by Edeet Ravel
How did she know?
Ethnography
After we left I dreamed about Eldar for almost a year.59
Dori
We’re seeing a play in Meron. Mummy came with her Group and I came with my Group but Mummy takes me to sit next to her so she can explain the play to me. It’s very noisy with everyone finding their seats.
A boy and his little brother come over and show us their tickets. They have brown skin like Gilead and they look poor and scared. They’re wearing shorts and they don’t even have shoes on their feet—only dirty old flipflops. The problem is that their tickets have the same number as our chairs. Mummy checks the numbers and says go tell the man at the door that there’s a mistake.
But the brothers are too scared. I want Mummy to go talk to the man at the door because they’re the children and she’s the adult but she keeps saying go—go to the man at the door.
The boy and his brother don’t move. Can’t Mummy see they’re scared? Now they’ll have to stand for the whole play. But then the play starts and it’s so funny and wonderful I forget about the brothers. It’s the best play I’ve seen in my life.
I don’t know what happened to the brothers. Mummy should have helped them.
Genesis
I created them in My image.
Dori
Edna the baby Minder calls me on my way to the Room. I go over to the gate of the yard and she asks me to keep an eye on the baby in the yard because she has to go inside for a minute.
I stand on one side of the gate and the baby sits on the other side. I decide to help him stand up. He only needs some help and then he’ll see it’s easy.
I reach through the gate and pull him up. He smiles and stands but as soon as I let go he falls down. I pull him up again but when I let go he falls again. Now he’s not so happy. He starts to cry. He doesn’t like being pulled up but I try one last time. I shouldn’t try but I do. It bothers me that he’s weak and can’t protect himself from me. And now I feel a strange boom boom boom in my jinnie.
I don’t know what’s going on.
Civilization and Its Discontents
Dori
Our Children’s House is getting rebuilt so we’re moving to cabins at the edge of Eldar. In the cabins we have little tables next to our beds with a little drawer for small things like marbles.
They’re also putting zift on the road today. It has a very strong smell and you mustn’t touch it until it dries. I don’t know if I like the smell or hate it. It’s the same with horse manure. Do I like it or is it disgusting? I can’t decide.
Actually I don’t know if the stuff on the road is called zift or zefet. I’m a little confused about those words. Zift is definitely for when you don’t think much of something.60 Long ago a man visited Eldar and Daddy showed him around. The man said I was so pretty I could be Miss Israel when I grow up. After he left I asked Daddy what Miss Israel was and he said zift.
The only other time he said zift was when two men rolled on stage in Camp Bilu’im. It was an evening of plays. I was in the play that Daddy and Mummy put on. My brother David and I were supposed to sit at a table and run off when Daddy yelled at us and look scared but David laughed and that made me laugh.
After our play the curtain went up and there were two men wearing long robes lying on the stage hugging and rolling and making loud sounds and then the curtain went down. Everyone laughed. I asked Daddy why it was funny but he only said it was zift.
I don’t care if Miss Israel is zift because I won’t be Miss Israel anyway. Miss Israel sounds like something people in cities do. And Daddy says I won’t be pretty because I’m ruining my teeth sucking my finger.
I don’t know why the hugging men was zift.
Our First Year
2 December 1949. Surprising international incident occurred today. It seems that a U.N. committee is functioning on the border to straighten out some frontier questions between Israel and Lebanon. Attached to this committee were a number of Lebanese soldiers who apparently got lost and wandered onto our territory, whereupon they were immediately captured by Martin and brought to Eldar.
After some polite conversation in French we got things straightened out and sent the rather threadbare fellows back to Lebanon.61
Dori
We like the cabins a lot. Our beds are very close and we have those drawers. I don’t need a goodnight kiss any more because all I have to do is stretch out my hand and I can touch the person next to me. And the end part of my bed touches the end part of Lulu’s bed. We could touch each other’s feet if we wanted.
Diary of a Young Man
15 February 1923. In a few months the number of our children will grow from one to four.
Among the soon-to-be mothers there are many discussions regarding childcare and education. It seems that there is some opposition to full collective childcare, especially handing over the washing of children to others.
These questions do not as yet have a place in the Meetings; it would surely be very strange if someone brought them to the Meeting. On the other hand, the opposition to collective child-care is also strange.
20 August 1923. Our commune has two new members—two children were born, a boy and a girl. The boy has been named Eitan and the girl Amira.
The more children, the more worries. We don’t know how to look after four children at once. As long as we had only one child, no one was concerned. And now at every turn you meet worried mothers. The child isn’t nursing, the child is nursing too much, is this good, is this bad? Who knows?
