Ben-Gurion Institute for the Study of Israel & Zionism, 2025, ISBN: 978-965-510-162-1,
313 pages.

Between Stations: Jews on Public Transportation [Hebrew]

In the 20th century, the era of proliferating public transportation – shipping companies were established, more and more railroad tracks were laid and new pathways were conquered. These allowed many to move between cities, regions and countries at affordable prices and with greater ease than ever, ushering encounters between different societies and classes. How has this affected Jewish people around the world and in Israel? This collection of essays fills the gap in the study of mobility and its influences on the Jewish domain. It examines the consequences of public transportation on the inner lives of the Jewish communities scattered in different locations, and on certain groups amongst them; it focuses on the unique experiences of Jews as they use public transportation in everyday life and in the immigration passages to America or to Israel; it analyses the cultural aspects of the phenomena and looks into its influence on the relation between Jewish communities round the world.

Public transportation in the 20th century has convened both hegemonic groups and marginal groups in society and had the power to redefine their affinities. It built relations and bridges between various Jewish communities and at times emphasized different cultural features. Public transportation has also had national aspects. The establishing of an independent Jewish public transportation system in the mandatory land of Israel and in the country of Israel has had national motivations, and as every national system, it too had aspects of identity and place.

And so, between the stations of this book, a polyphonous and layered history of public transportation as an important social, cultural and emotional sphere, but also one that is often transparent, in the experiences of Jews in the modern era. It has been a sphere of movement, encounter, mobility and exclusion, which reflected the vicissitudes of time, and focusing on it affords us with a different view of Jewish history.

Contributors: Emma Zohar, Alex Valdman, Orit Bashkin, Avital Ginat, Assaf Selzer, Gur Alroey, Erga Heller, Mariusz Kalczewiak, Ilan Shchori, Mordecai Naor.

Emma Zohar directs the Certificate Program in Project Management in the Jewish World at Tel Aviv University and serves as Editor-in-Chief of Yalkut Moreshet: Journal for Holocaust and Antisemitism Studies.