Sara Yael Hirschhorn – Excerpt from Dissertation Chapter Three: Efrat – Copyright 2011 – Do Not Circulate
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Sara Yael Hirschhorn – Excerpt From Dissertation Chapter Three: Efrat – Copyright 2011 – Do Not Circulate Raishit Geula: Rabbi Shlomo Riskin’s Jewish-American Garin and the Makings of Efrat, 1973-1987 Efrat, named for the biblical locale mentioned in the Book of Chronicles, is located in the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank between Bethlehem and Hebron. With a population of over seven thousand residents, of which approximately half are American-Israelis, the city is the most highly recognizable Jewish-American colony in the occupied territories and has emerged as the cornerstone of the Etzion bloc.1 Yet, how did Efrat rise from the rubble of the post-1973 war to become the incipient American-style ―capital of the Gush‖2 in less than a decade? The story of Efrat is one of a strategic partnership between Israeli settlers and Jewish- American immigrants after the Yom Kippur War. It is framed by the personal friendship and professional partnership between Moshe Moshkowitz, a son of the pre-1948 Gush Etzion settlements and the New York –based modern Orthodox rabbi Steven (Shlomo) Riskin, which combined the insider knowledge and connections of a native activist with the capital and manpower galvanized by a dynamic spiritual leader. Efrat also produced a new model for American-Israeli settlement in the West Bank that combined the efforts an Israeli non- governmental organization, the Judean Hills Development Co., alongside Garin Raishit Geula [lit. The Origins of Redemption] in the United States. This cooperative venture and division of labor allowed Efrat to deftly navigate the politics and pitfalls of local coordination with the Israeli government while still retaining the distinctly American character of its new township. 1 The latest official survey from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics on 31 December 2009 lists a population of 7,200 individuals. See Statistical Abstract of Israel 2010, Table 2.15 ―Population and Density Per Square Kilometer in Localities Numbering 5,000 Residents or More,‖ http://www1.cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/templ_shnaton_e.html?num_tab=st02_15&CYear=2010 In contrast, the Efrat municipality, the local governing body of the city, provides an estimate of 8,500 individuals, likely inflated to serve a political agenda. See http://www.efrata.muni.il/?CategoryID=94. 2 See http://www.efrata.muni.il/?CategoryID=94 Sara Yael Hirschhorn – Excerpt From Dissertation Chapter Three: Efrat – Copyright 2011 – Do Not Circulate Yet, the unique nature of the quadrilateral relationship between Jewish-American immigrants, native settler activists, the Israeli government, and local Palestinian communities in the making of Efrat introduced both old and new complexities. While Efrat did not suffer for lack of attention like other Jewish-American colonies, the settlement faced similar struggles for recognition and technical setbacks in working with the Israeli government over the course of a decade-long negotiation to bring the city into existence. Further, despite its founders deep ties to the Israeli settler movement, Efrat‘s leaders came into conflict with leaders of the Kibbutz Ha- Dati and Gush Emunim over both political and practical issues regarding its founding. Last but not least, Efrat continues to be embroiled in a decades-long conflict with its Palestinian neighbors today, remaining at the forefront of policy debates regarding territorial withdrawals. This paper also analyzes settler discourses at Efrat. Reflecting its mixed Israeli- American parentage, messianic tropes of redemption are balanced alongside secular notions of pioneering and building utopian communities. The synthesis of these concepts within the persona of Rabbi Riskin, as well as the community at Efrat as a whole, make this settlement truly unique both within the history of Jewish-American settlement in the occupied territories and the larger Israeli settler project since 1967. Drawing on archival materials, the periodical press, and interviews never before brought to light, this paper reconstructs the role of Jewish-American immigrants in the making of Efrat, 1973-1987. This narrative represents the first attempt in the scholarly literature to recount the history of Efrat, as well as the nature of the quadrilateral relationship between Jewish-American immigrants, native settler groups, the Israeli government, and local Palestinian communities. Lastly, this case study will explore the unique historical dynamics which allowed Efrat to emerge as the most well-recognized ―city on a hilltop‖ in the occupied territories. Sara Yael Hirschhorn – Excerpt From Dissertation Chapter Three: Efrat – Copyright 2011 – Do Not Circulate Historical Background: Contemporary Jewish Settlement and Government Policy in Gush Etzion Before the Founding of Efrat, 1900-1973 The Gush Etzion region has a played an important role in both Zionist history and mythology since the pre-state period. This section presents a brief survey