A tourist once told me something that has stayed with me since two things have not changed throughout history: death and taxes. Both come sooner or later, and neither can be avoided.
Much can be learned from observing the money of a culture, society, or country because society chooses to present the main narrative it wants to show to everyone who comes through its doors. Think shortly about the American dollar and what appears on the American bills (white and old men), the founders of the USA, and important places such as Capitol Hill on the back. In addition, the USA is a religious nation: “IN GOD WE TRUST,” and maybe or not the Masonic element.
Let’s now do the same exercise with the Israeli banknotes. Below is a 200 new Israeli Shejkel (NIS) bill with Natan Alterman’s portrait. Try to look at and understand what is depicted and what narrative Israel wanted to convey through it.
An open book is on the front left side because the last series of banknotes issued in Israel is dedicated to writers and poets. The change in banknotes throughout the short history of the State of Israel indicates a social change. If the first bills were pioneers, Herzl, very Zionist and ideology subjects, then the latest bills (starting in 2014) deal with the “people of the book” (The Jewish people)—a privileged issue, which is not ideological or military. The change in Israeli banknotes tells about the coming of age of Israeli society and the changes that have taken place in it. From an ideologically mobilized society to establishing a state, a socialist and humble society, where the individual will is pushed aside to a capitalist and individualistic society. We will find this symbol in all the banknotes that exist today in Israel. On both sides, in the upper part, a Menorah appears as the symbol of the state in a modern design.
On the front right is a portrait of Natan Alterman (1910-1970) born in Warsaw, who immigrated to the Land of Israel in his youth. He was called the poet of the generation of the establishment of the state. In his writing, he described the feelings and belief in the righteousness of the Jewish existence in the Land of Israel before and after the establishment of the State of Israel. There was a saying in the Palmach (the strike bridges before the establishment of the state) regarding social and cultural life after a day of training, work, or fighting: “Around the fire, you bring a lamb, and I will bring Alterman.” At the entrance to the Palmach Museum, there is a small exhibition on the connection between Alterman and the Palmach.
Alterman’s works span many types of writing, including poems, writing for theater, and a column in a newspaper about the events of the hour called “The Seventh Column” in the most common newspaper of those days, “Davar,” a newspaper of the workers of Eretz Israel.
Many of his songs were composed and became famous songs in Israeli culture. The words are often involved in the day’s current events and have a great linguistic complexity for the Hebrew speaker. Songs such as Shir Ha’emek (The Vally Song, 1934) became the main song in the kibbutz Shabbat welcoming ceremonies (and also at my house, together with Shalom Aleichem); Elifelt (1959), which describes a boy, and later teen and soldier that is a schlimazel, but in the battlefield, he volunteers and sacrifices his life for the good of the country. This song is still played and performed at the Memorial Day ceremonies for the IDF soldiers. The song Lil Haniya shows the night before going into battle.
The connections between Ben-Gurion and Alterman were warm and friendly, and they responded to each other. In his column in the newspaper in November 1947, Alterman wrote a column called “For this reason”, criticizing war crimes that occurred in the War of Independence (collective punishment of an Arab village). Ben-Gurion replied that he wrote well, and we would start reading the column to the soldiers at the front to prevent similar incidents and to educate our soldiers about the values of the purity of weapons and universal morality.
On both sides of the banknote, trees and the moon appear as motifs from the natural world that Alterman frequently used. On the back side, the words from the song “Morning Song” appear: “We love you homeland, with joy, song and labor.”
Alterman wrote one of the most canonical texts in Israeli society, which feels more relevant than ever: “The Silver Platter”:
A Silver Platter
By Natan Alterman
And the land grows still, the red eye of the sky slowlydimming over smoking frontiers
as the nation arises,
Torn at heart but breathing,
To receive its miracle, the only miracle
As the ceremony draws near,
It will rise, standing erect in the moonlight in terror and joy
When across from it will step out a youth and a lass and slowly march toward the nation
Dressed in battle gear, dirty,
Shoes heavy with grime, they ascend the path quietly
to change garb, to wipe their brow
They have not yet found time.
Still bone weary from days and from nights in the field
Full of endless fatigue and unrested,
Yet the dew od their youth.
Is still seen on their head.
Thus they stand at attention, giving no sign of life or death
Then a nation in tears and amazement will ask: “Who are you?”
And they will answer quietly,
“We are the silver platter on which the Jewish state was given.”
Thus they will say and fall back in shadows
And the rest will be told
In the Chronicles of Israel.
Nov 1947.
True then, true today.
Bring Them Home Now