Rachel Bluwstein (1890–1931)

O, my Kinneret. Did you exist, or did I dream a dream?

Aiding the profound thinkers, sublime poets expressed the love of the land and the joy in making it bloom. One verbal virtuoso, the Hungarian-born kibbutznik and World War II fighter, Hannah Szenes, would epitomize Zionist pioneering, poetry, and patriotism. Her thirteen-word ode to Israel’s beauty—“My Lord, make these eternal: sand, sea, rushing waters, crashing heavens, and human prayers”—was immortalized following her execution by Nazi firing squad at age twenty-three. Before Szenes, Rachel Bluwstein, known simply as Rachel the poetess, brought to life A. D. Gordon’s vision that reconnecting the people with their land would trigger a cultural renaissance as part of the national renaissance.

Raised in Russia and the Ukraine, Rachel visited Palestine in 1909 when she was nineteen, on her way to study art and philosophy in Italy. Inspired, she stayed, learning Hebrew by listening to kindergarten children chattering. Like most of the early pioneers, she suffered in Palestine but loved her new home. When she moved to Kvutzat Kinneret by the shores of the Galilee, she met A. D. Gordon, to whom she dedicated her first Hebrew poem. Years later, she also lived in Kibbutz Degania, linking her to two iconic early kibbutzim and solidifying her identity as the bard of the flourishing Galilee.

Many of Rachel’s poems were set to music and are still sung, making her one of the first to shape the Zionist soundtrack of the twentieth century. Among many favorites, thanks to her beloved poem “Ve’ulai,” “Perhaps,” generations of Israelis sang longingly, lovingly, “HaKineret Sheli,” O, my Sea of Galilee. Did you exist, or did I dream a dream?”

Stricken by tuberculosis and exiled from Degania, whose members feared contagion, she wandered between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, earning money by giving private Hebrew lessons. When she died an early death in 1931, the Yishuv mourned, a testament to the cultural and ideological impact of her short, lyrical poetry created in her short, tragic life.

Rachel was buried in the Kinneret cemetery overlooking her cherished Sea of Galilee. This cemetery for the original pioneers remains a Zionist pilgrimage spot for those wishing to honor Rachel and others who built not only the state’s infrastructure, but its mythology.

My Country (1926)

I have not sung you, my country,

not brought glory to your name with the great deeds of a hero

or the spoils a battle yields.

But on the shores of the Jordan

my hands have planted a tree,

and my feet have made a pathway through your fields.

Modest are the gifts I bring you.

I know this, mother.

Modest, I know, the offerings of your daughter:

Only an outburst of song

on a day when the light flares up,

only a silent tear

for your poverty.