Moshe Safdie at Yad Vashem: Architecture, Politics, Identity

Pólemos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-62
Author(s):  
Paolo Coen
Keyword(s):  
Initial Phase ◽  
The State ◽  
Jewish State ◽  
History Museum ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
International Reputation ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
State Of Israel ◽  
Yad Vashem

Abstract This article revolves in essence around the contributions made by the architect Moshe Safdie to the Yad Vashem memorial and museum in Jerusalem. Both probably need at least a brief introduction, if for no other reason than the nature of the present publication, which has a somewhat different scope than the type of art-historical or architectural-historical journals to which reflections of this kind are usually consigned. The first part draws a profile of Safdie, who enjoys a well-established international reputation, even if he has not yet been fully acknowledged in Italy. In order to better understand who he is, we shall focus on the initial phase of his career, up to 1967, and his multiple ties to Israel. The range of projects discussed includes the Habitat 67 complex in Montreal and a significant number of works devised for various contexts within the Jewish state. The second part focuses on the memorial and museum complex in Jerusalem that is usually referred to as Yad Vashem. We will trace Yad Vashem from its conception, to its developments between the 1950s and 1970s, up until the interventions of Safdie himself. Safdie has in fact been deeply and extensively involved with Yad Vashem. It is exactly to this architect that a good share of the current appearance of this important institute is due. Through the analysis of three specific contributions – the Children’s Memorial, the Cattle Car Memorial and the Holocaust History Museum – and a consideration of the broader context, this article shows that Yad Vashem is today, also and especially thanks to Safdie, a key element in the formation of the identity of the state of Israel from 1967 up until our present time.

The Narrative Role of the Holocaust and the State of Israel in the Coverage of Salient Terrorist Events in the Israeli Press

1994 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 119-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hillel Nossek
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Mass Communication ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Jewish People ◽  
The State ◽  
Historical Event ◽  
Jewish State ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
State Of Israel ◽  
Terrorist Events

Abstract The mass media convey dominant values and attitudes through stories and myths that they circulate within a specific culture. As a narrative form, news coverage places events into social reality by retelling them within the framework of known stories or myths. Events acquire meanings and reactions by the ways in which these stories are told. In Israeli society, the Holocaust is a historical event that plays a prominent role in shaping national and cultural identity. An analysis of Israeli press coverage of terrorist attacks on Israel reveals that the Israeli press uses these events to convey the basic myth of the Holocaust and the revival of the Jewish state. Using Barthes' theories of narrative analysis, a composite story is constructed to illustrate the workings of this process. In this story the Jews, formerly helpless victims of Nazi aggression, are saved by Israeli soldiers as proof of the revival of the Jewish people in the state of Israel. The findings of the study suggest that the myth of the Holocaust may be used as a framework by the Israeli press in more serious emergency situations, such as war. At the same time, the study suggests that the analysis of news as narrative provides a means of understanding how terrorist events are reported by the press in other countries and in other media as well. (Mass Communication)

The No-Man’s-Land of Language

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lital Levy
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
The State ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Jewish State ◽  
No Man's Land ◽  
Literature Culture ◽  
Language And Ideology ◽  
State Of Israel

This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to examine the lives and afterlives of Arabic and Hebrew in Israeli literature, culture, and society. Hebrew is the spiritual, historical, and ideological cornerstone of the State of Israel, and Hebrew literature, having accompanied the national project from its inception, is an integral part of Israeli society. Yet in its broader geopolitical context, Hebrew is the language of a small state that views itself as an embattled island in a hostile Arabic-language sea. The book presents an alternative story of the evolution of language and ideology in the Jewish state. It takes a long historical perspective, beginning not in 1948 with the foundation of the state but rather at the turn of the century, with the early days of Zionist settlement in Palestine. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.

scholarly journals The Sacrosanctity of the Holocaust and its Influence on Judaism and the State of Israel

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-247
Author(s):  
Victoria Nesfield
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
The State ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Legal Cases ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Holocaust Memory ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Impact ◽  
State Of Israel

The Holocaust maintains a status of inviolability in the Christian religious public sphere and also the mainstream media. The scale, gravity and sheer atrocity of the Holocaust still commands a response. The article argues that questions demanded by the Holocaust of the Christian church and the free world’s passivity in the face of genocide, led to a Christian support for the State of Israel driven by guilt and a sense of moral obligation which side-lined the impact of the State on the Palestinian people. With the Israel-Palestine conflict in its seventh decade, the imperative to overcome the hegemony of Holocaust memory is more urgent than ever. Seventy years after the Holocaust, its legacy in public and theological memory dominates questions of Judaism within the polity and the State of Israel. Two legal cases, which attracted media attention, illustrate how Holocaust memory is evoked in response to questions of Jewish practice in the European polity. Two further examples demonstrate how the pernicious influence of Holocaust memory and rhetoric colour responses to criticism of the State of Israel.

A Strident Silencing

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Na'ama Sheffi
Keyword(s):  
National Socialism ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The State ◽  
Richard Wagner ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Educational Implications ◽  
Anti Jewish ◽  
State Of Israel

This chapter examines the controversy surrounding the Wagner affair in Israel: the ban on composer Richard Wagner (1813–1883) by Israeli authorities following Kristallnacht, the anti-Jewish pogrom that took place in Germany in November 1938. After the State of Israel was created in 1948, Wagner became identified with the racist views of National Socialism and vicious anti-Semitism and his work emerged as one of the explicit symbols of the Holocaust and its atrocities. This chapter considers the fundamental reasons for the opposition to performing Wagner’s work in Israel within a broad cultural and political context, suggesting that his music served as a stark reminder in Israel of the Holocaust of European Jews. It also discusses the cultural, historical, and educational implications of the ban on Wagner.

