From Schlemiel to Sabra

Philip Hollander

Description

In From Schlemiel to Sabra Philip Hollander examines how masculine ideals and images of the New Hebrew man shaped the Israeli state. In this innovative book, Hollander uncovers the complex relationship that Jews had with masculinity, interrogating narratives depicting masculinity in the new state as a transition from weak, feminized schlemiels to robust, muscular, and rugged Israelis. Turning to key literary texts by S. Y. Agnon, Y. H. Brenner, L. A. Arieli, and Aharon Reuveni, Hollander reveals how gender and sexuality were intertwined to promote a specific Zionist political agenda. A Zionist masculinity grounded in military prowess could not only protect the new state but also ensure its procreative needs and future. Self-awareness, physical power, fierce loyalty to the state and devotion to the land, humility, and nurture of the young were essential qualities that needed to be cultivated in migrants to the state. By turning to the early literature of Zionist Palestine, Hollander shows how Jews strove to construct a better Jewish future.

Acknowledgements

Note on Transliteration and Translation

General Introduction. A Rhetoric of Empowerment

Of Their Time and Their Places: A Biographical Introduction to the Self-Evaluative Writers

Chapter 1. Holding Out for a Hero: Crisis and the New Hebrew Man

Chapter 2. "He Needs a Stage": Masculinity, Homosociality and the Public Sphere

Chapter 3. Contested Masculinity and the Redemption of the Schlemiel

Chapter 4. Homosexual Panic and Masculinity's Advancement

Chapter 5. Self-Evaluative Masculinity's Interwar Apex and Eclipse

Afterword. The Lesson, Legacy, and Implications of Self-Evaluative Masculinity

Selected Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Israelí
• Aliyá
• Jews
• Literature
• Second Aliyah
• Men's studies
• Gendér
• Homosociality
• Homosexual panic
• Public sphere
• History of the Middle East
• Yishuv
• Aliyah
• Masculinity
• Culture of Israel
• Literary criticism
• Zionism
• Middle East
• Israeli
• Homosexualité
• Masculinité
• Alya
• Zion
• Fiction
• Culture

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 17 mai 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253042071
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

FROM SCHLEMIEL TO SABRA
PERSPECTIVES ON ISRAEL STUDIES
S. Ilan Troen, Natan Aridan, Donna Divine, David Ellenson, Arieh Saposnik, and Jonathan Sarna, editors
Sponsored by the Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies of Brandeis University
FROM SCHLEMIEL TO SABRA
Zionist Masculinity and Palestinian Hebrew Literature
Philip Hollander
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2019 by Philip Hollander
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hollander, Philip, author.
Title: From schlemiel to sabra : Zionist masculinity and Palestinian Hebrew literature / Philip Hollander.
Description: Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, [2019] | Series: Perspectives on Israel studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019013211 (print) | LCCN 2019014981 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253042095 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253042057 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253042064 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Israeli literature-History and criticism. | Masculinity in literature. | Schlemiels in literature. | Sabras. | Zionism in literature. | Agnon, Shmuel Yosef, 1887-1970-Criticism and interpretation. | Brenner, Joseph ?Hayyim, 1881-1921-Criticism and interpretation. | Arieli, L. A., 1886-1943-Criticism and interpretation. | Reuveni, A., 1886-1971-Criticism and interpretation.
Classification: LCC PJ5020 (ebook) | LCC PJ5020 .H64 2019 (print) | DDC 892.409/353-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019013211
ISBN 978-0-253-04205-7 (hdbk.)
ISBN 978-0-253-04206-4 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-253-04209-5 (web PDF)
1 2 3 4 5 24 23 22 21 20 19
For my father, Dr. Joshua Hollander z l
CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Note on Transliteration and Translation

General Introduction: A Rhetoric of Empowerment

Of Their Time and Their Places: A Biographical Introduction to the Self-Evaluative Writers

