Paper short abstract:

This paper examines with the folkloristic practices of the Yeda Am folklore society formed in reaction to the Shoah in Tel Aviv in 1942. While their work engaged with loss, their drive to partake in the Zionist project as well as the folkloric material in itself constricted nostalgic sentiments.

Paper long abstract:

The "Yeda Am" folklore society was established in 1942 in Tel Aviv as a direct reaction to the Shoah (Holocaust). Soon, its members were engaged in many activities that dealt with places they lost - mostly, engaging with traditions and folklore. In the context of a break in continuity, many of the public events they organized (e.g. commemorating lost Jewish communities) and published work were concerned with the feeling of loss - loss of life, loss of homelands and loss of verbal and material culture.

It is therefore tempting to place such scholarly activity under the rubric of 'nostalgia'. However, rarely do these scholars consider their drive to be nostalgic; typically they resented it. In fact, in Zionist discourse which they shared - they left "the Diaspora" to live in the "Homeland" - reversing typical models of a Diaspora longing for a homeland left behind.

By scrutinizing the motivations of these scholars, tracing the material objects, practices and transformations that occur in their scholarly activity, I would like to suggest that much of their folkloristic practices may resemble models of a Diaspora longing for a lost homeland. However, much of the folkloric material itself undermines the notion of nostalgia. Thus, contrary to historical outlooks that could sketch a positive-selective picture, a great deal of the folklore they dealt with subverted attempts to rehabilitate a lost Jewish past. Moreover, expressing nostalgic sentiments jeopardized their attempt to harness folklore to Zionist nation-building.