by the water of babylon essay

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Analysis of Stephen Vincent Benét’s By the Waters of Babylon

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on May 18, 2021

By the Waters of Babylon , first published in 1937, is a prescient science fiction story set in an indeterminate, postapocalyptic era, not uncommon for this genre; this lack of detailed setting suggests an unstable physical and social environment. Only gradually do we learn some detail about the setting and get a sense of the time of the story. The narrative concerns a boy, the son of a priest who will become a priest himself, growing into manhood. The use of titles for places (Dead Places, Forest People) rather than names suggests that his is a primitive culture. At times the narrator finds himself having to make a decision that challenges the “law” (as he understands it); he tells us that he “is a priest and the son of a priest,” as though this mantra justifies his mission and his title. This kind of naming and establishing of position suggests a tribal culture.

Benét allows the narrator to tell us what he sees and thinks; he does not supply an authorial voice to explain what has happened, or where in time or place the story is set. This is most effective; science fiction that has to explain itself, or feels the need to explain the science behind its gadgetry or story, often betrays its genre. The narrator simply describes his feelings and observations as he begins his quest to become a man and a priest, assuming that role for his band of people.

In the tradition of tribal tales, he has a vision; his father interprets his vision, and the son must complete his quest before he can return to the tribe. This all seems indicative of a generic tribal or native tale, but Benét plants clues to indicate this story might be set in the future, not in the past.

The quest itself sends the boy to the east, where he is forbidden to go, and to the City of the Gods, which is also forbidden. We come across rather typical symbolic devices here: He must cross the river that divides one land from another (or, one state of consciousness from another); he realizes that many of the legends he has heard are not true (tangible experience replaces myth); he finds hieroglyphs he can only partly read (the past trying to communicate with the future; truth is written as a text only a few can read). In his capacity as a priest, he will have to “read” the signs as they appear. Benét allows this; in a kind of typography (which also supports the primitive setting), the narrator reads the will of God through nature; also, nature becomes personified (the river grips, as with hands), demonstrating a culture connected to the world in which nature is a living, active force in lives.

Stephen-Vincent-Benet/Britannica

We expect the story to reveal where the narrator is, that is, we sense, and begin to look for, the trick. This is a convention of the genre, and as we read, we get the sense that Benét is telegraphing the end of the story. It is hard not to feel as though, in the story’s final paragraph, we will learn which city he has stumbled into, and exactly the condition of the nuclear apocalypse that has reduced civilization to rubble (and set the scene for the rise of a new civilization). In a sense, this does happen; this adherence to the convention works against any rising tension in the story, especially for modern readers. We have seen this often enough to know the trick.

However, Benét does not allow the trick to outrun the narrative. We do learn the secret of the location— New York—and we can figure out some details, but Benét is not interested in the trick as much as he is in his message: that a high civilization has destroyed itself; that the gods were men, just as the narrator is a man; and finally that “we must rebuild.” The message is apparent (if a little heavy-handed) to modern readers, but only because it has become well worn. If we can read through the conventions to which Benét adheres, observe the fine descriptive passages, and recognize the less apparent tensions in the text—the boy’s entering manhood, his struggle to determine whether he should observe the law, whether the priests are above the law—the story offers more subtle grounds for discussion than the conventional postapocalyptic tale.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Benét, Stephen Vincent. “By the Waters of Babylon.” In The Devil and Daniel Webster and Other Writings, edited by Townsend Ludington. New York: Penguin, 1999. Izzo, David Garrett, and Lincoln Kankle, eds. Stephen Vincent Benét: Essays on His Life and Work. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2002. Stroud, Perry Edmund. Stephen Vincent Benét. Boston: Twayne, 1962.

By the Waters of Babylon

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Analysis: “By the Waters of Babylon”

“By the Waters of Babylon” is a Modernist approach to fears that haunted the mid-20th century. Inspired by the bombing of Guernica by fascist forces on April 26, 1937, the story delves into the themes of The Destruction of War and The Pursuit of Knowledge . The writer uses allusions to the Babylonian exile and the Book of Revelation to create an atmosphere of loss, yearning, and anxiety regarding the end of days.

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By The Waters of Babylon Themes

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Literary Terms
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....... "By the Waters of Babylon" is a short story centering on a young man from a post-apocalyptic society who goes forth from his village to learn and explore. The narrative has elements of the science-fiction, adventure, and coming-of-age genres. The Saturday Evening Post published the story in the issue of July 31, 1937. The Pocketbook of Science Fiction published it in 1943.

Setting and Background

....... The action takes place in the Eastern United States many generations after a war desolated civilization and left cities in ruins. Some descendants of the few survivors of the war live in a tribe in the countryside many miles west of the Hudson River (which the main character refers to as the Ou-dis-on). They are called Hill People. The men use bows and arrows to hunt, and the women spin wool to make fabrics. One member of the tribe travels to a forbidden zone (New York City) and explores the ruins.

John : Son of a tribal priest (similar to a shaman or witch doctor) in a post-apocalyptic society. John also becomes a priest. John's Father : Priest who conducts the ceremony initiating his son into the tribal priesthood. John's Brothers : Hunters. Forest People : Ignorant rivals of the more advanced society in which John lives. John says he has fought against the Forest People.

Point of View and Narrative Style

....... John tells the story in first-person point of view, using I , we , and other first-person pronouns. He uses simple words, for he has learned only the rudiments of the English language from old books that he has found. Consequently, the narrative is uncomplicated and easy to understand.

....... The main character, John, struggles against his own fears (internal conflict) and against real or imagined outside threats (external conflict), such as a pack of wild dogs and the Hudson River (which almost sweeps him away).

Plot Summary

....... I am John, son of John. My people are the Hill People. They are the men. ....... I go into the Dead Places but I am not slain. ....... I take the metal from the Dead Places but I am not blasted. ....... I travel upon the god-roads and am not afraid. E-yah! I have killed the panther, I have killed the fawn! ....... E-yah! I have come to the great river. No man has come there before. ....... It is forbidden to go east, but I have gone, forbidden to go on the great river, but I am there. ....... Open your hearts, you spirits, and hear my song. ....... Now I go to the Place of the Gods, I shall not return. ....... My body is painted for death and my limbs weak, but my heart is big as I go to the Place of the Gods!"

And, when I am chief priest we shall go beyond the great river. We shall go to the Place of the Godsthe place newyorknot one man but a company. We shall look for the images of the gods and find the god ASHING and the othersthe gods Lincoln and Biltmore and Moses. But they were men who built the city, not gods or demons. They were men. I remember the dead man's face. They were men who were here before us. We must build again.

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....... The title alludes to the first verse of Psalm 137 in the King James Bible or the first verse of Psalm 136 in the Douay-Rheims Bible:

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. (King James) Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept: when we remembered Sion. (Douay-Rheims)

....... The climax occurs when John has a vision revealing the Place of the Gods (New York City) as it was just before, and during, the Great Burning.

Everywhere went the gods, on foot and in chariotsthere were gods beyond number and counting and their chariots blocked the streets. They had turned night to day for their pleasure-they did not sleep with the sun. The noise of their coming and going was the noise of the many waters. It was magic what they could doit was magic what they did. . . . Then I saw their fate come upon them and that was terrible past speech. It came upon them as they walked the streets of their city. I have been in the fights with the Forest PeopleI have seen men die. But this was not like that. When gods war with gods, they use weapons we do not know. It was fire falling out of the sky and a mist that poisoned. It was the time of the Great Burning and the Destruction. They ran about like ants in the streets of their citypoor gods, poor gods! Then the towers began to fall. A few escapedyes, a few. The legends tell it.

....... In the denouement (conclusion), John reveals what he has learned from his experiences in the Place of the Gods and what happened when he returned home. (See the last four paragraphs of the story.)

Avoiding Apocalypse

....... By the Waters of Babylon presents an implied warning that war will eventually desolate civilization unless human beings learn to live with one another without resorting to violence to resolve their differences.

Advancement Through Exploration

....... John understands that the only way to better himself is to explore the world around him even though such exploration involves great risks. In a sense, he is like explorers of the pastseamen, scientists, philosophers, theologians, artists, and so onwho crossed physical or intellectual boundaries, often at the risk of their reputations or even their lives.

Obscurantism

....... The tribal lawgivers establish boundaries beyond which no one may go. They do not realize, as John does, that some boundaries must be crossed and some forbidden zones must be entered if there is to be learning and progress. In their desire to maintain the status quo and remain within familiar boundaries, these lawgivers are obscurantistspersons who oppose enlightenment and human progress because they fear change and contact with the unknown. They are comfortable with things as they are.

Coming of Age

....... On his travels, John builds his confidence, gains a better understanding of himself and his capabilities, and learns about the world around him.

Superstition

....... Superstition arises from ignorance. When a person cannot explain an event or a condition, he may attribute it to spirits or magic, as John does until he learns the truth about the world around him.

