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Zionist
Century - Programming and Activities - Building the Foundations
Curriculum & Programming
Future Options for Young People, dateline 1936:
Role Cards for Simulation
by Gila Ansell Brauner & Barbara Weill
 Note:
Please use the website as indicated for the appropriate linked references,
or read the following file for additional information.
You are an excellent student and would like an academic qualification.
The following academic institutions can offer undergraduate courses:
- The Hebrew University of Jerusalem [founded 1925] - Humanities, Social
Sciences, Arts, Sciences
- The Bezalel School of Art, Jerusalem - Fine Arts
- The Haifa Technion - Sciences, Engineering, Mathematics etc.
Tuition is in Hebrew; any choice will mean leaving home in Tel Aviv.
Sciences at the Technion are an attractive prospect for the future and
employment in an increasingly industrialized society, but Jerusalem offers
more developed student life.
Your wish to pursue your studies is part of your belief in the development
of the Yishuv, the future Jewish state to which you want to contribute.
The country needs its own specialists, its own intelligentsia and homegrown
leadership.
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You are an outstanding student and want to pursue an academic qualification.
Unfortunately, not all the possibilities are currently available in the
Yishuv; for many areas of study, the major specialist are abroad, necessitating
a temporary absence. You speak English, German and some French.
Your options are:
Medicine, dentistry - Britain
History, Humanities, Social Sciences, Music - US, Britain
Art - Paris
This expensive proposition will be assisted by three parties: relatives
and friends abroad, who will help you acquire a student visa and provide
accommodation; your parents, who will fund the studies; and yourself,
working as a Hebrew teacher to provide the extras.
You believe that trained professionals are important to the Yishuv's
economic development as well as its status in the Jewish world and to
the major powers. Your education will enable you to make a significant
contribution to the independent growth and development of a future Jewish
state.
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You wish to become a Hebrew language journalist. The following newspapers
might be able to offer you a first job in the profession, all centered
on Tel Aviv:
- Davar - Histadrut [Labor Federation] financed daily paper, affiliated
to the labor movement.
- Hazit Ha'am - Revisionist movement financed daily.
- Haboker - Trade and industry daily newspaper.
- Hatzofeh - Mizrachi [Religious Zionist] party daily.
- Mishmar - The Yishuv's left-wing newspaper.
Your other option is radio-broadcasting, as a journalist. You could try
to find a position at the Palestine Broadcasting service, which was set
up by the British mandatory regime. Programs are produced in English,
Hebrew and Arabic and the service operates from Jerusalem.
For you, Hebrew journalism is connected to your wish not only to be part
of the Jewish cultural revival in the country, but also to make your own
contribution to a future Jewish state, by appealing to all Zionists to
unite in this effort.
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The Yishuv is not providing even 50% of its own raw materials, including
agricultural produce, yet there is an expanding home market for all production.
Similarly, the export and construction industries are not expanding, because
of lack of facilities, insufficient production capacity and lack of manpower.
Road improvements are also critical to improving the country's infrastructure.
It's all a vicious circle, which may have been broken in the past year
with doubled investment and production figures: a larger industrial work
force could break, since the investment capital is there. The Yishuv needs
to become more self-sufficient and to create income - to finance further
development.
You have not yet decided which sector is suitable for you: industry [heavy
industry, food processing, textiles etc.] or construction [housing, materials,
roads], but you believe in the value of labor generally and acquiring
a skill in this area. If you are good at your job, you will be promoted
and always be able to bring in a wage, as well as make a contribution
to society.
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You went to the recent biennial "Levant Fair" in Tel Aviv, which aims
to promote local and international businesses, and you became convinced
of an enormous potential for economic growth within the business and industrial
sector in the country.
The Yishuv is in the process of unprecedented economic growth, because
of a new influx of capital from Olim - new immigrants - and the development
of local market outlets. You would like to be part of the process of building
up the country by creating economic expansion. You see two sides to this
endeavor: establishment of dynamic new industries and the marketing of
their products.
It is not easy to make up your mind which sector would be best for you:
there is a wide range of products, too - agricultural produce and the
food industry, textiles, clothing, metal, machinery, the chemical industry,
building materials. It might be an idea to start with a safe product,
such as exporting citrus fruits or Dead Sea potassium.
Another decision you have to make is whether to join one of the big Yishuv
companies with Histadrut [Labor Federation] backing or set up an independent
business.
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You went to the recent biennial "Levant Fair" in Tel Aviv, which aims
to promote local and international businesses, and you became convinced
of an enormous potential for economic growth within the industrial sector
in the country. There, you met industrialists and businessmen from Egypt
and Lebanon, countries where you have relatives who could help you make
contacts. Travel arrangements and marketing would be no problem: there
are road and rail connections throughout the Near East, which have been
improved by the British.
Your idea is to create an import-export company to trade goods and produce
throughout the area: this would be good for marketing Yishuv industrial
and agricultural production over the entire Near East. Politically, you
would also be reinforcing trade relations with neighboring countries and
making a stake for peace for a future Jewish state in the region.
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The Yishuv is not providing even 50% of its own raw materials, including
agricultural produce, yet there is an expanding home market for all production.
Similarly, the export industry is not expanding, except for citruses.
