22
Friday, October 13, 1918
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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WE SUPPORT . . .
MAYNARD DA -
FELDMAN
FOR
OAKLAND COUNTY COMMISSIONER
BECAUSE: "He is trustworthy, reliable, intelligent
and the man for the job!"
M _ AX NOSANCHUK
Past President, Cong. Beth Achim
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STEPHAN BECHARAS
President, Gallery Restaurant
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President, Cong. Beth Achim
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They're Not Cosmopolitan, But Israeli
Women's Magazines Are Highly Popular
By BURT KEIMACH
World Zionist
Press Service
By now an indivisible
part of Israel's thriving
press, the mass publications
devoted exclusively to wo-
men, are only two in
number. Considering a
daily newspaper output for
the whole country, includ-
ing foreign language pro-
ductions, of more than 20
separate papers, the weekly
La'Isha (for the woman),
with a circulation slightly
more than 70,000, and the
monthly "At" (meaning
"you" feminine), distribut-
ing 30,000 copies, are mod-
est efforts from a purely
numerical angle. (The big
weekend magazine section
newspapers like Ma'ariv
and Yediot distribute more
than 250,000 each.)
In spite of their relatively
small circulation, both
magazines really do appeal
to women readers because
their subject matter, objec-
tively reported and often
tastefully presented, is a
cross-section of what in-
terests at least 50 percent of
the population.
At, a relative newcomer,
has been on the Israeli scene
since 1967. Its style and
level of Hebrew are consi-
dered to be quite high, a fac-
tor that leads many readers
to call it the "Ha'aretz of
magazines," referring to the
lofty standards of that daily
newspaper set by Eliezer
Ben Yehuda, one of the
pioneers of modern Hebrew.
The smaller press run of At,
compared to the more than
double output of La'Isha, is
also proof that excellence
does not always lead to mass
appeal.
There is a long tradi-
tion in the nation of pro-
ducing superstars among
women journalists.
People like Hemda Ben
Yehuda, the wife of the
linguistic pioneer, set the
trend for future women
writers in the country
with her 1930's "gossip"
column in Havatzelet.
She also coined the word
"ofna," meaning fashion.
Other women- who excel-
led in the budding new field
of Hebrew journalism in-
clude Hanna Zemer, who
plies her trade at the daily
Davar; and Rahel Ben Zvi,
wife of the late president of
the state, who contributed
for many years to Ahdut, a
serious labor publication.
Still going strong is Davar
Hapoelet, a small monthly
magazine of the Women
Workers Council (Naamat)
Davar traces its origins
back to 1934 when it was
founded by yet another im-
mortal of Zionist history,
Rahel Katzenelson-Shazar.
Devora Dayan got her start
there too by describing
early settlements with emo-
tion and feeling.
Turning to the pages of At
today, we can find a great
deal of original work by
young women, whose efforts
appear in between slick
color ads for expensive and
usually foreign-made pro-
ducts, attesting perhaps to a
generalization that the bet-
ter educated minority who
read the magazine are also
better heeled financially.
A recent edition, for
example, had an article
about some practical as-
pects of travelling to
Europe, a purely informa-
tional piece. In the same
copy was a whole page de-
voted to the sensitive poetry
of newcomer Dalit Bat
Adam.
written treatments about
drafting women into the
Israel Army; women who
successfully completed
with men, Israel's first
ever international
marathon run around the
Sea of Galilee last De-
cember; and a warm
piece about a child
psychologist, a male, at
Hadassah Hospital, who
prepares children to
emotionally cope with
major surgery, and even
with death.
As far as many women
readers are concerned, how-
ever, La'Isha has one saving
feature that has kept it on
the market for 32 years. It's
called La Bayit, for the
home, and is best charac-
terized as a handbook of
money-saving hints. In-
deed, the editors entitle it,
"Special supplement for the
thrifty housewife." Making
clothes; constructing toys
for children; economical
household products; and
saving on utilities, form the
basis of this guide on how to
keep pace with inflation.
Since it touches upon tough
day to day problems, the
section is a drawing card
that guarantees the
magazine's popularity.
Success of Kibutzim Told
By ALAN ELSNER
World Zionist
Press Service
An Israeli woman dis-
plays the two popular
women's magazines in Is-
rael, La'Isha (For the
Woman) and At (feminine
form of the word you).