....... At the end of the story, John speaks of the rebirth of civilization as it was before the Great Burning.

Value and Danger of Metal

....... In the first paragraph of the story, John says, "It is forbidden to go to any of the Dead Places except to search for metal and then he who touches the metal must be a priest or the son of a priest. Afterwards, both the man and the metal must be purified." ....... In the second paragraph, John says, "My father is a priest; I am the son of a priest. I have been in the Dead Places near us, with my fatherat first, I was afraid. When my father went into the house to search for the metal, I stood by the door and my heart felt small and weak." ....... In the third paragraph, he says, "Then my father came out with the metalgood, strong piece. He looked at me with both eyes but I had not run away. He gave me the metal to holdI took it and did not die." ....... The members of the tribe probably use pieces or sheets of metal to make shelters, containers, kitchen utensils, farm implements, and so on. In some instances, the metal they salvage may already be in the form of a useful item, such as the knife John found. ....... From what John says, some metal objects pose a danger, perhaps because they are unexploded bombs or artillery projectiles. John implies this possibility in the third line of his death song: "I take the metal from the Dead Places but I am not blasted." ....... John does not explain why "the metal must be purified." Perhaps unexploded weapons must be disarmed or otherwise neutralized; other objects might require removal of rust, oil, gasoline, or other contaminants or corrosives. It is obvious, however, that autho r Benét was not suggesting that metal was contaminated with radiation. When he wrote the story in 1937, the U.S. had not yet developed atomic weapons, which spread radioactive particles after they explode.

ASHING : Letters engraved in a stone remnant from a statue of George Washington on Wall Street in New York City. Bitter Water : Ocean water, described by John as bitter because of its salt content. fishhawk : Osprey, a black-and-white bird that dives for fish. great temple in the mid-city : Grand Central Terminal (railroad terminal often referred to as Grand Central Station). Biltmore : Biltmore Hotel, which adjoins Grand Central Terminal. When John enters this "dead-house" he sees pictures on the walls in one part of the building. These are paintings that the Biltmore Hotel houses in its Grand Central Art Galleries, opened in 1922. Lincoln : Reference Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States, and to the Lincoln Tunnel, which connects Weehawken, New Jersey, with New York City. Moses : Probably a reference to Robert Moses, who oversaw a construction of hundreds public facilities in New York City, including parks, playgrounds, tunnels, and highways. He also supervised completion of the Triborough Bridge (really three bridges), connection Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens. Ou-dis-sun : Name for the Hudson River. roof . . . painted like the sky at night with its stars : Ceiling of Grand Central Terminal. UBTREAS : Letters engraved in a stone remnant from the The United States Subtreasury building on Wall Street in New York City. A subtreasury is a regional bank that holds federal funds.

Study Questions and Writing Topics

In what ways is the story prophetic?
Write an essay comparing and contrasting the plot and theme of "By the Waters of Babylon" with the plot and theme of The Planet of the Apes , an American film based on the novel La planète des singes , by Pierre Boulle. (If you wish, you may compare and contrast the short story with an English translation of Boulle's novel.
Write an essay focusing on the aftermath of a real-life Great Burningthe bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended the Second World War.
In your opinion, how many years after the Great Burning did John visit New York City?
Is "By the Waters of Babylon" a story of optimism or pessimism?

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By the Waters of Babylon Irony

By stephen vincent benet.

These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.

Written by Micola Magdalena

Primitive society

From the way the society is described in the beginning of the beginning of the story, one would be inclined to believe that the story takes place in the past, before any technological advancement. The truth however is far from that and ironically, the action takes place in a distant future, after society destroyed itself.

Not the strongest

The author leaves the impression that the priests were considered the wisest and strongest in the post-apocalyptic society. Ironically however, the ones who ended up being priests were not the ones who were the strongest in society but rather the ones who were born in the right family and the ones who were not afraid to touch the metal that was considered as being poison.

Not that way

John and his father both mention a few times the idea that it if forbidden to go east. For an unknown reason, everyone agreed with the rule and they refused to travel in that direction, thinking that it is a sin. When john expresses his desire to go and search for knowledge, his father warns him that he must not travel east as it is forbidden. Ironically however, as John stays and waits for signs telling him in which direction to go, every sign pointed towards east and so John had to travel there as well, despite knowing that it is against their laws.

Safest path

When John goes east, he stays away from the main roads, the roads built out of concrete and stone and choses to travel instead through the forest. The reason why he chooses that path is because it was believed that the forest was safer than the main road and thus the travelers kept themselves away from them. Ironically, the forests were not safer because the Forest People were living inside those forests and they represented a danger for John as he could have been attacked at any moment.

Saved by it

The Hill People seem to be terrified of metal. In fact, they are so scared of it that they believe that only those who have a blessing from the Gods and who are priests can touch it without being killed. Ironically however, John was saved by a piece of metal that had fallen into the river and this proves that the people’s superstitions were just that, superstitions that were unfounded by actual fact.

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By the Waters of Babylon Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for By the Waters of Babylon is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Why does the narrator start each paragraph with the same question?

I'm sorry, I see no evidence of this in the story, By the Waters of Babylon , by Stephen Vincent Benet.

By the Waters of Babylon

The priest's son went to the Place of the Gods, and yes, it was forbidden, but leaving his homeland is not the same as robbery or murder, particularly, because he brought home informations. In my opinion, if a punishment was merited, his father...

In by the waters of Babylon how is John’s society different from the one that came before it ?

there is no warfare

Study Guide for By the Waters of Babylon

By the Waters of Babylon study guide contains a biography of Stephen Vincent Benet, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

About By the Waters of Babylon
By the Waters of Babylon Summary
Character List

Essays for By the Waters of Babylon

By the Waters of Babylon essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of By the Waters of Babylon by Stephen Vincent Benet.

The Importance of Setting in “By the Waters of Babylon”

Wikipedia Entries for By the Waters of Babylon

Introduction

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How to Say Babylon Summary, Analysis and Key Themes

How to Say Babylon is a deeply reflective memoir by Safiya Sinclair, a Jamaican poet whose journey through a strict Rastafari upbringing reveals a powerful tale of self-discovery. Published in 2023, Sinclair recounts her childhood in rural Jamaica, where her father’s rigid beliefs shaped much of her early life.

Struggling against his increasing control and the violent dynamics at home, she finds solace in writing and poetry. Through her words, Sinclair crafts a path to freedom, navigating her way from a repressive household to the broader world beyond, offering a poignant meditation on identity, resilience, and reconciliation.

In the early chapters of the memoir, Safiya Sinclair reflects on her childhood in Jamaica, which at first seems idyllic. She grows up in a picturesque coastal village alongside her two younger siblings, Lij and Ife, under the care of their mother, Esther, while their father, Howard, is often away pursuing his Rastafari-influenced music career .

However, Howard’s deep distrust of modern society, which he refers to as “Babylon” in keeping with Rastafarian belief, leads him to relocate the family to a remote countryside, seeking isolation from corrupting influences. This move coincides with the birth of Safiya’s youngest sister, Shari.

Howard later departs for Japan to further his music career, but his return is marked by bitterness and failure. The once-distant father becomes more present in the family’s daily life, but his presence brings tension.

As Safiya enters adolescence, her father’s growing paranoia about Babylon leads to more rigid control over his children. While Safiya excels academically and even earns a scholarship to a private school, Howard’s increasingly harsh discipline overshadows these achievements.

He views her curiosity and success as potential threats, planting seeds of tension and resentment.

As Safiya attends her new school, she feels alienated. Her Rastafari background and modest family circumstances set her apart from her wealthier classmates, who mock and belittle her.

This period marks the start of a growing inner conflict for Safiya—caught between her father’s strict ideals and the demands of the modern world, she turns to poetry for solace.

Amid her father’s escalating physical abuse, her mother Esther takes on more work outside the home, leaving Safiya to contend with Howard’s outbursts. The cracks in Howard’s stern façade become clearer to Safiya, as she realizes her father is neither infallible nor divine, as she once believed.

Safiya’s poetry begins to flourish, with her work being accepted by the Jamaica Observer. Encouraged by this validation, she deepens her focus on writing, finding it to be a means of escape.

Through her mentorship with an experienced poet, her creative voice grows stronger, yet she also ventures into modeling as an alternate path to independence.

Her success in the modeling industry is limited by her dreadlocks—a symbol of her faith but a hindrance to marketability.

Returning to Jamaica after a brief stint in the U.S., Safiya faces increasing verbal abuse from Howard.

Her eventual rebellion comes in the form of cutting off her dreadlocks, an act that enrages Howard but also marks a turning point for her own autonomy.

Inspired by a trip abroad with Esther, both women gradually distance themselves from Howard’s oppressive grip.

Parting ways with Howard, Safiya eventually pursues higher education in the U.S. and begins to reclaim her life.

