PICTURING ISRAEL: History, Heritage, and Homeland

HOME - HOMELAND
Lesson Plan by Zion Ozeri, Josh Feinberg, and Dara Unterberg

For Jews, the relationship to Israel has always carried a particular tension: even as Jewish communities built homes and lives across the world, from the Middle East to Spain, from Eastern Europe to North Africa, Israel remained, historically and traditionally, "the homeland," a place distinct from wherever Jews actually lived.

From the biblical period, beginning with the Israelite settlement of the land in the time of Joshua, Jews have been a continuous presence in the Land of Israel. Even when Jews lost political control or were scattered across the globe, Jewish life in the land did not disappear. Ancient Jewish texts written in the Land of Israel, medieval travel accounts such as those of Benjamin of Tudela, and documents from the Cairo Genizah show that Jews continued living there throughout history (Benjamin of Tudela, Travels; Cairo Genizah documents; Cambridge University Press). Ottoman records and 19th-century population counts confirm that Jews lived in the land continuously, long before modern Zionism (DellaPergola et al.).

In modern times, Jews came to Israel for very different reasons. Some left comfortable, established lives elsewhere, choosing Israel out of conviction, faith, or a longing to return to the homeland their ancestors had carried in memory for centuries. Others arrived with nowhere else to go, refugees fleeing persecution, expulsion, or destruction, for whom Israel was not a choice among options but the only place left to call home. Together, these journeys turned a homeland long held in longing into a lived, physical reality.

All images © Zion Ozeri. All Rights Reserved.

Click the thumbnails above to open the full-size images and its background information.

Discuss:

  • What details do you notice in the photos?
  • What similarities and differences do you see among the different families and groups? 
  • What emotions do you think the people in the photos might be feeling?
  • How do you think the experiences of the children and grandchildren might be different from those of the parents who made aliyah?" 
  • What do you think it would feel like to leave your home and move to a new country?
  • What would be exciting? What might be difficult or challenging?

Read the following poem:

Pine 

Here I will not hear the voice of the cuckoo. Here the tree will never wear a cape of snow. 
But it is here in the shade of these pines my entire childhood comes alive. 

The chime of the needles: Once upon a time
I called the snow-space homeland,
and the green ice that enchains the stream
the poem's tongue in a foreign land.

Perhaps only migrating birds know
suspended as they are between earth and sky - this heartache of two homelands.

With you I was transplanted twice,
with you, pine trees, I grew,
my roots in two separate lands.

Pine is a Hebrew poem written by Leah Goldberg (1911-1970). Born in Lithuania, she moved to pre-State Israel in 1935. When she refers to “here” in the poem, she means the Land of Israel. When she talks about the past, she is referring to the land where she was born.

  • What do you think it feels like to have "two homelands?"
  • Why do you think she refers to the "heartache of two homelands"?
  • Have you ever felt the pull of two homelands? How did you respond?
  • Why do you think Goldberg contrasts the landscapes of snow and pine trees? What emotions are attached to each homeland?
  • What does the image of migratory birds add to the poem’s message about living between two worlds?

Follow-Up Activity:

Take a photograph of someone who has immigrated to your hometown with an object that is symbolic of their immigration story.

Write a short paragraph that incorporates the answers to the following questions:

  • What  is the significance of the object they chose?
  • What  does “homeland” mean to them?
  • What do they miss from their previous home?
  • What feels rooted in their new home?
     

 

PHOTOS

 

 


Family Origin: Germany, Kibbutz Dafna, Israel
To learn more about Germany Jewry: 1,700 Years OF JEWISH LIFE IN GERMANY

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Family Origin: Ethiopia, Rehovot, Israel
To learn more about Ethiopian Jewry: The History of Ethiopian Jewry | My Jewish Learning

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Family Origin: Poland & England, Mevaseret Zion, Israel
To learn more about about Polish Jewry: Community in Poland - World Jewish Congress
To learn more about British Jewry: United Kingdom Virtual Jewish History Tour

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Family Origin: USA, Tel Aviv, Israel
To learn more about American Jewry: Community in United States of America - World Jewish Congress

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Family Origin: Baku (Azerbaijan), Acco, Israel
To learn more about Azerbaijan Jewry: Jewish Heritage in Azerbaijan

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Family Origin: Ethiopia & Belarus, Haifa, Israel
To learn more about Belarus Jewry: History of Jews in Belarus - European Jewish Heritage

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Family Origin: India, Moshav Nevatim, Israel
To learn more about Indian Jewry: Virtual Jewish History Tour

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Family Origin: Uzbekistan, Kiryat Malachi, Israel
To learn more about Bukharan Jewry: The Bukharan Jews – Center for Research of Jewish Communities of the Caucasus and Central Asia (CJCC)

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Family Origin: Yemen, Moshav Yishi, Israel
To learn more about Yemenite Jewry: Yemen Virtual Jewish History Tour

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Hadera, Origin, Russia, circa 1998

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