Esther Carmel-Hakim Chana Maisel: Agricultural Training for Women Translated by Fern Sackbach 2016 First Published by Yad Tabenkin in 2007 ISBN 978-965-282-093-8 Cover photography: Nahalal School Archive Book design: Zanefa Walsh Published with the support of: Dr. Phyllis Hammer The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA 2016 Acknowledgements My book, Chana Maisel: Agricultural Training for Women, is based on the doctoral thesis I prepared for the University of Haifa’s Land of Israel Studies Department, under the guidance of Prof. Margalit Shilo and Prof. Yaacov Goldstein. For the preparation of this book, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to those who helped me complete this task and to see the book through to publication: Prof. Shulamit Reinharz, Prof. Sylvia Barack Fishman, and the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University, which recognized the importance of translating the book into English and Dr. Phyllis Hammer who provided the funds; Prof. Margalit Shilo of Bar-Ilan University, a researcher of the Land of Israel and a trailblazer in the discipline of historical research on women in the Yishuv, for writing the introduction to this book; Prof. Sylvia Fogel-Bejawui who recommended publication of the Hebrew version of this work to Yad Tabenkin, and to the staff of Yad Tabenkin, foremost among them the editor Yaakov Setter, all of whom helped me in every way possible; The English translator, Fern Seckbach, for her professional work and pleasant manner; The foundations and institutions that gave me financial support to see the book published, including The University of Haifa and its Authority of Advanced Studies, The JNF Research Institute under the direction of Dr. Gabi Alexander, The Havazelet Foundation, and The Max Stern Academic College of Jezreel Valley. To my husband, Haim Hakim, who considered the publication of this book an important endeavor and who supported me at every turn. To my children, Tal, Lior, Yael, and Ayelet, for the 3 consideration they showed in graciously letting me steal computer time from them. My deepest appreciation goes to the many people who helped me in my research and enabled me to experience a lengthy, fascinating encounter with special women leaders. Revealing their stories and life work became a journey into the unknown. Many wonderful people assisted me directly and indirectly in illuminating and charting this territory and making it available to everyone. To all of them, I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude. Thanks to their support, I was able to share the unique life story of Dr. Chana Maisel-Shochat with the general public so that they would understand that the project she initiated – the agricultural training for women – must receive the attention it so richly deserves in the history of settlement in Eretz Israel. Dr. Esther Carmel-Hakim Kibbutz Ramat-Hashofet, Israel January 2016 4 Foreword Immigrants to Eretz Israel defined the Zionist revolution as a cultural-economic-geographic and gender transformation. Yet, although the men’s turning into farmers has been discussed at length, the path the women followed to enter the agricultural sector has scarcely been mentioned. Much has been written about the exclusion of women from Yishuv history and about the gap in women’s agricultural professionalization. This gap has now been filled by Dr. Esther Carmel-Hakim. Her dissertation, written under my guidance and that of Prof. Yaacov Goldstein of the University of Haifa, served as the basis for this book. In this volume, Dr. Carmel-Hakim demonstrated the three- way connection between the agricultural training for women in general, the Jewish women’s organizations in the Diaspora, and the pioneering women in Eretz Israel. This triple link is the heart of the book, and Chana Maisel-Shochat’s personality and resourcefulness are the threads tying it all together. Chana Maisel: Agricultural Training for Women —the name the author gave to the agricultural revolution initiated by Maisel describes concisely and thoroughly the story of the international women’s movement in the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. The author also surveys briefly the trend toward agricultural education for women that began in Britain, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. Alongside these phenomena, Esther Carmel-Hakim describes the organization of Jewish women within the Zionist movement and women’s achievements in the early days of the Yishuv. The exposition of these issues required meticulous efforts in locating documentary material. The author availed herself of more than twenty archives on four continents and used varied original material written in numerous languages. The chapters that deal with Kinneret as the first Yishuv settlement model, the cooking courses, the hostel for young 5 women, the women workers’ farms, and the most important of Maisel’s achievements—the Young Women’s Agricultural School at Nahalal—present a complicated path of trial and error on the way to creating a generation of