Staging and Stagers in Modern Jewish Palestine

by Shavit, Yaacov

• ISBN13: 9780814328453
• ISBN10: 0814328458
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-08-01
• Publisher: Wayne State Univ Pr

Summary

This case study describes the work of the people responsible for creating festive lore and its system of ceremonies and festivities -- an inseparable part of every culture. In the case of the new modern Hebrew culture of Eretz Israel (modern Jewish Palestine) -- a society of immigrants who left behind most of their traditional folkways -- the creation of festival lore was a conscious and organized process guided by a national ideology and aesthetic values. This creative effort in a secular national society served as an alternative to the traditional religious system, adapted the ceremonies and festivals to a new historical reality, and created a new festival cycle that would give expression and joy to the values and symbols of the new jewish society.

Author Biography

Shoshana Sitton is a senior lecturer at the Levinsky College of Education at Tel Aviv University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	xi
PART I
Placing the Stagers on the Cultural Stage: Identifying the Stagers	3	(11)
The Setting: Hebrew Culture, Hebrew ``Formal Folk Culture,'' and the Hebrew Stagers	14	(7)
Ceremonies and Festivals in Modern Jewish Thinking	21	(8)
How Do the Stagers Work? The Mechanism of Innovation	29	(12)
PART II
The Missing Stage of Political Culture	41	(7)
To Celebrate in the Spirit of the Homeland: Staging School Festivals and Ceremonies	48	(36)
The Urban Stagers and the Town as an Open-Air Stage	84	(22)
Festivals in the Kibbutz: Stagers and Staging in a Communal Society	106	(67)
Conclusion	125	(6)
APPENDIXES
1 First Program for a Commemoration of the First Fruits Festivity, 1929	131	(3)
2 Commemoration of the First Fruits: Proposal for a Ceremony, 1934	134	(14)
3 Planting on the New Year for Trees (Tu Bishevat), 1930s	148	(6)
4 Program for Purim Festivities in Tel Aviv, 1929	154	(5)
5 A Citizen of Tel Aviv: A Proposal for the Organization of a Purim Carnival, 1931	159	(5)
6 Letter from Members of the Atz-Kotzatz Editorial Board, 1932	164	(4)
7 Letter from Yehudah Nadivi Outlining Proposed Preparations for the Tel Aviv Jubilee Celebrations, 1924	168	(5)
Notes	173	(16)
Selected Bibliography	189	(10)
Index	199