Even as her nightmares of her father persist, time and distance allow for tentative reconciliation. When Safiya returns to Jamaica for a poetry reading, she and Howard share a fragile but meaningful moment of connection, signaling a bittersweet closure to her tumultuous past.

Through writing, Safiya finds both healing and freedom, embracing her voice and story.

Analysis and Characters

The intersection of patriarchy, religion, and control in the rastafari context.

One of the central themes of How to Say Babylon is the oppressive intersection of patriarchal control, religion, and authority as embodied by Sinclair’s father, Howard. His strict adherence to Rastafari beliefs, particularly its conservative and often patriarchal interpretations, becomes a tool for exerting dominance over his family, particularly the women in his household.

The memoir reveals how religious dogma is manipulated to justify Howard’s oppressive behavior and authoritarianism, restricting Safiya and her mother’s autonomy. Sinclair captures how her father’s fears of “Babylon”—the modern, corrupting world—serve to enforce isolation, submission, and the repression of personal desires.

His interpretation of Rastafari becomes a means of not just spiritual guidance but also a mechanism of control, steeped in patriarchal expectations. Howard’s increasing obsession with purity and spiritual superiority creates a climate where any challenge to his authority—especially from Safiya, as she matures and begins to question his teachings—becomes grounds for violence.

This theme extends beyond religious extremism to address broader questions of how patriarchal ideologies can intersect with spiritual belief systems to enforce dominance and subjugation.

The Burden of Cultural Alienation and Socioeconomic Inequality in Colonial Jamaica

Through Safiya’s experience at her elite private school, Sinclair addresses the complexities of cultural alienation and socioeconomic inequality in post-colonial Jamaica. The stark division between her Rastafari upbringing and the privileged world of her wealthier classmates highlights the class divides that persist in Jamaican society.

This tension is intensified by the lingering effects of colonialism, which continues to shape societal hierarchies, values, and expectations. Sinclair’s Rastafari identity marks her as “other” in an environment where European standards of beauty and success dominate, leaving her feeling inferior and excluded.

Her dreadlocks, a symbol of her faith, are seen as an obstacle in both her academic and later modeling career. This underscores the way cultural markers of her identity clash with the wider world’s expectations.

The memoir subtly critiques how class and colonial legacies affect identity formation, especially for someone like Sinclair, who is caught between the traditions of her family and the aspirations of the broader, often Westernized world.

The Creative Power of Poetry as a Means of Rebellion and Healing

Safiya’s discovery of poetry serves not just as an outlet for self-expression, but as a profound act of rebellion against her father’s control and the rigid boundaries of her world. Poetry becomes both a means of survival and a method of subverting the forces that seek to silence her.

It allows her to navigate the emotional turbulence of her father’s abuse and her feelings of alienation, providing a mental escape from the confines of her isolated life. Her growing success as a poet represents her slow, but deliberate, defiance against the oppressive forces in her life, marking her growing independence.

This theme also speaks to the broader concept of art as resistance, especially in contexts where individual agency is suppressed by both familial and cultural expectations. Through poetry, Sinclair not only reclaims her voice, but she also carves out a space where she can critique and reflect on the patriarchal structures that have shaped her existence.

It is through her writing that she ultimately finds both emotional and physical freedom.

The Complex Interplay of Trauma, Memory, and Reconciliation in Familial Relationships

Sinclair’s memoir reveals the lasting impacts of trauma, particularly how physical and emotional abuse from a parent shapes identity, memory, and future relationships . Howard’s violent outbursts leave deep emotional scars, manifesting in Safiya’s later struggles with nightmares and feelings of fear long after she has physically escaped his control.

However, the theme of trauma is intricately linked to that of reconciliation. Over time, as Howard grows older and more reflective, there is a softening in his character, and the memoir grapples with the difficult process of reconciling with someone who has caused profound harm.

Safiya’s ultimate attempt to come to terms with her father’s abuse highlights the complexity of familial love, where forgiveness exists alongside unresolved pain. The reconciliation between father and daughter is tenuous and incomplete, reflecting how trauma’s echoes can never fully be silenced.

Yet, the memoir suggests that while reconciliation may not erase the trauma, it is a necessary step in healing and finding peace.

The Intersectionality of Gender, Race, and Religious Identity in the Quest for Personal Freedom

Safiya’s journey is not just about escaping the confines of her father’s authoritarianism, but also about navigating the multiple, intersecting identities that shape her experience. These include being a Black woman, a Rastafari, and a poet in a world that seeks to constrain her at every turn.

The memoir explores how each of these aspects of her identity imposes different forms of societal expectations and limitations. Sinclair must negotiate them in her search for freedom.

Her experience as a Rastafari woman is fraught with gendered restrictions. Her race and dreadlocks affect her prospects in the United States and in modeling, while her identity as a poet challenges traditional roles expected of women within her community.

The memoir thus engages with broader discourses of intersectionality. It shows how Sinclair’s path to autonomy is a complex negotiation of cultural, gendered, and racial dynamics.

Her decision to cut off her dreadlocks—historically a symbol of resistance for Rastafari people—further complicates this intersectionality. It is both an act of rebellion against her father’s control and a painful renunciation of a part of her cultural heritage.

This act encapsulates the difficult choices women like Sinclair must make in their quest for personal agency and self-determination.

The Tension Between Tradition and Modernity in a Globalized World

Howard’s fear of Babylon symbolizes a deep conflict between tradition and modernity, a theme that Sinclair unpacks in the context of globalization’s impact on Jamaica and her family. Howard’s increasing paranoia about the corrupting influence of the modern world leads him to retreat into more extreme forms of Rastafari conservatism.

He positions his beliefs in stark opposition to the forces of change represented by technology , media, and Western values. For Safiya, however, modernity becomes a space of liberation—a realm where her poetry can flourish and where she can break free from the rigid gender roles and cultural expectations imposed by her father’s Rastafari worldview.

The memoir thus becomes a narrative of generational conflict, where the old ways, represented by Howard, clash with the possibilities of the new. The struggle between tradition and modernity is not just ideological, but deeply personal, as Safiya must navigate her father’s fears of cultural loss while simultaneously forging her own path in a world he views as dangerous and corrupting.

The memoir suggests that modernity, for all its imperfections, offers a crucial means of escape from oppressive structures, while also acknowledging the profound sense of displacement that can accompany such a break from tradition.

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By the Waters of Babylon

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10.06 Unknown photographer/American Colony (Jerusalem), Photo Department. Synagogue desecrated and looted by Arab rioters, Hebron, August 23 to 31, 1929. Variable dimensions. Gelatin silver print. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

10.07 Unknown photographer. British Police Dispersing Arab Rioters Protesting Jewish Immigration in Jaffa, 1936. Variable dimensions. Gelatin silver print. French News Agency, Gallica Digital Library.

10.09 Unknown photographer. Adolf Hitler talking to Grand Mufti Haj Amin el Husseini, Berlin 1941. Dimensions variable. Gelatin silver print. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

10.10 Unknown photographer. Unrestricted Immigration Demonstration. Variable dimensions. Gelatin silver print. Vad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel.

10.12. Ephraim Moses Lilien. Theodor Herzl on a balcony, Basel, Switzerland, December 1901. Dimensions variable. Gelatin silver print. Shapell Manuscript Foundation.

10.14 Unknown photographer. A group of children work in the garden of the Stuttgart displaced persons’ camp, Stuttgart, [Wuerttemberg] Germany, 1946-1949. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, courtesy of Larry Warick.

10.16 Unknown photographer. The New Jew by Anna Louise Strong. Pamphlet cover. Photo offset. National Library of Australia.

10.19 Unknown photographer. Sabra Fighters, 1948. Photo offset. Ha-Olam Ha-Zeh (This World magazine), 1949.

10.20 Unknown photographer. Jewish combatants, Israel, May 20, 1948. Variable dimensions. Gelatin silver print. Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone.

10.21 Unknown photographer. Kibbutz members working at the stone quarry of kibbutz Ein-Harod, 1941. Variable dimensions. Gelatin silver print. Government Press Office.

10.22 Sid Grossman. Coney Island, 1947. 7-7/8 x 8 inches. Gelatin silver print. Howard Greenberg Gallery, NY.

10.24 Robert Capa. A young French Jew working at a settlement, Israel, 1948-1950. 10 × 8.25 inches. Gelatin silver print. ©Robert Capa © International Center of Photography / Magnum Photos.

AW 10.02 Amir Cohen. Hamas Blood stained child’s bed, 2023. Variable dimensions. Digital file. Aftermath of a deadly infiltration by Hamas gunmen in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel. Reuters.

This essay, the 10th in the series, examines the role of photo-based imagery in the post-Holocaust world of Jewish self-determination that lead to the restoration of Israel as a Jewish homeland. To understand how this came about, it is crucial to have a basic knowledge of the 3000 year-old Jewish history in Israel.

