The History of Child Placement in the Land of Israel During the Mandate

Anita Weiner, Ph.D. School of Social Work, Haifa University, Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Israel

It would probably have been more helpful to the general mental health and emotional well being of the young people in the Yishuv if the child care workers during those years had been more sensitive to the need for family continuity, and less judgmental about the family environment of children in placement.

Introduction

In 1975, about 54,000 Jewish minors in The period between the end of World War I Israel were living away from their family. This and the end of World War II was a period of number includes children living in children's major upheaval and continuing crisis for the institutions (not including those of kibbutzim), Jewish people as a whole, and for the Jewish foster homes, family institutions, high school population in the Land of Israel. Tens of dormitories and yeshivas. In that same year thousands of immigrants arrived during this there were about 959,000 Jewish minors period, and among them many thousands of (0-18), in the population, and thus about five children. The consistent rise in the absolute percent of the Jewish children under 18 were numbers of Jewish minors during the years in living away from home in 1975. Although the question was in particular a reflection of the exact number of children living away from major waves of immigration which arrived in home is difficult to find for most Western the mid-thirties, but also a reflection of the countries, from the numbers that were birth rate of the indigenous Jewish population. accessible to the researcher, it seems that the During these same years, there was a Israeli percentage is extremely high—for continuous rise in the number of children in instance approximately ten times higher than placement. This rise was greater in proportion in the U.S. or in Scotland for the same year. than the rise in child population, particularly towards the middle of the forties. The children One of the first goals of the research was thus in placement during most of the years in to attempt to discover the roots of this unique question were the victims of two World Wars, phenomenon in Israel. financial devastation, the illness and death of While searching for the sources of the parents, and the hardships of absorption into a present situation, it became clear that the new culture and environment. percentage of children living away from home was high during all the years of Israel's The Palestine Orphan Committee Statehood, and even prior to 1948. As the 1918-1928 search backwards continued in the archives of the Vaad Leumi, and the Jewish Agency, an World War I had a devastating impact on accumulation of evidence pointed to the the Jewish population in the Land of Israel. conjecture that it was the British Mandate Many thousands died of starvation and period in the Land of Israel which determined disease, and when the Relief Committee of the future developments in child placement for Joint Distribution Committee began its the tens of years that followed. It was thus activities in the summer of 1918, there were decided that the research site should be placed approximately 4,500 orphans in a Jewish in the Mandate period in order to examine population of 56,000. The majority of these these roots during their development, and the children were in Jerusalem, but there were trends which they determined. orphans in all the concentrations of Jewish

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population, such as Tiberias, Jaffa, Safed, children in them became self-supporting. In and Chevron. In that same year, there were in this way he felt he would prevent the creation existence five residential institutions for of a permanent solution to a temporary Jewish children in the Yishuv. The oldest was problem. Mikve Israel, an agricultural training school During this same period, there were established in 1870 for the purpose of training constant pressures on the P.O.C. by educators agricultural pioneers. There were also three who arrived from Germany and Russia, to Jerusalem orphanages which together could establish Utopian "Children's Villages" based accommodate about 500 children, and the on some current European models, for WWI Jewish Institute for the Blind which had been orphans. After Dr. Eder returned to England established in 1902 to serve the many child in 1923, the first of the "Children's Villages" victims of eye disease in the old city of was established by the P.O.C. in Zichron Jerusalem. Yaakov, with 60 orphaned girls age 12-15. In 1919, the Relief Committee decided to (Meir Shefeya). A few months later Giwat establish an independent Palestine Orphans' Hamoreh was established near Afuleh for 120 Committee (P.O.C.) with Miss Sophia Berger orphans brought to the Land of Israel fromthe as Director. This committee would be respon­ Ukraine by Israel Belin, and thus residential sible for handling the needs of the 4,000 institutions for children began to flourish. orphans in its charge until these children became financially independent. Dr. Montagu The Interim Period David Eder, a Jewish Zionist psychoanalyst 1928-1932 from England, created the format upon which the P.O.C. was structured, and was the After the P.O.C. ended its activities in 1928, ideological architect of its policies. It was Dr. and before the Social Welfare department was Eder's contention that children's needs could established in 1932, there were a number of best be met within their home communities, years when child placement activities were and he strongly opposed the creation of large primarily in the hands of the various women's residential institutions. He set up a Central voluntary organizations in the Yishuv. Their Jerusalem staff, with at least four local two major interests were in infant welfare and branches, and proceeded to locate, through in providing domestic science skills to young the use of about ten social workers, for every female pioneers. In many of the early child possible, the remnants of families which agricultural settlements, there were serious had survived. Wherever possible, the child's problems with food hygiene and child care, widowed mother was supported so that the and there was often a lack of enthusiasm on child could remain at home, or a relative was the part of the female collective members to found who was willing to raise the child with learn the required skills for basic hygiene and financial help from the P.O.C. Many hun­ food preparation. Between 1922 and 1945, the dreds of children were placed in "private Hebrew Women's Organization and WIZO families" (foster homes) who were also paid established eight domestic science and agri­ by the P.O.C. For several hundred full cultural training centers which accepted teen­ orphans for whom no family could be found, age girls for a period of two to three years in 12 small residential institutions were estab­ residence. Pioneer Women's Organization lished. Since, from Dr. Eder's experience, the cooperated with Wizo in the maintenance of staff of established children's institutions some of these centers, and in the 1930's tended to relate to children with cruelty, and to various orthodox women's voluntary organi­ isolate children from normal community zations began to set up domestic science involvements, he insisted that all 12 of these centers for religious girls. institutions be closed down as soon as the

