Domestic orientalism: The representation of 'oriental' Jews in Zionist/Israeli historiography

British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies

Volumn 23, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 125-145

  Piterberg, Gabriel ^a  

^a BEN GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV   (Israel)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS; JEWISH COMMUNITY; NATIONALISM;

EID: 0030316548     PISSN: 13530194     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13530199608705629     Document Type: Article

References (64)

1. In general, my understanding of Orientalism as a discourse and the practices derived from it follow Edward Said's Orientalism (1978), later works on this issue by the same author, and some of the literature which, stimulated by Said, developed his ideas and applied them. For a neatly crafted exposition of scholarly Orientalism see Fred Halliday, "Orientalism" and its Critics', British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 20 (1993), pp. 145-63.
2. In general, my understanding of Orientalism as a discourse and the practices derived from it follow Edward Said's Orientalism (1978), later works on this issue by the same author, and some of the literature which, stimulated by Said, developed his ideas and applied them. For a neatly crafted exposition of scholarly Orientalism see Fred Halliday, "Orientalism" and its Critics', British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 20 (1993), pp. 145-63.
3. Though I do not discuss the colonial concept of the 'return' to an empty land in this article, I must emphasize the complexity of that concept: it does not mean literally empty - the Zionists knew from the outset that there were Arabs in Palestine - but the colonial ability to discern between natives, who are historical objects, and colonizers, who are historical subjects.
4. Jacques Le Goff, History and Memory, trans. Steven Rendal and Elizabeth Calman (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992), p. 98.
5. The epitome in this respect is Braudel's last and unfinished project, L'Identité de la France, which is a longue durée attempt to construct a national narrative. See Perry Anderson, 'Fernand Braudel and National Identity', in Zones of Engagement (London and New York: Verso), pp. 251-79.
6. This view is shared by Amos Funkenstein, 'Collective Memory and Historical Consciousness', History and Memory, 1 (Spring/Summer 1989), p. 10.
7. Ibid., p. 10. Examples follow thereafter.
8. Ibid., p. 19. It should be noted that Funkenstein's essay is also concerned with the relations between collective and individual memory, relations whose explanation is sought in an interesting, though clearly limited, analogy to de Saussure's linguistics (the distinction langue/parole is analogous to that between collective and individual memory). I intend to discuss this issue elsewhere.
9. Ibid., pp. 20-1.
10. This is one of two chapters added to the revised edition (London and New York: 1991), pp. 187-207 of Imagined Communities, originally published in 1983. I discuss Anderson's project elsewhere. See Gabriel Piterberg, 'The Nation's Raconteurs: Orientalism and Nationalist Historiography', in Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski (eds), Rethinking Nationalisms in the Arab World (New York: Columbia University Press 1997); a Hebrew version can be found in Theory and Criticism, 6 (Spring 1995), pp. 81-103.
11. This is one of two chapters added to the revised edition (London and New York: 1991), pp. 187-207 of Imagined Communities, originally published in 1983. I discuss Anderson's project elsewhere. See Gabriel Piterberg, 'The Nation's Raconteurs: Orientalism and Nationalist Historiography', in Israel Gershoni and James Jankowski (eds), Rethinking Nationalisms in the Arab World (New York: Columbia University Press 1997); a Hebrew version can be found in Theory and Criticism, 6 (Spring 1995), pp. 81-103.
