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Israel Studies 8.3 (2003) v-xi



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Introduction


On May 18, 1953, Minister of Education Benzion Dinur told the Knesset:

"The 'I' of the nation exists only to the extent that it possesses a memory, to the extent that the nation is capable of combining its experiences from the past into a single unity; only on this condition will it exist as a nation, as a single entity. Consequently, the memory of the Holocaust and Jewish heroism in it, in actuality, pertains to the profundities of the Jewish experience. Its aim must be to continually awaken the Jewish sensibility, the need to remember, to feel the Jewish 'I,' to make itself felt." 1

Dinur, the first Minister of Education, was a historian and one of the founders of the Jerusalem school of modern Jewish historiography. As such, the central points that he sought to emphasize in this speech are of special interest. He noted, as a broad, general statement, that a nation must possess memory, that is both continuous, preserving the continuity between the past and the present, and stable, that is, this memory is not derived from the needs of the present. More particularly, he related to the recollection of the Holocaust that, in his view, touches upon the very heart of the Jewish experience, and as such continually arouses and fashions this experience.

Scholars no longer accept Dinur's first thesis in its simplistic formulation. The current perception of memory is much more dynamic than what Dinur intended at the time, and places more stress upon the reciprocal relationship between past and present, between memory and identity, and between identity and the "politics of identities." According to the current conception, memory nurtures identity, provides the latter with content and direction, and defines the conceptual framework and the "metastructures" that impart meaning to this content. Another viewpoint regards memory as an important element of the "politics of identities." This school of thought maintains that collective memory functions as a political tool for ensuring the continued hegemony of the elites, the sanctification of rigid hierarchies, and the rejection of anyone who questions this status quo.

Dinur's second proposition, regarding the place of Holocaust memory is in the Jewish experience, which was remarkably accurate, especially in light of the fact that it was stated soon after the Holocaust occurred, without any historical perspective. [End Page v]

In any event, Dinur's early words, even if they did not foresee the entire extent of the phenomenon as would be realized by the later observer, nevertheless struck at the very heart of the experience in which the Holocaust became the dominant element in the Israeli collective memory, a part of the main "sea of recollection," (Pierre Nora). As such it left—and continues to leave—a deep impression on the evolving identity of Israelis, and their social, intellectual, and cultural life.

This is quite understandable. A people that lost six million of its sons and daughters, including a million and a half children, and a state that absorbed most of the survivors who chose to build their home in it, and raised children and grandchildren, the members of the second and third generations, is necessarily a remembering nation, one in which the Holocaust is a defining element of its identity and a central part of its consciousness. Consequently, two founding events were impressed, side by side, in the Israeli consciousness: one, mass, methodical, and total murder—an event without precedent in human history; the other, the establishment of the State of Israel, a Jewish state—once again, an unprecedented historic event. This dramatic association closely corresponded to the paradigm in which Jewish history is perceived and fashioned as the going forth from slavery to freedom, from destruction to redemption, from Holocaust to rebirth. These two events—both the disaster and the rebirth, possessed, and continue to possess, a high degree of presence and intensity.

The Holocaust left the Jewish people devastated. Sixty years could not recoup all that it had lost, neither in demographic terms, nor in the ability to reconstruct and reestablish the Jewish civilization that was...

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