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As to infant welfare, much activity went about in the local newspapers. The local into establishing the network of well-baby welfare offices which were rapidly being set clinics which flourished around the country, up were immediately pressured about these but, in 1924, Wizo decided to establish in "children of poverty," and the problem was Jerusalem a permanent resident institution for brought up for decision at the meetings of the infants. In 1928, a second such institution was Social Welfare Executive. There was no established in Tel Aviv, and, by 1945, hun­ compulsory education law in the Yishuv, and dreds of infants were placed in these many of these children roamed the streets institutions and in some smaller ones, set up in from an early age. If they were caught in an act the thirties and forties by women's organiza­ of theft, they were brought before the British tions. Magistrate who would either whip them or All the domestic science centers are still in send them to the Tul-Karm Reform school set existence, and although the Jerusalem Infant up by the British authorities, where the Home was finally closed in 1976, the Tel Aviv language was Arabic and there were no Kosher home is still flourishing, as are many of the food facilities for Jewish children. One of Miss smaller infants homes established a few years Szold's first accomplishments was the certifi­ later. During this same interim period, the cation of several professional Jewish social largest of the children's villages was estab­ workers as probation officers for the Jewish lished in Ben Shemen by Dr. Siegfried children brought to court. The probation Lehmann from Kovno. system she created was a sound one which has proven its stability over the years. The Social Welfare Department However, despite the community efforts of 1932-1939 the probation workers, during the first 2 years Although there were many voluntary of its activity, the Social Welfare Department organizations active in the field of social gradually developed a policy which strongly welfare, prior to 1932, there was no permanent emphasized the need for child placement over-all institution which would coordinate facilities in the Yishuv. Reports were sub­ their activities, determine priorities, and direct mitted by committees which pressed for the the local operations. In 1931 Henrietta Szold expansion of all existing children's residential was elected to the Executive of the Vaad facilities, and for the immediate creation of Leumi and was requested to form and head a new facilities to accommodate the many Department of Social Welfare. Miss Szold was children growing up in unsatisfactory con­ 71 years of age at the time, and had come to ditions in the city slums. Emphasis was placed the Yishuv in 1920 as the director of the on the need for creating a new "positive, rural Hadassah Medical Organization. She guided environment" for these children, rather than the organization in its remarkably successful on the need for improving their home environ­ pioneer medical work all over the country and ment. then spent a few years attempting to integrate In 1934, a Child Placement Bureau was a seriously divided Hebrew school system in established by the Social Welfare Department the Yishuv. Miss Szold entered the social under the direction of Siddy Wronsky, whose welfare project with considerable vigour and purpose was to coordinate the child placement skill, and with a determination to set up an activities of the local welfare offices. A card efficient country-wide network of local wel­ file was set up which efficiently listed the fare offices which would serve the needs' of names of all placement facilities, and a worker their local communities. was engaged to recruit families in rural areas For the first time, the slum neighbors of the to serve as foster homes or family institutions. Yishuv, with their alienated and unemployed Another file included the names of all children teenagers, were "discovered" and written in placement and the names of those awaiting

