Tales of our Homeland #14: To My Land

Colors by Ari Levine

Notes and further reading:

Rachel the Poet holds a place of honor in Israeli history and culture. She was a pioneering kibbutznik, and is remembered as the first female poet of modern Hebrew. We are presenting our translation of אל ארצי into English and images as an expression of her Labor Zionist life and passion. We think it says so much more than a summary of her short life could. She avoided flowery language, while expressing emotions in a clear voice. Here she contrasts the contributions of the “masculine” imagery of fighters to the “feminine” imagery builders with irony. So while this isn’t a typical issue of Tales of Our Homeland, we’d rather have Rachel speak to you herself. Like many of her poems, this one has often been turned into song.

Michael Unterberg (author) and Zvi Ron (artist) have been making comics together since they were classmates in Yeshivah of Flatbush elementary school. They both live in Gush Etzion.