I would like to thank Eviatar Zerubavel, Barry Schwartz, Mike Aronoff, Dan Ben-Amos, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett Michael Kammen, Charles Liebman, Tamar Katriel, Elliott Oring, and Elchanan Orren for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.

1. The term “myth” does notimply a negative evaluation of the narrative as either false or invalid but rather highlights its sacred character in a particular culture.

2. Halbwachs, Maurice, The Collective Memory(1950; reprint ed., New York: Harper & Row, 1980)Google Scholar; Lewis, Bernard, History: Remembered, Recovered, Invented(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975)Google Scholar; and Schwartz, Barry, “The Social Context of Commemoration: A Study in Collective Memory, ” Social Forces 61 (1982): 374–398. In his Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982), Yosef Haim Yerushalmi offers a sweeping and penetrating analysis of the role of “group memory” in Jewish culture until the modern period, when “history” emerges as the main organizing principle of collective Jewish experience. This study maintains that in spite of its diminished role, collective memory still operates in the culture of contemporary Jewish groups. Collective memory offers a more selective and segmented representation of the past which may differ from the known historical records but may have greater impact on the group's perception of its own past.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3. For examples of similar studies relating to Israeli culture, see Nurit Gertz's discussion of the myth of “the few against the many” in her “Social Myths in Literary and Political Texts, ” Poetics Today7 (1986): 621–639; and Katriel, Tamar and Shenhar, Aliza, “Tower and Stockade: A Study in Israeli Settlement Symbolism, ” The Quarterly Journal of Speech76: 4 (1990): pp. 359–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4. Yisrael, Heilprin, ed., Sefer ha-Gevura(1941; reprint ed., Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1977), vol. 3, pp. 276–297; Jonathan Frankel, “The 'Yiskor' Book of 1911: A Note on National Myths in the Second Aliya, ” in Religion, Ideology and Nationalism: Essays Presented in Honor of YehoshuaArieli(Jerusalem; Historical Society of Israel and Shazar Center for Jewish History, 1986), pp. 355–384. Note that the identity of the enemy was still ambiguous in this period and early references to Tel Hai used “Bedouins, ” “bandits, ” and “Arabs” interchangeably. See also Charles Liebman and Eliezer Don-Yehiya, Civil Religion in Israel(University of California Press, 1983), pp. 46–47.Google Scholar

5. For further information on Trumpeldor, see the most recent biography by Shulamit Laskov, Trumpeldor: Sipur Hayav(Haifa: Shikmona, 1972). Trumpeldor was president of the Halutz movement in Russia when he returned to Palestine in 1919 to make arrangements for the future arrival of the Halutz members. It was then that he was asked to help organize the defense of the frontier settlements in the Upper Galilee. Trumpeldor regarded his stay in Tel Hai as temporary and planned to resume his mission of leading the Halutz youth to Palestine.

6. For a further discussion of the Second Aliya's nationalist ideology, see Gorni, Yoseph, “Ha-Yesod ha-Romanti ba-Idiologia shel ha-Aliya ha-Sheniya, ” Assufol 10 (1966): 55–75; and Liebman and Don-Yehiya, Civil Religion, pp. 30–40. For a more detailed analysis of the differences between Poalei Zion and Ha-Poel ha-Tsair during this period, see Frankel, “‘Yizkor’ Book, ” and Anita Shapira, “Ha-Tsionut veha-Koah: Etos u-Metsiut, ” in Ha-Halikha al Kav ha-Ofek(Tel Aviv. Am Oved, 1988), pp. 35–49.Google Scholar

7. Ha–Aretz, March 5, 8, 9, 12, 1920; Doar ha-Yom, March 5, 8, 1920; Ha-Poel ha-Tsair, March 12, 20, 1920; see also David Ben-Gurion, “Tsav Tel Hai, ” Kuntres1, no. 381 (1944): 3–8.Google Scholar

8. For a more detailed analysis of the literature that Tel Hai inspired, see my article “New Beginnings, Old Past: The Collective Memory of Pioneering in Israel: Culture, ” to be published in New Perspectives on Israeli History, ed. Silberstein, Laurence J. (New York: New York University Press, 1991).Google Scholar

