THE PLOT

In addition to the myriad military, political, and diplomatic factors that dominated in the run-up to the Six Day War of 1967, there was a powerful internal one, as well: broad dissatisfaction in Israeli society with the state of the nation and its significant social divisions.

Israel’s artistic contributions were infused with Hebrew culture and Jewish inspiration. These include the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts, founded by Boris Schatz in 1906, and Habimah, the national theater. Tel Aviv earned international renown for its distinct Bauhaus architecture, and the nightlife along Dizengoff Street attracted Israel’s younger generation. The Israel Museum in Jerusalem opened in 1965 and came to house the most extensive collection of biblical and Holy Land archaeology in the world. It made clear the far and deep reach of Jewish art and life across the centuries. Sallah Shabati, the Israeli film about a Mizrahi immigrant family, was nominated for an Oscar in 1964. In 1966, SY Agnon won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his Hebrew works. 

In science, too, Israel was having an impact with important discoveries, including techniques for breast cancer screening, amniocentesis, reverse osmosis for water desalinization, and Simcha Blass’ drip irrigation technology. The establishment of Israel and its early years was a source of remarkable and profound pride for Jews around the world — an indicator of what the Jewish People had to offer the rest of the world.

Still, many Israelis were getting left behind. In 1966 Israel was struck with a recession, and a decline in Jewish immigration, that seemed to some to auger the end of the Zionist dream. The plight of the Mizrahi Jews — who already dealt with disinvestment, discrimination, and a struggle for dignity — was brought even further out into the open as the recession worsened their situation. This also had the effect of heightening Ashkenazi anxieties about the direction of the country: they didn’t like the changing demographics and what that meant for Israeli identity and culture. 

At the same time, the older, founding generation worried about the new directions and values being adopted by their native-born children. They fretted that that Zionist ideologies of socialism, sacrifice, and national unity were giving way to British fast food joints and American cars, as the younger generation began leaving the kibbutz for the Tel Aviv nightlife, and demonstrated exhaustion for military service. 

For many religious Jews, Israel as a Jewish State was incomplete. Most of Judaism’s sacred sites, like the Western Wall and the Cave of the Patriarchs, sat in Jordanian territory. This posed a profound spiritual problem, as the redemption of the Jewish people depended on their sovereignty in the historic Land of Israel.

The song Yerushalyim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem of Gold) debuted during Independence Day, 1967. It was about the loss of the Second Temple two thousand years ago, but it also expressed the spiritual dislocation felt by many Jews. The song had a huge impact on the national mood, turning people’s minds to the unfulfilled visions of the Zionist Movement, which sought a Jewish state in the entire ancient Jewish territory. 

Although Israel’s leaders were confident of a military victory over the Arabs, the three-week hamtanah (Waiting Period) brought diabolical threats from the Arabs to annihilate the Jews, sparking fear throughout Israeli society. The very recent memories of the Holocaust, as well as ancient calamities of Jewish history, were at the surface. Ordinary life slowed to a crawl as Israelis prepared for war. As Golda Meir recalled, “two and half million Jews, each and every one of whom felt personally responsible for the survival of the State of Israel.”

THE PEOPLE

SY Agnon: Israeli writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1964.

Simcha Blass: water engineer who pioneered technology for drip irrigation, a major contribution to the mid-century global Green Revolutino.

Shuli Natan: sang the debut of Yerushalayim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem of Gold) on Independence Day, 1967.

Boris Schatz: founder of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts, where some of Israel’s foremost painters, sculptors, and designers learned their skills.

Naomi Shemer: songwriter of Yerushalayim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem of Gold), which became one of Israel’s most famous folk songs. 

AB Yeshoshua: one of Israel’s foremost writers. In 1963 wrote a novel, The Last Commander, about a group of weary and cynical soldiers who reject their collective duty. 

THE BIG IDEAS

While Israel is often defined by its conflicts and controversies, the mega-story is the way the establishment of Israel opened up new possibilities for Jewish civilization. From Hebrew to history, Jews suddenly had this huge new opening for cultural vitality and expression; and in the state Jews could enact laws and policies uniquely stamped with the particular Jewish experience, traditions, culture, and values.

The recession of 1966 and consequent struggles exposed the fault lines of Israeli society, especially along racial, demographic, and generational lines. The Zionist Movement had been predicated on creating a European society in the Middle East; but the Mizrahi made it look ever more Middle Eastern. Where the Mizrahi felt alienated by the Europeanism, the Ashkenazi felt they were sliding backwards into Orientalism. The Ashkenazi elite failed to appreciate the unique cultural contributions of their Jewish cousins, and in so doing felt they were losing Israel’s national character. Ashkenazi and Mizrahi felt that they really didn’t know each others’ worlds, and that their own identities were getting lost.

Israelis were feeling a national mood of dread, wondering if the great Zionist experiment had run its course and the Israeli dream was coming to an end. Not just economic ruin, or the collapse of an ideology, but the possible physical destruction of Israel as well. The nation had been built with the determination that a Holocaust would never befall the Jewish people again, and that there would never again be a helpless Jewish refugee. The country’s internal divisions, and the Arab onslaught, seemed poised to break that promise. 

FUN FACTS

In the early 1960s, Israel had a professional painter or sculptor for every 2,000 people.

Tel Aviv’s 400-foot tall skyscraper, the Shalom Tower, was the tallest building then in the Middle East.

In preparation for war, Israeli parks were prepared to serve as cemeteries, hotel rooms cleared to serve as hospitals, and grandparents could be found digging trenches for their grandchildren to take cover in.

© Jason Harris 2020