Imagining the "New Jewish Family": Gender and Nation in Early Zionism

Abstract

An exploration of the new Jewish family in pre-state Zionist period Vienna illuminates how Zionism envisioned a change in the Jewish family & gender relations in the interest of Jewish state foundation. While a lucid image of the new Jew emerged, it will be demonstrated that the image of the new Jewish woman was intimately tied to the advent of the new Jewish family & her role therein. Following an overview of Zionism, the roles of women & gender discourse in the Zionist movement are examined, noting that Zionism & masculinity are nearly synonymous. It was in that obscurant light that male Zionists variously & often contradictorily imagined women's role in the future state as evidenced by the father of Zionism Theodor Herzl's inconsistent idea of their role. Driven by a concern for national cultural development & maintenance of Judaism via the teaching of Jewish values & Hebrew language, cultural Zionism looked to women & their role in Jewish families to complement the work of education. In this regard, the thought of Martin Buber is considered. Women were expected to further Zionism & serve the nation by playing a nurturing role in the new Jewish family. However, the role of women was never clearly delineated; the new Jewish women emerged as a disparate & conflicting collection of images understood primarily in terms of family life & as wife & mother. J. Zendejas