49 1965 Photo of "Sela"

Here we are in the classroom in front of the blackboard for a formal picture wearing the blue shirts of the "Hashomer Hatzair". In the top row from right to left are: Gilead, Noam (myself), Iris, Baruch, Yaron, Na'ama, Aharon and Uriel. In the middle row from right to left are: Dalia, Ze'ev, Edna, Yigal, Nava and Arieh. The three girls on the right in the bottom row are Batia, Yonit and Vered. They were new Rumanian immigrants who joined us for a short time only. After them in order are: Bina, Ishai and Hagit. The kneeling ones are: Amos and Yair.

That is the entire class, which is also the entire "group" which was known as "Beith Nir" in the "Hashomer Hatzair" ken of the Kibbutz. The "movement" was a vital part of our lives. Once a week we had an "activity" in which we discussed social and political subjects or went on a night outing (which combined military and adventurous elements), or we made camp fires and built scout structures.

Lately the opportunity presented itself and I found myself actively involved in a book by the historian George Mosse entitled "Nationalism and Sexuality". There he considers at length the German youth movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. To be sure, I knew of the historical connection between Hashomer Hatzair and the European youth movements, its romanticism as well as its rising nationalism. I had also heard from my mother about the "Werkleute" movement in Berlin and about their hikes in the forests (to wander, to wander is the Shomer's desire", to those who remember). But the intensive reading of Mosses' book made a deep impression on me. How similar the ethos of the German youth movement in the early 20^th century is to the ethos of "Hashomer Hatzair"! Love of nature, rejection of the bourgeoisie, the conviction of having a national mission, even the body image and the abstinences (the ten commandments of "Hashomer Hatzair", to those who remember, and above all "preservation of sexual purity and the prohibition of drinking wine").

The youth movement in the kibbutzim was void of meaning from the very beginning since it lacked the essential element: the revolt of the son. The founders of the German youth movement as well as the generation of our parents in "Hashomer Hatzair" revolted against their parents' way of life. For them the youth movement was the beginning of a new way of life. The following generation could not maintain this; we admired the historic revolt of our parents but were expected to give up any revolt on our part.

But in spite of that we loved the life in the movement, the "activities", the "camps", the "Shomriot" (the big national get-togethers of all the youths in the movement), and that entire world, which was a kind of autonomy of exuberant youth.