1 Holding Out for a Hero: Crisis and the New Hebrew Man

2 He Needs a Stage : Masculinity, Homosociality, and the Public Sphere

3 Contested Masculinity and the Redemption of the Schlemiel

4 Homosexual Panic and Masculinity s Advancement

5 Self-Evaluative Masculinity s Interwar Apex and Eclipse

Afterword: The Lesson, Legacy, and Implications of Self-Evaluative Masculinity

Selected Bibliography

General Index

Index of Cited Works
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
T HIS BOOK REPRESENTS MORE THAN TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF research into early twentieth-century Hebrew literature and Israeli culture. It began with a course on early twentieth-century Hebrew literature taught by Nili Gold, who opened my eyes to the literature s riches and the scholar s ability to reveal them. It was subsequently conceptualized, researched, and written in the waters of the Mediterranean, Jerusalem, New York, Princeton, New Orleans, and Madison.
After graduating college, I immigrated to Israel. While my subsequent military service on Israeli naval ship Ma oz might seem far from academic questions, it influenced this book s ultimate shape. It immersed me in Hebrew culture to the point where Hebrew became the dominant language of my unconscious, and it developed my thought on masculinity and relations between men. My thanks go to my former shipmates. Special thanks, however, go to Michah Cohen z l, Asaf Guy, and Ran Ziv. Asaf and Ran provided me with a brotherhood of the mind, and Michah presented his belief that paternity trumped military accomplishment in the mark of a man. I still remember when he fearlessly delivered his newborn child into my arms.
Dan Miron s example and mentorship dominated my graduate training at Hebrew University and Columbia University. My current understanding of early twentieth-century Hebrew literature bears the mark of his research and teaching. A hands-off mentor, he encouraged me to write my dissertation on Levi Aryeh Arieli s fiction and drama; he left me free to develop an independent approach to it. Nonetheless, he knew when to intervene and supplied important encouragement in his unique laconic way. I am grateful to other teachers who contributed to my scholarly development too. At the beginning of my graduate studies, Ezra Fleischer z l, Matti Huss, Pinchas Mandel, and Yigal Schwartz gave me the confidence to believe that I could complete a doctorate and contribute to Hebrew literary scholarship. In New York, Yael Feldman, Nili Gold, and Hannan Hever further developed my understanding of Hebrew literature, Michael Stanislawski deepened my understanding of its historical context, and David Roskies collaborated with Dan Miron to provide me with the resources necessary to study Hebrew literature alongside its Yiddish counterpart. I am also grateful for the community of friends and colleagues who enlightened and encouraged me during my graduate training. I am particularly indebted to Jill Aizenstein, Jennifer Altman, Vicki As-Shifris, Beverly Bailis, Marc Caplan, Nehama Edinger, Naomi Kadar z l, Rebecca Kobrin, Barbara Landress, Rebecca Margolis, Marc Miller, Eddie Portnoy, Alyssa Quint, Miryam Segal, Andrea Siegel, Magda Teter, Scott Ury, Katja Vehlow, and Kalman Weiser.
As the breadth of my research expanded, I refined my ideas about Modern Hebrew literature and Israeli culture through teaching at Princeton University, Rutgers University, Tulane University, and University of Wisconsin-Madison. Thanks to Mark Cohen, Nancy Sinkoff, Brian Horowitz, and Rachel Brenner for helping provide me with these opportunities; thanks to my students, first and foremost Michael Yaari, for their aid.
When writing a book, writers imagine a community of readers to whom they address their work. I, however, didn t need to tax my imagination. An actual scholarly community helped me develop my ideas. Through their research, lectures, conversation, and friendship, numerous colleagues have helped birth this book. In addition to aforementioned individuals who have followed this project from its infancy, I would like to thank Nancy Berg, Mikhal Dekel, Shai Ginburg, Rachel Harris, Todd Hasak-Lowy, Tamar Hess, Adriana Jacobs, Sheila Jelen, Stephen Katz, Dan Laor, Edna Nahshon, Moshe Naor, Shachar Pinsker, Michael Weingrad, Eric Zakim, and Wendy Zierler. One group and a few individuals deserve special thanks. The directors and fellow participants in the 2011 AAJR Early Career Faculty Workshop were the first to offer positive feedback on this project. Since he shared his dissertation research with me, Yaron Peleg has been an implicit interlocutor. I couldn t imagine a nicer guy with whom to disagree. While never formerly my teacher, through participation in my oral exams and my dissertation defense, Alan Mintz z l guided me. Subsequently, he read my research, offered support, and treated me as a respected counterpart. Finally, since we first met, Gur Alroey has been an amazing sounding board, an intellectual guide to Pre-State Israel s history, and a true mensch.
My scholarly community does not end with those to whom I addressed my research. I found community and the material and emotional support that come with it at Princeton University, Tulane University, and University of Wisconsin-Madison. Following Hurricane Katrina, when I was exiled from New Orleans, Princeton University supplied me with an apartment, an office, and library access. These generous gifts enabled me to begin converting my dissertation into a broader study. Similarly, I am beholden to Tulane University. Colleagues in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies supplied me with emotional support following my return to New Orleans; the support of a Committee on Research Summer Fellowship and a Research Enhancement Fund Phase II Grant made critical research for this book possible. Since my arrival in Madison, its tight-knit academic community has proven welcoming. I am grateful to colleagues and friends across the disciplines who have helped make the University of Wisconsin-Madison what it is today. I am particularly indebted to those who worked with me in the Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies and the Department of German and those who currently work alongside me in the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies and the Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic. Special thanks go to Sabine Gross, Judith Kornblatt, Pam Potter, and Patricia Rosenmeyer, senior colleagues who played pivotal roles in helping me advance my research. I would especially like to thank the University of Wisconsin-Madison German Program for funding production of the index for this book. Finally, support for this research was provided by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education with funding from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. I would like to gratefully acknowledge multiple Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation grants.
I am grateful to a group of people who have eased the way from manuscript to book. Sylvia Fuchs Fried, director of Brandei