Perfect Heroes: The World War II Parachutists and the Making of Israeli Collective Memory

5. “An Example for Both Youth and Adults”: Commemoration of the Parachutists’ Mission in Israeli Youth Movements, Schools, Literature, and Culture from the 1950s to the Early 1970s

149 5 “An Example for Both Youth and Adults” Commemoration of the Parachutists’ Mission in Israeli Youth Movements, Schools,Literature, and Culture from the 1950s to the Early 1970s R With resolved heart / did he set out for war, A war drenched in blood / a war from which no man would return. On a pleasant spring morning / did he set out with his comrades He parted from his wife / and his daughter did he kiss And headed for foreign soil / and then vanished/like the roar of a cannon. And when he returned / it was already too late. . . . Bold heartedly did he set out / the man of war. Migdal Zohar, “Shaked,” a fourth-grader Introduction “Young people today know nothing about the parachutists’ operation except perhaps the name of Hannah Szenes. And they are not interested in probing the history of the Yishuv,” was the conclusion of the editor of Huliyon, the newsletter of Kibbutz Sde Nehemia, on the operation’s twentieth anniversary.1 Several weeks earlier the editor of Lamerhav had expressed a contrasting view: “The educational power of the parachutists’ daring and courage during their bold mission has not ebbed even after twenty years, and that potency will still leave its positive marks on Israeli youth and be expressed throughout the ordeals that still await them.”2 Which of these two views more accurately reflects the attitude of Israeli youth toward the parachutists’ operation less than one generation after Israel won its independence? Was Yitzhak Sadeh wrong when he stated at Hannah Szenes’s funeral that “impressions like these . . . leave their imprints on the spirit of the people, in the soul of youth”?3 This chapter deals with how the youth movement, the educational system, and various literary and cultural circles commemorated the parachutists ’ operation from the 1950s to the early 1970s. By examining some of the major players in Israeli national culture during the period in question, one can determine their effect on the human psyche. Historian Carlo Ginzburg has described this metaphysical encounter between culture and psyche and has analyzed the dialectical relationship that exists among the various levels of culture that shape our surroundings. According to Ginzburg, researchers have struggled to liberate themselves from the paternalism and narrow-mindedness that prompted them to relate only to “high culture.” Once freed, they discovered the “grassroots culture” and subcultures to which social strata of different national or religious origins adhere. The essence of these cultures is often hard to gauge since their transmission is usually nontextual. However, it is precisely in the fields of remembrance and commemoration, which can be analyzed only by deciphering various social and cognitive “codes,” that one may discern their essence and influence. Whereas “official” commemoration mainly reflects the dominant culture, grassroots commemoration gives free rein to the influence of all cultures that comprise the individual’s world.4 Unlike previous chapters, which focused on Israel’s dominant political culture, this chapter deals with the imprint of the parachutists’ operation and its heroes on the country’s Jewish subcultures, including Orthodox, ultra-Orthodox, Revisionist Zionists, Communists, and even immigrants. The period in question was marked by a technological revolution that had educational and cultural implications for much of the world. Technological innovation during those years included the long-playing record, the transistor radio, and commercial television, whose mass consumption revolutionized the educational and cultural discourse of the Western world. It was the transistor radio that first provided young Israelis with direct exposure to different cultural patterns and introduced pop icons that soon became international cult heroes and threatened to usurp traditional national heroes like the parachutists. Education was the second social sphere that metamorphosed in the aftermath of the World War II. By requiring people to possess a secondary or higher-leveleducation,thetechnologicalrevolutionaffectedtheeducational 150 The Symbol policies of most developed countries. In Israel the state education system and curricula during those years had to maintain a precarious balance that typically exists in a society striving to plan its future while still confronting its past. These curricula reflected a dual purpose: to impart a nativist standard Israeli culture to the children of mass immigration while also teaching pupils more about Jewish life in the Diaspora, especially the Jewish historical heritage and culture. The sociotechnological revolution also had an effect on culture. In Israel this cultural revolution took on characteristics that clashed with the aims of state...