The Nation State and the Promised Land

From his three-month-long stay in Israel in 1949, American Yiddish writer Solomon Simon reports on the experiences and attitudes of ordinary Jewish people, recounting conversations with schoolchildren, a falafel vendor, police officers and soldiers, young and old kibbutzniks, a bookseller and an Orthodox man, strolling on the street with his son on Shabbes. Their voices come alive across languages and decades as they speak about their sacrifices, about their euphoria at having just won independence, about the satisfactions and frustrations of their lives, about their fears and, above all, their hopes for themselves and for their new nation.

Simon had an unusual attitude towards Israel, a deeply ambivalent one, and one that ultimately made him few friends, whether among Israel’s supporters or its opponents. Of course, the Israel described in the book is very different than the Israel of today. Neither is Jewish America what it was — the absence of a Yiddish readership is one obvious sign of that. But the relationship between Israel and the diaspora is a burning topic, never more so than now. Solomon Simon’s take on that relationship in 1949, with his combined love of the people and the land and his critical truth-telling about the moral sacrifices inherent in its establishment as a nation state, is surprisingly relevant for our understanding today.

To begin with the Introduction, click here.