Ben-Gurion Institute Press, 2026, ISBN: 9789655101652, 265 pages.

Between the Corridor and the Parlor: The Jewish Bourgeoisie in Eretz Israel at the Turn of the 20th Century [Hebrew]

The book examines the lives of the Jewish bourgeoisie in Palestine during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with a particular focus on the Vilbush family. By means of letters either penned by members of the Vilbush family or addressed to them, we are able to shed light on lesser-known facets of this familial lineage and its social milieu. It is a portrait of the upper bourgeoisie—a social stratum, or perhaps a class, seldom explored by local scholars.

The book makes several contributions to the historiography of the Yishuv. Methodologically, by drawing on ego documents, it is able to simultaneously capture the main facets of the writers’ lives, such as education, immigration, decision making and everyday activities, including choosing attire, shopping, leisure and eating.  On the theoretical level, the book avoids pursuing the dominant nationalist narrative and instead searches for other starting points, thus redirecting the inquiry towards the formation of society rather than the formation of the nation.  Accordingly, it reveals greater social diversity in the Yishuv than previously thought; it identifies connections that span from the local to the global, and from the imperial to the national; and it directs our attention towards intriguing and hitherto overlooked individuals.

https://bgri-press.bgu.ac.il/node/1126

Deborah S. Bernstein, of the University of Haifa, and Talia Pfefferman, of Tel Aviv University, study the social history of the Jewish Yishuv in Israel, with a particular focus on the British Mandate period.