Jewish women agriculturalists. The author also reveals the ambivalent attitude toward these educational goals of the institutions responsible for settlement. While the Histadrut and the Zionist Executive offered total moral support, those bodies refrained from giving them proper economic support. Thus, the new institutions that were intended to solve the issue of the women farmer and laborer were established and operated with the backing of Jewish-Zionist women’s organizations the world over. Dr. Esther Carmel-Hakim deals not only with filling the gaps in our knowledge of the history of Eretz Israel, but she also clarifies how the Zionist revolution shifted from the city to the countryside. One cannot understand the exceptional position of agricultural settlement in the Zionist endeavor without comprehending the incorporation of women into the project. The pioneering society understood well that the Zionist endeavor would not take root without promoting the halutzot (pioneering women), but it refused to allot funds to the women’s project in the way that it provided means for the men’s. At the same time, the halutzot respected the male establishment and did not revile it for discriminating against them. They formulated a strategy that enabled them to advance by means of capital donated to them by women throughout the Jewish world. The women’s projects even created the new feminine image of the Hebrew woman: a suntanned young woman working in the field, but also a women engaged in the domestic agricultural branches while relying on the financial resources supplied to them by women. The vision that guided Chana Maisel and her students is the same one that motivated the author and resulted in this book. Esther Carmel-Hakim wants to inform us of the Zionist faith of 6 the women founders and to firmly establish the highly important place of women in the Zionist endeavor. Without them, the Zionist story is incomplete. Prof. Margalit Shilo Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology Bar-Ilan University 7 Contents Acknowledgements 3 Foreword 5 Chapter One: Setting Out During the Second Aliyah 11 First Period in Eretz Yisrael 15 The Initiative for Establishing an Agricultural School for Women 23 Mustering Resources 28 Chapter Two: Agricultural Training for Women in Other Countries, a Source of Inspiration and a Model for Agricultural Training in Eretz Yisrael 52 Britain 52 Germany - Agricultural and Home Management 58 The School for Horticulture in Niederlenz, Switzerland 59 The United States 62 Summary 72 Chapter Three: Women’s Training Farm at Kinneret - First Model 81 Personal Events at the Women’s Training Farm 89 The Farm -- A Focus for Fundraising 94 The Contribution of the Women’s Training Farm 97 First Female Laborer’s Convention (1914) 100 1917 - Closing of the Farm 105 Plans for Re-establishing the Farm 108 Chapter Four: Cooking Courses Project 123 Agricultural Training of Young Women as a Response to the Male Laborer’s Distress 125 8 Kitchen as a Pioneering Destiny -- Chana Maisel’s Workers’ Kitchens 128 The Cooking Classes Gather Momentum 131 Chapter Five: WIZO in Eretz Yisrael 141 Chana Maisel Navigates WIZO 148 Establishing the Hostel in Tel Aviv 151 Expansion of WIZO 152 Evaluation of the Project 153 Chapter Six: In the Women’s Workers’ Movement and the General Histadrut in the 1920’s 170 Gathering of Women Workers at Balfouria - The Founding Conference of Mo’etzet ha-Po’alot (Women Workers’ Council) 171 Disagreement on the Division of Resources 175 The Haifa Conference Adopts Chana Maisel’s Policy 181 From Workers’ Kitchen to Women Worker’s Farms - Petah Tikva and Nahalat Yehuda 183 The Women Worker’s’ Movement Versus the Agriculture Center 189 Rachel Yanait Initiates the Women Workers’ Farm in Jerusalem 195 The Struggle over the Women Workers’ Council Budget 199 “Extension Service” for Women - Local Implementation of a British and American Idea 202 The Extension Work Project - An Evaluation 208 The Investigative Committee for Examining the Functioning of the Women Workers’ Farms 209 Chapter Seven: The Crowning Jewel: The Young Woman’s Agricultural School at Nahalal (From Idea to Consolidation Plan) 228 Questions of Funding and Questions of Principle 231 9 Support from the Women’s Organizations 234 Hadassah-Canada Adopts the Project 236 Preparations for Establishing the School - The Search for a Site 239 First Cows from Holland - An Example of Determination and Dedication to the Goal 278 The School in Full Swing 280 The Students 298 Closing Remark 308 Summary 336 Appendices 348 Glossary 413 Bibliography 420 10 Chapter One: Setting Out for Eretz Yisrael During the Second Aliyah In 1983, Chana Maisel was born to a wealthy Jewish family of six daughters and six sons in Grodno.1 As early as her high school days, she played a prominent role in Zionist activities, joining the Poalei Zion association under the influence of her neighbors— Bezalel and Leib Yaffe—who were among its founders.2 In 1903, upon completion of her studies with honors, she was elected to head the group in place of Leib Yaffe.