Don here, author of Israel and Early Israeli Dances. I first published this post on October 19, 2018. This update has added the two embedded YouTubes, altered the link to the article on Ya Abud, added a reference to Sarah Levi-Tanai’s Yemenite Wedding in the list of significant early Israeli dance events, lowered the proportion of Ashkenazi Jews in the USA to reflect modern population studies. Otherwise, the post remains intact.
1. The original post uses the term Palestine usually to refer to territory ruled and named by Britain after WW1. However I also used Palestine to refer to a “state” bordering on Israel, based on this article State of Palestine in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Palestine.
2. Likewise, the statistics for the various Aliyah are from the Wikipedia article Aliyah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliyah.
3. I did not “credit” the Palestinians with the dabka, I merely said it was a dance of the Palestinians. If you had noticed the link supplied with dabke (which states as part of the link lebanon-palestine-syria-jordan) https://folkdancefootnotes.org/dance/a-real-folk-dance-what-is-it/about/dabke-debke-lebanon-palestine-syria-jordan/ you would see that I’m well aware that it’s a pan-levant dance. If you had clicked the link you would see YouTube examples from many Arab countries.
4. Yes, Yiddish contains many Slavic language elements, but is fundamentally (again based on the Wikipedia article on Yiddish) “based on High German fused with many elements taken from Hebrew (notably Mishnaic) and to some extent Aramaic.”. My omission of Slavic elements was for the sake of brevity, not from any attempt to mislead.
5. I did not claim the “Jews living in the Levant under Ottoman rule were relatively happy”, I claimed they were relatively content. Just before that claim, I referred to the persecution of Jews in the Russian Empire. My claim of “relatively content”, was relative to the Jews in Russia. My apologies if I created confusion.
6. True, I did not say the Jews from Muslim lands left because they had a land to go to. I did not provide separate statistics for those who came voluntarily from those who were expelled, or if not explicitly expelled decided to leave because they were suddenly persecuted, or made to feel unwelcome. Nor did I search for such statistics. Do you have them?
7. Therefore I reject your assertion “I don’t know why, at this difficult juncture in the Levant, you chose to make these alterations to your previous post. These “small” variations to the historical record create a skewed picture.” Because….
7a. I did not make the variations you allege.
7b. My original statements, which went unchallenged for over 5 years, were based on verifiable information. I use Wikipedia as a source precisely because their statements are open to challenge and debate from a wide community of interested sources.
I agree that this is a “difficult juncture in the Levant”. Even dancing, that supposedly joyous activity than can bring people together, is subject to partisan conflict. I try to be fair to both sides of issues, and only hope that those who view my posts do so with similarly open minds.
There are a number of inaccuracies in your essay about Jewish history. The first one I noticed was use of the word Palestine to suggest that there is, at present, a country called Palestine. You also credit the Palestinians with the dabka, which is probably not accurate. The dance is an Arab dance, from many primarily Arab lands. Furthermore, you say Yiddish is German plus Aramaic and Hebrew, leaving out the considerable number of words from Russian, Polish, and other Eastern European languages. You claim the Jews living in the levant under Ottoman rule were ârelatively happyâ. This is not entirely true. There was high taxation (compared to the other populations), lack of citizenship, and other restrictions and dangers that made life difficult. I would also question the numbers of 20th century Jewish immigrants you quote. When you wrote about the expulsion of Jews from primarily Muslim lands you chose to state it in a way which suggests that these people only left because they were forced to as a result of the 1948 war. You could have stated that migration a different way. Many emigrated because they now had a land of their own to go to. If this author (Ingber) documented her book on these various points, Iâd like to see it. Itâs not widely available.
I donât know why, at this difficult juncture in the Levant, you chose to make these alterations to your previous post. These âsmallâ variations to the historical record create a skewed picture.
dear Don: sorry to just focus on one little bad thing in a good post, but i must correct your use of apostrophe. “Kibbutz’s were numerous enough to be aware of their growing influence on the culture of Palestine. They were sharing ideas (and dances), becoming prosperous and expansive – enough to arouse Arab jealousy, fear, suspicion, and resentment. The British administration, attempting to appease the majority Arab population, were not very supportive. Kibbutz’s were becoming armed camps.” [emphasis added] an apostrophe indicates possession, NOT PLURAL. plurals do not use apostrophe.
one other thing: to Jews aliyah *isn’t just “moving to Israel.” it’s more a return to a never-seen homeland, when a modern Jew actually declares s/he is an Israeli. the phrase used is “to make *aliyah.”