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placement. Within a year, the efficiency of the the idea of sending young Jewish Zionists to apparatus had a direct impact on the collective settlements in the Land of Israel. She "processing" of many hundreds of children, contacted various members of the Vaad and child placement went into high gear with a Leumi, including Henrietta Szold, in order to rising sense of urgency. enlist their cooperation in a joint endeavor Among the children included in the file between the Jewish community in Germany cards of the Child Placement Bureau, were the and the collective settlements in the Yishuv. children of the new immigrants who in 1935 Henrietta Szold's initial reaction was that and 1936 were reaching an all time peak for the there were too many children in the Yishuv in Mandate period. There were few community need of care and attention and that they services available for these children during should have priority in any placement facilities their first few months of adjustment, and few available in the land. However, after Hitler's schools were willing to accept temporary rise to power in 1933, the situation of. Jewish residents. The Placement Bureau found hun­ youth in Germany became more serious, and dreds of volunteer foster homes, and several Miss Szold was persuaded to accept the thousand children were placed in these homes Directorship of the new department which was for a period of up to a few months until the formed. Once she began, she devoted herself parents had found a home and employment. to the new enterprise with unstinting energy Although at first glance it may appear that until her death in 1945. such a solution was a humane and helpful one Although the first group of 12 German for the families concerned, in actuality the Jewish Youth arrived in the Land of Israel in impact of the first few months in a new November 1932 and was invited to Ben environment is a profound one for every child. Shemen by Dr. Lehmann, it was not until Having to cope with a separation from the February 1934 that the first group of 45 youth familiar surroundings of the past without the was accepted as a unit in a collective settlement support of their own family was in all (Ein Charod). The experiment was a success, probability a serious emotional setback for because on both sides there had been much many of the children involved, no matter how careful preparation. In Germany, only the well they seemed to be adjusting outwardly. healthiest and most emotionally stable youth The forced separation, and lack of familiar (aged 15-17) were selected and were exposed to interaction during the early days of the new a six month training program in preparation adjustment was not a positive contribution to for moving into a new pioneer environment. In family unity at a time of upheaval and crisis. the Land of Israel, Miss Szold personally However, once it began, the Child Place­ visited each of the collective settlements and ment Bureau continued to have a major training centers which volunteered to accept impact on the child placement process for the the youth groups and worked over every detail remainder of the Mandate period, particularly of their physical accommodations, and their within the Social Welfare Department of the work and study programs. No issue was Yishuv. considered insignificant, and each young person who arrived was given personal Youth Aliyah 1934-1945 attention if there were any problems. Miss Much has been written about the history of Szold was a strong believer in the significance Youth Aliyah and its ideological impact on the of a solid foundation for any worthwhile lives of many hundreds of young people who enterprise, and the basis of such a foundation were rescued from the impending holocaust was the careful attention to individual needs, and brought to the Land of Israel prior to the even in an increasingly massive enterprise. Second World War. It was Recha Frier, a One of the early problems to arise was the Berlin rebbitzen, who in 1932 first conceived issue of religious observance. Within the

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Zionist Jewish community in Germany there time World War II began, Youth Aliyah had were Orthodox, traditional, and secular become a rescue operation for all Jewish youth elements, and the question arose as to the in danger, and there were no longer any appropriate allocation of immigration certifi­ physical or emotional requirements for in­ cates. The British Mandate authorities very clusion in the program—only accessibility. carefully apportioned these certificates to the The age requirement disappeared as well, and Jewish organizations, who clamored con­ during the years of the war, particularly with stantly for more, and Youth Aliyah was the arrival of 876 children from Poland via apportioned a few hundred (up to a thousand) Teheran in February and August 1943, the such certificates yearly. It was decided that 25 average age of the children went down percent of these certificates should be issued to considerably. Orthodox youth, who began to arrive from the During the War years, when fewer children Spring of 1934. However, in the Land of were arriving from abroad to replace those who Israel, there was only one religious kibbutz had graduated, Youth Aliyah began to include and few religious moshavim, compared to in its program children who had been born and many secular kibbutzim and moshavim. Once raised in the urban slums of the Yishuv. By the the first large group of religious youth was mid-1940's hundreds of Yishuv children were absorbed in Kibbutz Rodges (later Yavneh), included in the ranks of Youth Aliyah there was a serious problem as to where to members and graduates. send the groups following. Miss Szold, who was under constant pressure from the religious The War Years 1940-1945 organizations in Germany, was accused of Three major child placement organizations discriminating against the Orthodox, and of were active during the war years in the Yishuv. attempting to place them in secular settle­ The first two organizations have been ments. In fact, she was extremely sensitive to described already during their earlier activities. the problem, and was deeply respectful of their The Youth division of the Department of needs. She began to pressure strongly the Social Welfare continued to function through religious organizations in the Yishuv to its local offices throughout the war years, and establish appropriate residential centers for the Child Placement Bureau continued to religious pioneer youth, but although many place children whose families were unstable, religious institutions were established (Kfar and for whom there were insufficient com­ Ha'Noar Hadati, Beit Mizrachi, etc.), the munity services available to prevent family demand was constantly greater than the dismemberment. Youth Aliyah, as described supply. One of the unanticipated consequences above, accepted immigrant children of all ages of this situation was that a growing percentage and in all physical and mental conditions of Youth Aliyah immigrants were not placed during the war years. The two departments in collective settlements on arrival. By the cooperated in serving children whose needs 1940's, the majority of Youth Aliyah place­ and qualifications fell into the jurisdiction of ments were in residential institutions, and the both. percentage has grown continuously over the The third major child placement organiza­ years. tion was one which was especially established Another problem was the growing pressure for the war years. The Soldier's Family on the Youth Aliyah Department to include Welfare Committee was set up to serve the youth from Austria, Czechoslovakia and needs of those families of the 26,000 Jewish Poland in its program. It was not until 1937 volunteers in the British army who were unable that youths from other countries were to handle the problems of employment and accepted. By then the situation of the. Jews in child-rearing that arose. During the five years Europe was steadily deteriorating and by the of its existence, the Soldiers' Family Welfare

