“A huge national assemblage”: Tel Aviv as a pilgrimage site in Purim celebrations (1920–1935)
2009; Routledge; Volume: 28; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/13531040902752473
ISSN1744-0548
Autores Tópico(s)Religious Tourism and Spaces
ResumoAbstract The Tel Aviv Purim carnival was the largest public event in Mandatory Palestine. However, due to its capitalistic character, the carnival has been ignored in the scholarship on the Zionist civil religion, which was regarded as having been created by the Zionist socialist/agricultural ethos alone. This article employs an anthropological methodology, analyzing the carnival as a pilgrimage event and revealing its ideological nationalist contents, which positioned Tel Aviv as a symbolic center of the Yishuv and thus powerfully presented the emerging nation in a visible manner. By exploring some common values shared by capitalism and nationalism, the analysis uncovers the ideological world of urban Zionism, which had far more impact on the sociocultural than on the political-institutional level. Keywords: civil religionPurimZionismTel Avivurbanismpilgrimagehistorical anthropologycarnivalscomparative nationalism Notes 1. The special connection between the festival and the city is illustrated, for example, in: CitationArye-Sapir, "Sipurei tekasim ve-hagigot," 177; CitationHelman, Or ve-yam hikifuha, 84; CitationShavit and Sitton, Staging and Stagers, 98; Goldberg, "Hitpathut tashtit ha-tayarut," 92–109. 2. For the reinvention of European carnivals, see CitationBurke, Popular Culture, 244–50. Culture critics and entrepreneurs made explicit references to the Mediterranean tourist carnivals. See, for example, "Be-Yafo uve-Tel Aviv" (In Jaffa and Tel Aviv), Ha'aretz, 4 March 1923; "Ke-Nice u-Monte Carlo Tel Aviv mahar" (Tomorrow Tel Aviv will be like Nice and Monte-Carlo), Do'ar ha-Yom, 2 March 1931; a public request by the municipal secretary to bring photos of international carnivals to the organizing committee, 31 December 1931, Tel Aviv Municipal Archive (hereafter TMA), 04-3218b; a letter from Dov Gefen to Kamini (chairman of the carnival organizing committee), describing his impressions from the carnivals of Naples and London in order to suggest ideas for the carnival in Tel Aviv, ibid., 04-3218c. 3. Helman, "Two Urban Celebrations." 4. CitationKatz, "Ideology and Urban Development;" CitationShavit and Biger, Ha-historiyah shel Tel Aviv; Troen, Imagining Zion, 85–111; CitationAzaryahu, Tel Aviv; Mann, A Place in History; Helman, Or ve-yam hikifuha. 5. CitationLiebman and Don-Yehiya, Civil Religion in Israel, 29. 6. See CitationGeertz, Interpretation of Cultures, 193–233; CitationWilliams, Culture, 26–30; CitationHandelman, Models and Mirrors, 3–17. 7. CitationCohen, "Pilgrimage and Tourism." 8. Morinis, Sacred Journeys, 4; see also CitationMacCannell, The Tourist, 42–43; CitationReader, "Introduction." 9. CitationBar and Cohen-Hattab, "A New Kind of Pilgrimage." 10. Cohen, "Pilgrimage and Tourism." 11. "Liminality" comes from the Latin word limen (threshold). For the general theory of ritual, see CitationTurner, Ritual Process; and for its implications for pilgrimage, see idem, "Pilgrimage as Social Process," 19–196; CitationTurner and Turner, Image and Pilgrimage, 1–39. 12. Morinis, Sacred Journeys, 9. 13. CitationTurner, "From Liminal to Liminoid." 14. Turner and Turner, Image and Pilgrimage, 20. 15. Durkheim, Elementary Forms, 40–41. For the analogy between religion and leisure, see especially 381–83. 16. CitationMoore, "Walt Disney World." 17. CitationMoore and Myerhoff, "Secular Ritual." 18. CitationMorinis, Sacred Journeys, 5. 