New Hebrew heroines? The inclusion and exclusion of Dvora Drachler and Sara Chizik in the Tel Hai Myth

Abstract

ABSTRACT Among those who died in the battle at Tel Hai were two young women, Dvora Drachler and Sarah Chizik. Although they were the first women to be killed in a Yishuv battle, and were treated with honor immediately after their death, their commemoration as female warriors were never established, and their public memory was faded. This article explores the way in which Drachler and Chizik, negotiated gender norms by their life choices, including their staying in Tel Hai. It argues that each of them obeyed and rebelled against these norms in different ways. The article also claims that their gender identity affected their fate as subjects during the battle as well as their position in historical memory.