The Bourgeois Home in Young Israel from a Global Perspective

Abstract

Israeli critical research tends to view the Israeli home in the 1950s and 1960s as an institutional tool for shaping society. However, the central focus of individuals on the modern home, its design, and its furnishing during the second decade of the state’s existence is evidence of its dominant position and its cultural, emotional, and ethical importance among the emerging Israeli bourgeoisie. As in Western European countries following World War II, the modern Israeli home expressed a desire to disconnect from a violent, crisis-filled and painful past and to build a new, modernist and, most importantly, stable future. Alongside government authorities and planning bodies, citizens, tenants, and families took advantage of design books and the guidance and advice provided by interior designers, architects, and selfproclaimed household management experts in order to participate in the design of the home. The building, the house and the apartment were also designed according to the family's requirements and its character, thus expressing the values of the Israeli bourgeoisie and its desire to integrate within consumer culture. The modern Israeli home became an emotional fortress, a protected refuge for middle-class Israelis against strangers and dangers.