The battle over the Zionist maritime ethos: ‘Sea Day’ and claims to the Land of Israel’s sea culture

AbstractWithin the Zionist movement, the sea initially served no nationalistic purpose; it was a means of transit, a conduit for ingathering the Jewish diaspora. The Zionist leadership neglected the sea as a tool, emphasizing ‘Jewish work’ in agriculture instead. But the sea held meaning in modern nationalism for many countries, and the pre-state Land of Israel was no exception. The Yishuv institutions began to recognize the sea’s significance for the national movement in the mid-1930s and acted to impose its authority in the field. It was then that conflicts erupted over the origins of Jewish seafaring, with the right-wing Revisionist movement laying claim to the Zionist sea ethos and attacking the central institutions’ initial dismissive attitude to the maritime field. This dispute, and its expressions surrounding Sea Day celebrations, can be understood within the Yishuv’s broader politics and the different institutions’ attempts to cement their own status. Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Notes1 On the formation of the political system in Israel in the first years after the state’s establishment, against the backdrop of political struggles between right and left during the Yishuv era, see I. Galnoor and D. Blander (eds), The Political System of Israel: Formative Years, Institutional Structure, Political Behavior, Unsolved Problems, Democracy in Israel (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 2013) (Hebrew).2 J. Hearn, ‘The Origin of Modern Nationalism in the North Atlantic Interaction Sphere’, Social Research Online Vol.14, no.5 (November 2009), https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/sroa/14/5.3 I. Land, War, Nationalism and the British Sailor, 1750–1850 (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), p.7; M. Lincoln, Representing the Royal Navy: British Sea Power, 1750–1815 (London: Routledge, 2002), pp.3, 6.4 D. Legget, ‘Navy, Nation and Identity in the Long Nineteenth Century’, Journal of Maritime Research Vol.13, no.2 (2011), pp.151–63; C. I. Hamilton, ‘Naval Hagiography and the Victorian Hero’, Historical Journal Vol.23, no.2 (1980), pp.381–98.5 ‘Trafalgar Day’, Royal Navy, https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/features/trafalgar-day (accessed 12 December 2022).6 Peter Hoare (ed.), The Trafalgar Chronicle: Dedicated to Naval History in the Nelson Era: New Series 4 (Barnsley: Seaforth, 2019): https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-Trafalgar-Chronicle-ePub/p/21775 (accessed 13 December 2022).7 ‘Trafalgar Day in Britain’, HaMashkif, 22 October 1942, p.1.8 A.C. Swinburne, ‘Trafalgar Day’, The Nineteenth Century: A Monthly Review, Mar. 1877–Dec. 1900 Vol.38, no.225 (Nov 1895), pp.713–14.9 H. Lewis-Jones, ‘“Displaying Nelson”: Navalism and “The Exhibition” of 1891’, International Journal of Maritime History Vol.17, no.1 (June 2005), pp.29–67.10 W.E. Lenz, ‘Narratives of Exploration, Sea Fiction, Mariners’ Chronicles, and the Rise of American Nationalism: “To Cast Anchor on that Point Where All Meridians Terminate”’, American Studies Vol.32, no.2 (Fall 1991), pp.41–61.11 G. Skrukwa, ‘Ukrainians and the Black Sea: Nationalist Geography in the Post-Soviet Reality’, Sensus Historiae Vol.12, no.3 (2013), pp.27–51. 