The Plough Woman: Records of the Pioneer Women of Palestine -- A Critical Edition / Edition 1

by Mark A. Raider

Overview

The Plough Woman reveals a fascinating chapter in the history of pioneer Palestine. First published in 1932—and long out of print—this new edition throws light on the complex arena of Palestine and Zionism as well as the intersection between the early Jewish nationalist movement and radical feminists at the turn of the 19th and 20h centuries.

The voices, prose, memoirs, and literature of young Zionist women who emigrated to Palestine in these decades offer an intimate look at life on a veritable frontier. Memoirists discuss tensions in communal living, unsentimentally disclosing the hardships of working and raising families in underserved and isolated agricultural colonies. But as their narratives indicate, these pioneer women were keenly motivated by the vision of a creating a future Jewish homeland, an egalitarian society that would foster and celebrate individual growth, sustain family life, and provide a secure future for all.

Designed for course use, this fully-annotated new edition includes useful biographies of the book’s original contributors, photographs, glossary of terms, and a map of pre-state Israeli society. The editors’ new introductory essays establish the literary and historical context for these narratives, discuss women in Zionist history, and focus on the work and family issues vexing these early pioneers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781584651833
Publisher:	Brandeis University Press
Publication date:	08/01/2002
Series:	Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	377
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

MARK A. RAIDER, Chair of the Judaic Studies Department and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at SUNY, Albany, is author of The Emergence of American Zionism (1998) and numerous articles on pre-state Israel and American Zionism. MIRIAM B. RAIDER-ROTH is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at SUNY, Albany.

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	xv
	Editors' Note	xvii
	Acknowledgments	xix
	Foreword to the Second Edition (1975)	xxi
	Epilogue to the Second Edition (1975)	xxv
	Introduction to the First Edition (1931)	xxix
	Translator's Note (1932)	xxxi
	Mission Statement of the Pioneer Women's Organization (1932)	xxxv
	Mission Statement of Pioneer Women (1975)	xxxvii
	Between Text and Context: The Plough Woman in Historical Perspective (2002)	xxxix
	The Plough Woman: Identities in the Making (2002)	lix
Part I	In the Beginning
	The Collective	3
	Those First Years	13
	In Sejera	16
	The Jewish Guard	18
	The Founding of Merhavyah	22
	With the Shomrim in Galilee	26
	My Aliyah to the Land of Israel	34
	With a Kvuzah of Shepherds	38
	From Judea to Samaria	41
	I Become a Worker	47
Part II	With the Group
	The Kvuzah of Twenty	65
	On the Run	69
	In the Days of Hassan Bek	75
	Twenty-four Hours	79
	With A. D. Gordon	84
	A Word to the Legionnaires	85
	Behind the Front	89
	The Workers' Club	92
	The Strike in Akko	94
	The Strike in Zikhron Yaakov	97
	Fighting for Work in Petah Tikvah	100
	Destruction of the Havurah in Haifa	102
Part III	At Work
	Stages	109
	In the Kvuzah	116
	The Woman in the Moshav Ovdim	120
	In Nahalal	124
	The Meshek Hapoalot in Nahlat Yehudah	126
	The Tobacco Kvuzah	129
	The Birth of the Havurah	135
	The Havurah of Petah Tikvah	138
	Women Build Houses	140
	The "Independent" Woman	143
	Wife of a Haver	145
Part IV	With Children
	Fundamental Problems	151
	Group Upbringing and the Child	157
	Children's House and Parents' Room	160
	Mothers' Talk	162
	Borrowed Mothers	164
Part V	The Departed
	Shoshanah Bogen
	Biographical Sketch	169
	Fragments, From the Letters and Notebooks of Shoshanah Bogen	172
	On the Last Words of Shoshanah	181
	Dvorah Drakhler
	Biographical Sketch	183
	Sarah Chizhik
	Biographical Sketch	187
	Fragments, From the Letters and Diaries of Sarah Chizhik	189
	Pessie Abramson
	Biographical Sketch	193
	Letters of Pessie Abramson	197
	Sarah Lishansky
	Biographical Sketch	203
	Sarah's Shtetl	207
	Rahel Zisle-Levkovich
	Biographical Sketch	213
	Letters of Rahel Zisle-Levkovich	218
Part VI	In the Literature
	Among Writers	227
	Poetry
	Idle Tales	231
	Perhaps	231
	In the Garden	232
	Comfort Me	232
	In Sickness	233
	To You	233
	Barren	233
	My Land	234
	The Genizah	235
	From Language to Language	247
	Glossary of Terms	259
	Glossary of Names	265
	Glossary of Places	277
	Selected Bibliography	285
	Index	289

Editorial Reviews

"...extraordinary collection of poignant and courageous voices." —Lilith

From the Publisher