry and the Zionist Project, 175–6, 185–91; and Katzburg-Yungman, “Women and Zionist Activity in Erez Israel,” 163–5.
21. Katzburg-Yungman, “Women and Zionist Activity in Erez Israel,” 160–61.
22. Ibid., 162.
23. Sharff (producer and director), It Could Happen to You.
24. Katz, Bringing Zion Home, 2.
25. Ibid., 34.
26. Ibid., 23.
27. Ibid., 39.
28. Ibid., 35.
29. Ibid., 18, 33–43.
30. Katzburg-Yungman, “Women and Zionist Activity in Erez Israel,” 167.
31. Sharff (producer and director), That’s My Wife.
32. Berkowitz, Western Jewry and the Zionist Project, 184–5.
33. Hyman, Gender and Assimilation, 98–99.
34. Bar-David, Women in Israel: Hadassah Education Series, 2.
35. Katz, Bringing Zion Home, 36.
36. Bar-David, Women in Israel: Hadassah Education Series, 3.
37. Ibid., 6.
38. Ibd., 4.
39. Ibid.
40. Ibid., 18.
41. Ibid., 2.
42. Schwartz Nardi, Women in Israel: Israel Today, no. 13.
43. Ibid., 5.
44. Ibid., 5, 7.
45. Ibid., 7.
46. Ibid., 8–9.
47. Ibid., 5.
48. Ibid., 14–15.
49. Ibid., 15–16.
50. Ibid., 15.
51. Bar-David, Women in Israel: Hadassah Education Series, 27.
52. Ibid., 28.
53. Katz, Bringing Zion Home, 43.
54. Ibid., 37–38, 43.
55. Bar-David, Women in Israel: Hadassah Education Series, 53–55; and Schwartz Nardi, Women in Israel: Israel Today, no. 13, 5.
56. Schmidt, “Hagiography in the Diaspora,” 161, 164–5, 180–2.
57. Syrkin, Golda Meir: Israel’s Leader, 10.
58. Schmidt, “Hagiography in the Diaspora,” 184.
59. Ibid.
60. Ibid., 162.
61. Ibid., 164–5, 182.
62. Ibid., 70.
63. Ibid., 186.
64. Katz, Bringing Zion Home, 33–35.
65. Bar-David, Women in Israel: Hadassah Education Series, 4.
66. Berkowitz, Western Jewry and the Zionist Project, 186.
67. Lowenthal, Henrietta Szold: Life and Letters, 76.
68. Ibid., 243.
69. Ibid., 244.
70. Ibid., 264.
71. Ibid.
72. Fineman, Woman of Valor: The Life of Henrietta Szold 1860–1945, 371.
73. Ibid., 372.
74. Ibid.
75. Berkowitz, Western Jewry and the Zionist Project, 178.
76. Greenwald (producer), Tell Me Where It Hurt.
77. Gross (producer and director), One of Many.
78. South African Zionist Federation (producer), Perchance to Live.
79. Kaplan, Making of the Jewish Middle Class, 192–227; and Katzburg-Yungman, “Women and Zionist Activity in Erez Israel,” 160–61.
80. Berkowitz, Western Jewry and the Zionist Project, 176–93.
81. Ibid., 46.
82. Katzburg-Yungman, “Women and Zionist Activity in Erez Israel,” 161.
83. Lowenthal, Marvin. Henrietta Szold: Life and Letters, 77.
84. Katzburg-Yungman, Hadassah, 176–85.
85. Sharff (producer), Do You Hear Me?
86. Katzburg-Yungman, Hadassah, 40–42.
87. Dunnar (producer and director), A Way to Grow.
88. Bar-David, Women in Israel: Hadassah Education Series, 29.
89. Ibid., 64.
90. Ibid.
91. Syrkin, Blessed Is the Match: The Story of Jewish Resistance.
92. Ibid., 23.
93. Ibid., 24.
94. Ibid., 14.
95. Ibid., 20.
96. Ibid., 22.
97. Ibid., 25.
98. Ibid., 30.
99. Ibid., 28.
100. Ibid., 54.
101. Ibid.
102. Berkowitz, Western Jewry and the Zionist Project, 179.
103. Katzburg-Yungman, Hadassah, 77.
104. Bar-David, Women in Israel: Hadassah Education Series, 63.
105. Ibid.
106. Silver, Our Exodus, 6.
107. Ibid., 9.
108. Ibid., 6.
109. http://jewishjournal.com/hollywood/film/219779/gal-gadot-jewish-essence-wonder-woman/, July 10, 2017.
110. Rozin, The Rise of the Individual in 1950s Israel, 19–26.
111. Almog, “From Blorit to Ponytail,” 91–93.
112. Rozin, The Rise of the Individual in 1950s Israel, 180–90.
113. Ibid., 19–26; and Helman, A Coat of Many Colors, 51–88.
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Julie Grimmeisen
Julie Grimmeisen is the academic director at the Consulate General of the State of Israel in Munich, Germany. She earned her Ph.D. in Modern Jewish History at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. Specializing in Israeli history and Gender Studies, her recent publications include Pioneers and Beauty Queens: Images of Women in Israel, 1948–1967 (2017, in German) and “The Middle East Conflict from a Gender Perspective” (Trumah, Special Issue on Israel Studies in Germany, 2016).