How the Names of Israeli Political Parties Became So Jingly

“The gevalt campaigns worked,” was a remark heard over and over on Israeli TV and radio during the long night following Tuesday’s elections. It referred to the high percentage of the vote, unanticipated by the pre-election polls, received by Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and Benny Gantz’s Blue-and-White Party at the expense of their smaller competitors.

But what exactly is a gevalt campaign? The question can be answered with the help of a Jewish joke.

Yankl Rosenblum glances at his Yiddish newspaper one April morning and sees a full-page ad signed by his friend Chaim Goldfarb. “Modern New School for Gifted Children to Open in September!” declares the ad’s banner caption, beneath which is the explanation that Goldfarb has founded a school for special pupils whose needs are not met by the current educational system, that it will be run according to the most progressive principles, and that registration is under way.