The Legal Status of the Holy Places in Jerusalem

1994 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 589-600
Author(s):  
Izhak Englard
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
The State ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
International Conflicts ◽  
Jewish State ◽  
Legal Problems ◽  
Holy Places ◽  
Ideological Background ◽  
State Of Israel

The legal problems relating to the Holy Places in Jerusalem are of a very complex and delicate nature. The issue has a long history, and its complexity is the result of turbulent religious, ethnic, national and international conflicts over the Holy Places. The problems were not created by the State of Israel, but the establishment of the Jewish State added new dimensions to the age-old contest. I shall first describe briefly the ideological background of the problem, then analyze its legal aspects and finally illustrate its complexity by a number of Israel court decisions.

The Vatican, Latin America, and Jerusalem

1957 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-219
Author(s):  
Edward B. Glick
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Jewish State ◽  
Holy See ◽  
The World ◽  
Holy Places ◽  
New City ◽  
State Of Israel

Viewed from its widest angle, the dormant but still unsettled question of the internationalization of Jerusalem is, in reality, a struggle between the Holy See and the Jewish state. Thus one protagonist will inform the United Nations that “the Catholic body throughout the world…will not be contented with a mere internationalization of the Holy Places in Jerusalem” and the other will proclaim to the Israeli Parliament that “for the state of Israel there is, has been and always will be one capital only, Jerusalem, the Eternal”. Since 1947 the Vatican has directed a campaign designed to make unmistakably clear to Israel and the UN that nothing less than the complete territorial internationalization of Jerusalem would be satisfactory; with equal steadfastness has Israel maintained her claim to sovereignty over the entire New City of Jerusalem.

scholarly journals The Question of Palestine and the Muslim World

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah Al-Ahsan
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
The State ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Jewish State ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
Zionist Movement ◽  
State Of Israel

The question of Palestine (and the city of Jerusalem) is a core issue that remains at the centre of the Muslim mind in our time. This is because most Muslims feel that the Zionist Movement created the State of Israel in Palestine after World War II by depriving the local population of their fundamental right to exist in their ancestral homeland. The global Zionist Movement conspired, resorted to terrorist tactics and executed an ethnic cleansing campaign to create the State of Israel. The Zionists first secured the support of British politicians and then the American leaders in favour of their search for an exclusive Jewish state covering the entirety of the former British Mandate of Palestine. Although the Palestinians – like Muslims in various parts of the world – quickly developed a national consciousness in the inter-war period and tried to protect their fundamental rights, they were no match for the Zionists who had already secured the support of major powers of the globe (e.g. Britain and the US). Later, Israel managed to obtain UN membership in its third attempt with the commitment to allow all Palestinians to return to their ancestral home. But in practice, Israel has ignored all UN resolutions regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel has gradually developed a legal framework to deny the citizenship rights of the original population of Palestine and continues to build new Jewish settlements by demolishing Palestinian homes. While the Palestinians continue to suffer under Israeli repression, the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) and most Muslim governments have largely abandoned the Palestinian cause of liberation. This, in turn, frustrates much of the Muslim youth around the world – fuelling fundamentalism and extremism.  

scholarly journals A CHRONICLE OF CALCUTTA JEWRY

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (15) ◽  
pp. 1462-1469
Author(s):  
Sayan Lodh
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Jewish Community ◽  
The State ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Relief Fund ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Partition Of India ◽  
The City ◽  
State Of Israel

Studies conducted into minorities like the Jews serves the purpose of sensitizing one about the existence of communities other than one’s own one, thereby promoting harmony and better understanding of other cultures. The Paper is titled ‘A Chronicle of Calcutta Jewry’. It lays stress on the beginning of the Jewish community in Calcutta with reference to the prominent Jewish families from the city. Most of the Jews in Calcutta were from the middle-east and came to be called as Baghdadi Jews. Initially they were influenced by Arabic culture, language and customs, but later they became Anglicized with English replacing Judeo-Arabic (Arabic written in Hebrew script) as their language. A few social evils residing among the Jews briefly discussed. Although, the Jews of our city never experienced direct consequences of the Holocaust, they contributed wholeheartedly to the Jewish Relief Fund that was set up by the Jewish Relief Association (JRA) to help the victims of the Shoah. The experience of a Jewish girl amidst the violence during the partition of India has been briefly touched upon. The reason for the exodus of Jews from Calcutta after Independence of India and the establishment of the State of Israel has also been discussed. The contribution of the Jews to the lifestyle of the city is described with case study on ‘Nahoums’, the famous Jewish bakery of the city. A brief discussion on an eminent Jew from Calcutta who distinguished himself in service to the nation – J.F.R. Jacob, popularly known as Jack by his fellow soldiers has been given. The amicable relations between the Jews and Muslims in Calcutta have also been briefly portrayed. The research concludes with the prospect of the Jews becoming a part of the City’s history, peacefully resting in their cemeteries. Keywords: Jews, Calcutta, India, Baghdadi, Holocaust

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