Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition
Because new nations need new pasts, they create new ways of commemorating and recasting select historic events. In Recovered Roots, Yael Zerubavel illuminates this dynamic process by examining the construction of Israeli national tradition.\ In the years leading to the birth of Israel, Zerubavel shows, Zionist settlers in Palestine consciously sought to rewrite Jewish history by reshaping Jewish memory. Zerubavel focuses on the nationalist reinterpretation of the defense of Masada against the...
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Because new nations need new pasts, they create new ways of commemorating and recasting select historic events. In Recovered Roots, Yael Zerubavel illuminates this dynamic process by examining the construction of Israeli national tradition.In the years leading to the birth of Israel, Zerubavel shows, Zionist settlers in Palestine consciously sought to rewrite Jewish history by reshaping Jewish memory. Zerubavel focuses on the nationalist reinterpretation of the defense of Masada against the Romans in 73 C.E. and the Bar Kokhba revolt of 133-135; and on the transformation of the 1920 defense of a new Jewish settlement in Tel Hai into a national myth. Zerubavel demonstrates how, in each case, Israeli memory transforms events that ended in death and defeat into heroic myths and symbols of national revival.Drawing on a broad range of official and popular sources and original interviews, Zerubavel shows that the construction of a new national tradition is not necessarily the product of government policy but a creative collaboration between politicans, writers, and educators. Her discussion of the politics of commemoration demonstrates how rival groups can turn the past into an arena of conflict as they posit competing interpretations of history and opposing moral claims on the use of the past. Zerubavel analyzes the emergence of counter-memories within the reality of Israel's frequent wars, the ensuing debates about the future of the occupied territories, and the embattled relations with Palestinians. A fascinating examination of the interplay between history and memory, this book will appeal to historians, sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, and folklorists, as well as to scholars of cultural studies, literature, and communication. Jewish Book World The author explores the Zionist drive to construct a new national Hebrew culture which grew out of the early immigrants' unique interpretation of the Jewish past. Three cases are used as the foci of the study -- the fall of Masada, the Bar Kokhba revolt and the defense of Tel Hai. The conclusion is that the study of history and memory touches a sensitive nerve of Israeli society that helps shed light onsignificant changes of its national culture.
List of IllustrationsPrefaceIntroductionPt. 1History, Collective Memory, and CountermemoryCh. 1The Dynamics of Collective Remembering3Ch. 2The Zionist Reconstruction of the Past13The Zionist Periodization of Jewish History15Exile: Suppressed Nationhood, Discredited Past17Locating the Nation: Antiquity and the National Revival22Historical Continuity/Symbolic Discontinuities31Historical Turning Points: Liminality and Transitions33Pt. 2The Birth of National MythsCh. 3The Battle of Tel Hai39A New Commemorative Tradition41A Myth of New Beginning43Ch. 4The Bar Kokhba Revolt48Dual Image and Transformed Memory49Archeological Findings and Symbolic Roots56Ch. 5The Fall of Masada60The Rediscovery of Masada62A Myth of Fighting to the Bitter End68Masada and the Holocaust as Countermetaphors70Pt. 3Literature, Ritual, and the Invention of TraditionHebrew Literature and Education79Ch. 6The Arm, the Plow, and the Gun84Tel Hai: From "History" to "Legend"84The Rebirth of the Native Hebrew86The Patriotic Legacy of Heroic Death91Ch. 7Bar Kokhba, the Bonfire, and the Lion96From Mourning to Celebration96The Lag ba-Omer Bonfires101Bar Kokhba and the Lion103Invented Tradition: The Old and the New110Ch. 8The Rock and the Vow114"Never Again Shall Masada Fall!"114A New Hebrew Pilgrimage119Climbing Up as a Patriotic Ritual125Between Ruins and Texts127The State's Sponsorship of Memory129The Tourist Consumption of a Folk Tradition133Calendars and Sites as Commemorative Loci138Pt. 4Politics of CommemorationCh. 9Tel Hai and the Meaning of Pioneering147The Plow versus the Gun148A Patriot's Legacy or a Victim's Curse?157Jewish Settlements and the Politics of Withdrawal160Jokes and the Subversion of Myth167Humor, Wars, and Political Protest173Ch. 10The Bar Kokhba Revolt and the Meaning of Defeat178Patriotic Dreams and Political Reality179Archeology, Religion, and the War of the Bones185State Commemoration and Political Frictions189Ch. 11Masada and the Meaning of Death192The Tragic Commemorative Narrative192The Historical Debate: Between Facts and Fiction197The Traditionalist Debate: Masada versus Yavne200The Legal Debate: Suicide or Martyrdom?203The Activist Critique: Heroism or Escapism?207The Political Debate: Realism or a "Complex"209Conclusion: History, Memory, and Invented Tradition214Memory, Myth Plot Structures, and the Holiday Cycle216The Construction of Narrative Boundaries221Turning Points and Multiple Meanings229The Frailty of Invented Tradition232From Collective Memory to Multiple Memories235Notes239Bibliography299Index325
\ Jewish Book WorldThe author explores the Zionist drive to construct a new national Hebrew culture which grew out of the early immigrants' unique interpretation of the Jewish past. Three cases are used as the foci of the study -- the fall of Masada, the Bar Kokhba revolt and the defense of Tel Hai. The conclusion is that the study of history and memory touches a sensitive nerve of Israeli society that helps shed light onsignificant changes of its national culture.\ \
