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CHAPTER 8 pIsrael and ZionismP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Introduction Narratives about the Land of Israel (also known as Palestine before the establishment of the State of Israel), appear in only a few early 20th-century Jewish books for children. The concluding tale in Rufus Learsi’s Kasriel the Watchman (The Jewish Publication Society, 1925) expresses a yearning for Zion as two brothers, long separated, reunite in what the author calls “the Ancient Land.” The first collection of Weilerstein’s K’tonton stories, The Adventures of K’tonton, (Women’s League of the United Synagogue, 1935) has several stories about rebuilding Eretz Israel and later, Weilerstein wrote an entire book about K’tonton’s adventures there. Hillel’s Happy Holidays by Mamie Gamoran (Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1939) includes a few stories set in Israel and in one of the later editions of that book, Hillel’s father describes to him how Israel is a democracy like the United States and his mother tells him that “many Arabs live in Israel now … all these different people vote in Israel just as we do in America. They are citizens of Israel too.”19 In the first bibliography of Jewish children’s books published in Volume 5 of the Jewish Book Annual (1946–1947) Fannie Goldstein listed six books with copyright dates ranging from 1937–1945, in a section she called “The Palestine Scene.”20 The first books about Palestine/Israel expressed high-minded Zionist ideals and showed how children in America could help fulfill them. Mamie Gamoran’s mention of Arabs in Hillel’s Happy Holidays is an exception; the focus was usually on Jewish immigrants to Palestine, their courage, their fortitude, and their joy in rebuilding the land so that “the waste places were turned into gardens, hamlets became towns, and towns became cities … And over all reigned Beauty that was also Truth and Reverence.”21 Although the style has become much less florid, the sentiments in more recent books like Sheila Segal’s Joshua’s Dream (1985, 1992) remain much the same. After the establishment of the State in 1948, many more children’s books about Israel began to be published, with increased numbers during years where an anniversary of the founding was given special attention. Marcia Posner, writing about 50 years of Jewish children’s books in Volume 50 of the Jewish Book Annual (1992–1993) notes that “Books on Israel, both fiction and non-fiction, dominated the Jewish children’s book scene for the entire decade [of 1962–1972].”22 The Youth Aliyah, which brought thousands of endangered and homeless children to Israel before and after the Holocaust, was a popular subject, often showing how differences in nationality and customs were overcome on the soil of the Jewish homeland. The kibbutz was the perfect expression of all that was unique and heroic about Israel and both fiction and non-fiction books explored kibbutz life. Books about Israeli-Arab relations were initially optimistic about the chances for peace; “wishful thinking,” in Posner’s words citing Louise Stinetorf’s The Shepherd of Abu Kush (John Day, 1962) and Thelma Nurenberg’s My Cousin, the Arab (Abelard-Schuman, 1965).23 The 203 tone of these books has changed over the years because of wars, terrorism, and failed peace initiatives, and has become sadder and more wistful. But because children’s literature is expected to convey hope, books now emphasize individual reconciliation, showing an Arab child and an Israeli child overcoming their hostilities because of a particular incident such as a shared love of soccer, caring for a homeless cat, or through personal dialogue. Modern Israeli history has been amply covered in non-fiction and in stories about young Holocaust survivors helping to build and protect the State, in novels set during Israel’s wars, and in those dealing with the rescue of Ethiopian Jews. Israeli and Zionist history is also explored in biographies of leaders and heroes who gave their lives for their country, such as Yoni Netanyahu, Yitzhak Rabin, and Ilan Ramon. Terrorism is a very difficult subject for authors of children’s books to handle, and most avoid it. Real Time by Pnina Kass confronts terrorism head on, leading to debate among adults as to whether it is a suitable book for the teenagers for whom it was written. The Association of Jewish Libraries’ Sydney Taylor Committee gave Real Time the award for older readers in 2004, but that has not stemmed the controversy. A new and disturbing trend in non...

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