The Sabra: The Creation of the New JewThe Sabras were the first Israelis—the first generation, born in the 1930s and 1940s, to grow up in the Zionist settlement in Palestine. Socialized and educated in the ethos of the Zionist labor movement and the communal ideals of the kibbutz and moshav, they turned the dream of their pioneer forebears into the reality of the new State of Israel. While the Sabras made up a small minority of the new society’s population, their cultural influence was enormous. Their ideals, their love of the land, their recreational culture of bonfires and singalongs, their adoption of Arab accessories, their slang and gruff, straightforward manner, together with a reserved, almost puritanical attitude toward individual relationships, came to signify the cultural fulfillment of the utopian ideal of a new Jew. Oz Almog’s lively, methodical, and convincing portrayal of the Sabras addresses their lives, thought, and role in Jewish history. The most comprehensive study of this exceptional generation to date, The Sabra provides a complex and unflinching analysis of accepted norms and an impressive appraisal of the Sabra, one that any examination of new Israeli reality must take into consideration. The Sabras became Palmach commanders, soldiers in the British Brigade, and, later, officers in the Israel Defense Forces. They served as a source of inspiration and an object of emulation for an entire society. Almog’s source material is rich and varied: he uses poems, letters, youth movement and army newsletters, and much more to portray the Sabras’ attitudes toward the Arabs, war, nature, work, agriculture, cooperation, and education. In any event, the Sabra remained central to the founding myth of the nation, the real Israeli, against whom later generations will be judged. Almog’s pioneering book juxtaposes the myths against the realities and, in the process, limns a collective profile that brilliantly encompasses the complex forces that shaped this remarkable generation. |
Contents
Idealistic Euphoria | 23 |
The Elect Son of the Chosen People | 73 |
Dunce Cap | 138 |
The Stamp of His Countrys Landscape | 160 |
Uri of Arabia | 185 |
Monks in Khaki | 209 |
Our Gang | 224 |
Epilogue | 255 |
Glossary | 295 |
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agricultural Aliya anthologies Arab army Ashkenazi Avinoam Aviv Ba-Machaneh battle became Bedouin Ben-Amotz Ben-Yehuda brew Brigade campfire ceremonies Chaim character Cheffer chizbatim commander common created dance Diaspora dress dugri elite especially establishment example expressed fallen soldier Gadna Ha-Kibbutz Ha-Machanot Ha-Olim Ha-Shomer Ha-Tza'ir Haganah Hasidic Hebrew heroes Holocaust homeland ideological immigrants important Independence Israeli Israeli society Jerusalem Jewish Jews kibbutz kibbutzim Land of Israel landscape language leaders letters literary literature lived Masada memorial ment military moral moshav moshavim Moshe Moshe Shamir myth mythological image native organizations Oriental Palestine Palmach Palmachnik Paratroopers period pioneer poems poets religion Sabra culture Sabra fighter Scrolls of Fire Second Aliya sense settlements Sinai Campaign slang social songs spirit status symbol stories teachers Tel Aviv term textbooks tion traditional units values victory words writings wrote Yishuv Yitzchak young youth movements Zionist