In short, agricultural supply is lagging partly because of infrastructure,
partly because there has been little new settlement for over 10 years,
although recent attempts have been made to reestablish the settlements
destroyed or evacuated in the 1929 riots.
New settlements are being built near established kibbutzim: there is
an opportunity to move as a youth group into an older kibbutz for training,
with the option of staying on or moving to a new location. You believe
the kibbutz is the only option promoting social justice: it accepts everyone
as equals; work is shared; moreover, the kibbutz has already proven itself
effective economically, socially and culturally [see web site].
You will be acquiring agricultural skills and making a serious contribution
to developing the country; you will also move on with your friends and
make new ones; you have an opportunity to build your life through joining
the kibbutz.
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The security situation has worsened since many settlements and kibbutzim
were evacuated or destroyed in the 1929 riots; the British have limited
Jewish urban and rural expansion. In order to settle the country and ensure
a Jewish national home, settlements are needed and they must be able to
defend themselves. There is a legal loophole which allows constructions
completed in one day to remain and a system has been worked out to build
small settlements within these limits [see web site].
To build and to inhabit these new settlements, the Yishuv leadership
is looking for young people to recruit to the Tower and Stockade movement
from high schools and youth group graduates. You believe that the only
answer to the past riots is proper Jewish defenses for the Yishuv and
more settlement. You will initially be trained and sent out to set up
a new settlement, where you will defend not only yourselves, but secure
your region against attacks.
You will be making a serious contribution to developing and defending
the country; you will also move on with your friends and make new ones;
you have an opportunity to build your life through joining the Tower and
Stockade movement.
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You want to work as a shaliach [emissary] of the Yishuv abroad, primarily
in teaching the Hebrew language.
In your years at high school, you have been active in promoting Hebrew
as the language of study, culture and communication in the country and
have come to realize how important a common language is for the unity
of the Jewish people. The shlichut will be to Europe, as part of the hachshara
program to prepare young people for aliya, of which you will be a part
but you do not yet know to which country. This will mean you will be associated
also with the preparations for bringing illegal immigrants to Eretz Yisrael
[Ha'apalah], in the fight against the
recent British restrictions on legal immigration. You will be making a
contribution to the Zionist movement as a whole.
You also hope that you will improve your own foreign language skills
during this period; broaden your own cultural horizons; create links with
Diaspora Jewry, in order to understand and influence them.
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Since the kibbutz and moshav movements were founded, the major ideological
trends of Zionism have had little new to say about the kind of Jewish
country the Zionists should be building: there is a general trend to maintain
unity, protest British immigration restrictions and develop industrialization.
You, as a student and youth movement madrich [leader] feel all this is
irrelevant, ad hoc and amateur: Zionist youth movements need to lead the
way and this is where you want to work.
The current youth movements are [more details in
following file]:
- Betar [f. 1923]
- Bnei Akiva [f. 1929]
- Habonim [f. 1925 as Brit Ha'Olim]
- Hashomer HaTza'ir [f. 1916]
- Hehalutz [f. turn of century]
- Maccabi [f. 1921]
Young people, in your opinion, should be making an impact on the nature
of the future state - that is what Zionism means. You view the youth movement
as a means to enter the core of the Zionist leadership of the Yishuv and
promote Zionism as an ideology with practical policies, both in the Yishuv
and the Diaspora.
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You speak several languages and are active in your youth movement, which
is campaigning against British restrictions on Jewish immigration quotas
to Eretz Yisrael. Many young European Jews have been brought over legally
as part of the hachshara [trainee farmer] programs from Central Europe,
but these are not the only young people, families, academics desperate
for immigration certificates to enable departure.
So far, there is only talk about Aliyah Bet - the Haganah is looking
for other methods to bring people secretly into the Yishuv and is meanwhile
moving groups southwards for the journey - but you feel you must help,
with your languages, your large family abroad and widespread family connections.
You may even know some of these desperate people; when you have done as
much as you can, you will be ready to think about making plans for your
own future.
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Defense of Jewish settlements has always been problematic: the Turks
did not favor it and neither do the British. Defense of Jewish settlements
and Jewish neighborhoods is a necessity and the British have not shown
themselves willing to provide it: there has been occasional British encouragement
of Jewish self-defense, while - at other times - it has gone underground.
After the 1929 riots, there was increased enrollment in the Haganah and
there is now a country wide setup of training and operative units which
you could join. [See web site for more details.]
The Yishuv leadership founded the Haganah as part of a consensus on the
need for a Jewish defense force. Many of your friends from class and youth
movements will join up, even if they go out to work next year. You believe
that a Jewish defense force is a priority in these troubled times as well
as a right; British policy is restrictive in many areas: immigration,
settlement, defense - all of which are issues whose outcomes you can influence
through joining the Haganah.
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The Yishuv leadership founded the Haganah as part of a consensus on the
need for a Jewish defense force. The Haganah, however, is too conventional
and seeks British approval, for which it pays a heavy price. British policy,
however, is restrictive on many areas: Jewish immigration, settlement,
defense - and the Yishuv's development is being slowed down [see web site].
You believe that it is time to oppose British policy decisions in the
only way available - by going underground, training and planning operations
against the British regime and its representatives. Some of your friends
have joined Lehi from the youth movement or high school: you want to fight
for your beliefs on behalf of your country.
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