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Committee was responsible for the placement training center has a clearly defined goal and a of 1,011 children from the families in its care. time limited training program which can be When the war ended, the continuing care of voluntarily selected by the potential trainee, those chil'dren who remained in placement was and it poses no potential threat as an turned over to the Youth Division of the Social institution to the family life of the child in Welfare Department. training. On the other hand, the children's villages had far more extensive goals, and a Child Placement Facilities: less defined time limitation. Children who Children's Institutions were sent to them were expected to undergo an During the Mandate period there were four ideological indoctrination which would make major categories of child placement facilities them more open to national Zionist pioneer in the Yishuv: children's institutions, foster ideals. homes, kibbutzim placements, and family The yeshivas and Orthodox children's institutions. Numerically, the most significant institutions which flourished during the by far was the extensive network of children's Mandate period were also interested in institutions. socializing the children in them towards a well As already mentioned, when World War I defined way of life. Quite a number of ended, there were five children's residential yeshivas were transferred during these years institutions in the Yishuv with about 550 chil­ from towns in Europe, and the young men dren. By 1945, there were over 150 institutions studying in them continued traditions that had housing more than 13,000 children. been established over the centuries. Residential In addition to the three Orthodox orphan­ institutions for Orthodox girls were also ages which had been established prior to established, and education for girls became WWI, at least three others were built during more accepted. this period. All of these orphanages were The infant institutions which were estab­ created for charitable purposes, with the goal lished accepted infants and young children of providing the minimum physical necessities from all over the Yishuv. Although the and a supervised traditional religious environ­ necessary hygienic conditions were provided to ment for the children in their charge. The assure physical survival, there was little regime was generally a strict one, and it was awareness of the deep needs of infants for hoped that the children would ultimately be permanent, long term emotional attachments absorbed into the Orthodox community of the and for individual attention. A minimum Yishuv. All of the orphanages were located in effort was made to assure the continued the centers of metropolitan Jewish population, involvement of parents with the children in and if family connections existed they were placement, and there were frequent situations neither encouraged nor discouraged. where parents were not located at all. When The children's villages which were estab­ the children reached school age, an attempt lished, on the other hand, were generally was made to find their parents, but if unsuc­ oriented towards a more rural and agricultural cessful, they were transferred to another ideological outlook, and urban family con­ institution and thus remained in limbo. nections were more actively discouraged. For children with special needs a series of There was seldom a categorical distinction institutions were established for deaf, made among educators and social workers, crippled, retarded, and emotionally disturbed between the children's villages and the children, and the institute for the blind was agricultural training centers for youth. expanded. Several of the established insti­ However, in point of fact, there was a tutions created special classes for children with significant difference between these categories learning disabilities, and many institutions for the children involved. An agricultural learned to cope with the delicate task of

