Pioneers and Homemakers

Deborah S. Bernstein is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Haifa.

"It is a revisionary book which debunks a lot of the myths which have been attached to Zionism, and which graphically demonstrates, as well, the ways the experiences and contributions of women have been sidelined both by the Zionist male leadership and by historians of the movement up to now. The topic is both extremely significant in itself — this is truly a pioneering and important work — and central, as well, to several important fields of study including Women's Studies, Israel Studies, and Jewish Women's History." — Judith R. Baskin, State University of New York at Albany"I am most impressed with the gap which this book fills in the understanding of modern Jewish history, the development of Israeli society, and the role of women in contemporary life. It brings to light significant events and analyzes the lives of women in a way that offers a new lens on the intersection of Jewish identity, feminism, and modern Zionism." — Hannah Kliger, University of Massachusetts, Amherst"A forgotten group in an important era are written about virtually for the first time in a way accessible to the American reader. It fills a lacuna in our knowledge and provides English translations of good work hitherto not available to non-Hebrew speakers." — Rela Geffen, Gratz College

• IllustrationsPrefaceIntroductionPart I. Between Tradition and Change1. Through the Eyes of a Settler's Wife: Letters from the MoshavaRan Aaronsohn2. Literature by Women of the First Aliyah: The Aspiration for Women's Renaissance in Eretz IsraelYaffa Berlovitz3. Yemenite Jewish Women—Between Tradition and ChangeNitza DruyanPart II. Women of the Labor Movement4. Manya Wilbushewitz-Shohat and the Winding Road to SejeraShulamit Reinharz5. The Women's Farm at Kinneret, 1911–1917: A Solution to the Problem of the Working Woman in the Second AliyahMargalit Shilo6. Fragments of Life: From the Diaries of Two Young WomenDeborah S. Bernstein and Musia Lipman7. A Woman Alone: The Artist Ira Jan as Writer in Eretz YisraelNurit Govrin8. The Women Workers' Movement: First Wave Feminism in Pre-State IsraelDafna N. Izraeli9. From Revolution to Motherhood: The Case of Women in the Kibbutz, 1910–1948Sylvie Fogiel-Bijaoui10. Human Being or Housewife: The Status of Women in the Jewish Working Class Family in Palestine of the 1920s and 1930sDeborah S. BernsteinPart III. Women's Rights, Women's Spheres11. On the Way to Equality? The Struggle for Women's Suffrage in the Jewish Yishuv, 1917–1926Sylvie Fogiel-Bijaoui12. The Fringes of the Margin: Women's Organizations in the Civic Sector of the YishuvHanna HerzogContributorsIndex