First Contact: Origins of the American-Israeli Connection, Halutzim from America during the Palestine Mandate (review)
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A welcome addition to the history of American Jews in the Yishuv, First Contact delves into the origins of the tensions and conflicts between American Jews and the Yishuv Jews whom Matthew Silver calls "proto-Israelis" (2). Silver focuses on close examination of key individuals—Henrietta Szold, Gershon Agron, Judah Magnes—and organizations—the American Zionist Medical Unit (AZMU), the American Jewish Legion, and Ihud.
American Jews in the Yishuv were resented by many for their greater access to funds, and their ability to retreat to the comforts of American life. "There are no halutzim from America," it was said, meaning that Americans were too soft for the heroic self-sacrifice required of Zionist pioneers (352). The Americans' ideas, their attitudes, and even their behavior, set them apart. The acrimony engendered by these differences was sometimes expressed in startling ways. "America is at war against us!" proclaimed the Yishuv newspaper Ha-Po'el Ha-Tsair in a 1919 polemic against English speakers in the American Zionist Medical Unit (117).
Although American Jews and their organizations arrived in the Yishuv with good intentions and much needed resources, the locals often felt exploited and patronized. The taint of charity hung over every American enterprise. Conflicts arose over the use of English, over the high salaries paid to American professionals, and over suspicions that Americans preferred to hire other Americans. Locals felt squeezed out of coveted jobs and positions of influence. The Americans' insistence on adhering to strict protocols of managerial standards, professionalism, and efficiency often brought them into conflict with the social and political exigencies of Zionism and Yishuv life.
As head of the American Zionist Medical Unit, Dr. I. M. Rubinow frequently found himself caught in this culture gap. In one such instance, Rubinow got into trouble after refusing to hire Sarah Kalischer, the impoverished granddaughter of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer, as a midwife in Hebron. Kalischer contacted the World Zionist Organization in London and complained that she was considering leaving Palestine. Alarmed by this prospect, Zionist officials in London contacted the Zionist Commission in Palestine. The Commission pressured Rubinow until he reluctantly agreed to provide Kalischer with a small stipend. Rubinow was infuriated by this interference. He had made a sound managerial [End Page 272] decision: Kalischer was incompetent, and Hebron's Jewish community was too small to warrant a full-time midwife. But Zionist officials were more concerned about the blow to Zionist morale if Rabbi Kalischer's granddaughter left the Yishuv.
Some Americans, like Gershon Agron and Henrietta Szold, successfully integrated into Yishuv society, and tried to serve as cultural interpreters between groups.
A committed Zionist, Agron moved permanently to Palestine in 1924. For more than thirty years, he worked as an English-language publicist for Zionist organizations, and was eventually elected mayor of Jerusalem. As a journalist, Agron was a thoughtful commentator on this clash of cultures. While acknowledging that American Jews played an important role in Yishuv life, Agron argued that their ongoing attachment to the United States, "leads to fault-finding, sometimes gratuitous, unworthy and frivolous fault-finding . . . . All things in Palestine are placed under American lenses. The standard of creature comfort is judged by the U.S. standard, the pattern of social usage compared to American matters, the scale of wages to the American scale. When judged this way, Palestine is unsuitable, if not intolerable" (176–7).
For her part, Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold sympathized with the Yishuv's desire to preserve its autonomy in the face of American influence. Over the years she tried to convince Hadassah leaders that the Yishuv needed their assistance but did not want American interference in local affairs. While Szold remained committed to American ideals of efficiency and organization, she grew increasingly estranged from American Jewry.
By contrast, Judah Magnes neither integrated nor found acceptance in Yishuv society. Even before he arrived in Palestine, Magnes was at the center of political controversy...
