My talk will chart various ways in which the sphere of consumption became a key arena for identity construction in British Mandate Palestine, mostly in the urban Jewish sector. This consumer society was facilitated by the British conquest in World War I, the Jewish middle class immigration, and the rapid and unexpected development of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. I will first juxtapose moralist discourses about consumption as a destructive form of materialism and excess with the politicization of consumption by mutual boycotts and opposing “buy national” campaigns waged by the two competing nationalist movements. In the main part of my talk, I will look at ways in which consumer culture shaped meanings and everyday life in the Jewish sector, focusing on public festivals and domestic rituals. To conclude, I will ask to what extent Zionist consumer culture challenged the dominance of the anti-urban and puritan ethos of socialist Zionism.

By: Diana Franklin
Last updated: Thursday, 15 October 2015