12. Ibid., p. 195.
13. Ibid., pp. 200-1. Anderson stresses that this is not an exclusively French habit, and discusses in a similar vein the American 'Civil War' and the English 'William the Conqueror'.
14. Ibid., p. 205.
15. As the Hebrew words galut (exile) and gola (diaspora), in their Zionist context, are both related and confusing, it should be explained that the latter is a collective term for the actual situation in which the majority of Jews live outside Palestine/Israel, whereas the former denotes an existential state of being.
16. Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, 'Exile within Sovereignty: Toward a Critique of the "Negation of Exile" in Israeli Culture', Part I, Theory and Criticism [Hebrew], 4 (Autumn 1993), pp. 23-56; Part II, Theory and Criticism, 5 (1994), pp. 113-32. Apart from briefly mentioning it, I obviously cannot do justice here to the thoughtful way in which Raz-Krakotzkin develops his Benjaminian-Exilic perspective. The stimulating potential of this essay, both politically and intellectually, cannot be overstated. Like Raz-Krakotzkin, I too am aware of Baruch Kurzweil's critique of Zionist scholarship which was voiced forty years ago. I intend to discuss it elsewhere.
17. Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, 'Exile within Sovereignty: Toward a Critique of the "Negation of Exile" in Israeli Culture', Part I, Theory and Criticism [Hebrew], 4 (Autumn 1993), pp. 23-56; Part II, Theory and Criticism, 5 (1994), pp. 113-32. Apart from briefly mentioning it, I obviously cannot do justice here to the thoughtful way in which Raz-Krakotzkin develops his Benjaminian-Exilic perspective. The stimulating potential of this essay, both politically and intellectually, cannot be overstated. Like Raz-Krakotzkin, I too am aware of Baruch Kurzweil's critique of Zionist scholarship which was voiced forty years ago. I intend to discuss it elsewhere.
18. Gershon Shafir, Land, Labour and the Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 1882-1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), Introduction.
19. Again, since my focus in this article is the Negation of Exile I cannot seriously discuss its twin-concept - the Return to the Empty Land. For a recent development regarding the latter concept see Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, 'Colonial Religious Nationalism: [A Review of] Yaacov Barnai, Trends in the Study of Eretz Yisrael 634-1881', in Ha'aretz Books' Supplement, 24 (1996) p. 12.
20. Raz-Krakotzkin, Part I, pp. 23-4, and Boas Evron, Jewish State or Israeli Nation? (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995), pp. 41-53.
21. Raz-Krakotzkin, Part I, pp. 23-4, and Boas Evron, Jewish State or Israeli Nation? (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995), pp. 41-53.
22. Evron, ibid., pp. 156-87.
23. Raz-Krakotzkin, Part I, op. cit., pp. 39-40.
24. Ibid.
25. Cited in Uri Ram, 'Zionist Historiography and the Invention of Modern Jewish Tradition: The Case of Ben Zion Dinur', in History and Memory, 7 (1995). An earlier version was published as 'Narration, Erziehung, und die Erfindung des judischen Nationalismus', Österreichische Zeitschrift fur Geschichtswissenschaften, 5 (1994), pp. 151-77. I am grateful to the author for permitting me to use and cite the forthcoming English version.
26. Cited in Uri Ram, 'Zionist Historiography and the Invention of Modern Jewish Tradition: The Case of Ben Zion Dinur', in History and Memory, 7 (1995). An earlier version was published as 'Narration, Erziehung, und die Erfindung des judischen Nationalismus', Österreichische Zeitschrift fur Geschichtswissenschaften, 5 (1994), pp. 151-77. I am grateful to the author for permitting me to use and cite the forthcoming English version.
27. Yitzhak Baer and Ben Zion Dinur, Our Purpose', Zion [Hebrew], 1 (1936), p. 1.
28. Ibid., pp. 2-3.
