Aryeh Gelblum
Aryeh Gelblum (27 April 1921[1] – 13 April 1993) was an Israeli journalist for Haaretz, Maariv and the Israel Broadcasting Authority. He is known for his controversial articles criticizing North African Jewish immigrants of Israel.
Personal life[edit]
Gelblum was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1921, and in 1925 immigrated to Israel with his parents.[1]
In Israel he lived in the Nordiya neighborhood of Tel Aviv and studied at Tachkemoni School, Nordiya Gymansia and Tichon Hadash.[1] He was a member of Working and Studying Youth and a writer in the movement's newspaper, Bamaale. As a teenager he was a member of the Haganah and was arrested for his activities.[1] His first article was published in the Palestine Post newspaper and told of his arrest experience.[1] During World War II he studied linguistics, English literature, philosophy, history and economics in the American University of Beirut. He did military service in Lebanon on behalf of the Haganah and in several intelligence missions on behalf of the Allies. He was the first to publish about Haj Amin al-Husayni's connections with the Nazi regime.
After the war he served as a writer for Haaretz in France and Geneva and later in the United States as a political and military correspondent. He returned to Israel in 1949.
Gelblum spent a brief time in the United States again as a newspaper writer. In 1955 he returned to Israel and started working for Maariv[2] and served as the Israeli reporter for the French newspaper France-Soir, and also as a writer for the Israeli army magazine Bamahane.
He worked for the Israel Broadcasting Authority and was one of the editors of the current affairs show Kol Tzivei Hareshet on Reshet Bet.
In 1948 he married Lilly Perlmutter, whom he came to know during his work in London. They had a son and a daughter. The daughter, Dr. Amira Gelblum is an historian specializing in women's history, a lecturer at the Open University, a feminist and peace activist, and one of the founders of the anti-war group Women in Black.[3]
Gelblum divorced Perlmutter and in 1961 married actor Miriam Zohar, with whom he had two daughters.
He died in 1993 and was buried in Kiryat Shaul Cemetery.
A street in Tel Aviv is named after him.[4]
Controversial writings[edit]
After Israel's war of independence, the young country faced an influx of immigrants expelled or emigrating from Arab countries. In 1949, Gelblum impersonated a new immigrant in order to observe the new olim first-hand. After this experience, he published a series of articles in Haaretz titled "I became a new immigrant for a month". In these articles he sharply attacked the newcomers: He criticized their whole culture and customs, from their looks to their character traits, of which he referred to in generalization. Among the character traits he criticized was ignorance, idleness, aversion to labor, inherent violence, and criminal inclination.
Even though most of his criticism was directed at Mizrahi Jews he called the Holocaust survivors, the Ashkenazi Jews "badlands" and "human dust that would not amount to anything".
The main fear expressed by Gelblum was that continuing the Aliyah from Arab countries would cause the country to "Levanticize", which would eventually bring about the country's ruin.
Gelblum's writing made sweeping generalizations of the immigrant groups. He stated that in one article:
| “ | I should dare to say that the first bloc, the Spanish-Balkan, is the elite; the second bloc, the Ashkenazi-European, is the inferior one; and the third bloc, the Arab-African one, is even dangerous! | ” |
| — Aryeh Gelblum, "The Truth About The Human Matter", Haaretz, 21 April 1949[5] | ||
In another famous passage, he wrote:
| “ | This is the immigration of a race such as we have never known in this country. We are dealing with people whose primitiveness is a record. Their degree of education borders on total ignorance, and even worse is their total inability to absborb anything spiritual. In general their level is only somewhat better than the common level of the Arabs, Negroes, and Berbers of their country. ... Above all these is a fundemental problem—the absence of any ability to assimilate into the life of the country, and first and foremost a chronic laziness and hatred of labor. | ” |
| — Aryeh Gelblum, "The Yemenite Immigration and the African problem", Haaretz, 22 April 1949[6] | ||
His writings raised a public outcry. Among the immigrants' defenders was Efraim Friedman, a Holland-born Ashkenazi, who had served as a courier to Jews in North Africa since 1943. On 8 May 1949, Haaretz published a lengthy response by Friedman titled "On the North African Immigration: A Reply to Mr. Gelblum".
According to historian Yaron Tsur, behind the articles stood the head of the immigration reception system of the Jewish Agency for Israel, who feared losing the "Western" nature of Israel and from absorbing Mizrahi cultural influences.[7]
Further reading[edit]
- "I became a new immigrant for a month ---": the full version of the series of articles Aryeh Gelblum published in Haaretz (13 April – 6 May 1949) and its replies, in: Shimon Rubinshtein, From Berlad to Rosh-Pina Maabara: on the existential struggle and the adjustment of a family of immigrants from Romania in the Galil (1950–1956) (Introduction: Yerahmiel Assa, Tsvi Shiloni; Art and Cover: Gerti Rubinshtein), Tel Aviv: Y. Golan, 1993, p. 273–376.
- Uri Sela, 'Aryeh Gelblum, Advertiser-Soloist (In His Memory)', Otot, 155: 7,55, 1993
- Chapter: "Ha'Chomer Ha'Enoshi" inside: Yehoshua Kenaz (Editor), Sefer Haaretz: Hashana ha-75, Jerusalem: Schocken Books, 5756, 1996, p. 93–116.
- Nathan Yini, "Ha'Aliyah Mi'Artzot Ha'Islam Be'Rei Ha'Itonut Ha'Ivrit Bashanim 1950-1952", Kesher 36, Stav 2007, 131–144.
- Yaron Tsur, 'Emat HaCarnaval – "HaMarocanim" ve Hatmura Ba'be'aya ha'adatit be'israel ha'tsei'ira', Alpaim 19 (5670), 126–164.
External links[edit]
- "Aryeh Gelblum", inside: Tel Aviv City Streets Guide
- "Hitbatoot Hasar Eli Ishai Mazkira li Yamim Avaru" 16 March 2012
- Hen Malul, "Hakatavot shel Gelblum she'hekimu alav mevakrim mikol kivoon", Israel National Library, July 2017
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Tidhar, David (1997). "אריה גלבלום". Entsiklopedyah le-halutse ha-yishuv u-vonav. 4. Touro College Libraries. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
- ↑ "Israel holekhet lakalfi, sidrat katavot me'et aryeh gelblum", Maariv, 9 June 1955
- ↑ "Bat Shalom Staff", Bat Shalom Website
- ↑ "Tel Aviv Streets Guide B-G" (PDF), Tel Aviv Municipality Website
- ↑ Levin, Lital (1 September 2011). "Jewish Agency: We Discriminated Against North Africans". Haaretz. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
- ↑ Perry, Dan; Ironside, Alfred (2012). Israel and the Quest for Permanence. McFarland. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-7864-5105-0. Retrieved 9 January 2018. Search this book on
- ↑ Tsur, Yaron (2001). Kehila Kruaa: Yehudei Maroco Ve Haleumiyut 1943–1954. Ha'amuta Le'Cheker Ma'arachot Ha'Haapala Al Shem Shaul Avigur – Tel Aviv University. Tel Aviv: Am Oved. Search this book on
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