The Tunnels and Chains in the Hebrew and Yiddish Works of Ayalti

Bilingual writer Hanan Klenbort (1910–1992), known by his penname Ayalti, authored his first Yiddish novel »Bum« un keytn (»Boom« and Chains) in 1936. The novel sketched a blueprint for understanding the violence that erupted in Palestine just months after he finished writing. It framed the Labor Zionist settlements as anti-utopias, including in the sexual realm. Through examination of Ayaltis debut novels in Hebrew and Yiddish, this article shows the authors unusual linguistic transformation relative to his contemporaries. I will demonstrate how this linguistic shift was caused by the authors disillusionment by Zionism, causing him to turn away from its official language. Instead, he chose to create in Yiddish, a language spoken and simultaneously rejected by most Zionist settlers, but officially embraced by various circles of Jewish diaspora leftists. That shift freed him to represent the situation in Palestine through a uniquely critical and yet highly authentic lens.