29. A systematic articulation of the rupture from the vantage-point of Zionist/Israeli historiography is offered in Dinur's introduction to his edited collection of texts and documents, Yisrael ba-Gola [the Jewish People in Exile], Vol. 1, Part I, (Tel Aviv: Bialik, 1958), pp. 5-56. In this essay Dinur constructs the proper (i.e. the Zionist/Israeli) model for the representation of Jewish history in the middle ages, and then highlights the flaws in the writings of all the foremost national Jewish historians throughout the nineteenth century; he shows, in other words, how the writing of each of them deviated from his model.
30. Evron, op. cit., pp. 153-73
31. cannot discuss the following important works here (and these are only a sample of a larger literature), but I intend to do it elsewhere: Tom Segev, 1949-the First Israelis [Hebrew], (Tel Aviv: Domino, 1984); Ella Shohat, Israeli Cinema: History and Ideology [Hebrew], (Tel Aviv: Mifras, 1991); idem, 'Making the Silences Talk: the Representation of the Woman and the East in Israeli Cinema', in Uri Ram (ed.), Israeli Society: Critical Perspectives [Hebrew], (Tel Aviv: Brerot, 1993); Sami Smooha, 'Class, Ethnic and National Cleavages and Democracy in Israel'; and Shlomo Swirski, 'Tomorrow', in Uri Ram, op. cit.
32. cannot discuss the following important works here (and these are only a sample of a larger literature), but I intend to do it elsewhere: Tom Segev, 1949-the First Israelis [Hebrew], (Tel Aviv: Domino, 1984); Ella Shohat, Israeli Cinema: History and Ideology [Hebrew], (Tel Aviv: Mifras, 1991); idem, 'Making the Silences Talk: the Representation of the Woman and the East in Israeli Cinema', in Uri Ram (ed.), Israeli Society: Critical Perspectives [Hebrew], (Tel Aviv: Brerot, 1993); Sami Smooha, 'Class, Ethnic and National Cleavages and Democracy in Israel'; and Shlomo Swirski, 'Tomorrow', in Uri Ram, op. cit.
33. cannot discuss the following important works here (and these are only a sample of a larger literature), but I intend to do it elsewhere: Tom Segev, 1949-the First Israelis [Hebrew], (Tel Aviv: Domino, 1984); Ella Shohat, Israeli Cinema: History and Ideology [Hebrew], (Tel Aviv: Mifras, 1991); idem, 'Making the Silences Talk: the Representation of the Woman and the East in Israeli Cinema', in Uri Ram (ed.), Israeli Society: Critical Perspectives [Hebrew], (Tel Aviv: Brerot, 1993); Sami Smooha, 'Class, Ethnic and National Cleavages and Democracy in Israel'; and Shlomo Swirski, 'Tomorrow', in Uri Ram, op. cit.
34. cannot discuss the following important works here (and these are only a sample of a larger literature), but I intend to do it elsewhere: Tom Segev, 1949-the First Israelis [Hebrew], (Tel Aviv: Domino, 1984); Ella Shohat, Israeli Cinema: History and Ideology [Hebrew], (Tel Aviv: Mifras, 1991); idem, 'Making the Silences Talk: the Representation of the Woman and the East in Israeli Cinema', in Uri Ram (ed.), Israeli Society: Critical Perspectives [Hebrew], (Tel Aviv: Brerot, 1993); Sami Smooha, 'Class, Ethnic and National Cleavages and Democracy in Israel'; and Shlomo Swirski, 'Tomorrow', in Uri Ram, op. cit.
35. cannot discuss the following important works here (and these are only a sample of a larger literature), but I intend to do it elsewhere: Tom Segev, 1949-the First Israelis [Hebrew], (Tel Aviv: Domino, 1984); Ella Shohat, Israeli Cinema: History and Ideology [Hebrew], (Tel Aviv: Mifras, 1991); idem, 'Making the Silences Talk: the Representation of the Woman and the East in Israeli Cinema', in Uri Ram (ed.), Israeli Society: Critical Perspectives [Hebrew], (Tel Aviv: Brerot, 1993); Sami Smooha, 'Class, Ethnic and National Cleavages and Democracy in Israel'; and Shlomo Swirski, 'Tomorrow', in Uri Ram, op. cit.
36. The elaboration of this argument concludes Raz-Krakotzkin's extended essay (Part II, pp. 22-31).
37. Ibid., p. 25.
38. On the issue of actual Jews needing to transform themselves into New Jews, see Evron's brilliant exposition, op. cit., pp. 213-30.