12 One of the fields in which the lack of reference to the sea is noticeable is Hebrew literature of that time, in contrast with the abundance of works on conquering the land and making the desert bloom.13 O. Almog, The Sabra: The Creation of the New Jew, trans. Haim Watzman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), pp.252–88.14 B.K. Meirovitz, Jewish Fishing (Tel Aviv: Merkaz Hahevel Hayami Leyisrael, 1944), p.9 (Hebrew); Z. Herman, Conquering a Route at Sea: Chronicles of Hebrew Shipping (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad with Hahevel Hayami Leyisrael, 1978), p.55 (Hebrew).15 S. Stern, ‘Tel-Aviv Port: An Episode in the History of Eretz-Israel’, Cathedra Vol.25 (1982), pp.113–34 (Hebrew).16 D. Ben-Gurion, ‘To the Sea!’, in D. Lutsky (ed.), Tel Aviv Port 25th Anniversary (Tel Aviv: Marine Trust, 1961), p.7 (Hebrew).17 R. Peled, ‘The Betar Movement in Eretz Israel from Its Beginning until the 1950s’, in M. Naor (ed.), Youth Movements, 1920–1960 (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 1989), pp.105–18 (Hebrew); E. Stein-Ashkenazi, The Betar Youth Movement in Palestine, 1925–1947 (Jerusalem: The Zionist Library by the World Zionist Organization, 1998), pp.43–66 (Hebrew); S. Reznik, ‘The Sports Clubs in Betar: Political Sports in a Divided Society’, in H. Kaufman and H. Harif (eds), Body Culture and Sports in Israel in the Twentieth Century (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 2002), pp.156–67 (Hebrew).18 D. Niv, Battle for Freedom: The Irgun Zvai Leumi (Tel Aviv: Klausner Institute, 1980), p.179 (Hebrew). Jeremiah Helpern claims that this company was added to the 41st Battalion of the Jewish Legion founded in the British military, a continuation of the Jewish Legion from the First World War, which was numbered 38, 39, and 40. Later on, the brigade grew, becoming, in 1927, the ‘first Jewish battalion of “Brit Trumpeldor” (Betar) in the Land of Israel’; J. Helpern, The Revival of Jewish Seafaring (Tel Aviv: Hadar, 1961), p.54 (Hebrew). For more on Betar's naval companies, see D. Yahav, ‘The Revitalization of Jewish Navigation: Betars Marine Divisions in Eretz-Israel and Diaspora’, Ha’uma Vol.32, no.120 (1995), pp.471–76 (Hebrew).19 J. Markovizky, ‘The Forerunner of His People: Z. Jabotinsky and the Idea of the Instruction Center in Italy’, in A. Bareli and P. Ginossar (eds), In the Eye of the Storm: Essays on Ze’ev Jabotinsky (Beersheba: Ben-Gurion Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism, 2004), pp.475–92 (Hebrew).20 Helpern, Revival, p.307 (Hebrew).21 According to some Revisionist approaches, between the twelfth and fifth centuries BCE, the Hebrew tribes and the Phoenicians and Canaanites and the Phoenician port cities – foremost Tyre and Sidon – had a shared culture and a certain amount of intermingling. The mention of the Phoenician history in the 1930s was intentional; it cultivated a sea consciousness in the Revisionist movement by presenting a storied history in which the ‘Hebrews’ were one part of a large seafaring superpower. In this view, the image of the Hebrew-Phoenician past made the biblical Israel a nation that took part in the boldest of seafaring activities, providing a historical platform for an ideology that hoped to cultivate Hebrew maritime activity and a modern-age navy. One person who expressed this approach was Nahum Slouschz in his Book of the Seas. See N. Slouschz, Book of the Seas (Tel Aviv: Hahevel Hayami Leyisrael, 1948) (Hebrew). For more on this subject see Y.Y. Shavit, ‘Hebrews and Phoenicians: A Case of an Ancient Historical Image and Its Usage’, Cathedra, Vol.29 (1983), pp.173–91.22 G. Amit, ‘“The Hebrew Conquest of the Sea”: The Etzel Museum as an Expression of the Perception of the Sea in the Revisionist Ethos’, Theory and Criticism Vol.24 (2004), pp.113–31 (Hebrew); Z. Jabotinsky, Conquest of the Hebrew Sea, in M. Sella (ed.), The World of Jabotinsky: A Selection of His Works and the Essentials of His Teaching (Tel Aviv: Dfusim, 1972), p.265 (Hebrew). Along the lines of ‘conquest of the wilderness’ and ‘conquest of labor’, which succinctly expressed the Zionist vision of the settlement institutions, it has been argued that Jabotinsky was the person who coined ‘conquest of the sea’. See S. Erell, Facing the Sea: The Story of a Fighting Sailor and Commander (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 1998), p.24 (Hebrew). For a short summary of the Canaanite sources for Hebrew ties to the sea and their extension in Hebrew maritime ideology – as opposed to socialist ideology, which sanctified the land – see D. Ohana, The Origins of Israeli Mythology: Neither Canaanites nor Crusaders (Jerusalem: Hartman Institute, 2008), pp.364–66 (Hebrew).23 On the ship’s statistics and names, see Z. Kenan, Looking Back: A Personal Story (Herzliya: Givol, 2005), pp.31–32 (Hebrew); H. Yarkoni, The Sea, the Ship, and the Jewish People (Haifa: Pardes, 2009), p.272 and sources there.24 The Zionist Executive, Decisions of the Nineteenth Zionist Congress, Lucerne, June 20–September 6, 1935 (Jerusalem: Zionist Organization Executive, 1937), p.32 (Hebrew).25 M. Pomrock, ‘Israel Maritime League’, in M. Newman, T. Eshel, M. Pomrock, and S. Raviv (eds), Israel and the Sea: Anthology (Haifa: Hevel Yami LeYisrael, 1970), pp.171–79 (Hebrew).26 D. Remez, General Organization of Jewish Workers (Histadrut), to Y. Ben-Zvi, Jewish National Council Executive, Jerusalem, 26 November 1936, J1/1872, Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem (Hebrew).27 R. Robinson, A Useful Storm: The Revisionist Movement, 1925–1940 (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 2010), pp.159–62; 227–31 (Hebrew).28 For more on the subject, see Y. Shavit, The Hunting Season—The Sezon (Tel Aviv: Hadar, 1976) (Hebrew).29 Helpern, Revival, pp.277–78.30 ‘The Sara A Training Ship Arrives in Haifa’, HaBoker, 2 September 1937, p.1 (Hebrew).31 Helpern, Revival, p.307. Helpern claims, likely quite correctly, that it was nearly impossible to find graduates of the school on Jewish ships in those days because they spread around the world, most probably due in large part to the Jewish Agency’s embargo, which would not give Betar’s sailors certificates to immigrate to the Land of Israel. See: Unsigned survey (likely Helpern), untitled, 27 July 1938, 8, 1/8, Jabotinsky Institute, Tel Aviv.32 On the emphasis of Hebraism in the discussion on the sea, see M. Azaryahu, ‘The Formation of the “Hebrew Sea” in Pre-state Israel’, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies Vol.7, no.3 (2008), pp.251–67.33 K. Cohen-Hattab, Zionism's Maritime Revolution: The Yishuv’s Hold on the Land of Israel’s Sea and Shores, 1917–1948 (De Gruyter: Oldenbourg, 2019), pp.128–43.34 S. Tolkowsky, The Jews and the Sea (Tel Aviv: Hahevel Hayami Leyisrael, 1936), p.169 (Hebrew); Z. Hayam, Ships’ Tales (Tel Aviv: Ahiasaf, 1968), p.95 (Hebrew); E. Tuvim, ‘The First Decade of Zevulun Seafarers Members’, HaBoker, 25 October 1940, p.6 (Hebrew). The date set was likely the day on which the association was founded.35 Thirty-seven Years of the Zevulun Sailors’ Union: In advance