Cultural aspects of philanthropy: Belle Époque administrators and Jewish peasants in the Galilee

Jewish settlements - moshavot - in Galilee in Palestine at the beginning of the twentieth century were administered by a French Jewish philanthropic society, JCA. The JCA administrators, in their behaviour and in their world view, reflected the mentality which was framed by the French bourgeoisie culture during the Belle Epoque. An understanding of the bourgeois viewpoint is the key to comprehending the approach of JCA administrators to the world of the Eastern European Jews that resided in the moshavot. These conceptions led to a paternalistic, and even quasi-colonialist, attitude of the administrators towards the Jewish peasants. Thus, the encounter between those two social groups became tense and complicated, generating mutual loathing and frustration. This article describes the different expressions of these attitudes and tries to explain the process of their development.