9. For comparative purposes, see Robert N. Bellah, “Civil Religion in America, ” in Beyond Belief: Essays on Religion in a Post-TraditionalJforW(New York: Harper & Row, 1970), pp. 176–179. This theme appeared time and again in public references to Tel Hai during the early years. See, for example, Moshe Smilansky, “Makom Kadosh, ” Ha-Aretz, March 14, 1920, p. 1; Yoseph Klausner, “Hem Naflu Halalim, ” Ha-Aretz, March 9, 1920, p. 2; Hadash, “Misaviv: Al Mot Gibor, ” Ha-Poel ha-Tsair, March 12, 1920, p. 26; see also Liebman and Don-Yehiya, Civil Religion, p. 45.

10. An experimentalist group of Halutz members in Palestine formed Gedud ha-Avoda al Shem Yoseph Trumpeldor and a few years later named their new communal settlement Tel Yoseph. Trumpeldor's name was also selected by a Zionist group named the Yoseph Trumpeldor Guard Association (C. Ben-Yerubam, ed., Sefer Betar: Korot u-Mekorot[Jerusalem: Betar, 1969], vol. 1, p. 76) and by a commune of Halutz members in Poland called Kibbutz Tel Hai. (Yaacov Zilberscheid and Arie Pialkov, eds., Tel Hai: Sipur Hakhshara be-Polin[Tel Aviv: Ha-Kibbutz ha-Meuhad, 1969], p. 7). At the same time a group of students influenced by Ze'ev Jabotinsky formed a new youth movement, Betar, named after the last stronghold of Bar-Kokhba's revolt against the Romans in 135 C.E., but also an acronym for Brit Yoseph Trumpeldor. To achieve this desired double meaning, the Betarists changed the Hebrew spelling of Trumpeldor (from tetto tav)to fit the spelling of the ancient place-name. Betar selected “Tel Hai” as a form of greeting, and the Revisionists named their financial body Keren Tel Hai.

11. On the tensions between the more moderate and more militant orientations within the Labor movement during the thirties and the forties, see Shapira, Anita, “Ha-Vikuah be-tokh Mapai al ha-Shimush be-Alimut, 1932–35, ” Zionism 5 (1978): 141–181Google Scholar; Elam, Yigal, Ha-Hagana(Tel Aviv: Zmora & Bitan, 1979), pp. 90–100, 117–159; and Uri Ben-Eliezer, “Tsvaiut, Status, ve-Politika: Dor Yelidei ha-Aretz veha-Hanhaga be-Asor Shekadam la-Hakamat ha-Medina” (Ph.D. diss. Tel Aviv University, 1988).Google Scholar

12. Laskov, , Trumpeldor, pp. 232–233; Nakdimon Rogel, Tel Hai: Hazit lelo Oref(TelAviv: Yariv-Hadar, 1979), pp. 150–170.Google Scholar

13. Berl Katznelson, “Anshei Tel Hai be-Motam uve-Hayeyhem, ” Davar, March 23, 1929; see also Ben-Yerucham, Sefer Betar, vol. 1, p. 42, n. 8; Yoseph Nedava, “Jabotinsky u-Farashat Tel Hai, ” Ha-Umah, September 1978, p. 370.

14. Ze'ev Jabotinsky “Bein ha-Shishi la-Ahad Asar, ” Ha-Am, June 6, 1931, reprinted in his Ketavim: ba-Saar(Jerusalem: Ari Jabotinsky, 1963), pp. 265–271.Google Scholar

15. Ze'ev Jabotinsky, “Mi-Yomani, “ Ha-Am, July 14, 1931, p. 2.

16. Golomb, Eliyahu, Rashei Perakim le-Toldol Haganat ha-Yishuv(Jerusalem: Kav le-Kav, 1947), p. 77.Google Scholar

17. Liebman and Don-Yehiya, Civil Religion, pp. 60–61; Yaacov Shavit, Me-Rov li-Medina: ha-Tenua ha-Revisionistit, 1925–35(Tel Aviv. Hadar, 1983), p. 53.

