Chalutzim Tiyul

by Ashley Vasquez-Cruz, 11th grade, California

My classmates and I recently traveled to the Northern part of Israel. There we learned more about how the chalutzim חלוצים, zionist pioneers, designed a new life in Eretz Yisrael. The chalutzim believed that it was time to stop being in the galut (exile) and decided to take matters into their own hands. They had decided that the era in which the Jews waited in exile for the Messiah to make things better was over. People took action towards establishing a community in which they and their future generations could enjoy. One example of this was changing the perceived image of the Jewish, which became known as the “new Jew”. This ideology was changing the original fragile religious man into the opposite which consisted of him being strong, tan and a hard working pioneer. It wasn’t an easy task to accomplish but with hard work and dedication they were successful. 

 First Aliyah

The First Aliyah was between 1882-1903. Their main goal was to establish agricultural settlements called moshavot and build a home for their future generations. This meant that the days of studying Torah all day were over, if they wanted to have a home they had to build it themselves. This is where the image of the ‘new Jew”came in the days where men where skinny and pale were in the past.  The “new jew” was expected to be strong and tan since he was working the land all day. There were other challenges as well. A severe drought decimated their agriculture and prevented the Jews from being able to pay taxes to the Turk, leading them into be in debt to the JCA, Jewish Colonization Association. I think that the chalutzim ideologically did accomplish their goal never the less. They changed the image of a Jew into “the pioneer”, they also stopped being in galut (exile) both literally and figuratively. However, they lacked having personal connection with the land since they often paid the local Arabs to work the land for them.

Image of the New Jew on display at the Kfar Tavor Aliyah Museum

Second Aliyah

The Second Aliyah was between 1904-1914, only ten years of immigration. Up to 35,000 people immigrated to Israel, most who were Russian Jews. The cause of the mass immigration of Jewish Russians was the Kishinev Pogrom. This pogrom in southern Russia killed many Jews, a number of women were raped and dozens of houses were damaged. The young Jewish immigrants coming from Europe, as individuals or in small groups, were inspired by Socialist and Zionist ideals: to create a new Jew and a utopian Jewish society in the Land of Israel. Deganya was the first Kibbutz founded, as well as the first Zionist socialist collective farm. The nearby Kinneret courtyard (Hatzar Kinneret) was in charge of teaching the young immigrants how to work the land. The motivation that these young immigrants had was impressive. Most of them had never done hard labor in their life, but their desire to have a home drove them to do whatever it took to finally establish themselves in Israel. I definitely think that the second aliyah was a success.  Without a doubt the second aliyah was easier than the first in a sense that they banded together into a collective. Also the first socialist kibbutz was founded, making it easier to work as a team. The second aliyah chalutzim also took pride in doing their own labor which gave them a connection with the land, and ultimately a home in Eretz Israel.

Cultural Zionsim Tiyul:  Tel Aviv

by Shay Orentlicher,       10th grade,        Indianapolis

Amidst the layers of graffiti on the walls of Tel Aviv, there is a quote repeated in several places that says, “אם אשכחך ירושלים, זה בגלל ת״א.” This translates to “If I forget thee, Oh  Jerusalem, it’s because of you, Tel Aviv". This play on the Biblical verse about remembering Jerusalem is a concise summary of Tel Aviv’s role in Israel: the cultural center has shifted from Jerusalem and its ancient Biblical roots to the magnetic appeal of the modern Tel Aviv. But how did a city founded in the early 20^th century manage to supersede the importance of Jerusalem in the eyes of so many Israelis? The answer to this lies in the reason it was created: cultural Zionism.

"If I Forget Thee Oh Jerusalem, It's Because of you, Tel Aviv"

When we went to Tel Aviv for our tiyul, the city’s energy was all around us. What’s unique about Tel Aviv is that it is an undeniably Jewish city. There’s Hebrew everywhere, and the cultural references are often Biblical in nature. As it turns out, this was the goal of the founders. Tel Aviv is the product of cultural Zionism, which wanted to tackle the problem of assimilation by creating a center of Jewish culture in the land of Israel. Led by people like Ahad Ha’Am (Asher Ginsberg) and Hebrew language pioneer Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the cultural Zionist movement placed a heavy focus on the revival of the Hebrew language. In Tel Aviv, they wanted to create a modern Hebrew-speaking Jewish city. People caught speaking Yiddish, Ladino, or other languages by the “Hebrew police” were given cards that said “עברי דבר עברית,” or “Jews speak Hebrew.” The Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, the country’s first Hebrew high school, was established in Tel Aviv. Through creating a city where Hebrew was the spoken language, the founders of Tel Aviv succeeded in creating a city with a distinct Jewish culture.

