Zionist Folkloristics in the 1940s–1950s: Diasporic Cultures and the Question of Continuity

Shared Heritage Revisited

“…For this reason, for example, and in contrast to national movements in Europe, folklore did not serve as the unifying glue between the different Jewish subcultures that comprised the Jewish nation, since folklore represented a link to the Jewish cultures in the diaspora and was therefore perceived as a spanner in the wheels of the Zionist movement (Schrire 2019). Thus, the goal of the "melting pot" process was to reform the Arab-Jews' heritage by ideologically reintegrating them into the national identity.…”