Theater for Kindergarten Children in the Yishuv: Toward the Formation of an Eretz-Israeli Childhood
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SHELLY ZER-ZION THEATER FOR KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN IN THE YISHUV: TOWARD THE FORMATION OF AN ERETZ-ISRAELI CHILDHOOD Abstract which became known as “The Children’s Theater near “The Children’s Theatre by the Kindergarten Teachers Cen- the Kindergarten Teachers’ Center.”3 This institution, ter,” that was founded in 1928, was the first Hebrew repertory which operated continuously until 1955, was the first theatre exclusively addressing the audience of children attend- Hebrew repertory theater that exclusively addressed ing kindergarten and the first grades of elementary school. the audience of children attending kindergarten and This article explores how The Children’s Theater conveyed a the first grades of elementary school. Moshe Gorali, set of performative practices that consolidated a habitus of who documented the activity of this theater, stressed Eretz-Israeli childhood. The theater articulated the embodied its significance in the context of the culture of the repertoire of Eretz-Israeli childhood and established it on two Yishuv—the Jewish-Zionist settlement in Mandatory pillars. First, it epitomized the concept of an innocent and Palestine:4 secure childhood. The world performed on the stage created a utopian notion of childhood. Second, it encouraged the children A special feature distinguishes the theater audience to participate in the world of adults, but in a way suited to attending children’s theater from that of adults and their age and psychological needs. The ability of this theatre that is its frequent change. Namely, this audience, upon to create an enriching and a secure environment for children growing up and leaving the age of childhood, leaves the was deeply needed in the Jewish settlement of Palestine of the (children’s theater) institutions for good. And thus, one 1930’s and 1940’s, which was constituted of immigrants strug- cohort after another of citizens of the Yishuv arrived at gling to build a future in the land. the theater as children to receive their initial artistic edu- cation. Due to the fact that first impressions in the child’s In 1928, Tova Khaskina,1 a Hebrew kindergarten teacher life are inscribed deeply in his heart, the obligation and based in Tel Aviv and the head of the kindergarten responsibility borne by children’s theater is more than three times [that of ordinary theater].5 teachers’ union, founded an artistic committee aimed at organizing concerts for kindergarten children.2 Gorali linked children’s theater with civic education. In 1930, the committee started producing short dra- In his mind, the Children’s Theater, as an institution, matic sketches, and in 1933 it expanded its activities was among the first institutions that not only shaped to include the production of full-length plays. At the artistic awareness of Israeli children but also con- that point, the members of the artistic committee tributed to their future citizenship. Following Gorali’s understood that they had founded a theatrical group, argument, I investigate how The Children’s Theater 1 Tova Khaskina (or Khaskin) changed her last name during Kindergarten Teachers’ Center (generally referred to in this article the 1940s from Khaskina, a Jewish name with a Russian ending, as The Children’s Theater). His articles on this theater appeared to Khizki-Na, a Hebrew name. As most of her activity was carried under several names. His original surname was Bronzaft. Later, pre- out under the name Khaskina, I chose to refer to her by this name sumably during the mid-1940s, he changed his name to Gorali—a in this article. Regarding Khaskina’s biography and name change, name under which most of his publications appeared. But while see Shimon Lev-Ari, “Khizki-Na (Khaskin, Khaskina) Tova,” in Mad- writing about The Children’s Theatre during the 1930s and early rich me’a shana la-te’atron ha-ivri [Guide to one hundred years of 1940s, he used other pseudonyms such as R. Alroi. In this article, I Hebrew theater] (Tel Aviv: Israeli Center for the Documentation mention each reference under the name in which it was published, of the Performing Arts, N.D.). Available at https://www30.tau.ac.il/ but the reader should note that all of these entries were actually by theatre/view_pritim.asp?id=996. Gorali. In the body of the article, I refer to Gorali solely under this 2 This article is dedicated with love to Miriam Snapir. This study name. The information about the changes of his names and use of is supported by the Israeli Science Foundation, grant no. 953/17. pseudonyms is taken from Shimon Lev-Ari, “(Bronzaft) Moshe,” in 3 Razi Amitai, Te’atron yeladim be-yisra’el [Children’s theatre in Madrich me’a shana la-te’atron ha-ivri [Guide to one hundred years Israel] (Tel Aviv: Safra, 2013), 59–76; Moshe Bronzaft, Te’atron le- of Hebrew theater] (Tel Aviv: Israeli Center for the Documentation yeladim leyad merkaz ha-gananaot [The Children’s Theater near the of the Performing Arts, N.D.). Available at https://www30.tau.ac.il/ Kindergarten Teachers’ Center] (Tel Aviv: Hed Hagan, 1942), 6–11. theatre/view_pritim.asp?id=2243. 