street art in south Tel Aviv's Florentine neighborhood

As someone who visited Tel Aviv decades after its creation, it’s difficult for me to look at the Hebrew road signs and hear the people around me speaking in Hebrew to grasp how truly impressive the act of reviving the Hebrew language was. For 2000 years, Hebrew was a language used solely for prayer and Torah study. Through the determination of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and the creation of institutions like the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, the language was revived. It took so much work, and it paid off. When I walked around Tel Aviv, the language I heard was Hebrew. The music people played was sung in Hebrew, the graffiti was written in Hebrew, and the restaurant menus were in Hebrew. Going to Tel Aviv is the easiest way to see the success of cultural Zionism: all around us was evidence that a Jewish culture had emerged. It was the perfect amalgamation of Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrachi, and uniquely Israeli aspects of culture blending together to make a Jewish city.

street art on a school in sotu Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv is one of my favorite places in the world and learning about how it became the cultural center of Israel on our tiyul deepened my appreciation of it and helped me understand part of the reason why I love it so much. I love being in a place where the tiniest aspect of its culture is undeniably Jewish. Tel Aviv now is very different from the city with the Hebrew police that it once was inthe 1920s, but that just shows how successful the founders were. The culture has evolved with the times and remained exceptionally Jewish. It’s a beautiful experience to see the fruits of the labor of the cultural Zionists while having a nice day in the city.

Heller High Poland Pilgrimage:  Tykocin

by Mikayla Snead,       10th grade,         Dallas

Recently, I was on the journey of  lifetime traveling around Poland. Out of the many places we went to and traveled around, I think Tykocin is both special, and will hold a very special memory in my head for the rest of my life.

A tombstone in the Jewish cemetery of Tykocin

Our first stop when we arrived in Tykocin was a very old Jewish cemetery. I remember there being almost no grave stones, and it was never kept up. The few stones that were there had writing on them but it was so eroded that it was almost impossible to read them. I remember being told that it was a cemetery that was never destroyed. It was left as it was when the Nazis came through in 1941 and the people who were left after the war purposely left it alone so these people can lie in peace underground. This cemetery is no longer active.

After visiting the cemetery, we walked around the old shtetl that once was back before World War II. Out of all the information I learned,one specific thing really stuck out to me: even though there was so much anti-Semitism in Europe during - and even before - World War II, the Christian and Jewish communities lived side by side as if there was nothing going on outside of the town. It was so interesting to me that during everything going on outside the community, these two different sets of people were living their lives happily together, side by side. To this day, this community is still active, except there are no Jews. Only Polish Christians live there.

The interior of the Tykocin synagogue.  The synagogue was built in 1642.

Inside the shtetlof Tykocin, there was an old synagogue. It was so beautiful inside. My all time favorite part of being in the synagogue was bringing life back into it. I remember we had a very short service inside, and immediately after had a song session to remember. We sang some all tie favorite songs people knew from camp, and that was when I really felt connected with this group of people I’ve been surrounded by for the past 3 months. It truly felt special. But then we suddenly had to stop…

a marked off mass grave in the Lupochowa forest, site of Nazi atrocity

walking in the Lupochowa forest near Tykocin, a site of Nazi atrocity

After all of the joy and fun we were having, we were told that in one day, the entire Jewish community in Tykocin was taken away. We got on the bus. Silently. We drove until we got to a wooded area. I din’t think anybody knew what was going on when we got there. I know I didn’t. We started walking through the woods, and we eventually we got to what we would learn to be 3 mass graves. All fenced around. Memorials at each, topped with candles, flags, letters, flowers, and so much more. My heart dropped when I realized what I was looking at. There were hundreds of dead bodies in those graves and I was walking on the trail where innocent people were told to strip naked and walk to the edge to meet their fate after being forced to sing Hatikvah before being shot. 

At the end of the day, we learned a whole lot about what happened to the Jews of Tykocin during the Shoah. It’s sad, tragic, heartbreaking, but most of all, real. It was very difficult to see these graves, but I knew it was the right thing. To be there and learn about the lives of these people and to see what they went through before eventually meeting their fate at the end.