Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes by Adam Hochschild (review)

Abstract

The most interesting discussion of the place of Israel in the camps and the identification between Israel and Jewish identity is in Chapter 7, “Bringing Israel to Camp: Israeli Emissaries and Hebrew,” placed in the second, contemporary part of the book. The authors briefly describe the historical roots of this unique phenomenal, examine the differences between the Israeli and the American Jewish staff members, portray the conflation of Hebrew and Israel, and discuss the way the emissaries present Israel. However, they are focusing on the level of the individual emissaries and ignore the fact that they are a part of a long-lasting Israeli effort to influence American Jewish youth in general and American Jewish camps in particular. Starting with David Ben-Gurion, Hebrew education became one of the central foundations of Israel-Diaspora relations. Over the years the State of Israel and Zionist organizations invested millions of dollars in this goal, and, as the authors show in their epilogue, Israeli leaders still emphasize it today, assuming “Hebrew functions as a common denominator” for different Jews (248–249). As the authors focus only on American Jewish archives and most of the interviewees are American, the book is lacks sufficient discussion of this context. Nevertheless, Hebrew Infusion is an impressive and well written scholarly work that extends our understanding of American Judaism both past and present. It is a profound academic work, and at the same time it avoids jargon and may serve as a relevant reading for teachers and educators. One can only hope such interdisciplinary works will keep emerging and enrich both the field of research and its methodology.