From Schlemiel to Sabra: Zionist Masculinity and Palestinian Hebrew Literature by Philip Hollander

Abstract

Reviewed by: From Schlemiel to Sabra: Zionist Masculinity and Palestinian Hebrew Literature by Philip Hollander Lina Tuschling Hollander, Philip. From Schlemiel to Sabra: Zionist Masculinity and Palestinian Hebrew Literature. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2019. In From Schlemiel to Sabra, Philip Hollander offers a nuanced and well-researched view on the emergence of Zionist masculinity in the years prior to statehood. A scholar of Israeli literature and culture, Hollander shows that a counter to the dominant narrative of the emergence of Zionist Israeli masculinity, the sabra identity, was developing concurrently: self-evaluative masculinity. With Jewish communities facing existential threats in Europe and Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century, the need arrived for reenvisioning Jewish [End Page 435] identity that was consistent with Zionist ideals of establishing Israeli statehood and active self-defense. Gender played a crucial role in this attempted transformation in the literary works, as Hollander shows: "Agnon was employing gendered representations to communicate his belief that the Jewish people were in crisis. Portrayed as feminized, the Jewish people needed to undergo change to survive and thrive" (63). The "new Jew" was defined in contrast to the diasporic Jew and focused largely on redefining the Jewish man. The Yiddish word schlemiel describes the diasporic Jew as "an awkward, clumsy person, a blunderer; a 'born loser'; a 'dope' or 'drip'" (3). While there was consensus in the Jewish communities about the need to transform perceptions and, importantly, self-perceptions of the Jewish man in Palestine, little research has investigated the lesser-known strands of the cultural transformation attempts. The dominant perception of Jewish (Israeli) masculinity rests on the sabra identity, at the core the body centered ideal image of a stereotypically masculine fighter willing to fight and die for his country and nation. Focusing on self-evaluative masculinity, Hollander presents a form of Zionist masculinity that "did not achieve a hegemonic cultural position within the New Yishuv" (19). Shaped by homosocial relations and the willingness to include aspects of diasporic life into the new identity, self-evaluative masculinity stood in stark contrast to the sabra identity that sought a clear cut from life and identity in the diaspora. In the introduction, Hollander shares his own journey toward his keen interest in Hebrew literature in Palestine before Israeli statehood was realized. Together with the afterword, these two sections' focus on Jewish life and identity in contemporary Israel frame the discussion of the emergence of Jewish identity in Palestine. The five chapters in between examine the literary works of four influential authors: Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Yosef Hayyim Brenner, Levi Aryeh Arieli, and Aharon Reuveni. A brief biographical summary introduces these authors and puts their lives and works in the political and historical context, which is particularly useful for readers new to the realm of Hebrew Palestinian literature. Chapter titles reveal the different stages of the development of Zionist masculinity. The first chapter for example is titled "Holding Out for a Hero" and describes the existential threat to Jewish communities in the diaspora, the role gender and stereotypes played, and the need for the "new Jew." In the afterword Hollander examines the extent to which self-evaluative masculinity had a lasting impact on Israeli culture. Contrasting it to the popular sabra ideal, Hollander shines at showing the legacies of both. [End Page 436] The use of jargon makes parts of the book difficult to follow, particularly for readers less familiar with Israeli history. The few pictures of historical newspaper ads and articles are well chosen and complement the discussion extremely well but are used sparingly. While this book seems to be targeted at a niche audience, scholars of different disciplines would benefit from it. Foremost, those interested in understanding Israeli culture and how Israel's pre-statehood times and diasporic identity developments still influence society today will find this book very informative. Scholars of collective identities and cultural transformation processes will find Hollander's analysis enriching as well. Overall, the book is an informative, critical, and deep-diving account of gendered representation and shows that cultural transformation is not a single line but in fact a multi-stranded composite of different forces, narratives, and processes which can occur simultaneously. With the sabra...