A Brief History of Israel & Zionism & the Rise of the New Jew

by Robert Hirsch 2024

VASA Journal on Images and Culture ( VJIC ), Theme Editor and Writer

www.lightresearch.net

This essay examines the role of photo-based imagery in the post-Holocaust world of Jewish self- determination that lead to the restoration of Israel as a Jewish homeland. To understand how this came about, it is crucial to have a basic understanding of the 3000 year-old Jewish history in Israel. Due to the number of countries and people affected, select examples represent the uncountable other events, locations, and people.

Additional information about specific images can be found at the end of this essay (Image Notes). Images have been minimally adjusted to facilitate online viewing, but have not been overtly edited from their source.

The hollow horn plays wasted words Proves to warn that he not busy being born Is busy dying

Bob Dylan (Robert Zimmerman) “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” 1964.

Jewish Self-Determination: The Restoration of Israel

World War II saw European civilization slide into a moral abyss and the Jews were the odd man out – universally despised and rejected in a treacherous sea of grievance and loathing. Jews had no place to escape to, no safe sanctuary. They were unwanted human waste who were not connected to the place upon which they stood. Subliminally, all Holocaust images raise the existential question of how do caustically shunned and displaced people, who had violently lost everything, salvage their history and identity? How does one deal with the anxiety of wandering and impending doom when the place you once called home is no longer your home and is actively trying to kill you?

After the war ended with the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan, only about 5% of Americans thought more refugees should be allowed into the country. The U.S. quota system of 1923 allowed only 1,500 Jewish refugees into the country. [1] Other countries were no more welcoming. The British continued to greatly limit Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel, whose territory matches the land of biblical Israel) until it turned the area over to the United Nations. [2]

10.01 American Institute Public Opinion Poll, December 1945. American Institute of Public Opinion. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC.

Caption: “Should we permit more persons from Europe to come to this country each year than we did before the war, should we keep the number about the same, or should we reduce the number?” A May 7, 2023 poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows about 4 in 10 U.S. adults say the level of immigration and asylum-seekers should be lowered, while about 2 in 10 say they should be higher, according to the poll. About a third want the numbers to remain the same. See: www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/americans-divided-on-immigration-and-refugees-new-ap-poll-says

A Brief & Concise History of Israel and Judea

The people of modern-day Israel share the same language and culture shaped by the Jewish heritage and religion that had passed through generations starting with the founding father Abraham (ca. 1800 BCE). Jews have had a continuous presence in the land of Eretz Israel for the past 3,300 years as the indigenous population. [3] The history of Israel itself dates back to the Iron Age (1200-550 BCE), when two Israelite kingdoms, Israel and Judea (aka Judah), controlled much of the north, while the Philistines occupied its southern coast (the word “Jew” comes from Judea). The First Temple was built in 1000 BCE by King Solomon after King David conquered Jerusalem and made it his capital. The Temple was first destroyed in 586 BC by Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, when he conquered Jerusalem. The Second Temple period (586 BCE-AD 70) is marked by the return of Jews to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon in 538 BCE. The Persians went on to conquer the Babylonian Empire in 539 BCE. There are significant archaeological remains from the Second Temple period, including the Kidron Valley tombs, the Western Wall, Robinson’s Arch, the Herodian residential quarter, numerous other tombs, and walls.

See: Alex Winston, “City of David: Jerusalem’s ancient capital and modern vision,” The Jerusalem Post , April 27, 2024, www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/real-estate/article-798607?vgo_ee=i8QASWG30Z1AhBdPKK1p%2Fs5VhTXrSpT2a9M6n1mPoOsjPt59hxmQZA%3D%3D%3AjHO60j3jKDgg1X7ZgBAFez0t3j7Va11q

Judaea, now part of modern day Israel, had been a Roman ally since the second century BC and became a Roman province in 6 CE. However, Roman suppression of Jewish life escalated provoking a full-scale revolt in 66 CE. Superior Roman forces, led by Titus, were finally victorious, razing Jerusalem and the Second Temple to the ground (70 CE) and defeating the last Jewish outpost against Roman subjugation and slavery at Masada (73 CE). Hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed and thousands were sold into slavery, and rest fled from their homeland. The Romans then renamed Judaea – Syria Palestine. [4] This was meant to erase Jewish identification with the land and punish the rebellious Jews by naming the country after their biblical enemies, the Philistines, a group of people originally from the Aegean coastline (modern-day Greece and Turkey).

In 132 CE, the surviving Jews of Judea rose up against their Roman oppressors for the second time in a century. In the initial stages of what has come to be called the Bar Kochba Revolt, the Romans got the worst of it. So the legions adjusted their strategy. Rather than concentrate on suppressing the rebels, the Romans decided to annihilate the entire Jewish population of the Land of Israel.

The results were horrific. Ancient historian Cassius Dio wrote of the Jews: “50 of their most important outposts and 985 of their most famous villages were razed to the ground. 580,000 men were slain in the various raids and battles, and the number of those that perished by famine, disease and fire was past finding out. Thus, nearly the whole of Judea was made desolate.” [5]

Thus making “Palestine” a cancellation of Jewish existence.

This was followed by the Rashidun Caliphate, which was the first of four successive caliphs to rule after Muhammad’s death in 632 CE. During its existence (632-661) the Muslim empire became a powerful cultural, economic, and military force that rapidly expanded and conquered much of the Middle East, including parts of modern-day Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt and lead to an influx of Arabs in these areas. [6]

Eventually, the area was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1516. Despite its religious significance, Jerusalem remained a provincial backwater until World War I, when the Turks who had formed an alliance with Germany were defeated in 1918, leading to the dissolution of the Sultanate and the British taking control of Palestine. During the war, in 1917, the British government had issued The Balfour Declaration announcing its support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. [7] The city of Jerusalem has over time been attacked 52 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, besieged 23 times, and destroyed twice. The oldest part of the city was settled in the 4th millennium BCE, making it one of the oldest cities in the world.

In the aftermath of World War I, the victorious British and French Allies enacted the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 that divided the former Ottoman Provinces of the Middle East between themselves, creating 38 new countries. Thirty seven were Muslim-majority including Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. In 1922 the League of Nations gave Britain mandatory power over Palestine and adopted the Balfour Declaration as international law, which would partition the British Mandate into Jewish and Arab states. This was followed by the San Remo Resolution of April 25, 1920 in which the Supreme Council of the Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, with the U.S. acting as an observer) adopted a 500 word document that defined the future political landscape of the Middle East out of the defunct Ottoman Empire. The Arabs received equivalent national rights in all the remaining parts of the Middle East – over 96% of the total area formerly governed by the Ottoman Turks. This was adopted by the League of Nations as international law in 1922. After 1,850 years of foreign occupation, oppression, and banishment by a succession of foreign powers (Romans, Byzantines, Sassanid Persians, Arab Caliphates, Crusaders, Mameluks, and Ottoman Turks), the modern nation of Israel was finally conceived. Those who label Jews as colonial intruders who steal other people’s land is at best false propaganda. Howard Jacobson wrote:

I don’t call for supine obedience to Zionism from Jews, only that they get their own history right in a matter of such importance. Zionism wasn’t a colonial enterprise, they should know that. In fact, Zionism wasn’t any one thing. There were many Zionisms, some more idealistic than others, but the founding of Israel wasn’t an act of colonial depredation. Fleeing from pogroms isn’t colonising. Returning to one’s old home, as Jews had been returning to it for centuries, isn’t colonising. A refugee isn’ t a colonist . [9]

Arab Pogroms in Hebron of 1929 and Jaffa of 1936

Arab efforts to prevent Jewish migration into Palestine led to an interminable civil, political, and armed struggle between the Palestinian Arabs and Jews. Early morning on Saturday, Aug. 24, 1929, some 3,000 Muslim men armed with swords, clubs, axes, and daggers went from Jewish house to Jewish house in the holy city of Hebron, stabbing, raping, and in some cases castrating and burning their victims alive. Jewish children watched as their parents were butchered by their Arab neighbors. Infants were killed in their mothers’ arms. Houses and synagogues were looted and torched. Sixty-seven unarmed Jewish men, women, and children were murdered that day. One of the world’s most ancient Jewish communities, composed of some 800 people before the massacre, was decimated, along with centuries of coexistence that had made Hebron a model of peace between Jews and Muslims. In the aftermath of the attack, the British authorities that ruled Palestine forced the Jews of Hebron to evacuate, turning them into refugees. Jews had lived in Hebron since biblical times, their lives centered around the Tomb of the Patriarchs, where Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah are believed to be buried. Much like the Jews who were killed on Oct. 7, 2023 were not settlers, the Jews killed in Hebron in 1929 were not Zionists, all they wanted was to be Jewish. The Hebron massacre of 1929 is not only ground zero of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but also a vital prequel for anyone wishing to understand or resolve the existential war Israel is fighting.

