Israel Studies

Introduction

The use of ceremonies for educational purposes is a well-known phenomenon in the history of religions. Ceremonies such as the Passover Seder or Christian Mass were originally designed not only to unite the community of believers, but also to impart axioms of the faith to the congregation during their participation in the sacred event. ¹ The modern nation-state also learned to convert new ceremonies celebrating its victories into educational tools, imbuing the masses with basic principles of the state’s doctrine. ² However, both religious establishments and the nation-states have preferred, generally, to keep such ceremonies distinctly separate from government-sponsored educational institutions.

The uniqueness of the education system that was founded by the Yishuv [the pre-state Jewish community in Eretz Israel], and which continued to develop in the State of Israel, was its attempts to integrate secular ceremonies into the official teaching program, thereby enhancing their pedagogical effectiveness. Of all the ceremonies celebrated in Israeli schools after statehood, the Holocaust Remembrance Day and Memorial Day for Fallen IDF (Israel Defense Forces) Soldiers were assigned, and still share, the uncontested foremost position. ³

Other ceremonies, such as the commemoration of the death of Chaim Nachman Bialik, (1873–1934, regarded as Zionism’s “national poet”), were one-time affairs, whereas annual ceremonies such as the 11^th of Adar on the Jewish lunar calendar (Tel-Hai Day, commemorating the heroic stand made by a band of pioneers in the Upper Galilee in 1920) or Jerusalem Day (commemorating the unification of Jerusalem following the capture of the Old City in the Six-Day War) were observed for only a few years, having [End Page 258] gained limited popularity. On the other hand, Holocaust Day and Memorial Day ceremonies have been held year after year, and are honored in the majority of schools. These ceremonies come between Passover and Independence Day (5^th of Iyyar), a period in the Hebrew calendar replete with historical recollections. Nearly all the pupils in the education system are exposed to these recurrent reminders of suffering and bereavement, sacrifice and bravery tied to recent historical events. The admixture of emotional experience and concrete facts produces a highly unique amalgam that leaves a deep impression and leads to the crystallization of the pupils’ historical consciousness.

Although the initiative for marking these events emanated from the Ministry of Education, each school had the license to determine the details of how they would be observed. Therefore, the ceremonies served a dual function: they reflected the position of the initiators and organizers at both the national and local levels, and they also contributed to molding the pupils’ Zionist outlook. This article attempts to trace the historical development of Holocaust Day and Memorial Day ceremonies in the schools and to apprehend their meaning in Israeli society. The first part of the article will describe their evolution; and the second part will analyze their meaning as commemorative events that integrate ritualistic and theatrical elements.

Evolution of the Ceremonies