Socializing Austerity: Imparting Legal and Moral Values in Children's Periodicals During Israel's First Years

The article examines the challenges of the rationing regime during Israel's first decade and presents its depiction in the central children's periodicals of that time. It shows how the restrictive consumption policy was mediated to children in the young state, the social roles that adults—the journals' creators—appointed to children during those lean times when the black market prospered, and the ways in which young readers were instilled with the need to conquer their longing for coveted goods and gather their mental and physical strength in the face of adversity.