Haaretz is reporting a decision by the Haifa District Court that rejected a petition by Uzzi Ornan who wanted the Interior Ministry “to recognize his citizenship based on the fact that he was born in Israel, rather than on the grounds that he was Jewish.” (hat tip) The Haifa District Court on Tuesday rejected an [...]
A few weeks ago A.B. Yehoshua claimed that Jews who live outside of Israel are “partial Jews while I am a complete Jew.” In Haaretz Tom Segev reports that in the wake of Yehoshua’s comments a fruitful discussion has taken place on the Internet under the direction of Zeev Raz. In recent months Raz has [...]
This morning the song writer Haim Hefer was interviewed on Israel Radio. Hefer was a member of the Palmaḥ and composed many of the songs associated with the “Generation of 1948/the Pamlaḥ.” Hefer also participated in Aliyah Bet, the illegal immigration of Jews to Palestine after the White Paper of 1939. One of Hefer’s responsibilities [...]
MK Einat Wilf got some people upset with her post at the Daily Beast. Wilf wrote: Israel exists not because the Europeans dumped the surviving Jews in the colonially controlled Middle East. Israel exists because the Jews willed it into existence. The modern state of Israel exists because the Jews who created it believed themselves [...]
A dose of historical perspective on Israel-Diaspora relations. The following are a few selections from Zohar Segev’s article American Zionists’ Place in Israel after Statehood: Historian Melvin Urofsky has shown that from the moment that the establishment of the State of Israel appeared feasible, and after it became a reality, American Zionist leaders struggled to [...]
Israel and the Palestinians-A Different Israeli View I recently came across the following booklet, published in 1975 by the left-wing Zionist organization Breira. It is a translation of a Hebrew booklet that featured a roundtable discussion by a number of prominent Israeli left-wing activists in 1974. The booklet provides an interesting window into the history [...]
The site Historical Jewish Press has just uploaded a number of years from the Mapam newspaper Al Hamishmar. Here are a few interesting clippings that I found. This first article is from March 14, 1949. It discusses how the Jerusalem Community Board forbid stores to sell toy guns and fireworks that year. At this difficult [...]
The University of Haifa Library has posted a wonderful collection of pictures of the Land of Israel, spanning much of the twentieth century. (hat tip) The pictures are from numerous collections, including those taken by Moshe David Cassuto during his trip in 1943 to Syria and Lebanon when he examined the Aleppo Codex. If you’re [...]
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