The Hora and Jewish folk dances

The hora is a circle dance, performed arm in arm to a lively rhythm, which was adopted by Zionist pioneers at the beginning of the twentieth century and became one of the emblematic dances of Israeli culture. Of Balkan and Romanian origin, it was reinvested with ideological significance: its circular and egalitarian form, without hierarchy or couples, expressed the communal and collectivist ideal of the Yishouv and the kibbutzim. More broadly, the Israeli folk dance movement (rikoudei am) was constituted from the 1940s onward as a conscious cultural creation, aggregating elements from the diverse communities of the diaspora — Yemenite, Hasidic, and East European dances — to forge a national repertoire. At the same time, the Ashkenazi musical and choreographic folklore, notably that which accompanied klezmer music at weddings and celebrations, constitutes a distinct corporeal heritage, collected and recomposed in the twentieth century. These dances remain an important vehicle of Jewish identity and sociability.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan
• Jewish Virtual Library ↗