Introduction

In the lives of two prominent educators, 1920 was an eventful year. Khalil Totah (1886–1955), then 34 years old, was appointed by the British to head the Men’s Elementary Training College, Palestine’s most prestigious school for the training of teachers in Jerusalem. This was a major leap forwards for the young MA graduate of Columbia University’s Teachers’ College. It was a significant period for Chaim Arieh Zuta (1868–1939), a pioneer in Hebrew education, as well. Zuta immigrated to Palestine from Czarist Russia in 1903 to continue his career as a teacher. Like Totah, Zuta engaged in the training of teachers at the Hebrew Teachers’ Training Seminar, another Jerusalemite institute of similar prestige. In 1920, both educators authored a historical guidebook to Jerusalem, emphasizing the ties between nation, space, and history: one city, one physical space, two images of social realities. In their surveys of schools in Jerusalem, Zuta wrote about Jewish schools, and Totah about schools for Arabs....