19. CitationEfrat, Urbanization in Israel, 56–64; CitationCohen-Hattab, Latur et ha-aretz, 53–61; CitationGoldberg, "Hitpathut tashtit ha-tayarut," 38–40, 62–63, 90. 20. Cited in CitationAzaryahu, Tel Aviv, 73; See also CitationKahn, Spring Up, O Well, 90, 94–95; CitationMann, A Place in History, 142–44. 21. CitationRotbard, Ir levanah - ir shehorah, 15. The mythical discourse of Tel Aviv has been discussed in a few recent studies (see n. 4 above); see also Eider, Alterman – Baudelaire. For its power to attract tourists, see Goldberg, "Hitpathut tashtit ha-tayarut," 31–32, 90, 104–9, 248–49. 22. CitationBerkowitz, "The Invention of a Secular Ritual." 23. CitationHall, Hallmark Tourist Events; Goldberg, "Hitpathut tashtit ha-tayarut," 92–166, 223–24. 24. See Arye-Sapir, "Sipurei tekasim ve-hagigot," chap. 6; CitationCarmiel, Tel Aviv be-tahposet. 25. "Yerushalyim" (Jerusalem), Do'ar ha-Yom, 9 March 1928; "Purim bi-Yerushalayim" (Purim in Jerusalem), ibid., 28 March 1929; "Purim bi-Yerushalayim," ibid., 17 March 1930; "Yerushalayim," ibid., 6 March 1931; "Purim bi-Yerushalayim," ibid., 24 March 1932. 26. "Tel Aviv," ibid., 25 February 1929. 27. Ibid., 4 March 1930; "Yerushalayim" (Jerusalem), ibid., 3 March 1931; "Yom etmol be-Tel Aviv ha-hogeget" (Yesterday in festive Tel Aviv), Davar, 27 March 1929; "Tel Aviv," Do'ar ha-Yom, 6 March 1931; "Yerushalayim," ibid., 12 February 1933; Palestine Post, 2 March 1934. 28. "Hagigot Purim" (Purim celebrations), Ha'aretz 12 March 1933; "Mah she-ani ro'eh ve-shome'a be-Tel Aviv" (What I see and hear in Tel Aviv), Do'ar ha-yom, 25 February 1934; "Likrat Purim be-Tel Aviv" (Towards Purim in Tel Aviv), ibid., 18 March 1929; Municipal Announcement no. 5, 22 February 1932, TMA 04-3219a; "Meha-itonut ha-arvit" (From the Arab press), Ha'aretz 13 March 1933. 29. A confidential letter from Dizengoff to Zionist Board/National Council/JNF/Keren Hayesod, 23 January 1930, TMA 04-3218a, and Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem (hereafter CZA), S30/2307. 30. Cohen-Hattab, Latur et ha-aretz, 36; he discusses the data on railway passengers, but assumes that the main tourist center was Jerusalem (ibid., 49–51). As we see here, Tel Aviv had a significant contribution to the increase in domestic tourism, particularly between the years 1932–35. See also Goldberg, "Hitpathut tashtit ha-tayarut," 208. 31. See "Ha-karnaval ha-purimi be-Tel Aviv" (The Purim carnival in Tel Aviv), Do'ar ha-Yom, 24 March 1932; "Yom etmol be-Tel Aviv ha-hogeget" (n. 27 above); "Falastin modi'a" (The newspaper Falastin announces), Ha'aretz, 21 March 1935. Reports on the participation of Arabs in the carnival recurred every year, in the Arab press as well. See the photo in Carmiel, Tel Aviv be-tahposet, 49. That Orthodox Jews also took part is indicated by a public statement by rabbis, forbidding travel to Tel Aviv at Purim (see announcement from the protest assembly in the Me'ah-She'arim Yeshiva, 26th of Tevet 1930, TMA 04-3218a). 32. Do'ar ha-Yom, 1 March 1934, 1. 33. CitationTurner, "Pilgrimage as Social Process," 187. 34. "Purim be-Tel Aviv" (Purim in Tel Aviv), Ha'aretz, 6 March 1928. 35. For example: "The joy of Purim in Tel Aviv attracted tens thousands of 'pilgrims' from all around the country" ("Al ha-perek: Purim be-Tel Aviv ha-hogeget" [On the agenda: Purim in festive Tel Aviv], Ha'aretz, 28 March 1929); and "Tel Aviv became a center for a huge internal Hebrew aliyah [pilgrimage]" ("Tel Aviv ha-hogeget" [Tel Aviv celebrates], Do'ar ha-yom, 28 March 1929). 36. "Lamrot ha-matar – Purim mutzlakh be-Tel Aviv" (Despite the downpour – a successful Purim in Tel Aviv), Do'ar ha-Yom, 5 March 1931. 