“The Holocaust does not belong to European Jews alone”: The differential use of memory techniques in Israeli high schools

Title“The Holocaust does not belong to European Jews alone”: The differential use of memory techniques in Israeli high schools
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2008
AuthorsYehuda C. Goodman, Nissim Mizrachi
JournalAmerican Ethnologist
Volume35
Issue1
Pagination95-114
ISSN00940496
Abstract

On the basis of participant-observations of classroom discussions in Jewish Israeli high schools during two memorial days, we examine how different ethnoclass groups within a presumably consensual national collectivity remember the nation. We found that teachers use different memory techniques with different groups of students and in relation to different historical memories, and we suggest that doing so variously repositions subgroups toward the public sphere. We argue that, to understand ethnoclass memory work and its differential appropriation and refraction along ethnoclass divides, scholars need to go beyond the contents of historical narratives and collective ceremonies to inquire into the plethora of memory techniques social actors use. [ ethnoclass, national memory, memory techniques, citizenship participation, hegemony, Israel, high school]

DOI10.1111/j.1548-1425.2008.00008.x
Short Title“The Holocaust does not belong to European Jews alone”