The Last Rain (32 page)

56
. Literally, a piece of something; commonly used in Modern Hebrew to refer to the segment of a citrus fruit.

57
.
Tarzan and the Amazons
, with Johnny Weissmuller (1945); available on YouTube. For the sweeping boy, see part one at 3 minutes, 20 seconds.

58
. Credentials were easy to fabricate in the early days of the State, especially in professions where genuine qualifications were in short supply.

59
. Snarey, 1982/83.

60
. The Hebrew
zefet
means “tar” or “pitch” (see Exodus 2:3— ”And when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes and covered it with wet earth and pitch”). The Arabic cognate is
zift
and means both “tar” and “trash”; the latter is used as an interjection expressing cursory dismissal or disapproval. Modern Hebrew borrowed both senses of
zift
but also retained the Hebrew
zefet
, hence Dori’s confusion.

61
.

A Herd of 120 Goats Was Returned Yesterday to Lebanon

The goats were led by two shepherds from Lebanon who entered Israel a few days ago, north-west of Eldar. Border Guards came across the shepherds and the goats and took the goats into custody. The shepherds succeeded in fleeing.

—Davar,
7 April, 1960

Lebanese Shepherd Arrested, His Friend Manages to Escape

Border Guards arrested yesterday at 10:00 A.M. a shepherd from Lebanon near Kibbutz Eldar when he crossed the border into Israel with his friend and shepherded his goats. The two came across the patrolling Border Guard who ordered them to stop. They did not obey and began to run towards Lebanon. One managed to return to Lebanon with the goats but his friend, age 16, was arrested 400 metres from the border.

—Davar,
27 November, 1960

62
. In 1951, anthropologists Melford and Audrey Spiro spent a year observing children at Beit Alpha, the oldest Young Guard kibbutz (founded 1922). Members of the kibbutz they studied were reportedly shocked and dismayed when the book based on these observations came out.

Melford, who by his own account had been warmly welcomed during his stay, was now accused of distortion, exaggeration, errors, and incomprehension. Members were stunned when Melford reported that, between the ages of one and five, more than half of all observed interaction between the children consisted of acts of physical aggression e.g. hitting, slamming others with an object, kicking, biting, jostling, jumping on, throwing objects at, scratching with fingernails, pulling hair, destroying a toy or game another child was playing with, smearing with food, choking, threatening to cut with a knife, eye-gouging, hair-cutting and penis-pulling.

Melford himself claimed to be the constant target of what he felt was unprovoked aggression, and though he was aware that his work would be compromised if he departed from the observer’s stance, he and Audrey sometimes had to intervene, he said, to save a child from being seriously injured when the Minder left the room and asked one of them to keep an eye on things.

No one could explain Melford’s “ludicrous” comment that in the past children were not prevented from playing with their faeces; members felt he had misunderstood what he was being told, given the fact that virtually all kibbutzim are obsessed with cleanliness and health.

Most wounding, however, were descriptions of the neglect of infants, whom Melford said could not be cared for properly by one worker, even with the best of intentions.

—Selina R. Korenberg,
Under a Microscope: The Kibbutz as a Subject of Study
(Unpublished Doctoral Thesis)

“At least the Melfords understood basic Hebrew, unlike Bruno [Bettelheim], who didn’t speak a word of Hebrew and only spent a few weeks on the kibbutz, mostly writing in his room and asking for favours. He never looked in on the children for more than a few minutes at a time.”