Folkdance Footnotes 
Don here, author of Israel and Early Israeli Dances. I first published this post on October 19, 2018. This update has added the two embedded YouTubes, altered the link to the article on Ya Abud, added a reference to Sarah Levi-Tanai’s Yemenite Wedding in the list of significant early Israeli dance events, lowered the proportion of Ashkenazi Jews in the USA to reflect modern population studies. Otherwise, the post remains intact.
1. The original post uses the term Palestine usually to refer to territory ruled and named by Britain after WW1. However I also used Palestine to refer to a “state” bordering on Israel, based on this article State of Palestine in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Palestine.
2. Likewise, the statistics for the various Aliyah are from the Wikipedia article Aliyah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliyah.
3. I did not “credit” the Palestinians with the dabka, I merely said it was a dance of the Palestinians. If you had noticed the link supplied with dabke (which states as part of the link lebanon-palestine-syria-jordan) https://folkdancefootnotes.org/dance/a-real-folk-dance-what-is-it/about/dabke-debke-lebanon-palestine-syria-jordan/ you would see that I’m well aware that it’s a pan-levant dance. If you had clicked the link you would see YouTube examples from many Arab countries.
4. Yes, Yiddish contains many Slavic language elements, but is fundamentally (again based on the Wikipedia article on Yiddish) “based on High German fused with many elements taken from Hebrew (notably Mishnaic) and to some extent Aramaic.”. My omission of Slavic elements was for the sake of brevity, not from any attempt to mislead.
5. I did not claim the “Jews living in the Levant under Ottoman rule were relatively happy”, I claimed they were relatively content. Just before that claim, I referred to the persecution of Jews in the Russian Empire. My claim of “relatively content”, was relative to the Jews in Russia. My apologies if I created confusion.
6. True, I did not say the Jews from Muslim lands left because they had a land to go to. I did not provide separate statistics for those who came voluntarily from those who were expelled, or if not explicitly expelled decided to leave because they were suddenly persecuted, or made to feel unwelcome. Nor did I search for such statistics. Do you have them?
7. Therefore I reject your assertion “I don’t know why, at this difficult juncture in the Levant, you chose to make these alterations to your previous post. These “small” variations to the historical record create a skewed picture.” Because….
7a. I did not make the variations you allege.
7b. My original statements, which went unchallenged for over 5 years, were based on verifiable information. I use Wikipedia as a source precisely because their statements are open to challenge and debate from a wide community of interested sources.
I agree that this is a “difficult juncture in the Levant”. Even dancing, that supposedly joyous activity than can bring people together, is subject to partisan conflict. I try to be fair to both sides of issues, and only hope that those who view my posts do so with similarly open minds.
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There are a number of inaccuracies in your essay about Jewish history. The first one I noticed was use of the word Palestine to suggest that there is, at present, a country called Palestine. You also credit the Palestinians with the dabka, which is probably not accurate. The dance is an Arab dance, from many primarily Arab lands. Furthermore, you say Yiddish is German plus Aramaic and Hebrew, leaving out the considerable number of words from Russian, Polish, and other Eastern European languages. You claim the Jews living in the levant under Ottoman rule were ârelatively happyâ. This is not entirely true. There was high taxation (compared to the other populations), lack of citizenship, and other restrictions and dangers that made life difficult. I would also question the numbers of 20th century Jewish immigrants you quote. When you wrote about the expulsion of Jews from primarily Muslim lands you chose to state it in a way which suggests that these people only left because they were forced to as a result of the 1948 war. You could have stated that migration a different way. Many emigrated because they now had a land of their own to go to. If this author (Ingber) documented her book on these various points, Iâd like to see it. Itâs not widely available.
I donât know why, at this difficult juncture in the Levant, you chose to make these alterations to your previous post. These âsmallâ variations to the historical record create a skewed picture.
With respect,
Jane Schlosberg
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What would you suggest for a plural Kibbutzes, Kibbutzim…
re Aliyah – how about return to the Promised Land?
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Or simply “to the Promised Land”.
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dear Don: sorry to just focus on one little bad thing in a good post, but i must correct your use of apostrophe. “Kibbutz’s were numerous enough to be aware of their growing influence on the culture of Palestine. They were sharing ideas (and dances), becoming prosperous and expansive – enough to arouse Arab jealousy, fear, suspicion, and resentment. The British administration, attempting to appease the majority Arab population, were not very supportive. Kibbutz’s were becoming armed camps.” [emphasis added] an apostrophe indicates possession, NOT PLURAL. plurals do not use apostrophe.
one other thing: to Jews aliyah *isn’t just “moving to Israel.” it’s more a return to a never-seen homeland, when a modern Jew actually declares s/he is an Israeli. the phrase used is “to make *aliyah.”
LikeLike