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rehabilitating children who had been trau­ were responsible for the placement of children, matized by contact with the holocaust. growing emergency pressures dictated that quantity become a priority over quality. Thus, Foster Care after the 1920's, foster home care became a far During all the years of the British Mandate, less significant option in the child placement there were always a certain number of Jewish hierarchy, although it never completely dis­ children living in selected foster homes, who appeared as a placement alternative. had been placed by professional child-care Two unusual groups of children who found workers. This is a little known fact, and most their way into foster homes during the 1930's child-care workers today assume that foster are worth describing. The first was a group of home care was unknown many years ago. In 25 full orphans from Yemen. In 1936, the fact, the golden age of foster care in the Land Yemenite Community Council in the Land of of Israel was during the years 1918-1924, when Israel began to pressure the British Mandate the Palestine Orphan Committee was imple­ authorities about the desperate plight of many menting the policies of Dr. M. David Eder. In Yemenite Jewish families who were awaiting his orientation he strongly favored a home admission certificates in Aden. Among those environment over an institutional one, and the waiting were tens of full orphan children majority of children in care of the P.O.C. were whom the community council wanted to bring placed with relatives or in selected foster over in groups. The British authorities homes. requested that Henrietta Szold look into the When the Social Welfare Department began situation, and she suggested that the Yemenite its activities in 1932, child placement was the Council find among its members a sufficient major focus of the Child Welfare Services, and number of families living in the Yishuv who foster home care was originally considered an would be willing to support the orphans until equally acceptable alternative for child place­ they reached majority. A list of 35 such ment. Sophia Berger, who had directed the families was sent to Miss Szold, along with P.O.C. and had accumulated many years of separate certificates signed by a notary public, experience in child placement, was invited by testifying to the financial stability of the Henrietta Szold in 1932 to present her families. A list of 28 children in Aden was also approach to the new members of the Social enclosed, and the admission certificates were Welfare Executive. She spoke in favor of secured for 25 (three were by then over age). foster home care, but her approach was The children were placed among the families strongly disputed by the majority of the who had volunteered. Several years later, in a members present at the meeting. The general summary statement about the activities of the consensus was that it was easier to raise money Yemenite Council, it was stated that all the for children's institutions and that the Yishuv children had been absorbed into their local community was more supportive of insti­ communities, and thus a unique foster home tutional placement than of foster home care. operation was completed. Gradually, over the years, although foster The second unusual group in foster home homes were always sought, particularly in the care, was the group of Youth Aliyah rural areas, it became apparent that foster youngsters who were sent to the homes of home care required considerable professional agricultural workers in the moshavim. The support and intervention, and that foster issue of whether these placements would work homes did not have the long term stability nor was a delicate one. The families in Germany the absorptive capacity of the residential who early sent their teenage children to the institutions. Although the young children Land of Israel were determined that the placed in foster homes may have experienced a experience of their children be one with more nurturing environment, for those who considerable ideological input. The idea of

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having these young pioneers exploited by of pressure came during the war years. private farm workers was rejected emphatically Soldiers from the kibbutzim who served in by most. However, there were some Youth army units with urban family men were often Aliyah workers who felt that the practical and touched by the hardships of their families. agricultural experience a teenager would get Many soldiers pressured their kibbutzim to in such a farm family, as well as the warmth of absorb for the duration of the war the children a home atmosphere, might be of sufficient of comrades serving with them, and 56 such benefit to outweigh the disadvantages. It was children were accepted. In 1945, there were decided to work towards a compromise with 3,667 children of members living in the the moshavim involved. The Youth Aliyah kibbutzim, and about 600 "outside" children youngsters should be allowed to follow their placed as individuals. own study program together daily, with their One could almost say that the history of own group leader, and they should be given child placement in the kibbutz is a miniature time off for their own separate group reflection of the history of child placement in activities. Nahalal, which was the first moshav the Yishuv. The problems experienced by the to accept a large group of Youth Aliyah Yishuv population were often translated in teenagers, readily accepted the conditions concrete form through requests for child requested, and other moshavim followed suit. placement in the kibbutz children's homes. There were times when as many as five to ten In addition to these "individual outsiders," percent of the Youth Aliyah children were in there were the large numbers of Youth Aliyah the family homes of agricultural moshav teenagers already referred to who found their workers. way to the kibbutzim in collective, self-con­ tained units of 20-40 young people. The The Kibbutz as a Child Placement Option kibbutz provided them with separate living As soon as the first children's homes in the accommodation, with an ideologically oriented new kibbutzim were established, friends and environment, and with much concrete relatives of the young settlers began to request agricultural training. Many of the teenage that these children's homes accept "outside units remained together and went out to form children" for a period of time. Urban families the nucleus of new collective settlements. in the Yishuv who were having financial Although they were soon the minority in the problems or marital problems, turned to the- ranks of Youth Aliyah, it is the image of these kibbutzim for help with their children. New groups which is most frequently called to mind immigrant families who had relatives in the when Youth Aliyah is discussed, even today. kibbutzim requested that their children be Over the years, however, the vast majority of accepted during the initial period of job and Youth Aliyah children have spent their two or home hunting. more years away in a large residential Most of the requests were not accepted, and institution and not in a collective settlement. when they were, the kibbutzim were careful to Family Institutions and Private Hostels accept only those children who would fit in successfully with the appropriate age group As with foster homes, there were always a involved. number of family institutions in the Yishuv. After the establishment of the Social Family institutions are units of from six to 35 Welfare Department, the local welfare offices children who are cared for as an entity began to put pressure on the kibbutzim in their separate from the care-taking family, and are geographical areas to accept some children part of the surrounding community. from unstable, urban slum families. Each In 1934 and 1935, when a large wave of year, a small percentage of these children were German Jewish immigrants arrived in the accepted by some kibbutzim. Another source Yishuv, there were among them many edu-