of settlement and government policy toward the Etzion bloc in the twentieth century, which will contextualize the origins of Efrat after the 1967 war: Many settler activists make biblical claims to the Gush Etzion region and trace continuous Jewish settlement in the area from the patriarch Abraham to the present. Apart from religio-historical justifications, there were several waves of Zionist settlement into the region during the 20th century. The idea of Jewish settlement in Gush Etzion was first romanticized in travel writing in the early twentieth century when Palestine was ruled by the Ottoman Empire.3 A group of Yeminite immigrant members of the Zichron David organization established a community in the area in 1927, where they worked as dairy and fruit farmers until the isolated community was destroyed during the Hebron riots of 1929.4 Despite legal prohibitions against land sales under the British mandate, both independent Jewish financiers as well as the pre-state institution of Keren Kayemet L-Yisrael [The Jewish National Fund] succeeded in acquiring acquisitions in Gush Etzion,5 including the notable purchase of 5,000 dunams of land in the area by Jerusalem entrepreneurer Shmuel Tzvi Holtzmann in 1933. In addition to lending his name to the region itself (a translation from the Yiddish ‗Holtz,‘ meaning tree) two settlements — agricultural kibbutz called Kfar Etzion [Etzion Village] and a tourist compound at Yaar Etzion [Etzion Forest] — were founded in his honor. While residents were again forced to abandon the 3 See David Amit, ―Tmorot B-Nofei Gush Etzion,‖ in Gush Etzion M-Raishito Ad TS”H, ed. Mordechai Naor (Jerusalem: Yad Yizhak Ben-Tzvi, 1986), 3-18. 4 See Yohanan Ben-Yaakov, ―Migdal Eder – Sipuro Shel Ha-Yishuv Ha-Yehudi Ha-Rishon Bein Hevron V‘ Yerushalyim,‖ in Gush Etzion M-Raishito Ad TS”H, 23-40. 5 Kenneth W. Stein, The Land Question in Palestine, 1917-1939 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1984), 3-4. Sara Yael Hirschhorn – Excerpt From Dissertation Chapter Three: Efrat – Copyright 2011 – Do Not Circulate communities during local disturbances associated with the Arab Revolt (1936-1939), a group of religious youth from the Ha-Poel Ha-Mizrachi party joined together as ―Kvuzat Abraham‖ [Abraham‘s Group] to repopulate Kfar Etzion in 1943, which was followed by adjoining settlements at Messuot Yitzhak (1945) and Ein Tzurim (1946), as well as the Ha-Shomer Ha- Tzair sponsored kibbutz at Revadim (1947).6 According to some estimates, there were upwards of 450 settlers (409 adults and 69 children) living in the Gush Etzion region in 1948, although less than half of its 20,000 dunam land mass was owned by the KKL.7 Again, the re-established kibbutzim of Gush Etzion were to have a short lifespan. An ambush of Jewish settlers in 1947 inaugurated a six-month siege of the kibbutzim of Gush Etzion. Despite military attacks by Jewish settlers, combined Arab forces ultimately defeated the Jewish residents, massacring the remaining 155 men and women on 13 May 1948, two days before the declaration of the State of Israel. These events were extensively memorialized and have become an important part of the historical memory of Gush Etzion and the 1948 war.8 The Gush Etzion region remained under Jordanian control for 19 years until the June 1967 war. In the intervening period, the children of Gush Etzion pined for their lost home, immersing themselves in nostalgia for their truncated youth, including scheduling regular pilgrimages to a look-out point in West Jerusalem from which religious Zionist activists claimed to be able to see the famous tree of Etzion. The Israeli public too embraced their cause — as Gorenberg suggests, there was ―no line between the personal and the political; their tragedy 6 See Gush Etzion and the Hebron Hills (Jerusalem: Jewish Agency, 1974), 10-11. 7 See Jewish Defense in the Hebron Hills, (Gush Etzion: Gush Etzion Field School and World Zionist Organization, 1970), 3. There is reason to suspect that these population estimates might be inflated for political purposes. 8 See for example, Anda Finkerfeld, Lamed-Heh (Jerusalem: Rubin Mass, 1998). See also Haim Gouri, ―Hineh Mutlot Gufotainu,‖ [Here Lie Our Bodies], the text of the poem, with analysis is reproduced at http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1227313.html Sara Yael Hirschhorn – Excerpt From Dissertation Chapter Three: Efrat – Copyright 2011 – Do Not Circulate belonged to the nation.‖9 Yet, the collective consciousness inevitably moved on. Under the policy of Mamlahtiut [Statism], Prime Minister Ben-Gurion and subsequent Israeli governments did not attempt to expand Israel‘s territorial borders during the interregnum period. Most of the displaced residents resettled in other areas of the country, including at the newly re-established Kibbutz Ein Tzurim in the south. While the dream of a return to Gush Etzion lingered, no active steps were taken to realize these aspirations before the Six Day War. The significant conquests of 1967 War and the post-war euphoria dramatically transformed both the world-view of the religious Zionist camp, especially that of the children of Gush Etzion.