18. Ze'ev Jabotinsky, “Kaddish” (1928), reprinted in his Ketavim: Zikhronot Ben Dori(Tel Aviv: Ari Jabotinsky, 1947), p. 104.Google Scholar

19. Ahimeir, Aba, “Mi-Tel Hai le-Beer Tuvia, ” Doar ha-Yom, March 11, 1920, reprinted in his Brit ha-Biryonim(Tel Aviv: Ha-Vaad le-Hotsaat Kitvei Ahimeir, 1972), p. 174.Google Scholar

20. See, for example, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, ”Al Trumpeldor veha-Ein Davar Shelo, ” in Yoseph Trumpeldor: Hai Shanim le-Moto(Tel Aviv: Keren Tel Hai, 1938), pp. 53–55Google Scholar; Ha-Arye ha-Gelili(Tel Aviv: Betar, 1945), p. 14. On the Betarist shaping of Trumpeldor after the model of Pilsudski, the famous Polish national hero, see Goldstein, Yaacov and Shavit, Yaacov, “Yoseph Trumpeldor ki-Demut Mofet, veha-Vikuah al ‘Shayekhuto’ ha-Tenu'atit, ” Kivunim 12 (1981): 18–19.Google Scholar

21. Jabotinsky, , “Al Trumpeldor, ” p. 54 and also in his Sipur Yamai(Jerusalem: An Jabotinsky, 1947), pp. 205–206. It is interesting to note that when Jabotinsky first directed public attention to Trumpeldor's “Never mind” a few days after his death, he offered a different interpretation of its meaning. In 1920, Jabotinsky hailed the hero's “Never mind” as a symbolic expression of his power of determination, resilience, and humbleness (Ha-Aretz, March 8, 1920, p. 1).Google Scholar

22. Goldstein and Shavit, “Trumpeldor, ” p. 16; Shavit, Me-Rov li-Medina, pp. 266–268.

23. This image of the pioneer, based on Nehemiah 4:11, was popular among the early Jewish settlers. The Hagana and Palmah undergrounds continued to emphasize the double commitment to work and defense as represented in this image.

24. Laskov, Trumpeldor, pp. 84–85.

25. Le-Yom Tel Hai: Hoveret Ezer la-Ganenet(Tel Aviv. Histadrut, 1943), p. 7.

26. Katznelson, “Anshei Tel Hai.”

27. Zekher Yemei Tel Hai(Tel Aviv: Teachers′ Council for the Jewish National Fund, 1960), p. 20; Tel Hai: Yalkut(Tel Aviv: Histadrut, 1934), p. 165; Magett va-Shelah: Sheloshim Shana la-Haganat Tel Hai(Tel Aviv: Histadrut, 1934), p. 14; see also Goldstein and Shavit, “Trumpeldor, ” pp. 11–15.Google Scholar

28. Smally, Eliezer, “Ha-Maharesha, ” reprinted in Moadim le-Simha, ed. Haim, Harrari (Tel Aviv: Omanut, 1941), pp. 288–290.Google Scholar

29. It is interesting to compare this story's representation of the value of the plow with a testimony on a similar statement by members of Ha-Shomer which articulated the feeling that “none of us will desert the plow as long as he lives” (Yisrael Giladi, quoted in Gorni, “Ha-Yesod ha-Romanti, ” p. 64).

30. Sara Levy, “Ba-Galil, ” reprinted in Le-Yom Tel Hai.1943, p. 26.

31. Avraham Breudes, “Hu Lo Met, ” reprinted in Harrari, Moadim le-Simha, p. 283.

32. Eliezer Smally, “Ha-Degel, ” reprinted in Hoveret la-Madrikh le-Hodesh Adar(Tel Aviv: Betar, [1964] 1979), pp. 47–50. Following this story, the brochure reprints Jabotinsky's poem “The Flag” (1926) and an outline for discussing “Why would people be ready to be killed for the flag and not desert it?” (pp. 51–53).

33. Ofek, Uriel, Sifrut ha-Yeladim ha-hrit, 1900–48(Tel Aviv. Zemora & Bitan, 1988), vol. 2, pp. 463–467.Google Scholar

34. Haim Yoseph Brenner, “Le-Yom ha-Zikaron, ” Kuntres, no, 72, March 21, 1921, p. 3. Ze'ev Jabotinsky, “Shir Asirei Ako” (1920), reprinted in his Shirim(Jerusalem: Ari Jabotinsky, 1947), p. 187, and again in a later poem “Shir Tel Hai” (1927), reprinted in Shirimp. 197–198. On Jabotinsky's early attitude to the Socialist settlers, see also Shavit, Me-Rov li-Medina, pp. 27, 144.