37. See Shir ha-Shirim Raba 4 (commentary on Song of Songs 4:4); BT Berakhot 30: 1. 38. Public announcement to the press, 6 February 1933, TMA 04-3220a; "Likrat Purim" (Towards Purim), Davar, 12 February 1933. 39. Mishnah Megillah 1:1; CitationBelkin, Ha-Purim-spiel, 58. 40. "Amar Azmavet" (Thus spoke Azmavet), Do'ar ha-Yom, 25 March 1932 (emphasis in original). 41. Biblical Persian: fast riders (Esther 8:10). 42. CitationMendele Moykher-Sforim, "Shem and Japhet on the Train," 377–78. For the modern trait of deriding the tourist's herd instinct, see MacCannell, The Tourist, 9–10. I would like to thank Barbara Mann for drawing my attention to the remarkable resemblance between Karniel's piece and Mendele's story. 43. "Miba'ad la-masveh (Shi'urim be-histaklut)" (From behind the veil [Lessons in looking]), Do'ar ha-Yom, 9 March 1928; "Yerushalayim" (Jerusalem), Do'ar ha-Yom, 12 March 1933. 44. "Yom etmol be-Tel Aviv ha-hogeget" (n. 27 above). 45. "Amar Azmavet" (n. 40 above). 46. Morinis, Sacred Journeys, 15. 47. On the sacralization of tourist sites, see MacCannell, The Tourist, 43–48. 48. "Amar Azmavet," Do'ar ha-Yom, 17 March 1933. 49. "Haifa," Do'ar ha-Yom, 10 March 1931. 50. CitationBarber, Pilgrimages, 151. 51. "Yerushalayim – Purim she-nidhah" (Jerusalem – a delayed Purim), Do'ar ha-Yom, 8 March 1931. 52. "Petah-Tikvah," Do'ar ha-Yom, 27 February 1934; "Tel Aviv ve-Yafo – Isru-hag shel Purim" (Tel Aviv and Jaffa, Purim Isru-hag), Ha'aretz, 11 March 1928. "Isru-hag" (lit.: the day after a festival; see Psalms 118:27) is the "additional" day after each of the three biblical pilgrim festivals (Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles). 53. See Morinis, Sacred Journeys, 15. 54. Turner, "Pilgrimage as Social Process," 187, 221. 55. On whether it is justified to term such a "civilized" event a "carnival," see CitationHelman, "Two Urban Celebrations;" and my disagreement with her, Shoham, "Hagigot Purim," 345–77. 56. TMA 04-3219c; Carmiel, Tel Aviv be-tahposet, 246–49. 57. CitationKirshenblatt-Gimblett and McNamara, "Processional Performance." 58. For a full program for the Purim carnival of 1934, and an outline for the Purim carnival of 1935, see TMA 04-3221a. For the confetti, see for example: "Ha-karnaval be-Tel Aviv" (Tel Aviv carnival), Davar, 28 March 1928. 59. Meir Dizengoff, "Birkat he-hag" (The festival greeting), Ha'aretz, 18 March 1935; English version in TMA 04-3222. 60. Palestine Post, 2 March 1934. 61. Iton Meyuhad, 18 February 1934; Uri Keisari, "Keitzad hayim etzlenu" (How we live), Do'ar ha-Yom 25 March 1935; Yedi'ot Iriyat Tel Aviv 5 (1935): 138. The most extreme critic was Avigdor Hame'iri, who spoke of the "incurable peddler" (Avigdor Hame'iri, "Tagranei Purim" [Purim hucksters], Do'ar ha-Yom, 12 March 1931), and welcomed the cessation of the carnival for that reason alone. See idem, "Al mot la-karnaval" (On the death of the carnival), Ha'aretz, 8 March 1936. 62. A letter from the Tel Aviv and Jaffa merchants' organization to the municipality, 20 February 1936; and from the Palestine industrialists' association to the municipality, 2 March 1936; from Dizengoff to industrialists' association, 3 March 1936, TMA 04-3222. 63. Carnival Committee advertisement, Do'ar ha-Yom, 6 March 1928; "Tel Aviv ve-Yafo" (Tel Aviv and Jaffa), Ha'aretz, 2 March 1928; "Likhvod Purim" (In honor of Purim), Do'ar ha-Yom, 21 March 1929. 64. A letter from A. Yemini to Tel Aviv municipality, received on 9 March 1936, TMA 04-3222. 65. Shoham, "Hagigot Purim," 257–96. 66. CitationAbrahams, "The Language of Festivals;" CitationHelman, "Two Urban Celebrations," 388–89. 