There are the usual cook-
ing and fashion treatments,
although these too tend to
be for the more affluent,
emphasizing as they do the
offbeat in clothing, like
evening and beach wear,
and the often unusual in
foods, like fancy cheese bak-
ing, hardly the fare of the
highly budget-conscious or-
dinary housewife. But there
is something for "every wo-
man" in the 140-plus page
magazine. Departments in-
clude sections on mother-
hood, health, shopping, and
today's all-important craze,
dieting. Interviews with
women achievers who were
born in 1948 formed a major
series in a recent issue.
La'Isha caters to a vas-
ter public just by the im-
plication of its meaning.
It can afford to print
70,000 each week because
the editors purposely
gear the content and lan-
guage style for a popular
level. (Many university
women snobbishly refuse
to even glance at it, cal-
ling the publication vari-
ous shades of trash.)
Unlike At, La'Isha is
printed completely on
lightweight news pulp, ex-
cept for slightly heavier
glossy color front and back
covers. The Tel Aviv-based
production has been putting
out 90-plus pages a week
since it began in 1946.
La'Isha addresses itself to
subjects like beauty queens,
heavy on the gossip; busty
pictures of aspiring young
starlets and pop singers;
and stories of a soap opera
quality concerning the
faithful, the not so faithful,
and the search for happi-
ness, in love that is.
There are serious sides
to the magazine, al-
though these occupy only
a relatively small percen-
tage of each edition. Re-
cently there included
good, objective, well-
JERUSALEM — An
hour's drive inland from
Haifa, tucked away from
the main road in the footh-
ills of Mount Carmel, is the
400-member kibutz of
Ramot Menashe.
Ramot Menashe was
founded in July 1948, and
so, like the state of Israel
itself, just celebrated its
30th anniversary. And
there is much to celebrate.
For the settlers of Ramot
Menashe have literally
built their kibutz from noth-
ing.
"When we came here," re-
calls founder member Leora
Wasserlauf, "there were no
trees, no flowers, no build-
ings, no crops — in fact no
life at all. For the first few
months, we lived in tents."
Now the kibutz has a
dining room, complete
with coffee house and
discotheque in the base-
ment, a library, music
rooms, a swimming pool
and tennis and basket-
ball courts.
Complete equality pre-
vails between all kibutz
members. Private property
does not exist, all kibutz as-
sets being owned in common
by all the members, who
make all important deci-
sions democratically in
their weekly kibutz general
meeting.
The other unique aspects
of the kibutz organization
are the treatwent of chil-
dren and the position of
women. Children are
brought up communally.
Instead of living at home,
they live and are educated
in special children's houses,
going home to visit their
parents for a few hours in
the afternoon. The idea was
to liberate the kibutz
women from the burdens of
childraising, so that they
could be free to take part in
all kibutz enterprises as
equals of men.
During the 30 years of the
state, and especially in the
last decade, the kibutzim
have been in an ideological
crisis, which threatens the
traditional assumptions on
which they were built.
There is a problem of
hired labor. It was al-
ways cardinal to kibutz
ideology that no hired
wage-labor could be em-
ployed by the kibutz. Ac-
cording to the classic
socialist analysis, any
employer who paid
people to work for him
was exploiting them
since he made a profit
from their labor. But in
practice, nearly all of the
kibutzim, including
Ramot Menashe, have
been forced to employ
outside labor.
In other areas, too, the
original kibutz ideology has
been eroded by time. In
about 10 percent of kibut-
zim, the system of the chil-
dren's house has been
changed and children live at
home with their parents,
though in Ramot Menashe,
as in all the kibutzim of the
Hashomer Hatzair move-
ment, the system is still
adhered to.
The position of the
woman is also very different
from that envisaged by the
early kibutzniks. Women
are indeed equal but most of
them continue to work in
the "traditional" female oc-
cupations of cooking, work-
ing in the children's houses
and in the other service sec-
tions of the kibutz. Also, of
late more than 80 kibutzim
now have resident beauti-
cians — a luxury which in
the early days would have
been condemned as an in-
tolerable bourgeoise affec-
tation.
In the intervening 30
years, since the founding of
the state, the influence of
the kibutz movement on Is-
rael as a whole has steadily
declined. In 1.948, 7.15 per-
cent of the pcpulation lived
on kibutzim. Now, only 3.7
percent.
Quarterly Alters
Name, Format
WALTHAM, Mass. —
The "American Jewish His-
torical Quarterly," the old-
est ethnic scholarly publica-
tion in the U.S. has begun
its 86th year of publication
with a new name and for-
mat.
The publication will be
known as "American
Jewish History" and will
contain 128 pages instead of
the previous 96.
The Journal is published
by the American Jewish
Historical Society, which is
located on the Brandeis
University campus.