Abstract
This article examines the rhetoric of place in an Israeli kibbutz. Members of this kibbutz identified the story of its settlement with what they called the "Sidriyot story" (the "Jujube story"). The aggregate of the stories collected in the kibbutz creates a narrative of the local culture in which the ethos of Zionist-socialist settlement in all its complexity is expounded. The analysis of the stories as told by the generation of the founders and the kibbutz-born generation uncovers the polyphonic life of the narrative and its "dialogic narration." In the narration the jujube becomes a key symbol that by its nature contains a whole slew of simultaneous meanings and ambiguities. It relates to the main values and problems of the society, such as the conquest of the soil and building of the settlement, uprooting and planting, Jews and Arabs, nature and culture, and more. In this way the stories exemplify the importance of local legends for cultural interpretation.
