The Origins of Israel, 1882–1948: A Documentary History

11. Pioneer Women of the Second Aliyah

65 11 Pioneer Women of the Second Aliyah The Plough Woman consists of memoirs composed between 1915 and 1928. It was originally published in Yiddish in 1931 and then in various English editions. Compared with document 10, these memoirs demonstrate the difference in political consciousness, ideology, and everyday experience between women of the First and Second Aliyot. The Second Aliyah’s core of youthful, politically committed immigrants included women dedicated to establishing themselves as laborers and leaders, as equals to their male counterparts. Their dual struggle as Zionists and feminists was a trying one, as their strivings for equality in a pioneering society that championed images of strength and masculinity encountered considerable resistance from their male comrades. Moreover, once they began to have children, maternal and revolutionary-egalitarian drives clashed, leading to the search for new forms of child-rearing. ❖ Batya Brenner1 (Kibbutz Ein Harod) I Two days I waited for my sister Hemdah to take me down to the workers’ club [in Jaffa]. But she never had the time. And at last I decided to go there alone. Source: The Plough Woman: Records of the Pioneer Women of Palestine—A Critical Edition, ed. Mark A. Raider and Miriam B. Raider-Roth (Lebanon, N.H.: Brandeis University Press, 2002), 47–61, 156– 61. Used with permission of University Press of New England. A group of workers stood outside the building. As I drew up, not knowing a soul there, they looked me over curiously, and began to talk about me in friendly mockery. “Who’s this? Pretty, isn’t she?” “And doesn’t she know it! Look at the way she holds her head.” I went up boldly and answered, “Suppose I am pretty? What’s wrong with that?” Two young fellows stood apart, looking more impudent than the others. One of them called out, “We can see from your clothes that you aren’t a worker.” I answered in the same tone: “What have my clothes got to do with it? Here—is this the hand of a worker?” There was a shout of laughter, and voices: “That’s a worker’s hand. Big and hefty. Say, how old are you?” I answered, “I have a friend and she’s married.” “And what about you?” “If you’ll be nice boys, I’ll marry, too.” At this point my nerve broke down. I blushed and began to stammer. This was my introduction to the club. When I went inside I felt a strange chill of disappointment. The whitewash was peeling from the walls. The tables were small, without covers. At one table sat some workers drinking soup. The waiter came up to one of them, and said sharply, “Listen, you! You’ve taken two plates of soup and given me only one ticket. Where’s the second?” This was beyond me. What were tickets needed for? Didn’t they just put the soup on the table and let people eat whatever they wanted? Someone explained to me: “Every plate has to be paid for separately. You don’t think a kitchen can be conducted without some sort of account, do you?” “But I didn’t think you’ve got to check up on each man, how much he eats.” No, no, this was not what I had expected, and I felt a depression coming over me. The two laughing boys who had been standing outside came up to me. “Well, how do you like our club?” And without waiting for an answer one of them added, “I suppose you expected a great big hall, with lots of gold-framed pictures on the wall.” I answered frankly: “I didn’t quite expect gold frames. Only I thought the place would be simple in another kind of way.” “Well, what way?” “I did expect a big room. And I also expected big long tables. I don’t like little tables; it’s too much like a saloon. A big table is homier and friendlier—it 66 :     “ ” draws people together. And why can’t you have a white tablecloth on the tables? And why can’t you have pictures of the first halutzim [pioneers] on the walls, the first tillers of the soil?” “Why, of all things, the pioneers on the soil?” I answered: “Because we Jews have plenty of city workers everywhere, and there’s nothing new in that.” “And what else did you expect?” “You could have had...