Who would have imagined that we would have four children and face such problems?62
Dori
Shoshana does the Wake-Up today. We want to run out as soon as we finish our snack but Lulu opens the door of the cabin and screams snakes! and shuts the door fast.
We all run to the window. There are two huge snakes outside on the slope. Really huge—longer than a person. They’re twisted together like a braid.
We don’t know what to do. I go to the door to make sure it’s closed. Skye says the snakes are having sex but I don’t see how. They’re smooth all the way down.
So now we’re stuck. Shoshana is afraid too. Finally Skye decides to be brave even though she got bit by a dog the last time she was brave. She opens the door and walks sideways along the wall of the cabin just like she did with the dog. When she gets to the top of the slope she runs as fast as she can.
We wait for her to call an adult. We wait and wait. Finally an adult comes and looks at the snakes. She puts her hands on her waist and then she goes away! Why didn’t she save us?
One by one we do what Skye did. We slide next to the cabin and then run as fast as we can. I run all the way to the Room and I tell Daddy. I tell him the snakes are longer than the Room but he doesn’t believe me and he doesn’t want to come and see.
My brother David and No’am and Amnoni come with me to see the snakes. There are lots of children at the top of the slope now. Everyone is saying the snakes are rat snakes. Rat snakes aren’t poisonous so we don’t have to worry. Someone dares Amnoni to touch them. He runs down the slope and quickly touches one of them and then runs back up.
I could touch them too if I wanted. I’m not afraid because they’re not poisonous. But in the end I don’t.
Our First Year
4 December 1949. The tourists and visitors have been so thick we could start an Eldar branch of ambulatory Brooklyn Jewry. A very difficult problem is handling our guests appropriately. They pop in, stay for a few moments or an hour, and then push off, and in the brief interlude we want to give them some sort of understanding of Eldar. We often feel the futility of the process.
Yesterday I spent a precious two hours showing the place to a young couple from Baltimore. They were, it must be said, very sophisticated and very uninformed.
I tried to answer all their frequently very impolite questions, but it was obvious that they were envisioning everything in terms of certain streets and department stores and
factories in Baltimore. “Friends,” I wanted to shout at them, “you are touring a country which has been outside the stream of progressing civilisation for two thousand years, forget Baltimore!”
When they were standing near their 1949 Chrysler, ready to drive off, the young lady remembered a stock question that is asked in exams on Roman history, and sweetly inquired what “form of government” prevails here. This was the last straw. “Democratic anarchy,” I said and went back to digging our new latrine.
Dori
I’m playing cards with Simon on his bed and he’s losing. He looks so sad that I decide to give him the wild card. I put it face down on the bed so he can pick it up. He picks it up and he wins.
Then he starts boasting I won I won! He boasts to everyone.
Now I’m sorry I let him win.
It’s Passover next week. The children Mummy teaches are putting on a play about Moses and Pharaoh. My brother David is going to be a slave.
Diary of a Young Man
25 September 1923. Departure! Today eleven members left at one go.
The unintelligent, as they proudly call themselves. They were constantly fuming, and in private discussions tried to prove that our commune was full of intellectual loafers, deluded dreamers, and that there’s no room here for simple, hale workers with a positive attitude to labour.
Some say it’s good they have left, as they didn’t belong.
The commune lives on. There is a strong desire to overcome all obstacles. The weak will leave and the strong will stay.
1 January 1924. No work. The swamp-clearing was stopped and the stone-clearing has resulted in piles of stones that have no purpose.
We are cold and hungry. There’s no work and no money. The wind rips our tents apart, leaving us exposed to the downpours and the mud. We spend the night at the bakery, where they make bread with flour that gets delivered from Haifa during the night. Homeless and tentless, felled by the wind, everyone comes to the warm bakery to enjoy a pita and a glass of black coffee without sugar. We stay all night. In the morning we put the tents back up.
Still, one by one, members are departing.
But what are these difficulties next to our celebrations? Our faith in the future of our commune has not diminished.
14 January 1924. Today, at the clothing stockpile, I was amazed to see a childcare worker taking underpants and undershirts into the Children’s House. The woman explained that there are not enough diapers and underwear for the children, so they use those of the adults.
Dori
A magazine came in the mail from Mummy’s friend in Canada. It has a booklet inside it with pictures of jewels on a black background. Pages and pages of pearls and rubies and diamonds on gold and on silver.
I don’t know why Mummy’s friend sent us this booklet. We can’t buy any of these things and we also don’t want to buy them because we don’t believe in jewellery.63
I can’t decide if I like the jewellery. It’s very pretty but it’s jewellery.