10.06 American Colony (Jerusalem), Photo Department. Synagogue desecrated and looted by Arab rioters , Hebron, August 23 to 31, 1929. Variable dimensions. Gelatin silver print. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

In April 1936, the Muslims of Jaffa rampaged through the streets, beating Jews, wrecking Jewish businesses and homes, killing 14 Jews and forcing 12,000 Jews to flee Jaffa as refugees. This pogrom morphed into an armed Arab Rebellion against British rule from 1936 to 1939, which lead to the British halting nearly all Jewish immigration, cutting off their avenue of escape ahead of the Holocaust. In turn, this lead to an armed Jewish Revolt against the British in mid-1940s. In 1947 the British government announced it would end its Mandate. That same year the United Nations General Assembly adopted a plan to create independent Arab and Jewish States, which would be economically connected along with a Special International Regime that would control Jerusalem and its environs.

10.07 Unknown photographer. British Police Dispersing Arab Rioters Protesting Jewish Immigration in Jaffa , 1936. Variable dimensions. Gelatin silver print. French News Agency, Gallica Digital Library.

International law, including the UN Charter, refers to both banks of the Jordan river, since 1920, as Palestine/Land of Israel as the “national home of the Jewish people.” The same international law, including the UN Charter, accepted the partition of the country in 1922 after 78% of it, located on the left bank of the Jordan river, was handed over to the Arabs and the remaining, on the right bank of the river, to the Jews. The Jews accepted the partition and the Arabs rejected it. The Arab Higher Committee (AHC), which was the de facto government of the Palestinian Arabs, circulated a paper, declaring: “The Arabs have taken into their own hands the final solution of the Jewish problem. The problem will be solved only in blood and fire. The Jews will soon be driven out.” [10] Thus on November 30, 1947 an open war began with full-scale Arab rioting, stoning, and killing Jews in and around Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. [11]

It is vital to know that there never has been a Palestinian state – the area was a province of the Ottoman Empire. The term “Palestinian” only entered English and other European languages in the 1870s and referred to both the land’s Arab and Jewish inhabitants. The goal of the first Palestine Arab Congress (1919) was not to create an independent Arab state, but to attach Palestine to Greater Syria. It should also be noted that at least 25% of the Arab Congress’s leaders discreetly sold land for Jewish settlements. They did however create a Muslim religious authority, the Supreme Muslim Council, under Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who led a violent revolt against both the British and the Jews in 1936 that was ultimately crushed by the British. [12] In Berlin, where he spent most of the war, Husseini undertook a fusion of Nazism and Islamism [13] as they shared the same enemies [14] and sought a world without Jews.. [15] Husseini personally contributed to the German war machine by recruiting Bosnian Muslims for the Waffen SS and organizing intelligence operations in the Middle East. In 1945 he went to Cairo to lead the Palestinian Arab campaign against the creation of Israel. [16] Matthias Küntzel, Nazis, Islamic Antisemitism and the Middle East , Routledge: London & New York, 2003.

10.09 Unknown photographer. Adolf Hitler talking to Grand Mufti Haj Amin el Husseini , Berlin 1941. Dimensions variable. Gelatin silver print. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC.

Caption: This is from a newsreel of the first meeting of Hitler and Grand Mufti Haj Amin el Husseini in Berlin. The Führer confirmed that the “struggle against a Jewish homeland in Palestine” would be part of the struggle against the Jews. Hitler stated that: he would “continue the struggle until the complete destruction of Jewish-Communist European empire”; and when the German army was in proximity to the Arab world, Germany would issue “an assurance to the Arab world” that “the hour of liberation was at hand.” It would then be al-Husayni’s “responsibility to unleash the Arab action that he has secretly prepared.” The Führer stated that Germany would not intervene in internal Arab matters and that the only German “goal at that time would be the annihilation of Jewry living in Arab space under the protection of British power.” In 1941Husseini also met with Benito Mussolini, the Duce (Leader) of Fascist Italy to get his backing. See: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/hajj-amin-al-husayni-key-dates

The Allied victory offered European Jews the opportunity to discard the odious chains of restrictions and violent subjugation that had been imposed upon them by both Christian and Muslim societies, to become an autonomous people able to create their own future free from outside domination. [17] To make sure they would never find themselves in such a helpless situation again, many survivors of the Holocaust embraced Zionism with the goal of re-establishing Israel as an anti-colonial, anti-fascist, secular, socialistic state.

Zionism is the movement for the self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland of Israel. Zion is the biblical term for both the land of Israel and Jerusalem (more on Zionism in the next section). At the first Zionist conference of those in the displaced persons (DP) camps in Bavaria, they demanded to permanently dissolve the European Diaspora, lift the British restrictions on immigration to Palestine, and expedite immigration to Eretz Israel. In essence, Zionism supports the birth of a Jewish state in the form of a republic, the only one in the Mideast. Essentially, Jews imagined Eretz Israel into existence. [18]

10.10 Unknown photographer. Unrestricted Immigration Demonstration . Variable dimensions. Gelatin silver print. Vad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel.

The Holocaust was the culmination of centuries of Christians and Muslims separating and persecuting one group of people who were different from the majority, the Jews, and equating them as the cause of their society’s problems. History has shown that the Jews were oppressed because they did not have a government to protect their rights and no place to escape violent persecution; they needed a home of their own where they could protect themselves and be themselves. [19]

These chronic existential threats lead to the formation of Zionism. as a nationalist movement of Jewish self-determination, which originated in central and eastern Europe. Zionists were motivated by a historical vision of their future identity in their ancient homeland, rather than an imperial strategy or economic vision, or desire to dominate the local population. [20] It’s roots date back to the sixteenth century when wide-spread hatred of the Jews lead their religious leaders to call for Jews to re-establish a Jewish nation in its ancestorial homeland in what is now Israel. Zionism was officially established as a political organization in 1897 by Austrian journalist Theodor Herzl and was later championed by Chaim Weizmann and Nahum Sokolow. Zionism sought to inspire the Jewish people to revive the Hebrew language and re-establish control over their culture, education, history, religion, and traditions. Zionism wanted to give Jews, not only a state of their own, but a sense of agency and dignity that had been lost in exile; as one slogan put it, Jews would go to Palestine “to build, and to be built.”

Herzl dreamed of a democratic Jewish national state in which all citizens, including Arabs, would possess political equality and share in the its economic and social benefits. It is important to note that at this time, there was no Arab national movement in existence anywhere nor were there any Arab democracies. Arab nationalism did not emerge as a political force until World War I, when the British cultivated it in to undermine the Ottoman Empire.

10.12. Ephraim Moses Lilien. Theodor Herzl on a balcony , Basel, Switzerland, December 1901. Dimensions variable. Gelatin silver print. Shapell Manuscript Foundation.

The Rise of a New Jewish Consciousness: The New Jew

In preparing for immigration to the startup nation of Eretz Israel, a key role was performed by the kibbutzim (farming collectives) that had been active in the interwar period, primarily in Poland. Kibbutz Buchenwald was the first agricultural training camp established in 1945. [21] Generally, the kibbutzim were part of the DP camps, but their members lived independently in separate facilities. Their mission was to ready their members for Aliyah (emigration) to Eretz Israel, which included Hebrew and history lessons as well as agricultural training.

10.14 Unknown photographer. A group of children work in the garden of the Stuttgart displaced persons’ camp , Stuttgart, [Wuerttemberg] Germany, 1946-1949. Among those pictured is Lova Warszawczyk, on the far left; Bronia Graudens, fourth from the left, in back; Aviva Rosenzweig (later Goldring, front, far right); and Hadasa Gassenbauer, in front, center, hair up in braids and holding a shovel. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC, courtesy of Larry Warick.

Theodor Herzl defined the image of this New Jew in his 1902 utopian novel Altneuland ( Old-New Land ), which was a response to the failure of the Enlightenment values to benefit Jews. [22] Herzl viewed Zionism as the arrival of an authentic image of the Jew in a state without the idea of God or any dogmatization, a utopian concept similar to Nietzsche’s “new European man” (Ubermensch) who generates their own values based on their life experiences and strives to enhance humanity. [23]

At the turn of the twentieth century, the New Jew was a strong, mythic warrior-poet-farmer, a productive kibbutz member, who would defend her/himself while working the Holy Land. Instead of traditional Jewish intellectualism and studying the Talmud, such action figures would learn how to make the desert bloom. [24]

These New Jews would leave the painful struggle of the diaspora behind, abandoning ancient mysterious rituals, and reinvent themselves as free people in their ancient homeland. This break from the past, was an existential revolution. It emphasized the renewal of Jewish identity by means of committing to a life that valued authentic Jewish aesthetic, cultural, and moral values instead of those that imposed by majority cultures.

