Acknowledgements

I thank my dedicated and resourceful research assistants who accompanied me during the many years of this project: Adi Piltz, Efrat Weiss, and especially Shlomit Feldman, who spent long days in archives and libraries searching for rare children’s books and relevant documents such as letters, diaries, institutional memoranda, and book reviews.

I am most grateful to my colleagues and friends, who generously shared their extensive knowledge with me: Meir Chazan, Alon Confino, Asaf Galay, Aviva Halamish, Avner Holtzman, Hannah Pollin-Galay, Orit Rozin, Yaacov Shavit, Amir Shomroni, and Gideon Tikotzky. My students at Tel Aviv University also helped me think and rethink about the issues discussed in the book as it was taking shape. Their questions, comments, and observations during our seminars helped me reach some crucial understandings. I greatly benefited from my conversations with the veteran editors of children’s books, Edna Kremer, Nira Harel, and the late Mira Meir, who provided me with important information about the publishing houses in the period discussed in this book. I warmly thank Benny Mer for translating Kadia Molodowsky’s poems from Yiddish to Hebrew, and Eliezer Nowodworski for his generous help with the English transliteration of Yiddish and the enlightening conversation that ensued.

Research for this book was greatly facilitated by the attentive and efficient archivists at the Aviezer Yellin Archive of Jewish Education in Israel and the Diaspora, Tel Aviv University; the Avraham and Sara Jaffe Collection for Research of Hebrew Liturgy and Poetry and for Research of Children’s Literature, Tel Aviv University; Gnazim Archives, Tel Aviv; the Kipnis and Stekelis Archives at the Levin Kipnis Center for Children’s Literature, Levinsky College of Education, Tel Aviv; the Ministry of Education Archive at the Israel State Archives, Jerusalem; the Pinhas Lavon Institute for Labour Movement Research, Tel Aviv; the Solomon Bartonov Israeli Archive for Theater, Tel Aviv University; and the Yad Yaari – Hashomer Hatzair Research and Documentation Center, Givat Haviva.

I wish to thank my dedicated editor, Philippa Shimrat, whose professional skill and wise advice helped to give my manuscript its final form. I also thank Nina Reshef who worked on an early version of the manuscript.

Finally, special thanks are due to three people, without whom this project would not have been realized: Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer at Eberhard Karls-Universität Tübingen, who encouraged me to write this book and whose insightful suggestions and ideas were so helpful at the various stages of writing; Zohar Shavit at Tel Aviv University, who opened before me the fascinating field of research into children’s culture in general and Hebrew children’s literature in particular; and my dear partner, Doron Weinstock, who patiently read all the versions of the manuscript, contributed valuable advice, and supported me during the arduous process of writing.

All of you have helped to make the research and writing of this book an enriching and rewarding experience.