Self-designation of a group of friends of Jerusalem academics from Central Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, most of whom taught at Hebrew University. The six members of the circle, including Kabbalah expert Gershom Scholem, met every Saturday at one of their homes in the quarter of Rechavia, in order to speak in German about intellectual and everyday matters. The circle of convinced Zionists, which took its name from the first letters of the members’ names, remained connected with the German language, even if German was increasingly associated in the Yishuv with Nazi Germany.

Pilegesh w…