The Jewish farmer, the village and the world fair: politics, propaganda, and the “Israel in Palestine” pavilion at the Paris International Exhibition of 1937

Tzafrir Fainholtz,S Bell,C Pallini,M.H Maia,V Capresi,A Fisher

doi:10.1051/shsconf/20196310004

Abstract

At the Paris International Exhibition of 1937, a few steps from the Nazi Germany and USSR pavilions theYishuv(Palestine's Jewish Zionist community) had its own presence, the “Israel in Palestine” pavilion. Initiated by the Zionist leadership, the pavilion was a hybrid construct of modernist and traditional architecture; its front was made from concrete and glass, its rear modelled on Palestine's rural vernacular architecture, with arches and terraces. Inside the pavilion, the exhibition depicted the achievements of the Zionist Jewish resettlement project, presenting it as a solution for the so-called “Jewish question”. Conceived as part of an orchestrated effort by the Zionist movement to use the World Fair, the professional architectural media, writers, and architects to gain support for the movement's activities, the pavilion sought to present Palestine's settler society as both modern and well rooted, and to display the renaissance of nationhood through the representation of the Jewish farmer on the international stage.

Highlights

L’Exposition internationale des arts et techniques dans la vie moderne, the Paris international Exhibition of 1937, was the biggest exhibition of its kind during the 1930s, and was visually dominated by the state pavilions of Nazi Germany, designed by Albert Speer, and of the USSR, designed by Boris Yofan
Preceding the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the pavilion was initiated by organizations affiliated with the Zionist movement, as an instrument for displaying the achievements of the Zionist Jewish resettlement project
The frieze enveloping the main hall of the pavilion depicted scenes of the rural life that would resolve the “Jewish question”4, the plight of the persecuted Jews, through the birth of a new society of farmers and manual labourers, manifestations of a new, advanced society

Summary

Introduction

L’Exposition internationale des arts et techniques dans la vie moderne, the Paris international Exhibition of 1937, was the biggest exhibition of its kind during the 1930s, and was visually dominated by the state pavilions of Nazi Germany, designed by Albert Speer, and of the USSR, designed by Boris Yofan. An amalgam of “rational” architecture and oriental fantasy, the pavilion had been conceived as part of an orchestrated effort by the Zionist architectural and political milieu to disseminate and publicize the story of the Zionist movement’s cooperative rural settlements, and especially the cooperative settlements of the Kibbutz and the Moshav, abroad This endeavour incorporated the goodwill of international professional journals like the French L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, writers like Julius Posener, planners like Richard Kauffmann, and international architectural organization like the RIA (Réunions Internationales d’Architectes). Posener and Ratner’s depiction of the Zionist settlement project detailed its modernist image, and succeeded in depicting it in relation to the local traditions of Palestine’s vernacular This dichotomy was evident in the design of the “Eretz Israel” Pavilion at the 1937 World Fair, which was featured, in a short reportage of just a few pages, from the “Architecture in Palestine” segment of L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui. A mere five months after its opening in April of 1939, Germany invaded Poland and the migration of the Jews of Europe to become farmers in Palestine became, for a while, irrelevant

Conclusion

Brief Resume