10.16 The New Jew by Anna Louise Strong. Pamphlet cover. National Library of Australia.

The first organized group of New Jews were known as the Sabras who were the proto Israelis—the first generation, born in the 1930s and 1940s, to grow up in the Zionist settlement in Palestine (in Hebrew, Sabra refers to the prickly fruit of a species of cactus). Emersed in the ethos of the Zionist labor movement and the communal ideals of the kibbutz and moshav (a cooperative agricultural settlement), they planned and worked to make State of Israel a reality. Their attitude was the difference between being in control as opposed to being controlled. If God was unwilling or unable to stop the murder of Jews and their culture, Jews must do it for themselves because the universe is indifferent at best.

For a people devoted to textual study, the invention of photography was a pivotal event for Jews, on par with Gutenberg. Photographs lead to a changing attitude that gave Jews permission to disregard the Torah’s prohibition of making graven images for the purpose of idol worship. [25] This can be seen in the work of Alfred Stieglitz whose goal was to demonstrate that photographers could make work on par with other fine artists. [26] This also opened the way for other Jews, such as Paul Strand and Lisette Model, to play a larger role in the development of modern photographic language. However, in the shtetls of eastern Europe, many Jews still did not want to be photographed. In A Vanished World (1983) Roman Vishniac wrote:

A man with a camera was always suspected of being a spy. Moreover, the Jews did not want to be photographed, due to a misunderstanding of the prohibition against making graven images (photography had not been invente when the Torah was written!). I was forced to use a hidden camera . [27]

10.19 Unknown photographer. Sabra Fighters , 1948. Variable dimensions. Gelatin silver print. Photographs of Sabras were meant to give physical form to their concept of the New Jew.

The New Jew photographs reveal a radical change in self-identity from studious to physical. Jews realized that the only way to throw off the shackles of Christian and Islamic society limitations were to assert their freedom to be different, because the other societies were not going to change. [28] The New Jew was saying that we have not been able to utilize all our capabilities under the present systems and that the only way that this is going to be possible is through creating a nation where Jews are free to be Jews. This is what the 1948 war was about. The photographs of the New Jews in Palestine not only reflect this reality, but also interpret it by portraying aspects of Jewish life that had not been previously depicted, suppressed or intentionally maligned. They were non-conformists who were free and independent and were not going to be defined by as vermin.

10.20 Unknown photographer. Jewish combatants , Israel, May 20, 1948. Variable dimensions. Gelatin silver print. Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone.

Agency of Snapshots

The world had reduced the Jewish people to their imposed Jewishness , regardless of their abilities, beliefs, character, and interests. Post war amateur snapshots as seen through Jewish eyes helped to create and define new Jewish personal, group identities, and accomplishments. They were acts of healing and optimism in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Their photographs can also be seen as a secular pursuit of redemption that brought together divergent streams of Jewish life. It was also a break from how European photographers depicted the area. [29]

These nonprofessional snapshots located the raw energy of that time and place along with a resolve to flourish amid adversity. Their informal nature are more like improvised jazz than structured classical music. This spontaneity adds a genuine sense to the snapshots as there is often a personal connection between the picture maker and the subject(s), which infuses emotional value.

10.21 Unknown photographer. Kibbutz members working at the stone quarry of kibbutz Ein-Harod , 1941. Variable dimensions. Gelatin silver print. Government Press Office.

In the U.S. these vernacular characteristics were incorporated into the work of a number of post-war Jewish working-class street photographers such as Vivian Cherry, Louis Faurer, Sid Grossman, and William Klein, [30] which greatly influenced photographic practice. It was somewhat formalized during the 1960s in what was referred to as the snapshot aesthetic, [31] which rejected the canons of modernism and included photographers such as Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand. Years later, these attributes can be seen in photographs that were exhibited covering the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, which were made by anyone in the vicinity with a camera. [32]

10.22 Sid Grossman. Coney Island , 1947. 7-7/8 x 8 inches. Gelatin silver print. Howard Greenburg Gallery, NY.

Caption: As a member of the Photo League, Grossman believed that photographs should serve a social-political purpose. Grossman was a driving force in the organization’s activism between 1938 and 1949. Grossman, who was a member of the Communist Party, was blacklisted and resigned from the League, which led to its collapse in 1951.

Fascism offers people freedom from the self, ridding people of the burden of personal responsibility and the need to critically think. Authoritarianism makes a point to stand in the light of others, instead of building space for one and another, producing a place where one dumps their Jungian shadow self. The New Jew snapshots are examples of the innovative agency they adopted. These photographs acted as vessels into an imagined future community stating: We make decisions, we chose, we act to make order out of the chaos the world continues to thrust upon us. The New Jews refused to be treated as passive objects who were acted upon by forces beyond their control. Their snapshots of everyday moments are intimate, personal pictures meant to be carried in one’s wallet, tacked on a wall, and/or pasted into an album, as opposed to heroic-size work that can only be placed in large businesses, galleries, and museums. They contain no pretense, nor academic aestheticization or theories. Instead these makers are generating their own existential meaning that utilizes photography as a way of revealing and negotiating the complexities of human existence. Ultimately, they are uncomplicated photographs that straight-forwardly state: This is how it was.

10.24 Robert Capa. A young French Jew working at a settlement , Israel, 1948-1950. 10 × 8.25 inches. Gelatin silver print. ©Robert Capa © International Center of Photography / Magnum Photos.

Caption: Robert Capa (Endre Ernő Friedmann), a Jewish refugee from Hungary’s rampant antisemitism, made trips to Israel from 1948-1950. There he made hundreds of dynamic and lyrical photographs conveying his sense that “Everywhere, the land is alive.” [33] This work first appeared in Report on Israel (1950) by Irwin Shaw and Robert Capa.

To be continued…

The world-wide appeasement of Shia Hamas’s atrocities and kidnappings/hostages of October 7, 2023 in Israel is a result of abject antisemitism, obstructionism, historical denialism, and violent irredentism. It represents a worldwide failure to believe what Hamas, an Iranian proxy and internationally recognized terrorist organization, says, does, and intends to do. This is in spite Hamas’s cynical strategy of utilizing human shields. Hamas’s goal is to maximize the number of Gazans who die and in that way build international pressure until Israel is forced to end the war before Hamas is wiped out. Hamas’s survival depends on support in the court of international opinion, which is overpowering but often wrong. This strategy relies on making this war as bloody as possible for civilians, until Israel is forced to relent, leaving Hamas in power of Gaza.” [34] This is a classic example of how Jewish security choices depend on the disposition of the neighboring population. It shockingly demonstrates how the largest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust has revived overt worldwide antisemitism that calls for the destruction of Israel and denys Hamas’s atrocities. At this moment, I watch students chanting: Hamas we love you , We support your rockets , Burn Tel Aviv to the ground , We are Hamas , and globalize the Intifada (Leftist version of the Replacement Theory). None of these students are chanting for Hamas to free the hostages. Instead of condemning the carnage, these students blatantly defend Hamas’s actions in the name of the oppressed, although their faces are often covered with keffiyehs. The only issues that matter to these people are those that portray the Jews as the world’s ultimate white oppressors.

This large spike in world-wide Jew hatred holds the Jewish dysphoria responsible for the policies of a country they do not live in and for a government they did not elect. No one is demanding the eradication of El Salvador, Hungry or India. No one defaces Chinese restaurants because Beijing imprisons the Uyghurs in concentration camps and occupies Tibet. Most people can’t even find Sudan on a map, the site of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis that involves 45 million people and includes conflict-related starvation, sexual violence, and ethnic-based killings. [35] Where is the outrage about “cutting”(female genital mutilation) in Muslim-majority countries, such as Gambia, which usually involves removing the clitoris and labia minora of girls between the ages of 10 and 15? This practice has affected more than 230 million women to enforce Sharia beliefs and laws of sexual purity, obedience and control. [36] And finally, not a word about the oppression Palestinians have endured in Jordan and Lebanon.

AW 10.02 Amir Cohen. Hamas Blood stained child’ s bed , 2023. Variable dimensions. Digital file. Aftermath of a deadly infiltration by Hamas gunmen in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel. Reuters.

In terms of ethic cleaning, in 1945 there were approximately 995,000 Jews living in Muslim countries today there are about 6000. Yet Jews are charged with genocide, not as an objection to so-called occupation, but a lie that justifies opposing Jews “by any means necessary,” which includes killing parents in front of their children, raping women, kidnapping toddlers, murdering babies along with burning and mutilating Jews. Chanting “from the river to the sea,” is not a critique of the Israel’s policies, rather it is a call for genocide against the Jewish state and the Jewish people. It demonstrates how malicious words can lead to deadly action that includes persecuting minorities and opponents, oppressing women, and stifling freedom of expression.

