“I only knew to tell about myself?” Zionism and Gender in Egodocuments by Three Women in the First Half of the 20th Century (Hebrew)

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

The well-known poem by Rachel Bluwstein “Only About Myself” (RAK AL ATZMI) begins with the lines “I only knew to tell about myself / My world is as narrow as an ant’s”. These lines illustrate the frame of mind of the poetess, who came to the Land of Israel and took part in the Zionist enterprise, yet characterized her poetry as limited to her private world. Rachel the poetess expressed a common perception among Hebrew women writers in the early 20th Century about their proper disposition.

This panel will present three Jewish women who wrote Egodocuments in Hebrew in the first half of the 20th Century, in which they transcended the gender boundaries of their private world and ventured into the public domain.

Michal Fram Cohen will discuss Sarah Feiga Foner (1854-1937), who wrote her autobiographical work MEMORIES OF MY CHILDHOOD, OR, A VIEW OF THE CITY OF DVINSK (Warsaw, 1903) about her childhood city in Latvia, to commemorate the way it was in the 1860’s. Using two incidents in the annals of Dvinsk’s Jewish community, Foner turned herself from a chronicler to a spokesperson, and voiced her support for the nascent Zionist movement at the time of writing her book.

Roni Beer Marx will present Hanna Frumkin-Segal (1874-1968), who wrote a manuscript of a memoir about her childhood in the newly established village of Petach-Tikva in the 1880’s. Frumkin-Segal wrote her memoir as a middle-aged woman after her father’s passing, overtly to commemorate her father’s role in the establishment of Petach-Tikva and his contribution to Zionism, but covertly, to sound the voices of Petach-Tikva’s women and present them as equal partners in the Zionist settlement enterprise.

Naama Teitelbaum-Karrie will talk about Esther Raziel-Naor (1911-2002), a commander in the Irgun underground in Mandatory Palestine, whose letters to her husband, interned in Africa by the British between 1944 and 1948, recorded the details of her daily life as a private individual, but also the seminal national events happening around her during those years. The concepts “mother-tongue” and “nation-tongue” will be used to analyze Raziel-Naor’s writing within the private and public spheres.

Sub Unit

• Modern Jewish History in Europe, Asia, Israel, and Other Communities

Chair

• Lilach Rosenberg-Friedman, Bar-Ilan University

Individual Presentations

• Sarah Feiga Foner’s Infringements into the Public Sphere in her Autobiographical Work MEMORIES OF MY CHILDHOOD, OR, A VIEW OF THE CITY OF DVINSK - Michal Fram Cohen, Independant Scholar

• "In the Beginning of Petach-Tikva" Hanna Frumkin-Segal and the Struggle over the Public Memory - Roni Beer Marx, The Open University of Israel

• Gendered and National Identity through the Letters of Esther Raziel-Naor - Naama Teitlbaum-Karrie, The Open University of Israel

Respondent

• Lilach Rosenberg-Friedman, Bar-Ilan University

Zoom Host

• Zoom Host 15