• Nationalism to unite the Jewish Diaspora
• Universal language of folkloric tradition amongst people already divided by birthplace, language and cultures
• Importance of interplay between ‘folklore’ and ‘identity’
• Hobsbawm and Ranger’s theory of ‘invention of tradition’ is vital to understanding this use of folklore

•
Use of:
– Jewish mythology
– European folklore and culture
– Talmud and Midrash roots
– Palestinian folklore
– Modern political Israeli ‘invented’ traditions

• Israel Folktale Archives, est. 1955, at University of Haifa:
-Contains tales from both Israeli Jews, and other communities living in Israel.
-e.g., majority of folktales come from Poland
• Revival of historic folktales and biblical references in schools and synagogues.
• Jewish mythology
• Biblical references to Eretz Yisrael
• Jewish Travellers’ Tales, etc.

- Stories of the prophet Elijah, ‘Elijah the
Tishbite’, or ‘Elijah the Thunderer’
- From the Book of Kings; tells of 9 th century BC
‘Kingdom of Israel’ united under King
Solomon.
- Used in Jewish, Christian and Muslim texts
- Used in nation-building to justify the new borders of Israel
- Comparison with ‘Nasruddin Hodja’ in Turkey.

• Statues of Elijah, Mount Carmel, Israel
• Elijah found in rabbinic literature and the
‘Babylonian Talmud’
• Chair of Elijah; used in Brit mullah, (circumcision ceremonies)
• Present in ‘Havdalah’ ceremony, end of Sabbath
• SEE: Louis Ginsberg, The Legends of the Jews, Vol. 4, (1909)

• Example: The River Sambation
• Based on the fist-hand account of Eldad the
Danite, a ninth century traveller.
• The story emphasises the bravery and resilience of the Israelites at the ‘raging river…dust and winds of fire’. Portrayed as the holiest of people, following the will of God.
• Also an example of the Israelites fleeing from persecution, ‘a cloud descending from heaven….’ to take them from their captors.

• 3. The Israeli Folk-Dance Movement:
– based on “ethnic dances of Jews and Arabs and European folk dances” (Roginsky, 2007)
– Adapted from the native Jewish dances, the Arab dabkeh, and the Circassians' cherkessia.
– Created by governmental institutions to evoke feelings of
Israeli nationalism and cultural identity.
Photo: Romanian Hora in the land of Israel, 1946. (Courtesy of the Lavon Institute
Archive, Tel Aviv.)

e.g. Dayan and Feinberg, Crafts of Israel, (1974)
- Palestinian dress culture presented as traditionally Israeli:
‘The crafts shown here are fashioned by many people from many distant lands who came together in Israel, bringing with them the folklore and skills rooted in the traditions of their origins – Yemenite,
Persian, Moroccan, Bokharan, Indian.’ (Dayan and Feinberg, 1974, front flap)
- Palestinian influence is not included.
- Another way to remove Palestine from ‘Israeli’
History, thus tool for nation-building, rooted in folklore exploitation.

Palestinian women near Jaffa in the traditional costumes of Majdel, Sa.riyyah,
Beit-Dajan, Yabnah and Yazour,
Photo by Maha Saca, printed by H. Abudalo.

5. Political bumper stickers in Israel – modern folklore for nationalistic purposes?
•“Expressive medium” for modern-day Israelis for their political, religious, national message.
Arguably, part of another form of sustained nation-building process.
•Examples show fears for future, peace pleas, religious sentiments, unification as a people.
•E.g., ‘My Friend I remember the Sabbath’,
‘Shalom, Between Us and God’….yet usually with double meanings

From: Hagar Salamon, ‘Political Bumper Stickers in
Contemporary Israel:, Folklore as an Emotional Battleground’,
Journal of American Folklore, Vol.114, No.453, (2001), pp. 277-
308

• Marzolph: Folklore is a “fundamental culture expression”…example of political bumper stickers falls into this category.
• Hobsbawm and Ranger’s theory; ‘Invented tradition’; many examples to illustrate this can be found in the Zionist Israeli model.
• The ‘Masada mythical narrative’, Ben-Yehuda.
(Not all re folklore, but encompasses theory of its use as a political tool.

• Rejection of Yiddish language and presented as
‘socially unacceptable’ (Although Yiddish culture has see a revival recently.)
• Discourse of early Zionists reverberating into discourse of the younger modern generation, using biblical references in presentations of Israeli state.
• Theoretical difficulties: Using Israeli or Palestinian authors…. Defining the ‘true’ origin of some folkloric traditions. Is this even necessary?

• Combination of uniting Jews from a range of races, languages and cultural traditions; Jewish religious traditions; and the folklore of the Zionist ideology.
• Not just a nation-building pursuit: but in the early period after 1948, this certainly played a substantial part.
• The ‘borrowing’ of folklore:
- political and social use as exploitation? Or a natural product of an emerging multi-racial national state?
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Any Questions…..?