4 Musicologist and educator Moshe Gorali (1910–1996) 5 R. Alroi, “Ha-te’atron le-yeladim,” Hed Hagan 11, no. 5–6 documented the activities of The Children’s Theater near the (1947): 51. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 IMAGES Also available online—brill.com/ima DOI:10.1163/18718000-12340110 Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 07:29:23PM via free access Theater for Kindergarten Children in the Yishuv 71 (and hence children’s theater) shaped the notion of an tive behavior and habitus that together capture a new Eretz-Israeli childhood located in Tel Aviv. ideology not merely as a system of thought but as an During the 1930s, as The Children’s Theater made embodied practice. its first steps, the children it addressed did not share a Following this theoretical approach, I explore in common culture. The children of Tel Aviv were mostly this article how The Children’s Theater conveyed a set the sons and daughters of families that had only of performative practices that consolidated a habitus recently arrived in Palestine. Thus, by the mid-1930s of Eretz-Israeli childhood. Indeed, this theater can be Tel Aviv was a migration city, with about 100,000 of seen as a niche phenomenon: a theater that operated its overall 150,000 inhabitants arriving in the Land on the margins of both the local Tel Aviv theater scene of Israel during the previous six years, mostly from as well as the Hebrew education system. In my mind, Poland and Central Europe, and with about one-third however, this theater can serve as a litmus test for of them coming from Nazi Germany.6 For most of the understanding the ways in which theater participates children attending this theater, Hebrew was not their in the shaping of a new collective identity, especially mother tongue. In addition, they had not yet acquired because its activity was so specific. I would like to show the ability to read and write Hebrew. In this context, that this theater created an Eretz-Israeli habitus of the theater, due to its oral and performative nature, nurtured and protected childhood, thus constructing was a highly significant tool for conveying knowledge the Zionist/Eretz-Israeli space as a secure environment of the new Hebrew culture of the Yishuv. In addition, and a place associated with well-being. the performativity exhibited in the theater was echoed This article consists of three sections. The first sec- in the educational routine of the kindergarten. tion deals with the affinities between the educational What characterizes, then, knowledge that is con- philosophy of the Hebrew kindergarten and a new veyed by performance? Performance, argues Diana understanding of performance. The second section Taylor, is a cultural mode that exists not only within the presents a close reading of an exemplary play put on framework of the theater but also in everyday life. It is at The Children’s Theater while analyzing the ways in constituted by scenarios exhibiting symbolic behavioral which it encapsulated practices linked with the utopian practices, thus capturing cultural traditions, ceremo- world of childhood. Finally, the third section follows nies, and beliefs. These scenarios are taught, rehearsed, Khaskina’s description of the entire theatrical event as and transmitted from one generation to the next, it was experienced by the kindergarten teacher and the and they form living museums of indigenous culture children. I also look at the ways in which the children that exist in the bodies of the community members. adapted the performative repertoire from the theater Thus, conventional theater is merely one of many to their everyday lives. possible forms of conveying performative, embodied knowledge. However, performative knowledge refers Between Pedagogy and Performance not only to already existing traditions, but also to the invention of new ones. Mary Luckhurst, for example, The Children’s Theater by the Kindergarten Teachers’ argues that the eighteenth-century National Theater Center was founded with three divisions. The first divi- of Hamburg encapsulated performative knowledge sion was the educational one, and it was led by Tova that formed a new civil habitus.7 The shaping of a new Khaskina (1893–1948). The second division was the lit- habitus does not refer only to the function of a theater erary one. The children’s poet Levin Kipnis (1894–1990) within a society. Zohar Shavit argues that, in the Jewish was the dramaturge of the theater, and was in charge Enlightenment, educators