Imaginea pionierului evreu în grafica sionistă între 1880 şi 1948
The image of Jewish pioneer in the Zionist graphics between 1880 and 1948

Summary/Abstract: The Zionist movement appeared in order to find a solution to the Jewish problem. The ways in which the Zionist thought of giving it a national solution. They strove to take the Jewish people in the land of their ancestors on the shores of the Mediterranean, in Palestine, where eventually a Jewish state would be created. It was a difficult task to overtake, since large parts of the European Jewry did not agree with the idea. Another great problem was to find means of support for the ones who would emigrate in Palestine. The solution was that of creating an agricultural base for the Yishuv. Thus since the early days of Zionism, the idea of creating agricultural settlements has been a central feature of the movement. In propagandistic material, the pioneering Jewish farmer became the most important presence. In the first decades after the rise of the Zionist movement, the image of the pioneer was much inspired by romanticism and realism, being depicted in a rather idyllic manner. The pioneer were represented as European peasant, having a good life in Palestine. The situation changed after the establishment of the British Mandate in Palestine, a moment when the number of the Jews living in Palestine increased. The contact with the realities of the land and the new ideologies dominant among the leaders of the Yishuv had a major impact on the development of the image of the chalutz. The idyllic picture of country life is not anymore the place where the pioneer is to be found. After the 1920's it is a more incisive, determined image of the pioneer that is issued. The pioneer is now an agricultural worker as before, but also a fighter, a defender of his country and his people. The pioneer has now a distinct outfit, although European in appearance, but nevertheless unique. This picture of the pioneer created in the time of he Mandate, and perpetuated after the War of Independence of 1948, became one of the central features of Israeli culture. It is has been and still is one of the cultural stereotypes of the Jewish society living in Eretz Israel, and not only.

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