35. Yehudah Slutsky, Mavo li-Tenuat ha-Avoda ha-Yisraelit(Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1973), pp. 234–235; Laskov, Trumpeldor, pp. 54–58.

36. Yoseph Trumpeldor's “Kol Kore” was published in the two major publications of the Labor movement, Ha-Poel ha-Tsair, December 19, 1919, and Kuntres, December 30, 1919.

37. Ha-Aretzand Doar ha-Yom, March 8, 1920; Laskov, Trumpeldor, p. 192.

38. Trumpeldor, letter to a friend, November 29, 1911, reprinted in Tel Hai: Yalkut, pp. 161–169. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Labor movement later quoted this letter which supported its position.

39. See, for example, L., Kipnis, A., Buchner and Y., Levinton, eds., Sefer ha-Kitah Gimel(Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1962)Google Scholar; Ariel, Z., Vilensky, Z., and Persky, N., eds., Alfoni: Sefer le-Khita Alef(Jerusalem: Masada, 1968)Google Scholar; and Persky N., ed., Mikraot Yisrael Hadashot le-Khita Beit(Tel Aviv: Masada, 1975); see also Le-Yom Tel Hai, Yod Alef ba-Adar: Homer Hadrakha le-Morim be-Vatei Sefer Tikhoniyim(Jerusalem: Ministry of Education, Ha-Merkaz le-Tipuah ha-Toda'a ha-Yehudit, 1967).

40. Among the 120 people I interviewed on the meaning of Tel Hai in the late seventies (Israeli public school students aged twelve to fourteen and their parents), only a handful mentioned Betar in conjunction with Tel Hai. All who made this association, except for one student, were parents who remembered the Revisionist-Socialist conflict from their own youth.

41. From the manifesto of a new literary magazine, Likrat(1952), quoted by Gershon Shaked, Gal Hadash ba-Siporet ha-lvrit(Tel Aviv: Sifriat Poalim, 1974), p. 17.

42. The concern with the demythologization of the Israeli hero sometimes leads to new literary reconstructions of the pioneering past (Aharon Megged's Ha-Hai al ha-metand Meir Shalev's Roman Russiare two notable examples) but has more often been explored in the context of contemporary Israeli life. Various works by A. B. Yehoshua, Amos Oz, Aharon Megged, Yitzhak Ben-Ner, Yitzhak Orpaz, Ya'acov Shabtai, and others have portrayed images of alienated, self-doubting Israelis who are dramatically different from the heroes of earlier Israeli literature. For further discussion of this development, see Shaked, Gal Hadash;Nurit Gertz, Hirbat Hiz'a veha-Boker shele-Mohorat(Tel Aviv University and Ha-Kibbutz ha-Meuhad, 1983); Hillel Weiss, Diokan ha-Lohem: fyunim al Giburim u-Gevura ba-Siporel ha-Ivrit shel ha-Asor ha-Ahiaron(Bar-Ilan University Press, 1975); Yael Feldman, “Zionism on the Analyst's Couch in Contemporary Israeli Literature, ” Tikkun 2(November-December 1987): 31–34, 91–96; and my article “The ‘Wandering Israeli’ in Contemporary Israeli Literature, ” Contemporary Jewry7 (1986): 127–140.

43. For further discussion of the discrediting of Trumpeldor's last words, see Yael Zerubavel, “The Historical, the Legendary, and the Incredible: Invented Tradition and Collective Memory in Israel” (in progress). For an analysis of other counter-myth texts, see Zerubavel, “New Beginnings, Old Past.”