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cators, psychologists, and pediatricians who which were considered more or less permanent, had difficulties finding work and living as in the orphanages or in some of the quarters. About 35 of these professionals children's villages. The professional and decided to solve their residential and employ­ agricultural training centers had a carefully ment problems by accepting 10-30 children in defined two- or three-year course of study, and care through the support of the Social most kibbutz placements for teenagers were Welfare Departments. Many of these homes planned for two or three years. However, in closed down after a number of years when infant institutions the only defined time factor economic conditions improved. The work was was that the child had to leave at age six, and demanding and only a few of the original in many of the foster homes, family insti­ families were able to maintain their residential tutions, and children's residential institutions institutions over the years. In 1945 a second there was no previously agreed upon duration wave of family institutions opened in response for the child's placement. Without such a to the post-war need for placement facilities, previously defined time factor, children are and once again, many of them closed within a apt to feel themselves "in limbo" and to be few years. shaken in their sense of belonging and of The family institution is a potentially identity. successful compromise between the vulner­ The second factor which the author studied ability of a foster home and its threat to the in the various placement contexts was the parents of a child and the impersonal and factor of educational ideology. Although the regimental alternative of a large institution. range of ideological approaches was somewhat However, a family institution does require extensive, there were three main approaches careful supervision and guidance if the family which were defined. First there were the is to be able to cope with the demands of the placement facilities who regarded their task to children in its charge, and it is particularly be one of providing a home atmosphere for a susceptible to the constant pressures for child whose parents were temporarily unable to expansion. Expanding a small family insti­ function. Their approach to children was tution may increase its economic efficiency, individualized and they saw the family as a but by expanding, the family institution potentially positive source of identity. In­ immediately loses the very qualities which cluded in these facilities were the foster homes enable it to make its own unique contribution and small institutions of the 1920's, who to child placement. encouraged community ties and family contact. Child Placement Facilities: A Summary Another ideologic approach we shall call the In the author's research, three specific "storage" approach. Infant institutions and factors in child placement facilities were many large children's residences regarded examined in their various contexts. The first of their main function as one of physical care and these factors was the duration of the hygienic supervision of children who had no placement planned. This factor was studied in alternative shelter available, and for whom the each of the various kinds of facilities and primary need was to survive physically. although in reality the duration of placement is A third approach was the radical, re- highly significant from the point of view of the educational approach. A certain percentage of child in placement, the research disclosed that the placement contexts believed that their it rarely entered significantly into the place­ placement mission was an ideological one. The ment decision. There were periods when challenge was to take urban or immigrant placement was specifically defined as a children from slum or bourgeois backgrounds temporary expediency, until the family was and radically transform them into agricultural functioning better, and there were placements pioneers who were totally dedicated to the

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goals of the collective. dures and to regard the visits of "outsiders," The final factor which was studied in the including the parents of children, as interfering various contexts was that of family contacts. with the smooth running of the institution. There were placement facilities which strongly In all the hundreds of social work reports, encouraged continued family contacts and committee meeting summaries, and corre­ made the necessary schedule adjustments to spondence which was studied for the research allow for flexible interaction between children on which this article is based, there was and their home communities. Other facilities literally no mention made of regular contacts discouraged family contacts in the belief that between the children in placement and their the reeducation of children to a new ideological families. Nowadays we are far more conscious orientation required suspension of contact of the fact that contact with parents is with outside potentially contaminating ele­ important for the positive self-image of a child ments, such as family members. in placement. However, such consciousness is However, the majority of the placement very difficult to implement, and where the facilities neither encouraged nor discouraged consciousness does not exist, as during the family contacts, and as a result tended to Mandate period in the Yishuv, family contact neglect this factor in the planning of their daily will be neglected as the path of least resistance. routines. In any kind of institutional setting, It becomes possible to plot a certain unless a serious effort is made to encourage continuum of types of placement and foster outside involvements, there is a normal care that developed in the period of the institutional tendency to rigidify daily proce­ Mandate:

I II Ill IV V

Temporary Agricultural Permanent Placement with Placement in placement in a and profes­ placement of or without a "storage" foster home or sional training, child without pre-determined facility, without small institution with pre-deter- family. The time limitation, time definition in physical mined time sense of be­ family ties dis­ and neglecting proximity to the factor and longing to a couraged, re­ family ties. child's family scheduled permanent education Infant and with the home visits. place. encouraged. institutions. encouragement Kibbutz or of community "Children's contact. Village."

