Israeli Education System in Search of a Pantheon of Heroes, 1948-1967

The "blue box" for JNF donations that stood in every classroom, the JNF stamps that were pasted on their report cards, various games and songs that used the JNF as a theme, and other propaganda efforts by the JNF had made the institution very well known. [...]intensive fundraising activity during the Yishuv period had penetrated to the private sphere -- exemplified by the collection of donations at family events -- and was well-established in Israeli society. (27) These remarks seemed positive -- the new immigrants were different and varied and needed to be brought closer to Israeli culture -- but in fact they smacked rather strongly of an elitism in which it was clear who was to guide whom: the new immigrants came from backward cultures, and only intensive training from their hosts would elevate them to a decent cultural level. [...]integration meant adopting the face of the dominant elite, which, at the time, never considered the possibility that absorbing the Jews of the Diaspora would lead to the development of a multicultural society. [...]during the first 20 years of the Israeli state and education system, the general trend clearly favored the maintenance of the old values, which were ostensibly aimed at emphasizing modernity, and the postponement -- perhaps for too long -- of the manifestations of disruptive social change that were appearing in Israel. [...]with respect to the designation by the Education Ministry of exemplary figures to point the way for the development of Israeli nation and Israeli society, the establishment of the state did not, in itself, appear to effect any changes in attitude; rather, that was the result of later responses to changes in the state of Israel, in the composition of the population, and in its new public discourse.