Under Quarantine by Rhona Seidelman

Author:Rhona Seidelman [Seidelman, Rhona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Middle East, Israel & Palestine, Social Science, Emigration & Immigration, Disease & Health Issues, Medical, Jewish Studies
ISBN: 9781978808393
Google: 9Ty-DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Published: 2019-12-13T01:07:50+00:00

This story begins at the end.

A ship with passengers reaches the shore.

Tired people, in a new land

stand before a large gate and look upon it in silence.

By beginning “at the end,” Alberstein reminds us that the commonly held idea of immigration as a beginning is misleading: there was so much more that happened to these people before they arrived in Israel. There is something somber and immediately isolating about this encounter, as these “tired people” silently gaze at the gate before them. Right from the start, the immigrants are on the outside.

Throughout, the lyrics evoke the immigrants’ suffering. Their experiences of the camp are, to a large extent, the familiar challenges of immigration and acclimation. Alberstein describes the people as “tired.” In Israel, “nothing is as promised.” Their plans prove to be little more than “dreams.” They change professions and identities. They struggle with Hebrew, which is described as “hard” and “apathetic,” and they crave their mother tongues. Their living conditions at Shaar Ha’aliya are terrible: “roofs fly off in winter,” treasured belongings are drenched in rainwater, and “everyone is sobbing.” The refrain evokes the immigrants’ pain and longing:

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