The Rise of the Individual in 1950s Israel

A Challenge to Collectivism

Orit Rozin

• Publisher: Brandeis University Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9781611680812
  9781584658924
• eBook ISBN:
  9781611680829
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern History
• Index: History

In this sharply argued volume, Orit Rozin reveals the flaws in the conventional account of Israeli society in the 1950s, which portrayed the Israeli public as committed to a collectivist ideology. In fact, major sectors of Israeli society espoused individualism and rejected the state-imposed collectivist ideology. Rozin draws on archival, legal, and media sources to analyze the attitudes of black-market profiteers, politicians and judges, middle-class homemakers, and immigrants living in transit camps and rural settlements. Part of a refreshing trend in recent Israeli historiography to study the voices, emotions, and ideas of ordinary people, Rozin's book provides an important corrective to much extant scholarly literature on Israel's early years.

NOTES

Introduction

1. Ma’ariv, October 4, 1950.

2. See Sivan 1991, 55–101.

3. Gorni 1990, 14–15.

4. Anita Shapira 5757, 253; Ya’ar and Shavit 2001, 1:127.

5. For various approaches to this issue, see Weinreb 5714, 278; Molad, October 1960, 423; Lissak 5726; Y.Shapira 1977, 160; Eisenstadt 1989, 135–40, 162; Dan Horowitz and Lissak 1990, 153–56; Anita Shapira 5757; Y. Shavit 2003.

6. Avraham Shapira 1996, 46.

7. Dan Horowitz and Lissak 1990, 156; Anita Shapira 5757, 261. See also Rozin 2005b.

8. Gorni 1997, 365.

9. Anita Shapira 5757, 261.

10. Ibid., 262–64.

11. Ibid., 261–63.

12. Almog 2002.

13. Almog 5764, 362–65; Rozin 2006a.

14. Anita Shapira 5757, 252–59; Almog 1997, 231–34; Dan Horowitz and Lissak 1990, 179–80.

15. Molad, October 1960, 413–31; Dan Horowitz and Lissak 1990, 179.

16. See, for example, BGAD, January 10, 1951, and July 10, 1953;

MSA, 14-1950-25-2, December 14, 1950; Hapo’el Hatza’ir, June 5, 1951, 11.

17. Arieli 5759.

18. Ezrahi 1997, 79–80; Rozin 2006a.

19. E. Gross 1998, 81–83.

20. Lahav 5752, 481–82; Likhovski 1999; Barak-Erez 1999. See also Rozin 2006a.

21. Sharfman 1997, 50.

22. An earlier version of chapters 2 and 3 was published as Rozin 2005a.

1. Austerity

1. An austerity program had been declared in December 1947. Beterem, March 1, 1948, 39–40; Ma’ariv, May 24, 1948; Gilayon minhelet ha’am, tzavim vehoda’ot, May 10, 1948; Hamemshala hazmanit, Iton rishmi, June 30, 34; July 7; and July 21, 1948, 37.

2. N. Gross 1997; Zweiniger-Bargielowska 2000, 6.

3. Elhanati interview, October 11, 2004.

4. For an exceptional response, see Ha’ishah Bamedina, May 4, 1949.

5. IDIGA, Hamakhon Lecheker Da’at Hakahal, Mipi Nashim, mekhkar bein akrot bayit al kitzuv mezonot ve’aspka, May 1949.

6. Ma’ariv, January 23 and January 25, 1950; Naor 1986; Genchovski 1986; N. Gross 1997, 140–42.

7. See the discussion in chapter 2. See also Ma’ariv, February 22 and February 27, 1950; Ha’aretz, February 28, 1950; Divrey Haknesset 4:898–903, March 1, 1950; Ha’aretz, March 2 1950; Ma’ariv, March 13, 1950; Haboker, March 20, 1950; Ha’aretz, March 30, 1950; Haboker, October 5, 1950.

8. Bell and Valentine 1997, 25–42. See also Counihan 1999, 76–92; Almog 1999, 26–27.

9. Nelson 1993, 104; Zweiniger-Bargielowska 2000, 44.

10. Divrey Haknesset 1:402, April 26, 1949.

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid. 1:399, April 26, 1949.

13. Ibid. 1:419, April 27, 1949.

14. See, for example, ibid. 1:450–51, May 2, 1949.

15. Lupton 1996, 37.

16. Divrey Haknesse 1:418, April 27, 1949.

17. As proposed by Uri Zvi Greenberg’s use of the term tzena. See Divrey Haknesset 1:417, April 27, 1949.

18. Ibid.

19. Dvar Hapo’elet, Elul 5711, 164. Other fronts concerned raw materials for construction and industry, and products for agriculture; in both those cases, there were also severe shortages accompanied by a black market.

20. La’isha, February 1, 1950; Gorni interview, October 6, 1998; Az’ya interview, winter 1997.

21. See Molad, September 1951, 290–91; GYB 5711, 376–77. See also PLA, IV 230–5-32, December 1942; Dvar Hapo’elet, Cheshvan 571...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: The First Years
• I At Home and on the Street
• II In the City Square
• III Somewhere in the Transit Camp
• Conclusion
• Notes
• References
• Index