Despotic Hamas made a point of photographing their massacre and sexual assaults because they took pleasure in committing these acts against Jews. Even though their videos offer proof of the delight they had murdering people, that same night people in Gaza celebrated the rupture of civilized behavior that was carried out by their leadership. Despite the devastation, a recent poll, conducted by a Palestinian survey organization, reports that 71% of respondents in Gaza and in the West Bank believe Hamas was correct in launching the October attack and 93% said they did not believe Hamas has committed war crimes. Over 60% said they want Hamas to remain in power. [37] What this makes clear is that Hamas cannot function without the widespread participation of the people of Gaza, making the massacre that Hamas carried out a societal crime – a collective action to implement a Muslim Final Solution upon the Jewish problem.

People have chronically made Jews mirrors of the world, but the hatred they see is really their own. In turn, this has made Israel the “Jew” of nations. In our era when identity overwhelms all other considerations, when everyone is either an oppressor or oppressed, it is imperative that Jews do not allow outsiders to define who they are and what they believe. Such acts of domination, intimidation, subjugation that make Jews greedy, subhuman (Der Untermensch), disease carrying parasites, who are simultaneously capitalists and communists puppet masters that control the world, would never be tolerated in the U.S. against any other minority group. Yet here we are. Jews either must find ways to survive in this jungle or they will only exist in museums or zoos. Today, campus mobs are coming for the Jews, but tomorrow they come for you.

Remember, Remember, Remember:

Never again Means Never Again!

Special thanks to Dr. Gary Nickard for copy editing.

Robert Hirsch is an artist, author, curator, educator, photographic historian and former Director of CEPA and Southern Light Galleries. Hirsch’s work has been exhibited in over 200 international solo and group exhibitions. His visual and written projects can be viewed at www.lightresearch.net

[1] In 1948, Congress passed the Displaced Persons Act, authorizing 200,000 displaced persons to enter the United States without being counted against the immigration quotas. The act did not include any special provisions for Jewish DPs. Between the establishment of the DP camps in 1945 and the closure of the last camp in 1957, about 140,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors immigrated to the U.S.

[2] The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, “Bystanders, Rescuers or Perpetrators? The Neutral Countries and the Shoah” (PDF) offers a trans-national, comparative perspective on the varied reactions of the neutral countries to the Nazi persecution and murder of the European Jews. It examines the often ambivalent policies of these states towards Jewish refugees as well as towards their own Jewish nationals living in German-occupied countries. Download at: www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/publications/bystanders-rescuers-or-perpetrators-neutral-countries-and-shoah

[3] See: Alex Winston, “City of David: Jerusalem’s ancient capital and modern vision,” The Jerusalem Post , April 27, 2024, www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/real-estate/article-798607?vgo_ee=i8QASWG30Z1AhBdPKK1p%2Fs5VhTXrSpT2a9M6n1mPoOsjPt59hxmQZA%3D%3D%3AjHO60j3jKDgg1X7ZgBAFez0t3j7Va11q

[4] James Sinkinson, “How the Palestinians Got Their Name: The True Story,” Facts and Logic About the Middle East ( FLAME ), March 28, 2023, www.factsandlogic.org/how-the-palestinians-got-their-name-the-true-story/b

[5] Benjamin Kerstein, “The word ‘Palestine’ is Genocide,” Jewish News Syndicate, January 22, 2024, www.jns.org/the-word-palestine-is-genocide/?_se=ZmVkZXJpY28uYmVudHNpa0B0aW4uaXQ%3D

[6] See: Rashidun Caliphate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashidun_Caliphate

[7] See: “Pre-State Israel: The San Remo Conference (April 19-26, 1920),” Jewish Virtual Library , www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-san-remo-conference

[8] Anti-Israel Activist Vandalizes Portrait of Arthur Balfour, Who Supported Jewish Homeland, www.algemeiner.com/2024/03/08/anti-israel-activist-vandalizes-portrait-arthur-balfour-who-supported-jewish-homeland/

[9] Howard Jacobson, “The founding of Israel wasn’t a colonial act – a refugee isn’t a colonist,” The New Stateman , November 29, 2023. www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2023/11/founding-israel-palestine-anti-semitism

[10] Efraim Karsh, The Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Palestine War 1948 , Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2002, 8.

[11] Ibid, 28.

[12] David Patterson, “Islamic Jihad and the Holocaust: From Hitler to Hamas,” Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry , Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 60-79, Summer 2022.

[13] Holocaust Encyclopedia, “Hajj Amin al-Husayni: War Time Propagandist,” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/hajj-amin-al-husayni-wartime-propagandist

[14] Al-Husseini declared that the Germans and the Arabs had the same enemies: “the English, the Jews, and the Communists.” He proposed an Arab revolt all across the Middle East to fight the Jews and the English, who still ruled Palestine and controlled Iraq and Egypt; and the French, who controlled Syria and Lebanon. He also wanted to form an Arab legion, using Arab prisoners from the French Empire who were then POWs inside Germany. He also asked Hitler to declare publicly, as the German government had privately, that it favored “the elimination of the Jewish national home” in Palestine. For details see: Oren Kessler, Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict , Landam, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2023.

[15] TOI Staff, “Full official record: What the mufti said to Hitler” The Times of Israel , October 21, 2015, www.timesofisrael.com/full-official-record-what-the-mufti-said-to-hitler/

[16] Matthias Küntzel, Nazis, Islamic Antisemitism and the Middle East , Routledge: New York and London, 2023.

[17] Jacob Kornbluh, “Marjorie Taylor Greene doubles down on view that United States should be a Christian nation,” Forward , April 2, 2023, https://forward.com/fast-forward/542070/marjorie-taylor-greene-doubles-down-on-view-that-united-states-should-be-a-christian-nation/ and David French, “What Is Christian Nationalism, Exactly?,” the New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2024/02/25/opinion/christian-nationalism.html

[18] The early twentieth century also saw the birth of Marcus Garvey’s Back to Africa movement. In “The Principles of The Universal Negro Improvement Association” (1922), Garvey made the case that self-determination was the only path to equality, which would lead to worldwide motivation toward Black liberation. However, Gravey was a Black separatist who envisioned a unified Africa, ruled by himself, which would enact laws to ensure black racial purity. See: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1922-marcus-garvey-principles-universal-negro-improvement-association/ More at: David Van Leeuwen, “Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association,” National Humanities Center, https://nationalhumanitiescenteerr.org/tserve/twenty/tkeyinfo/garvey.htm

[19] Jews were and are weary of having to explain themselves to the rest of the world. They wanted/needed to be in a place where they did not have to explain themselves, a place where they were already known. Zionism was a return to their history – a place to be with and reckon with their own culture of Talmudic learning and dispute.

[20] See: Tom Segev in One Palestine , Complete : Jews and Arabs under the British mandate .

[21] Meyer Levin (ed), “Journal of Kibbutz Buchenwald,” Commentary , June 1946, www.commentary.org/articles/with-introduction/journal-of-kibbutz-buchenwald/

[22] See: Shlomo Avineri, “Rereading Herzl’s Old-New Land,” Jewish Review of Books, Summer 2012, https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/213/rereading-herzls-old-new-land/?login=1704842433

[23] See: Jacob Golomb, Thus Spoke Herzl: Nietzsche’s Presence in Theodor Herzl’s Life and Work , Nietzsche and Zion . Ithaca; London: Cornell University Press: 2004, 23–45.

[24] In the 1950s and early 1960s, U.S. Hebrew students, including the author, went door to door in their neighbors to raise funds to plant trees in Israel ($1 per tree). I felt an historic sense of social involvement when I first saw these mature trees in Israel.

[25] “You shall have no other gods beside Me. You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth.” (Exodus 20:3-40).

[26] See: Robert Hirsch, Seizing the Light: A Social and Aesthetic History of Photography , Third Edition, Routledge: New York & London, 2017, 201-204.

[27] Roman Vishniac, A Vanished World , New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, paperback, 1986, Preface, N.pag.

[28] Arab-Islamic empires non-Muslim subjects were called dhimmi who were offered protection in return for a special tax (jizya). However, they faced various forms of official and non-official discrimination and were not treated as equals, thus emphasizing the social superiority of Muslims. See: https://katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/blog/what-do-you-know-dhimmi-jewish-legal-status-under-muslim-rule Also see: Mark Wagner, “What Do You Know? Dhimmi, Jewish Legal Status under Muslim Rule,” November 30, 2018, University of Pennsylvania, Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, November 30, 2028, https://katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/blog/what-do-you-know-dhimmi-jewish-legal-status-under-muslim-rule

[29] For a quick introduction see: The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe/Photography , https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Photography

[30] See: Max Kozloff, Karen Levitov, Johanna Goldfeld, New York Capital of Photography , New York: Jewish Museum & New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002. Plus Deborah Dash Moore, Walkers in the City: Jewish Street Photographers of Midcentury New York , Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2023.

[31] See: Robert Hirsch, “Nathan Lyons on the Snapshot,” CEPA Journal , Winter, 1992-1993, N.pag.

