Total Freier

Taking advantage of being taken advantage of

Jul 11, 2024

Both Israelis and those describing Israelis endearingly often refer to those born in the Land of Israel as “sabras”. Today this is seen as an endearing description. Just like the fruit of a prickly pair, Israelis are rough on the outside, but once you peel past that exterior, they are sweet on the inside. However, this was not always the case. During the early 20th century when someone described an Israeli as “sabra”, they were saying that just like a prickly pair, Israelis may have a tough exterior, but once you peel past the outside, they are mushy and weak. It was only till later that Israelis reclaimed this epithet and the word has the meaning it has today.

Nowadays there's a much worse word you can be called in Israel: a freier. Nobody wants to be a freier. Anti-frier culture is prominent in Israel, and if you do a thorough Google search, you will find numerous articles attributing unnecessary traffic accidents, COVID pandemic failures, and even preventable wars to Israelis doing everything they can not to be a freier.

So what is a freier? Some English speakers translate it as “a sucker”. If someone pays more for something than they need to, they would be a freier. If someone misses a bus because they let someone else get on in front of them, they would also be called a freier. A freier is someone who follows a rule even though if they would not have followed it, they would not have been caught. In most cases of someone being a freier, there is one person or party who gains at another's expense and when someone is trying not to be a freier, they want to make sure they are the one to gain. You may have to make someone else into a freier in order not to be a freier yourself. A more robust definition of being a freier is someone who is on the losing end of an exchange, whether actual or perceived.

In anti-freier culture, everyone is looking how they personally can take advantage of the system. I’ve heard it suggested that the origins of anti-freier culture in Israel are that Jews have historically needed to survive by making sure they were never being taken advantage of, and hypervigilant to find themselves “the best deal”.

However, researchers Luis Roniger, Michael Feige suggest a different origin in their 1992 article in the European Journal of Sociology. In Israel, it used to be a good thing to take one for the team, even to lose out a little, for the sake of the collective good. Those who built up the Land of Israel from the 1800s to the founding of the state were referred to as “Chalutzim” (Pionears). The Land of Israel was mostly desolate outside of its ancient cities and towns, and in many areas of the land, the chalutzim built everything out of nothing. It was grueling work draining the swamps, working the land, and only much later watching the desserts bloom. A chalutz really needed to give it their all to be successful. Even after the foundational work of the early pioneers, a person who put others in front of themselves in Israel became known colloquially as a chalutz. So how did “taking one for the team” transition into being viewed as “losing out”?

Roniger and Feige found that the word “freier” began entering Israeli writings in the 1960s. Meanwhile they quote a speech by Prime minister Levi Eshkol around the same time contemplating if the chalutz mindset was a positive mentality for the youth of that generation. Also quoted is Israeli poet Nathan Alterman conveying a similar message in one of his writings at the same time. Being a chalutz did not mean losing out or being a sucker, but once the mindset became less valued, some of its attributes began to be conflated with negative descriptions. The word “freier” was a word of the “Old Jew” of eastern europe. It was specifically chosen to evoke the image of someone who is out of touch with reality, which is the way “New Jews” saw the “Old Jew”. Roniger and Feige then suggest that the next nail in the coffin for chalutzim happened after the Six Day War. After the West Bank was in Israeli hands, groups such as Gush Emunim began to come together with the mission of establishing Jewish Settlements in the territory. While some of these settlements were simply establishing Jewish settlements that were abandoned during the 1948 independence war, other new settlements were erected in order to assert Jewish dominance in the area and prevent the Israeli government from making a land deal with Jordan . Gush Emunim was selling their dream by romanticizing the images of chulutzim, implying that they were the continuation of those pioneers . At this point in time, much of Israeli society preferred to distance themselves from this mission and therefore distanced themselves from identifying as chalutzim. Regardless of the main cause, There seems to have been a shift in the Israeli national mindset that being a chalutz may have its disadvantages or undesirable associations, and the mindset became less valued.

Today, Olim chadashim, or new immigrants to Israel, are often seen as the ultimate freiers. They don’t necessarily know the lay of the land, and therefore unfortunately get taken advantage of or make decisions a more experienced Israeli might not make. Some immigrants become freiers simply by engaging in a behavior that in their home country is considered polite or pro-social.

I have seen some new immigrants even claim that they are proud freier; could that be? Is being a freier a curse or a badge of honor? Those who see it as a curse will not let themselves be taken advantage of. Perhaps they will teach those around them to stand up for themselves and surround themselves with the best possible outcomes. Those who see it as a badge of honor hold certain values or needs that go beyond coming out on top. Sometimes that might be a philosophical approach to life, while other times that may be that they lack the courage to push for themselves in the sabra society we live in. Like everything else in life, a proper balance must exist.