39. Ruth Firer, The Agents of Zionist Education [Hebrew], (Haifa: Afik, 1985); Avner Ben-Amos, 'An Impossible Pluralism? European Jews and Oriental Jews in the Israeli History Curriculum', History of European Ideas, 18 (1994), pp. 41-51.
40. Ruth Firer, The Agents of Zionist Education [Hebrew], (Haifa: Afik, 1985); Avner Ben-Amos, 'An Impossible Pluralism? European Jews and Oriental Jews in the Israeli History Curriculum', History of European Ideas, 18 (1994), pp. 41-51.
41. This periodization is offered by Ben-Amos, ibid. It corresponds with the periodization of the development of these history textbooks in general. See Firer, ibid., pp. 27-31.
42. Quoted in Ben-Amos, op. cit., p. 44.
43. This appalling list is based on a sample from the main textbooks prepared by Firer, op. cit., Appendix 1, p. 227.
44. The characterization of the first period is offered by Ben-Amos, op. cit. pp. 42-4. The interpretation of these textbooks on the basis of how Orientalism functions within it is my own.
45. S. Horowitz, An Abridged History of Israel in the Modern Era, Vol. 1 (Haifa: Ha-Re'ali School, 1937), pp. 169-70.
46. My impression is derived from the multi-volume textbooks of the history of the Jewish People by S. Horowitz (1937), A. Yisraeli (1952), M. Qatan (1958), S. L. Kirshenbaum (1965 and 1969), Y. Riger (1952-54) and E. Shmu'eli (1970). This impression is shared by Ben-Amos, op. cit., pp. 42-3 and Firer, op. cit., pp. 27-9 and elsewhere throughout her book.
47. My impression is derived from the multi-volume textbooks of the history of the Jewish People by S. Horowitz (1937), A. Yisraeli (1952), M. Qatan (1958), S. L. Kirshenbaum (1965 and 1969), Y. Riger (1952-54) and E. Shmu'eli (1970). This impression is shared by Ben-Amos, op. cit., pp. 42-3 and Firer, op. cit., pp. 27-9 and elsewhere throughout her book.
48. On this sociology see Uri Ram, 'Society and the Social Sciences: Establishment-Sociology' [Hebrew], in idem (ed.), op. cit., pp. 7-39.
49. S. N. Eisenstadt, 'The Social Significance of Education in View of the Incorporation of Immigrants' [Hebrew] Megamot, 3 (October 1951), pp. 330-41.
50. Though formulated within a different conceptual framework, Ben-Amos, op. cit., pp. 48-9, shares this observation.
51. Shmuel Ettinger (ed.), History of the Jews in the Islamic Countries [Hebrew], Part I: The Modern Era - until the middle of the nineteenth century (Jerusalem: Shazar Centre, 1981), Part II: From the middle of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century (Jerusalem: Shazar centre, 1986).
52. This book warrants a thorough examination which I intend to carry out but cannot venture here. To complete the present discussion, I refer only to Ettinger's introductions to each of the book's volumes.
53. Ibid., Vol. I, p. vii.
54. Ibid., p. viii.
55. IbId.
56. Ibid., pp. x-xi.
57. Ibid., p. xi.
58. Ibid., Part II, p. 11.
59. Dekel Shefal-Tzameret, a documentary film, 1992. Produced by Amit Brauyer, directed by Ayelet Heller, script by Rivka Yogev and Ayelet Heller, edited by Rivka Yogev.
60. See Benedict Anderson (1991), op. cit., 'Census, Map, Museum' and 'Memory and Forgetting'; and Pierre Nora, 'Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memoire', Representations, 26 (1989), pp. 7-25.
61. See Benedict Anderson (1991), op. cit., 'Census, Map, Museum' and 'Memory and Forgetting'; and Pierre Nora, 'Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memoire', Representations, 26 (1989), pp. 7-25.
62. See Benedict Anderson (1991), op. cit., 'Census, Map, Museum' and 'Memory and Forgetting'; and Pierre Nora, 'Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memoire', Representations, 26 (1989), pp. 7-25.
63. I am of course familiar with Chatterjee's work on nationalism and, in particular, his criticism of Anderson with which I am not sure I agree. I intend to discuss it elsewhere.
64. Partha Chatterjee, 'Their Own Words? An Essay for Edward Said', in Michael Sprinker (ed.) Edward Said. A Critical Reader (Oxford and Cambridge: Blackwell, 1992), p. 194.