67. Shlomo Hillels, "Le-Tel Aviv (bedihah le-Purim)" (To Tel Aviv [A comic tale for Purim]), CZA KKL5/49171/1. 68. CitationNathan Alterman, "Pizmonot le-Purim tartzag" (Songs for Purim 1933), Turim, nos. 29–30 (28 February 1933); reprinted in Alterman, Pizmonim ve-shirei zemer, 213–15. 69. See Azaryahu, "Tel Aviv bein merkaz la-periferiyah," 171–77; for a detailed poetical analysis of Alterman's mythical urban project, see CitationEidar, Alterman – Baudelaire. 70. The shots filmed by Agadati at the carnival were indeed edited for a five-minute episode in the film Zot hi ha'aretz (This is the Land, 1934), Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive, Hebrew University, Jerusalem (hereafter JFA), VT DA330. 71. Morinis, Sacred Journeys, 22–24. 72. "Amar Azmavet," Do'ar ha-Yom, 25 March 1932 (n. 40 above). 73. See Ze'ev Vilna'i, "Kivrah shel ha-malkah" (The Queen's grave), in CitationLevinsky, Sefer ha-mo'adim, 15; N. Abrahamov, "Purim be-eretz Haman" (Purim in Haman's land), Krovetz le-Purim (1935): 11. 74. For additional photos of Esther's Palace, see CitationFisher, Tel Aviv: 75 shanah, 96; fragments 71–76 from Axelrod cinema news broadcast, JFA VT ax10; unidentified British film, JFA VT 00034; and a contract for the construction of this project, 25 February 1932, TMA 04-3219c. 75. Carmiel, Tel Aviv be-tahposet, 116–55. However, the "sovereignty" of the human Queen Esther was not directly articulated, due to "gender trouble." See Shoham, "Hagigot Purim," 175–93. 76. "Lamrot ha-matar" (n. 36 above); Dizengoff, "Birkat he-hag" (n. 59 above). 77. Uri Keisari, "Ester, Akhashverosh, Haman, Mordekhai et Kompani…" (Esther, Ahasueros, Haman, Mordecai, and co.), Do'ar ha-Yom, 22 March 1932; idem, "Ester, Ester, mizgi lanu yayin" (Esther, Esther, pour us some wine), ibid., 24 March 1935. 78. See CitationSmith, Theories of Nationalism, 170–71. 79. CitationShimoni, The Zionist Ideology, 93–96. For Herzl as an ideologue of urban Zionism, see CitationShoham, "Eikh nir'ah yehudi?"; idem, "Hagigot Purim," 401–11. For the analogy with the cities of the French Riviera, see CitationHerzl, Old-New Land, 61–62, and n. 2 above. For the urban image of Tel Aviv even before its establishment, see CitationGovrin, "Jerusalem and Tel Aviv"; Mann, A Place in History, 17–18, 82. 80. CitationWeiss, Reshitah shel Tel Aviv, 83. 81. MacCallenn, The Tourist, 48. 82. R., "He'arot u-reshimot – Purim be-Tel Aviv" (Notes and impressions: Purim in Tel Aviv), Ha-Po'el ha-Tza'ir 5 April 1929, 15–16; G. Hanoch, "Sidrei-hayim (reshimot be-ikvot ha-Purim)" (Ways of life [Notes on Purim]), ibid., 5 March 1926, 14–15. 83. CitationBolitho, Besides Galilee, 107. 84. This genre is well illustrated by the works of many authors, from Friedrich Engels, Charles Dickens, and Charles Baudelaire to Ferdinand Toennies, Georges Simmel and Walter Benjamin. See, for example, CitationSimmel, "The Metropolis." 85. Eidar, Alterman – Baudelaire, 197–231; Tammy Razi, "Tel Aviv as Dystopia" (work in progress). 86. The distinguished non-Jews who appeared in the carnival functioned as "significant others." See Mann, A Place in History, 149–53; Shoham, "Hagigot Purim," 324–30. 87. Editorial, Do'ar ha-Yom, 26 February 1929. 88. Helman, "European Jews." 89. MacCallenn, The Tourist, 9–10. 90. Turner, "Pilgrimage as Social Process," 178–79. 91. Mann, A Place in History, 24. 92. Moore and Myerhoff, "Secular Ritual;" CitationDurkheim, Elementary Forms, 214. 93. CitationCohen, "The City in Zionist Ideology"; CitationTroen, Imagining Zion.
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