Content area
Full Text
On Hasamba 3G: Newer Kinds of Jews
Hasamba 3G. 201 0, 201 3. Created by Dror Nobelman and Ruti Zaid. Directed by Dani Sirkin. Produced by Eylon Ratzkovsky. Israel: HOT Channel 3.
Hasamba 3G is a cable television series that ran for two seasons in Israel (HOT 3, 2010, 2013). The show is a televised sequel to an original children's book series also titled Hasamba ("The Absolutely Absolute Secret Bunch") in Hebrew. The book series, written by former Palmach member Yigal Mossinson, ran from 1949 until the author's death in 1994. The books tracked the adventures of a group of Israeli teenagers-members of the "first generation"-who fought hostile Palestinians and British Mandate forces in the formative years of the Yishuv and shortly after independence. The adventures of the original group's children were recounted in a sequel book series about the second generation of Hasamba. The televised sequel, Hasamba 3G, written by Dror Nobelman and Ruti Zaid, recounts the adventures of the grandchildren of members of the original group, who are still around to help the newest recruits save the nation.
Hasamba 3G rewrites Zionist history and represents a new stage in Jewish nationalism. Zionism on the show is seen not solely as a national movement influenced by the core values of Jewish Enlightenment but as one that seeks to redefine Judaism itself. The relationship among nation, state, and religion presented on the show reflects profound changes in Israeli society and a new vision for its future.
Attitudes toward religion in most of the Hasamba books and episodes of the television series fluctuate. In the book series, the 1G young fighters were intended to represent the best of the "New Jews" and the split from the "galuf-that is, the Diaspora and its institutionalized and folk religion. The New Jews-secular, manly, and autochthonous-did not want anything to do with the shtetl. Although most of the so-called New Jews had received a traditional Jewish education and grown up in Orthodox families, they preferred to relate to Judaism as a culture and to Israel as a nation; they turned their backs on Jewish practices and religiosity. Thus Hasamba 1G, in accordance with this generation's doctrine, never cared much about religion.
The second generation of Israelis grew up in...