But here’s something I know I like. Oh this is the most beautiful blue I have ever ever seen in my life. There’s a girl in a big basket tied to a balloon and behind her is the most magnificent blue imaginable.
I cut the picture out and glue it on paper and now I can’t stop looking at it. I’m going to keep this picture as long as I live.
Our First Year
25 December 1949. Yesterday afternoon about forty members rode off to Nazareth to hear the midnight mass choir. I stayed at home and worked in the kitchen, where I succeeded in giving the floor a good scrubbing.
After another crowd of fifteen or so went off to Jish to celebrate the holiday, we decided to have a little informal celebration of our own, so Yona prepared some toast spread with relish and tomato slices, and there was music and folk dancing and the small-crowd cozy feeling that weaves through the place whenever half the company departs.
On such occasions everyone sighs, “Oh, how nice it would be if we were a group of twenty or thirty,” quietly forgetting that if such a tragic condition were to prevail they would go batty inside of a month. With a hundred people I imagine it will take us ten years to establish ourselves.
Dori
Carmella takes us to the forest to cook mushrooms for Lag B’omer. We’re very excited. If only we had a Minder like Carmella everything would be different.
The forest has a heavenly smell and the ground is covered with pine needles and cones. We get wild but no one minds because it’s a forest. The children from Galron tell us there’s a baby buried in the forest. We go to look at the grave but all we see are some stones and no one knows if it’s a grave or not.
Carmella has two helpers today. They make a bonfire and we collect mushrooms and they fry the mushrooms in a pan over the bonfire. They know which ones are safe to eat. Children aren’t allowed to decide.
When the mushrooms are ready Carmella puts them on bread and hands the bread to anyone who wants. I take a bite but I don’t really like the taste. The mushrooms are too smooth. But I love the smell. And I love the bonfire and the forest. We all find branches and the helpers help us make bows and arrows. Some of the boys play Kill the Romans. The Romans were our Enemy long ago. We always have Enemies it seems.
Baby Diary
January 29, 1956
The girl is developing nicely. She sits up by herself and crawls backwards. I nurse her in the morning and in the evening. She’s eating well. Two weeks ago she went on strike and wouldn’t eat anything, maybe because of her vaccine.
The girl is quiet, relaxed and very cute. She babbles in a loud voice.
There are now six babies in the Baby House—three and three in the two rooms. She laughs at everyone and is very social. Each day at 11:00 I come and spend half an hour with her.
This month the doctor gave her a general examination. The doctor said she has an unusually fine body with very fine legs. And it’s true, she really does hold herself up very well.
Dori
I had a bad dream. Half the children in my Group and maybe also Carmella’s Group were standing together on one side and half were on the other side facing them and a huge orange snake was chasing me between the two sides. The children were standing as still as soldiers at attention. As still as statues. I was screaming and running back and forth but the snake wasn’t interested in the other children. Only in me. Maybe it didn’t even know the other children were alive. Maybe it thought they really were statues. I tried to hide with the other children and stand like a statue too but it didn’t work—the snake knew it was me.
Carmella was there too. She was standing nearby and watching with her arms folded and smiling. I was screaming my head off but she didn’t do anything.
I woke up but every time I went back to sleep I had that dream again. It went on scaring me like crazy all night long.
Transcript of the Social Committee Meeting May 1967
Chair:
Juliette
Present:
Shula, Lou, Finkel, Dagan
Juliette:
This is a very difficult meeting, so I’ll try to be as con-
cise as possible. We have to decide three things, as I
see it. First, are we involving the police? Hagar and
her parents strongly oppose it and I feel their wishes
have to be respected. It’s against our policy anyhow, so
unless there’s any opposition to keeping the police out
of it, we can probably get that one over with right away.
Anyone opposed?
Shula:
No. We all agree.
Juliette:
Okay, the next item is that social services can’t take
Eden until Tuesday. We found relatives he can stay with
in Ramat Gan until then. We haven’t told them what’s
going on, for obvious reasons. They can’t pick him up,
so the question is, do we send him on his own?
Shula:
I do
n’t see why not.
Juliette:
He might run away.
Dagan:
He has ceased to be our problem.
Juliette:
Okay, I guess we can deal with that situation if it arises.
Who’s going to be in charge of getting him to the bus
in the morning? He’s hiding out in the carpentry shop
at the moment, and seems to want to stay there. Also,
who’s going to bring him food?
Lou:
I’ll look after it. I guess his kibbutz [stand-in] parents
aren’t going to say goodbye?
Juliette:
They already have. They both went to talk to him last
night.
Dagan:
The question is, what to do with the entire Group. Eden