Yehudit Harari

Yehudit Harari (née Eisenberg; ; October 4, 1885 – June 7, 1979) was an educator, teacher, kindergarten teacher, and writer, one of the founders of Tel Aviv. She was one of the founders of the "Hebrew Stage Enthusiasts Association" and a member of the Habimah Theater council, winner of the honorary prize for education of the Tel Aviv Municipality in 1965.

Biography

Early life

Yehudit Harari was born in Pinsk, Belarus, in 1885. Her parents, Bilha-Esther (née Meshel) (d. 1936) and Aharon Eisenberg (1863–1931), where Halutzim (Hebrew: ) members of the First Aliya, who immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1886 when she was a toddler. They lived in Jaffa for the first year, while her father specialized in agriculture in Rishon LeZion. When they bought their land in Wadi-Chanin (Ness Ziona), they first lived in a tent among the Bedouins, then in a cellar in 's orchard until the completion of the construction of the house in Wadi-Chanin.

In the cellar of the Eisenberg family came many guests, among them Bilu'im, Hovevei Zion (aka Hibbat Zion), activists and guests from the Diaspora. In one of the meetings in the basement, Aharon Eisenberg, one of the first pioneers of Hovevei Zion, learned that between the moshava and Wadi-Chanin, a plot of the land "Duran" (Hebrew: חירבת דוראן), which belonged to the family in Jaffa, was for sale. Eisenberg turned to his friend Yehoshua Hankin and they both organized the purchase of the land. That same year, the company (Hebrew: מנוחה ונחלה) was founded in Warsaw, which purchased the lands and thus established the new moshava of Rehovot. In 1890 Aharon Eisenberg began to manage the planting work of Menucha and Nachla, and the family moved to the moshava and was one of its founders.

The Eisenberg House, which was one of the first houses in Rehovot and which was called "The Eisenberg Hotel", Life in the young colony of Rehovot was vibrant and full of interest. "On the hill of love, the young people were gather in the evenings, light a bonfire, sing and discuss the future of the Yishuv and Hebrew work".

Marriage and family life

When she was 13 she met her future husband, Haim Harari (Bloomberg), a student of Mikveh Israel, a boy who came to Palestine alone to study agriculture. After graduating in 1901 he returned to Russia, and she promised that she would wait for him until he returned. For six years they constantly corresponded, to her parents' dismay, who feared for their daughter's good reputation. She documented the correspondence in great detail in her book Between the Vineyards. The young couple suffered many hardships during those years, each separately, but their love did not subside.

After six years, he returned to Eretz Yisrael to serve as a teacher at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium. A year later, in 1907, they married. Yehudit, who was working as a teacher and kindergarten teacher at the Evelina de Rothschild Girls' School in Jerusalem, left her job and moved to live with her young husband in Jaffa. Haim Harari, a teacher, and educator himself taught at the Herzliya Gymnasium until his death in 1940. He advocated for the concept of gender equality. Because of his reservations about the dual standard of sexual purity before marriage, which encouraged men to sexual experiences and prohibited this entirely among women, he committed himself to sexual purity before his marriage. Their relationship can be seen in the pursuit of equality, but also in the latent sense that the birthright is given to the husband's desires. After a year of marriage, in July 1908 their only son, Yizhar Harari, was born.

Yehudit and Haim Harari initiated and organized the "Hebrew Stage Enthusiasts", drama groups of actors and amateur actresses who staged plays at a time when there were no Hebrew theaters in Israel. He was an actor and director, and she participated in acting and played major roles in many plays that were produced. Among other things, she played in the play Mirele Efros by Yaakov Gordin. The veterans of Tel Aviv said that the Harari's successful performances were known from a distance and attracted not only the residents of Tel Aviv and Jaffa, but also the residents of the moshavot After the establishment of the National Habima Theatre Yehudit served as a member of the Theater Council.

Teacher and educator in Israel

A young kindergarten teacher

From her youth, she directed herself to teaching. When she was 16, after a two-year course at the first Hebrew kindergarten founded in Rishon LeZion by , she founded the second Hebrew kindergarten in Rehovot. When she was 17, the director of the Evelina de Rothschild , , invited her to work as a kindergarten teacher and Hebrew teacher at the school, where she also studied teaching at the English Hebrew Teacher Training Seminar.

She died on June 7, 1979, at the age of 94. She was buried, along her husband Haim Harari, in the Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv.

Family

Her son was Yizhar Harari, a Zionist activist, Israeli politician and a Knesset member, best known as initiator of the Harari Decision (aka Harari Proposal) of 13 June 1950, a landmark in Israeli constitutional law. Her grandson is distinguished physicist Prof. Haim Harari, President, from 1988 to 2001, of the Weizmann Institute of Science. Her sisters and brothers are Leah Rachel Idelson, who was one of the founders of Tel Aviv, , Amatzia Eisenberg, , a public figure and a Zionist activist in the Yishuv, and Yehushua Eisenberg who was District Judge and Director General of the Israeli Magistrates' Courts.

Literary works

Yehudit started writing at a young age. Her anonymous letters were published in "Ha-Melitz", short stories and articles published in the periodical (edited by ), , , Ganenu, , Haaretz, and many more.

In 1948, her autobiographical book Between the Vineyards published by , which deals with the Jewish woman from biblical times to the tenth anniversary of the State of Israel. She devoted her book to the "Women of Israel" and wrote down the contributions and activities of Jewish women throughout history. In the introduction she wrote:

Selected bibliography From the Cellar to the Pastry - a short story, printed in the journal "" - Volume I, 1907 Slap in the Face - short story, printed in the journal "" Work to Conquest, in "Tmura" - articles published by the Writers Association, March–April 1925 The Bat by Jean-Henri Fabre - Translation from French, 1928 Exodus by Flinders Petrie - English translation; Published in the journal "Moledet"