44. Rogel, Nakdimon, Tel Hai: Hazit lelo Oref(Tel Aviv: Yariv-Hadar, 1979).Google Scholar

45. Nedava, , “Jabotinsky, ” p. 373, n. 17; Yoseph Nedava, “Bein Histo′ e-Mitos, ” Yediot Ahnnot, July 6, 1979, p. 23; Menahem Begin in an interview, quoted o y Elchanan Orren, “Moreshet ve-Shorasheiha: Tel Hai-Mitos ve-Emet, ” Shoraskim 1(Ha-Kibbutz ha-Meuhad, 1980), pp. 153–180.Google Scholar

46. Brenner, Uri, “Tenuat ha-Poalim be-Mivhan Tel Hai, ” Lekah Tel Hai: Ha-Hityashvut u-Gevul ha-Tsafon(Yad Tabenkin and Ha-Kibbutz ha-Meufoad, 1980), pp. 16–19; and B. Reptor, “Beineinu le-Vein Jabotinsky, ” Lekah. Tel Hai, pp. 26–29.Google Scholar

47. Rogel, , Tel Hai, pp. 14–15, 233–244, and introduction to Lekah Tel Hai, n. p.; see also Elam, Ha-Hagana, p. 19.Google Scholar

48. Ha-Aretz, March 8, and March 9, 1920, respectively.Google Scholar

49. See, for example, Ben-Gurion, , “Tsav Tel Hai, ” pp. 3–4; Aharon, Megged, ed., Masekhel ha-Hagana(Tel Aviv, Irgun Havrei ha-Hagana, 1966), p. 9.Google Scholar

50. Persky, Mikraot Yisrael Hadashot, p. 239; see also Sara, Ben-Hanan, ed., Ze Sifrenu. Sefer Sheni(Jerusalem: Marcus, 1971), p. 224; Ariel, Vilensky, and Persky, Alfoni, p. 52; Zekher Yemei Tel Hai, pp. 22–23; Encyclopaedia Judaica(Jerusalem: Keter, 1972), vol. 9, col. 683.Google Scholar

51. The strategy offioma u-migdal(“stockade and watchtower”) produced sixty new Jewish settlements in Palestine during the Arab Revolt of the late thirties and continued during the forties. On Tel Hai as an inspiration for this settlement movement, see Rogel, Tel Hai, pp. 224–225; Orren, Elchanan, Hityashvut bi-Shenot Ma'avak, 1936–47(Jerusalem: Yad Yitzhak Ben Zvi, 1978), pp. 49, 93, 159, 178; “Moreshet ve-Shorasheiha, ” pp. 154–156, 159–164.Google Scholar

52. Elchanan Orren, “Moreshet Tel Hai, ” Lekafi Tel Hai, p. 11.

53. Shapira, “Ha-Tsionut veha-Koah, ” pp. 69–70; Elam, Ha-Hagana, pp. 22, 80–81.

54. Rogel, Tel Hai, pp. 17, 19.

55. Dani Rubenstein, Mi la-Adonai Elai: Gush Emunim(Tel Aviv: Ha-Kibbutz ha-Meuhad, 1982), pp. 126–130; Sprinzak, Ehud, “The Iceberg Model of Political Extremism, ” in The Impact of Gush Emunim, ed. David, Newman (London: Croom Helm, 1985), pp. 30–31Google Scholar; Lustick, Ian, For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel(New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1988), pp. 42–71.Google Scholar

56. Rubenstein, Mi la-Adonai Elai, p. 128.

57. My interviews with students in two religious public schools revealed that many did not know who Trumpeldor was or only knew very little about him, mainly through the public media rather than from learning at school. Teachers explained that the proximity of the eleventh of Adar to Purim prevents them from dedicating time to Tel Hai.

58. See, for example, Hayerushalmi, Levy Itzhak, “Ha-Mahresha veha-Herev o ha-Herev veha-Mahresha, ” Ma'ariv Weekend Magazine, September 22, 1978, pp. 8–9; Ruth Bundi, “Mi-Tel Hai ve-Ad Yameinu, ” Davar Weekend Magazine, March 23, 1979, p. 8; Amos Elon remarked that one of the vocal promoters of the new settlements may have “lost his hope to turn [Prime Minister] Begin into the Trumpeldor of the seventies” (“Be-Hazara meha-Kor be-Eynaim Mefukabot, ”) Ha-Aretz, October 6, 1978, p. 13; see also Yoram Ben-Porat, “Ha-Dahpor veha-Emuna, ” Ha-AretzJune 17, 1979, p. 9.Google Scholar

59. Shiloah, Zvi, “Mi-Tel Hai ve-Ad Neot Sinai, ” Yediot Ahronot, April 10, 1979, p. 17.Google Scholar