Pesach is that time of the year when I have time to catch up with reading, and especially after a couple of busy weeks, I finally found the peace for books. Trying to follow the general topic of the holidays, stumbled upon a book by Rivka Guber, a pioneer in the domain of education and absorption policies in the newly created state of Israel.
The signal fires of Lachish is written in the journalist style, rather as a testimony than a literary account of the first years of the state. When you work hard to build a country, who does have time of literature and poetry? The style reminds me of some early Soviety/Russian feature reports, that probably Guber was used with, as she was born in Ukraine and spent some time in the country before moving to Israel. Involved in the creation of the new education system, especially the integration of new Jewish immigrants from all over the world, she mentions several times that she used the pedagogic principles of Makarenko in creating equal opportunities for the Jewish children.
Even though the book doesn't have high literary or journalistic qualities, it is a valuable testimony of the beginning of the state and not less important, a very intimate account of the sociological and demographic changes underwent by the state of Israel. The issue of the so-called Eastern communities - North Africa, Iran, Yemen, Iraq, Kurdistan area - is presented carefully, without the usual ethnic bias, but with the generous aim to create an integrated society. The first stage of the ingathering of exiles brought together the sophisticated and less religious Askenazim with traditional families from Morocco and Yemen and the meeting wasn't a happy one. Prejudices of old generations against Eastern communities were based of a lack of understanding and contact with those fellow Jews. Some of those prejudices I try to do not hear tomorrow, but I should be thankful for living in a different stage of Jewish history, when I don't feel different of the welcoming Iraqi Jews from whom I am happy to learn every time something new. The educational state policies contributed to bring all of us at the same level of Jewish knowledge and made all of us feel as part of the same community, assuming our differences and histories. Guber's book helped me to understand - even though I deeply disapprove - the root of the stereotypes and lack of understanding towards the 'Oriental' Jews, and to appreciate the tremendous progress achieved in only in one generation that diminished many of the misunderstandings.
I went more than one jealous of the extraordinary experiences she witnessed, the enthusiasm of building a new country, the discovery of the lost Jews and all the difficulties of the new beginnings. But still, the same difficulties persist and even though the challenges are different, the passions remain.
Especially one story at the end of the book made me think about some recent stories that maybe I will talk more about one day: a family of fresh Polish immigrants, mother and son, were expressing their dissatisfaction with the situation encountered in Israel. They were speaking only Polish and the son was photographer, a job not necessarily sought at the time. Rivka Guber suggests them to try to find out a low level job till they will be able to get a proper training for competing for the job market. They refuse to accept the reality and prefer to complain about the lack of promises in the 'promise land' and threaten with leaving the country. Sounds familiar? At least for me does...
I recommend this book for the sociological information, but also because it shows how fast we were able to move fast forward in such a short time.
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