Available at: https://lightresearch.net/light/nathan-lyons-on-the-snapshot

[32] See: Gilles Peress, Michael Shulan, Charles Traub, Alice Rose George, Here Is New York: A Democracy of Photographs , New York and Zurich: Scalo Verlag, 2002.

[33] See: Stuart Schoffman, “Robert Capa’s Road to Jerusalem,” Jewish Review of Books , Winter, 2016, https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/1969/robert-capas-road-to-jerusalem/?login=1714175705

[34] David Brooks, “What Would You Have Israel Do to Defend Itself?, The New York Times , March 24, 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/03/24/opinion/gaza-israel-war.html

[35] Linda Thomas-Greenfield, “The Unforgivable Silence on Sudan,” The New York Times , March 18, 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/opinion/sudan-famine-humanitarian-aid.html?searchResultPosition=1

[36] Ruth Maclean, “Gambia Moves Toward Overturning Landmark Ban on Female Genital Cutting,” The New York Times , March 18, 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/world/africa/gambia-female-genital-cutting.html?searchResultPosition=1

[37] Valerie Richardson, “Over 70% of Palestinians say Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israelis was right decision: Poll,” The Washington Times , March 22, 2024, www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/mar/22/over-70-palestinians-say-oct-7-hamas-attack-israel/

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By the Waters of Babylon: Avoiding Apocalypse Free Essay Example
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By the Waters of Babylon: A Journey of Self-Discovery and Forbidden
By the Waters of Babylon
By the Waters of Babylon
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By the Waters of Babylon Summary & Analysis
Themes and Colors Key. Summary. Analysis. In the story's opening paragraph, the protagonist and first-person narrator, John, recounts the laws of his tribe. It has been forbidden since the beginning of time, he says, to travel east, to cross the great river, or to visit or look at the Place of the Gods, which was destroyed in the Great ...
By the Waters of Babylon
"By the Waters of Babylon" is a post-apocalyptic short story by American writer Stephen Vincent Benét, first published July 31, 1937, in The Saturday Evening Post as "The Place of the Gods". [1] It was republished in 1943 The Pocket Book of Science Fiction, [2] and was adapted in 1971 into a one-act play by Brainerd Duffield. [3]
Analysis of Stephen Vincent Benét's By the Waters of Babylon
By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on May 18, 2021. By the Waters of Babylon, first published in 1937, is a prescient science fiction story set in an indeterminate, postapocalyptic era, not uncommon for this genre; this lack of detailed setting suggests an unstable physical and social environment. Only gradually do we learn some detail about the setting and ...
By the Waters of Babylon Summary
"By the Waters of Babylon" is set in a post-apocalyptic, post-technological world where people hunt for their food with bows and arrows and their priests scavenge the "Dead Places" for metal. John, the protagonist and first-person narrator, belongs to the tribe of the Hill People and is the son of a priest.The Hill People consider themselves culturally superior to the rival tribe of ...
By the Waters of Babylon Study Guide
The title "By the Waters of Babylon" is an allusion to Psalm 137 in the King James Bible. The first verse of the Psalm reads, "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.". The Psalm recalls the Babylonian Captivity, a period between 598 and 538 BCE, when the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II ...
By the Waters of Babylon Analysis
Analysis. Last Updated September 5, 2023. Stephen Vincent Benét's post-apocalyptic short story "By the Waters of Babylon" was first published in 1937 in the Saturday Evening Post, under the ...
By the Waters of Babylon Summary
John is in awe of the vision and of the gods' power and wisdom. Then he witnesses the Great Burning that destroyed the gods and ruined their city, and he weeps. He cannot understand why this ...
By the Waters of Babylon Study Guide: Analysis
Written by Timothy Sexton. If you pay close enough attention, you can see a little bit of Star Wars in " By the Waters of Babylon.". The narrator bears a strong kinship to Luke Skywalker; his father a resemblance to Obi-Wan Kenobi. The narrator asserts "I was taught the chants and the spells—l was taught how to stop the running of blood ...
By the Waters of Babylon Summary
Summary: "By the Waters of Babylon". Stephen Vincent Benét lived from 1898 to 1943. Much of his writing examines subjects from American history, including his highly acclaimed narrative poem John Brown's Body. Benét won four Pulitzer Prizes, including one for "By the Waters of Babylon.". First published in 1937 in The Saturday ...
By the Waters of Babylon Story Analysis
Analysis: "By the Waters of Babylon". "By the Waters of Babylon" is a Modernist approach to fears that haunted the mid-20th century. Inspired by the bombing of Guernica by fascist forces on April 26, 1937, the story delves into the themes of The Destruction of War and The Pursuit of Knowledge. The writer uses allusions to the Babylonian ...
By the Waters of Babylon Summary
The By the Waters of Babylon Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you. Best summary PDF, themes, and quotes. More books than SparkNotes. ... Essays for By the Waters of Babylon.
By the Waters of Babylon Themes
Exploring the theme, setting, and crafting a thesis statement for "By the Waters of Babylon." The significance of John's reflection on the rapid consumption of knowledge in "By the Waters of Babylon."
By The Waters Of Babylon Themes: [Essay Example], 678 words
Get original essay. The first main point to be explored in "By the Waters of Babylon" is the theme of discovery. The young protagonist's journey to the forbidden Place of the Gods represents a quest for knowledge and understanding in a world where ignorance is the norm. As he uncovers the truth about the past civilization and its demise, he ...
By the Waters of Babylon: a Study Guide
Write an essay comparing and contrasting the plot and theme of "By the Waters of Babylon" with the plot and theme of The Planet of the Apes, an American film based on the novel La planète des singes, by Pierre Boulle. (If you wish, you may compare and contrast the short story with an English translation of Boulle's novel.
By the Waters of Babylon Essay Questions
1. What is the irony of the priests in the By the Waters of Babylon by Stephen Vincent Benet? As the story commences, the reader is introduced to the powerful priests in the primitive society. The priests are feared by everyone because they are the only ones together with their sons that can visit the Dead Places.
By the Waters of Babylon by S. V. Benet
Tangibility, in that By the Waters of Babylon evokes the image of a real place surrounded by a body of water and is also a biblical poetic verse taken from Psalms 136. It is both accurate, yet ...
By the Waters of Babylon Themes
The Pursuit of Knowledge. Benét builds the central narrative of "By the Waters of Babylon" around John 's coming-of-age and his quest for new knowledge, which takes him east to The Place of the Gods, a mysterious, long-abandoned city that members of his tribe are forbidden from visiting. Benét presents the desire for knowledge as a key ...
Analysis: By The Water Of Babylon
The "Waters Of Babylon" is an optimistic story. The story revolves around the protagonist John as he makes his way to the forbidden "Place of the Gods". Once in the Place of the Gods he realizes that this place was not inhabited by Gods but instead by humans (page 8). After this epiphany, John understands that his people could ...
By the Waters of Babylon Irony
The By the Waters of Babylon Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you. Best summary PDF, themes, and quotes. More books than SparkNotes. ... Essays for By the Waters of Babylon.
By the Waters of Babylon Characters
John. The protagonist and narrator of the story is John, an archetypal hero who embarks on a journey, or quest, that leads to a revelation about life and death and the fate of the world. John is ...
PDF By The Waters Of Babylon
long way oif, I had seen the water through trees but the trees were thick. At Last, 1 came out upon an open place at the top of a cliff. There was die great river below, like a giant in the sun. It is very long, very wide. It could car nil the streams we know' ami stijl tic thirsty. Its name is Ou-dis-sun, the Sacred, the Long.
How to Say Babylon Summary, Analysis and Key Themes
How to Say Babylon is a deeply reflective memoir by Safiya Sinclair, a Jamaican poet whose journey through a strict Rastafari upbringing reveals a powerful tale of self-discovery. Published in 2023, Sinclair recounts her childhood in rural Jamaica, where her father's rigid beliefs shaped much of her early life.
By the Waters of Babylon Symbols
Towers. Towers, which readers will recognize as skyscrapers, are the defining feature of the Place of the Gods, making it remarkably different from any landscape that John has ever seen before. As architectural marvels, the…. read analysis of Towers. Frisella, Emily. "By the Waters of Babylon Symbols." Frisella, Emily.
Photography and the Holocaust : Then and Now
This essay, the 10th in the series, examines the role of photo-based imagery in the post-Holocaust world of Jewish self-determination that lead to the restoration of Israel as a Jewish homeland. ... The Temple was first destroyed in 586 BC by Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, when he conquered Jerusalem. The Second Temple period (586 BCE-AD ...
By the Waters of Babylon
In "By the Waters of Babylon," you have a 1st person narrator. This is seen in that the main character is presenting the story from his personal point of view.

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Photography and the Holocaust : Then and Now – Essay #10: “A Brief History of Israel & Zionism & the Rise of the New Jew” by Robert Hirsch

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