Language:
English
Year of publication:
2021
Titel der Quelle:
Yad Vashem Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
49,1 (2021) 119-153
Keywords:
Yad ṿa-shem, rashut ha-zikaron la-Shoʼah ṿela-gevurah
;
Collective memory
;
Homophobia
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Commemoration
;
Holocaust memorials
;
Gay men
;
Lesbians
Abstract:
On May 30, 1994, a group arrived at Yad Vashem with the intention of holding a ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance. This ostensibly straightforward event was different for several reasons. The participants were Jewish homosexuals and lesbians from Israel and abroad who had come to remember and commemorate Jewish and non-Jewish homosexuals and lesbians whom the Nazis had murdered. Moreover, the ceremony elicited turbulent reactions, including a demonstration against it as it proceeded and a tumultuous debate in the media and the Knesset. The ceremony challenged the prevalent paradigm of Holocaust remembrance as it had been customarily accepted.Based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of media coverage and parliamentary proceedings, this article is a discussion of the complex relationship between the culture of remembrance, polarized political discourse, and conventional wisdom as to the “right” way to commemorate the Holocaust. The ceremony unintentionally undermined the symbolic boundaries of Holocaust remembrance and commemoration, indirectly putting on the public agenda the social demarcation of who had the right to this memory. Israeli society was tested in a way that challenged its tolerance, acceptance, and legitimization of an out-group.
Note:
In English and Hebrew.
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
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