We Hereby Neglect: The Israeli Hall of Independence and the Social Texture of Memory

• In Event: 1440 - Collective Memory

Abstract

Israel which is preoccupied by nation building surprisingly neglected its natal site (The Hall of Independence located in Tel Aviv where the declaration of independence took place in 1948). Intrigued by this puzzle, this paper wishes to offer a theoretical model within which this neglect can be unpacked and explained. The model consists of three dimensions: (1) agency (2) Institutional setting and (3) the culture of the commemorating society. Explanatory models consisting of a dynamic interplay of agency, structure and -- more important than all – culture proves valuable as a basis for the study of the nurturing or lack of it thereof of various sorts of cultural productions in general and mnemonic sites in particular.

Author

• Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi, Hebrew University of Jerusalem