Long before television, the computer and other technology arrived on the scene, book publishers in Israel were losing sleep and worrying over the fate of the Hebrew book. "The Hebrew book is still looking for a buyer, while we need to reach a situation where the buyer is looking for the Hebrew book..." said Israel Zmora, speaking on behalf of publishers at a Tel Aviv press conference in January 1947.
The situation possibly would not be that bad were it not for the "unlimited import of foreign-language books," as Haaretz writers put it. It "presses on the foundations of the Hebrew book and threatens its existence."
The English and German books that came into prestate Israel in 1946 accounted for around 11,000 liras per month; Hebrew books from the 83 publishers then registered sold around 40,000 liras worth of books per month, but then a new enemy emerged: more book imports from England.
Close to seven years later, in September 1953, Shimon Samet surveyed readers, publishers, libraries, stores and book distributors and reported in Haaretz that "the flooding of the Israeli market with English books and books from the United States at discount prices weakened the distribution of Hebrew books." Samet noted that "most Hebrew readers do not know English, but in practice there are people who buy English books for the purpose of learning the language."
Even books from Germany had "many eager buyers," including immigrants from other countries in Europe. "Many immigrants hardly know anything about Hebrew literature apart from what they read about it in the foreign-language press." Samet reported he often heard complaints that the Hebrew writers' detachment from their readers was another factor in rejecting Hebrew books.
Young people's preference for "light, even inferior books, the kind that they can't read at home or even bring home," did not help much to promote original Hebrew works. "At the time, a series of badly written pocketbooks in Yiddish were imported from Poland and distributed here in the thousands," Samet recalled. They were a big hit at kiosks, "with cover photos or drawings tempting the young."
There were also entertaining novels that enthused the young "when a film appeared that was based on a book with a reputation - "so the library knows it must prepare for increased demand for the book," wrote Samet, citing "Rebecca," "Quo Vadis," "Cry the Beloved Country" and "Gone with the Wind."
In May 1970, the publishers had another cause for concern: television. "Sales of Hebrew books in Israel declined 50 percent this year," said Bracha Peli, the chairman of the 1970 Hebrew Book Week council. "Mrs. Peli noted that the main reason for the decline in sales was that television took away readers' spare time," Haaretz reported.
The chairman of the Publishers Association, Mordechai Bernstein, also noted that the decrease in reading in Israel during 1968-1969 was connected to TV sets' entering Israeli homes and warned that "Hebrew culture is at risk." A collection of Hebrew literary writings were offered for one and a half liras, "a symbolic price, whose purpose was to enable the Hebrew reader to purchase a book containing the best of the Hebrew tradition."
Nine years later, ahead of Hebrew Book Week 1979, Tzila Shani reported in Haaretz that there is actually a rise in sales, but "the Israeli purchaser but does not necessarily read more books," she noted. Eri Steimatzky said that since the Yom Kippur War, there has been a substantial increase in reading - "so long as we are hit with low points and depression, there is a tendency to read more."
The CEO of Sifri bookstores, Aryeh Almog, said rising literacy led to increased reading, but stressed that "buying books today is a symptom of the newly rich, who buy books so they will not be suspected of a lack of comprehension." Or as Ziva Alfasi, one of the owners of the Lyric bookstores, said: "Books are a kind of fad. A few years ago, people would bring a vase or a useful kitchen accessory as a gift; today, when you go to a birthday party, dinner or even a wedding, people bring a book."