of the Seventh Convention (N.p.: Zevulun Sailors’ Union, 1966), p.1, 12 (Hebrew); Y. Shavit, J. Goldstein, and H. Be’er (eds), Personalities in Eretz Israel, 1799–1948: A Biographical Dictionary (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1983), p.236 (Hebrew).36 Memorandum on the founding of the maritime academy in Tel Aviv, undated,1898/103–14, Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipal Historical Archive, Tel Aviv (Hebrew).37 Y. Zeitlin, ‘Emanuel Tuvim, of Blessed Memory—Initiator and Realizer’, HaBoker, 18 March 1951, p.2 (Hebrew).38 Helpern, Revival, pp.54–56.39 E. Tuvim, ‘Chapters in the History of Zevulun’, Davar, 28 October 1940, p.4 (Hebrew).40 For example, E. Stein-Ashkenazi, The Betar Youth Movement in Palestine, 1925–1947 (Jerusalem: The Zionist Library by the World Zionist Organization, 1998) (Hebrew).41 Yarkoni, The Sea, p.11.42 ‘Today Is Sea Day at the Levant Fair’, Doar HaYom, 28 May 1936, p.4 (Hebrew); B. Kayama, ‘Sea Day’, HaOlam, 4 June 1936, p.403 (Hebrew).43 ‘Sea Day in the Yishuv’, Davar, 20 May 1943, p.4 (Hebrew).44 David Remez (1886–1951) was one of the Yishuv’s leaders and laid the foundations for important sea ventures for the Yishuv. Between 1935 and 1944, he served as the secretary of the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor) and in that position was active in establishing the Tel Aviv port and the Histadrut’s Nahshon company, which was occupied with shipping and fishing. From 1945 to 1949, he was the chair of the Jewish National Council and, among other things, worked to establish Zim, the national shipping company. See D. Tidhar (ed.), ‘David Remez (Drabkin)’, Encyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel (1950), Vol.4, p.1593.45 ‘We Have the Right to Call the Mediterranean Sea Ours’, HaBoker, 30 May 1943, p.4 (Hebrew); ‘How the Land of Israel Celebrated the Hebrew “Sea Day”’, Haaretz, 30 May 1943, p.4 (Hebrew).46 ‘The Youth Display at “Sea Day”’, Haaretz, 24 May 1946, p.2 (Hebrew); ‘Long Live the Returner of Sons to the Sea and the Sea to the Nation’, Al HaMishmar, 24 May 1946, p.1 (Hebrew); ‘Sea Day in Tel Aviv and Haifa’, HaBoker, 24 May 1946, p.8 (Hebrew); ‘The Story of the Port’, Haaretz, 16 July 1946, p.3 (Hebrew).47 ‘“Sea Day”—The Youngest Holiday in Our Homeland’, Yam, June 1945, p.4 (Hebrew).48 ‘Sea Day 5710’, Yam 8–9, May–June 1950, p.3 (Hebrew).49 ‘The Hebrew Sea Day’, HaYarden, 29 May 1936, p.6 (Hebrew).50 ‘Is “Zevulun” also One of the Silencers?’, HaYarden, 3 June 1938, p.2 (Hebrew).51 ‘Sea Pioneers’, HaMashkif, 30 May 1943, p.2 (Hebrew).52 ‘Sea Day’, HaMashkif, 28 May 1946, p.bet (Hebrew).53 HaMashkif, 14 May 1947, p.dalet.54 ‘To the Commanders of the Irgun and Its Soldiers’, Herut, 29 May 1951, p.2 (Hebrew).55 In Haifa, Sea Day continued to be marked years later, but not necessarily on 23 Iyar. See, for example, a notice of the Haifa Workers’ Council about the celebrations of Sea Day that would take place for the children of members of the Histadrut on 4 October 1969 (22 Tishrei 5730): Davar, 3 October 1969, p.1 (Hebrew).56 T. Eshel, The Campaign to Conquer the Sea: Chronicles of the Israel Sea (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1996) (Hebrew).57 B. Garfinkel, ‘Bringing in the Army to Break the Locomotive Drivers’ and Sailors’ Strikes in 1951’, Iyunim Vol.34 (2020), pp.147–71 (Hebrew).58 For a poster about Sea Day in July 1958, see: https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/יום_הצי#/media/קובץ:INDay1958.jpg.