An Epistle to Hebrew Youth

Yonatan Ratosh wrote his “Epistle to Hebrew Youth” to stress his claim that young people born in the land of Israel are descended from the agricultural world of the ancient Canaanites, Phoenicians, and Ugarits rather than the ghettos of Europe. Published as a pamphlet in Tel Aviv, the document was issued by Ha-Va’ad le-Gibush ha-No’ar ha-Ivri (Committee for the Consolidation of Hebrew Youth), the formal name for what became known as the Canaanite movement. Readers were outraged. Because the epistle was published in 1943, as news of the Holocaust was exposed, Ratosh’s call to “sever the bond” with diaspora Jewry was considered heartless. Despite the public condemnation, poets and artists were drawn to Ratosh’s pride in a new, strong identity. Figures like the sculptor Yitzhak Danziger, who designed the Nimrod sculpture prominently displayed today at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, were deeply influenced by the Canaanite aesthetic.