In the professional social work opinion of Ideological Factors In the author as researcher, the continuum moves Child Placement Facilities from the more positive setting on the left, to the more damaging one on the right. Children During the years between the two World in placement need to know how long they will Wars, thousands of WWI orphans were cared remain in a place, and they need to maintain for in experimental institutions that were contact with whatever family members are established in Germany, Austria, Poland and available to them. There have been placed Russia. Among those educators who were children who managed successfully lacking influenced by these experiments, were a few satisfaction of both of these needs, but for Zionist ideologists who wanted to combine many others the emotional price paid was their national yearnings with their concept of a unnecessarily high. Utopian society. They came to the Land of

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Israel during the 1920's and 1930's, and had a Zionist psychoanalyst who had studied with profound impact on child placement orienta­ Freud, and was firmly committed to an tions in the Yishuv. individual approach with children. As men­ The socialization of children in any society tioned above, Dr. Eder refused to build is an important issue, which tends to arouse permanent institutions for the 4,500 WWI strong emotional and political involvements. orphans in the care of the Palestine Orphan There are those societies which tend to see the Committee. Instead he insisted that each socialization of the young as a part of the child's situation be individually investigated larger social planning. The assumption is made and that whatever family was found be that the needs of the individual and of the encouraged and paid for taking care of the individual family may tend to conflict with the child. For all the children who had to be placed rational plans of the society as a whole. Thus a facility was chosen in close geographical those who are in charge of the socialization of proximity to their original community, and children have the responsibility to teach those small institutions which had to be children to adjust themselves to the needs of opened were closed by plan when the children the society. in them reached maturity. On the other hand, there are societies who The second approach, Soziale Therapie was regard the socialization of the young as a represented by those social workers who were process of creating the maximum conditions educated in the Berlin School of Social Work for individual self-actualization. The assump­ prior to their immigration to the Land of tion in this case is that it is the task of society Israel. According to this approach, much to serve the needs of the individuals in it. emphasis was placed on a careful categoriza­ Those child placement facilities which tion of each "case" brought to the worker, emphasize the self-actualization of the indi­ according to its "type." For each child, the vidual tend to emphasize an individualized worker was to decide whether the child's home approach to child rearing—which include environment was a "negative" one. If so, the smaller facilities and a broader community task of the social worker was to find a more involvement. The more society-oriented insti­ "positive" environment for the development tutions tend to be more group-oriented and to of the child. This is a morally judgmental demand greater conformity to group norms. approach that opens the way for social During the Mandate period in the Land of workers and educators readily to become the Israel there was a range of ideological "moral authoritarians" of a society as they approaches to child-rearing which were repre­ engage in family categorization and exercise a sented in the range of child placement facilities power to decide which families have a that were established. The social workers and "positive" influence on children. In addition, educators who were active in child placement these same "Berliner" social workers had had during the Mandate reflected in their work the some experience in one of the many orphan different ideologies which were extant in those institutions in Europe, and they were all years. The differences in their approaches to strongly predisposed towards child placement, child-rearing were reflected in the numbers of and towards residential institutions for chil­ children who were placed and in the type of dren. It was Sidi Wronsky, a central figure in placement facilities which were developed. In the Soziale Therapie approach both in the course of the research, five major Germany and in the Land of Israel, who ideological approaches to child-rearing in the so efficiently set up the Child Placement Yishuv were identified, and are summarized as Bureau in 1934. The Child Placement Bureau follows. had a major impact on child placement for many years after. The first of the five approaches was represented by Dr. M. David Eder, an English The remaining three approaches were all

