KONGRE BİLDİRİLERİ
Prof. Dr. Amnon COHEN
The Hebrew University of Jersusalem / ISRAEL
The State of Israel, having been established in 1948, is one of the youngest descendants of the
Ottoman empire. When its rule of 400 years in Palestine was brought to an end in the course of the
First World War, it was replaced by another occupying power, Great Britain, that became its master
and administrator for another 30 years. Only then, as a result of a specific UN resolution, was Israel
established as an independent state in part of the former Palestine.
The Ottoman heritage, therefore, alongside the British one, is very much present in Israel until
these very days. A recently published research1 of my home town, Rishon le-Zion, carries a photograph
taken in 1899 the first Hebrew-language kindergarten in that village. Some of the little boys, dressed
up for a festive occasion, chose, quite naturally, to carry small replicas of swords and rifles. Eight of
them were wearing fez headgear - neither traditional Jewish nor European style. Today’s kids would ,
most probably, prefer to wear Superman’s and other TV heros’ outfits, but in the Jewish village newly
founded in 1882, where Hebrew became mandatory and agricultural life was the norm, the role models
were still Ottoman soldiers.
1. Etmol, No. 224, August, 2012 (Yad Ben-Zvi, Jerusalem), p. 3.
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