Language:
German
Year of publication:
2003
Titel der Quelle:
Nations and Nationalism
Angaben zur Quelle:
9,2 (2003) 297-317
Keywords:
National characteristics, Israeli
;
State, The Philosophy
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Education
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Study and teaching
;
Israel History
;
Philosophy
Abstract:
There was scant discourse on the Holocaust in the early years of the State of Israel, at a time when Israeli society was embedded in an "environment of memory" due to the large number of Holocaust survivors in the population. However, since the 1980s Holocaust discourse has become increasingly prominent in the public sphere; it has become the central event of Jewish history defining Israeli identity, and it occupies an important place in school curricula. Examines developments in national memory as reflected in Israel's state educational system. The national myth, forming Israeli identity, went through several stages. The first two images, "a nation with a right to a state" and "a nation by right of religion, " were incompatible with Holocaust remembrance. The later image, "a state for a persecuted nation, " referred to the Holocaust as the foremost justification for the state. Argues that this change took place after the Yom Kippur War in 1973 in order to reinforce the national identity of Israeli students which was eroded by the crisis of 1973.
Note:
A German version appeared in "Repräsentationen des Holocaust im Gedächtnis der Generationen" (2004).
DOI:
10.1111/1469-8219.00087/full
URL:
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