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group-oriented. The first of these three was the residential institutions for the care of children. approach represented, in Europe, by August The social work students were taken to visit Aichorn and Januscz Korczak, and, in the many children's institutions and a consider­ Yishuv, by David Idelsohn, Beate Berger and able percentage of the final papers written was Miriam Hoffert. In this approach, the goal of devoted to subjects related to child placement. a child placement facility is to provide In addition, the key person in the field work maximum individual attention within the placements, who personally supervised all the context of a supportive group. The two small first groups of students, was Ziporah Bloch. institutions established by Idelsohn in Tel Miss Bloch was deeply committed to insti­ Aviv, and "Ahava," which was brought to the tutional placement for children, and spent the Yishuv from Berlin by Beate Berger, were majority of her professional life working for examples of the approach to group care for child-care institutions and promoting their children. establishment. The second group approach put a special Those who graduated from the Jerusalem emphasis on the positive value of physical School of Social Work had thus been labor, and the social group. From the systematically exposed to an intensive cam­ tradition of Pestolozzi, Siegfried Bernfeld paign of pro-institutional education before established a large children's institution in they entered the field of social welfare in the Austria. He attracted through his writings Yishuv. many Zionist educators in the Yishuv, who decided that group child-care afforded an ideal Labelling and the Process of opportunity to combine agricultural nation­ Institutionalization in Child Placement alism, a love of the land, and the values of According to some sociological theory group solidarity. Moshe Kalvary was the first concerning "labelling," societies choose to to establish a children's village in Meir Shefeya stigmatize certain behaviors which are not with these ideals, and Dr. Siegfried Lehmann's considered in keeping with the norms of the institution Ben Shemen followed soon after. dominant group, by labelling these behaviors The third group approach was radical and as deviant. When reading the reports of social demanded a total reeducation of the child, and workers and educators during the Mandate the creation of a new generation of col­ period, certain categorizations of children and lectively oriented pioneers. It was the Youth their parents tend to appear repeatedly during Aliyah movement and its intensively oriented specific periods of time. These categorizations, youth collectives were representative of this or "labels," either appear to describe some radical approach. The educators in this external, objective circumstance related to the movement judged the success of their educa­ individuals, or they appear to take on moral, tional endeavors by the number of young judgmental overtones. people who went on to establish further Over the years, there were numbers of these collective settlements. "labels" which were absorbed into the professional literature and seemed to reflect The School of Social Work the trends in child placement at different time 1934-1945 periods. An example of an external descriptive Five pupils began to study social work in the "label" is "victims of the disturbances" new School of Social Work which was (1936-1939), "children whose families are established in 1934 under the direction of abroad," or "Yemenite orphans." Examples Siddy Wronsky. By 1945 more than fifty had of more judgmental labels are "young completed their degrees and were working in sinners," "anti-social families," etc. During the Yishuv. From the study curriculums the years when judgmental "labels" were available, it is clear that priority was placed on more numerous, more children were placed

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because it was decided that their families were more welfare budgetary resources were not functioning adequately, and thus the allocated to institutional upkeep and child process of labelling was a reflection of the placement maintenance than towards com­ child placement tendencies of the time. munity services for children. Thus the place­ As to the process of institutionalization and ment tendency on the part of child-care the diffusion of innovation, proofs of the workers was continually reinforced. rigidifying of these processes were abundant. During these same years, there was a The five institutions which had existed in 1918, tendency in the new Yishuv to believe that were still in existence in 1945, and an child-rearing practices should radically break additional 145 had been established. Whatever from the ties of the past and that the new. building was erected, the tendency was for it to pioneer should not be dependent on family remain filled with children, even though the traditions. A cleavage between the generations children for whom it had originally been set up of Zionist pioneers and their more traditional were no longer in need of its services. forbears was inevitably created by this radical Institutional staffs and budgets take on a break with the past. This cleavage was further momentum of their own, quite apart from the reinforced by the agents of child placement needs of the children they are to serve, and who tended to neglect the continuity of family there is a natural tendency for founding ties for children in placement. organizations to find appropriate reasons for For any radical cleavage between genera­ perpetuating the existence of the institutions tions there must of necessity be an emotional they founded. price paid. It would probably have been more On the other hand, foster families and helpful to the general mental health and family institutions have less of a tendency to emotional well being of the young people in perpetuate themselves, since they are de­ the Yishuv if the child care workers during pendent on the motivation and health of those years had been more sensitive to the need specific individuals. Therefore, the percentage for family continuity, and less judgmental of children in foster care and in family about the family environment of children in' institutions was always considerably lower placement. than those in institutions, except for the early Although, during the early 1920's, Dr. Eder 1920's when Dr. Eder so forcefully advocated created a sound professional program of care, the use of family placements as opposed to based on family continuity and community large children's residences. involvement for the thousands of World War I orphans in the care of the P.O.C, his program Summary was entirely unknown to the social workers During the Mandate period, child-care and educators less than a decade later. workers were under constant pressure to meet Unfortunately, permanent facilities, which the emergency needs of children. More may be less responsive to the individual needs and more institutions were built, and were of children, enable their founders to be filled immediately with growing numbers of remembered over the generations through the children. brick and mortar of their structures. It is much Once these institutions were established they more difficult to immortalize the indi­ tended to become permanent. Over the years vidualized care of children.

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