Pioneers and Homemakers: Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel

1.Through the Eyes of a Settler's Wife: Letters From the Moshava

1 Through the Eyes of a Settler's Wife: Letters From the Moshava --- Ran Aaronsohn Introduction* Both men and women took part in the resumption of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel during modern times. Most of the twenty-eight moshavot (private rural settlements) of the First Aliyah (Jewish immigration to Israel), (1882-1904), came into existence as family communities (Aaronsohn, 1983). Nevertheless, it is possible to assume from the source material of the period, as well as from memoirs committed to writing at a later date, that the role of women in the settlement effort was minor and marginal in comparison with the role of men. This is a mistaken assumption, in my opinion. The sources, especially the primary sources, were written mostly by men, as may be expected in a society of immigrants with a traditional character. One of the first and only sources written by a woman living in one of the moshavot is presented below.* The purpose of this chapter is to depict some features of the life of a woman and her surroundings (e.g., her house and her community ) in the moshavot of the early period of modern Jewish settlement , by presenting original source material: two letters which were written during the years 1889 and 1890 by a woman who settled in Zikhron Yaakov, one of the first Jewish moshavot in the Land of Israel. The chapter is divided into three sections. The opening section *I would like to thank Dr. Debbie Bernstein, Dr. Ilan Solomon, and especially Professor Ruth Kark, for their comments and contributions to the writing of this article. 29 30 Ran Aaronsohn discusses the role of the woman in the early moshavot, in the source material of the period written by women, and the document presented below. The middle section includes the document itself, which consists of two letters, as well as a series of notes clarifying various references in the two letters. The final section consists of a discussion of the document as a means of examining the role of the woman and the family in the moshavot of the First Aliyah on the one hand, and as a reflection of general trends and settlement processes , on the other. Our assumption, which we will try to back up with the help of the two letters, is that the highly personalized descriptions provided by the author in her letters enable us to draw conclusions on two levels: the "micro" level involving events in the daily life of the author and her immediate surroundings, and the "macro" level involving events in the life of the community. Needless to say, this paper makes no attempt at assessing the factual validity of all the details given in the source material; such an assessment requires, of course, corroboration from other sources. As a result, the discussion which follows will go beyond the details described in the letters (which are quite interesting in their own right), and will emphasize the allusions to the broader framework of general developments which characterized the early moshavot . Thus, the reactions of the author to the problems which she encountered when settling in Zikhron Yaakov, will be used as a basis for depicting the characteristics of the society of the early moshavot as well as the position of women in this society. A. Source Material of the Early Settlement Period Pertaining to Women Even though most of the wives of the settlers were relatively educated, they did not participate in the life of the community by writing. Thus, there was a paucity of written documentation regarding their lives which created a historiographical bias against them. Nevertheless, it is possible to glean information regarding some of the early women settlers from the sources. In general, this information pertains to women who were unusual in terms of their independent activities, mostly single women, who were not overshadowed by men. Three such women who were active in the first decade of settlement are Golda Miloslawsky, a widow who immigrated to Israel (then Palestine) with her family and cultivated her Through the Eyes of a Settler's Wife 31 small property in the young settlement of Nes Tziona; Batya Makov, who separated from her husband in order to immigrate to Israel and settled with her sons and daughters in the moshava of Rehovot, which had just been founded; and Ita Felman, who continued living with her large family in their orange grove ("Bayara") which had been established in an Arab village near Jaffa...