Israeli society is founded upon multicultural immigration, but the “melting pot” policy at the state’s founding deepened existing ethno-social divides. Children’s journalism and literature constitute a cultural arena through which one can examine these processes. My paper analyzes the representation and characterization of the Mizrahi immigrant in illustrations from “To Myself” by Galila Ron-Feder Amit. I will compare illustrations accompanying two editions of the story: the version printed for the first time in the children’s periodical HaAretz Shelanu (1974) and the version later published by Milo (1976), whose illustrations were retained in later editions. Examining these illustrations will help to understand the work in its entirety and is important in light of the experiential value and accessibility of the visual dimension of children’s literature.
The book was received with great enthusiasm – it was repeatedly reprinted, made into a film, and was translated into nine different languages. The book tells the story of Zion, an immigrant from Morocco who resides in the town of Beit She’an, while delving into issues then marginal in Israeli children’s literature: the disharmonic childhood in “second-class Israel” and ethno-social and geographic divides. My talk will focus upon the work’s drawings of the Mizrahi character– the story’s subversiveness even as it stereotypically identifies the Mizrahi with poverty and criminality. Also, I will examine changes in messaging that emerge from the different versions’ illustrations. Studying these changes will help us to understand the relationship between children’s journalism and literature, two literary systems of distinctly different natures.