­chapter 5 ’s Od Nowa

The people who were drawn to ’s left-​wing political parties were mostly those who reviewed their own political stances after arriving in Israel and, while continuing to lean towards the left, decided to abandon communism. Mapam strove to maintain contact with them and offered them a substitute for political involvement by establishing press publications for them. The initia- tive to publish a newspaper for the Gomułka came from Ignacy Iserles, a communist and journalist who had been a judge in postwar directly connected with the government. After his arrival in Israel, Iserles became a member of Mapam and then an editor of the Polish-​language newspaper Od Nowa [A Fresh Start], which was supported financially by Mapam.

5.1 Mapam and the New Olim from Poland

By the time the Gomułka Aliyah arrived in Israel, Mapam had evolved ideologi- cally from when it had been established in 1948.1 In the early period of its activ- ity (1948–53),​ Mapam aligned with the values of and sought a politi- cal alliance with the ussr. From 1952 onwards, its political direction changed. A breakthrough moment –​ and the reason for a split in the party – ​was when Mapam member Mordechai Oren2 was accused of espionage in . An

1 Mapam (Mifleget ha-​Poʿalim ha-Meʾuchedet)​ was established in January 1948 from Hashomer Hatzair and Ahdut HaAvoda–Poʿalei​ Tziyon (itself a merger of Ahdut HaAvoda with Poʿalei Tziyon two years earlier). Mapam advocated the nationalization of the economy, rejected cooperation with foreign capital, approved of Marxism, and supported the political system of the ussr. Ahdut HaAvoda members played a leading role in the yishuv and the armed forces (, ) and constituted a group that, unlike Hashomer Hatzair, had a much harsher policy towards the Arabs. Against the backdrop of nationalistic politics, there was disagreement and friction between Hashomer Hatzair and Ahdut HaAvoda commu- nities. Eventually, in 1954, a split took place: Ahdut HaAvoda withdrew its support of the ussr (this was influenced by the events of the Slánski trial in 1952, during which a member of Mapam, , was accused in of being an American spy and was deemed a form of imperialism), and most activists left Mapam. Moshe Sneh’s group left to join the Israeli communists. 2 Mordechai Oren (formerly Orenstein), son of Moshe and Chai (15 March 1905–27​ February 1985), was born in Podhajce (Galicia). Before World War i, he was active in the chalutz and hachshara movements (he was preparing to leave for Palestine). He arrived in Israel on 2

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2021 | DOI:10.1163/9789004450141_007 Mapam’s Od Nowa 223 attempt to cut off the extreme left-​wing branch of the party, led by Moshe Sneh and with support from , seriously weakened but did not entirely eliminate Marxist sympathizers; supporters of the “socialist order” continued to be present. After Khrushchev’s report3 and incoming testimonies of repres- sion from the ussr, including stories of racist persecution, the party stopped avowing unconditional attachment to Moscow. However, the language of Mapam’s activists in the 1950s freed itself from communist slogans and catch- phrases very slowly, and at party meetings they still described the world in Marxist terms, which perhaps sounded familiar enough to former communists from Poland to encourage them to support this party in elections.4 The devel- opment of the party’s ideology over this period might have set the party at an advantage for gaining the support of people who had, until recently, supported communism. The left-​wing orientation of the new olim from Poland fit well into Mapam’s profile. Some of them, not wanting to indiscriminately yield to nationalistic values, were looking for a party that would protect their communist past so they wouldn’t be forced to justify it by saying they had erred or had been polit- ically naive.5 Divesting oneself of the past or arbitrarily rejecting previous political activities seemed to some of the new immigrants to be just as objec- tionable as the repentance expected by Israeli communists after the anti-​ Semitic persecutions. On behalf of Israeli communists, Meir Vilner (née Ber

April 1929, at the port of Jaffa (Fourth Aliyah), with his family. In 1929 he became a mem- ber of the and Kupat Cholim [Health Fund], in 1930 he joined the Israel Association ( in Palestine), and in 1933 he became the secretary of the and a member of Brit Olamit Mapam [World Mapam Movement]. He also belonged to the editorial team of Al HaMishmar and the World Zionist Movement. He was a very active envoy of the party in many countries –​ for example, he went to Germany in 1934 and 1936 (when an aliyah arrived in Israel from Germany), and during the war of independence he obtained arms from Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland. He was arrested in Czechoslovakia in December 1951 and sentenced to 15 years in prison, which he left in May 1956; M. Oren, Reszimot asir Prag [Records of a Political Prisoner in Prague] (, 1958); P. Merhav, The Israeli Left: History, Problems, Documents (San Diego, 1980), 130–​38. 3 On 24–25​ February 1956, , secretary of the Communist Party of the ussr, presented a secret report titled “On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences” in which he unmasked his predecessor, Joseph Stalin. 4 Paz, Bein ideʾologiyah le-​pragmatizm: Tfisoteiha ve-​emdoteiha ha-​mediniyot ve-​ha-​bitchoniyot shel Mapam be-​shanim 1948–​1954 [Between Ideology and Pragmatism: Mapam’s Approaches, Political Image and Security Defense in 1948–​1954] (Jerusalem, 1993), 1, 171, 173–​80; E. Cur, Mapam 1948–​1954: Bein dimjon le-​maasijut [Mapam 1948–​1954: Between Imagination and Realism], (Tel-​Aviv, 1991), 1–​8, 13, 78; Merhav, Israeli Left, 92–​129. 5 Paz, Bein ideʾologiyah le-​pragmatizm, 176–​95.