Blind Spots in Portraiture: On Oz Almog's Ha-tsabar--Dyokan, Sabra: The Creation of the New Jew

Oz Almog's Ha-tsabar--Dyokan is a sweeping, vivid, troubling sociological study that portrays the cultural construction of an elite group. ¹ The tsabar is the main trope employed for the constitution of the (primarily masculine) New Jew on "his" land as the native whose naturalization in the land manifests itself in his features and character. Historically speaking, the tsabar is a relatively recent collective identity; Almog assigns it to those Jewish men who were "born at the end of World War I as well as in the 1920s and 1930s and educated in the social frameworks . . . [of Palestine's Jewish] labor movement," as well as to immigrant youths who were "assimilated into those frameworks" (13). Almog's definition of the tsabar, then, is a "cultural" one, focusing on the socialization processes that produced the sabras who may be viewed today as mythical leaders. (In Almog's periodization, those born since the 1940s no longer share the heroic hue that he studies.)

Since the sabra is arguably the central and most significant cultural artifact that Zionism produced in Palestine, Almog's decision to focus on the sabra and examine it directly--rather than as mere background for discussing topics such as Israeli culture, the Diaspora, Palestinians, Mizrahim, or post-Zionism--is truly exciting. Important as those other subjects are, their treatment of Zionism's main trope can only benefit from a detailed study that would provide them with a substantial background. Once the background is thoroughly studied, in other words, various actors can appear on the critical stage in a more informed way. Moreover, as with many central and powerful figures, the sabra is often taken for granted and escapes scrutiny by otherwise critical eyes. Almog's study of the sabra, therefore, offers the opportunity to open various blocked cultural passages.

A sociologist whose work focuses on Israeli popular culture, Almog teaches at the Emek Jezreel College. En route to discussing the sabra, Almog writes about the relationship between his research subject and himself:

I tried as much as I could to relate to the documents' content with . . . objectivity. . . . Yet, the scientific approach . . . cannot cancel feelings. . . . More than once or twice did the heart shrink and the eye shed a tear while reading the letters or poems of a young man, imbued with hope and aspirations, whom death had suddenly taken. . . . I hope . . . to be regarded . . . as one who tried to erect--through [these men's] writings-- a modest monument to such an important epoch in the history of our people. (12)

It is interesting to note that, despite his ideologically charged subject, Almog seems to believe in "objectivity" as a scholarly value. Reading his book, however, reminds us, once again, that objectivity is only in the eyes of the beholder. Almog looks at the institutions that created the tsabar or, as he may term them, the frameworks of socialization where this collective subject developed. Focusing on the "typical sabra frameworks" that have created the "quintessential sabras" who "completely or almost completely fit the entirety of the characteristics described in the book," Almog discusses what he defines as an elitist "minority" or a "generational kernel." "The big gap," he writes, "between the sabras' low rate in the population [on the one hand] and their huge cultural weight [on the other] may very well be the key to their charm and significance in the history of Israeli society and culture" (14).

Almog goes on to unravel the features of the "quintessential sabra" that he defines in admiring essentialistic terms. Captured in the "charm" that he studies, Almog cannot be expected to be too critical. He opens his introduction by explaining the sabra's significance as a "cultural archetype" and moves on to discuss what he terms the "idealist inebriety," including "Zionist religion," "nationalist socialization," and patriotism in sabras...