From the scandal to the holocaust in Israeli education

Journal of Contemporary History

Volumn 39, Issue 4, 2004, Pages

  Porat, Dan A ^a  

^a HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM   (Israel)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 14944357870     PISSN: 00220094     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0022009404046757     Document Type: Article

References (80)

1. Knesset Committee of Education and Culture, Protocols, 20 November 2000, 39
2. For studies on the representation of the Holocaust in Israeli education see Julia Resnik, ' "Sites of Memory" of the Holocaust: Shaping National Memory in the Educational System in Israel', Nations and Nationalism, 9, 2 (2003), 293-313
3. Ruth Firer, 'Israel' in Randolph L. Braham (ed.), The Treatment of the Holocaust in Textbooks (Boulder, CO 1987), 153-229
4. idem, Sokhnim shel ha-lekah (Agents of the Holocaust lesson) (Tel Aviv 1989)
5. Nili Keren, 'The Impact of Public Opinion Shapers and the Historical Research on the Development of Educational Thought and Educational Programs Concerning the Holocaust in High Schools and in Informal Education in Israel (1948-1981)' (PhD diss., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1985) (Hebrew)
6. idem, ' "Shimur ha-Zikaron betoch ha-Shichecha" - ha-Ma'avak al Limudei ha-Shoah be-Yisrael' (Preserving Memory within Oblivion: The Struggle over Teaching the Holocaust in Israel), Zmanim, 64 (1998), 56-68
7. Dalia Ofer, 'Israel' in David S. Wyman (ed.), The World Reacts to the Holocaust (Baltimore, MD 1996), 889-94
8. Avner Ben-Amos and Ilana Bet-El, 'Holocaust Day and Memorial Day in Israeli Schools: Ceremonies, Education and History', Israel Studies, 4, 1 (1999), 258-84
9. On the representation of the Holocaust in Israel see Tom Segev, trans. Haim Watzman, The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust (New York 1993)
10. Anita Shapira, 'The Holocaust, Private Memory, Public Memory', Jewish Social Studies, 4, 2 (1998), 40-58
11. James Young, The Texture of Memory -Holocaust Memorials and Meaning (New Haven, CT 1993), 11-13
12. Since the establishment of the State in 1948, three curricula for elementary and middle schools have been published by the Ministry of Education for elementary or middle schools in 1954, 1975 and 1995 (hereafter National History Curriculum): Tokhnit ha-Limudim le-Beit ha-Sefer ha-Yesodi ha-Mamlakhti ve-ha-Mamlakhti ha-Dati (Curriculum for National and National-Religious Elementary Schools) (Jerusalem 1954)
13. Tokhnit ha-limudim be-Historiah le-Keitot Vav-Tet be-Beit ha-Sefer ha-Mamlakhti ve-ha-Mamlakhti-dati (History Curriculum - Grades 6-9 in National and National-Religious Schools) (Jerusalem 1975)
14. Tochnit Limudim - Historiah le-Kitot Vav-Tet ba-Khinuch ha-Mamlachti (History Curriculum - Grades 6-9 in National Education) (Jerusalem 1995)
15. From time to time the Ministry also published amendments and directives to the national history curriculum that altered the representation of specific events. Only two high school curricula have been published - in 1957 and in 1977: Haza'ot le-Tochnit Limuidem be-Beit ha-Sefer ha-Tichon (Suggestions for the High School Curriculum) (Jerusalem 1957)
16. Historiah ba-Hativa ha-Eliona be-Beit-ha-Sefer ha-Mamlachti (History for the Upper Division of the National High Schools) (Jerusalem 1977)
17. Yakov Shilhav, 'Ha-Shoah be-Toda'at Dorenu' (The Holocaust in our Generation's Consciousness), Yediot Yad Vashem, 15/16 (April 1958), 2
18. National History Curriculum, 1954, 179
19. Eliezer Don-Yehiya, 'Memory and Political Culture: Israeli Society and the Holocaust', Studies in Contemporary Jewry, 9, ed. Ezra Mendelson (New York 1993), 139-49
20. Charles S. Liebman and Eliezer Don-Yehiya, Civil Religion in Israel (Berkeley, CA 1983), 103
21. Ben-Zion Dinur, the Israeli Minister of Education, understood Holocaust and heroism differently from Ben-Gurion. For him, Holocaust and heroism were not opposing forces. Jewish resistance was not just military resistance, but spiritual resolve as well. Dinur's views on the relation of Holocaust and heroism did not dominate the national history curriculum. In accordance with the spirit dominating the Israeli public sphere of the 1950s, the national history curriculum emphasized the sharp contrast between Holocaust and heroism. Roni Stauber, Ha-Lekah la-Dor (The Lesson for This Generation) (Jerusalem 2000), 64-74
22. Eliezer Don-Yehiya, 'Mamlakhtiyut ve-Shoah' (Statism and Holocaust) in Avraham Rubenstein (ed.), bi-Shvilei ha-Tehiya: Mehkarim ba-Zionut ha-Datit (In the Paths of Renewal - Studies in Religious Zionism) (Ramat-Gan 1983), 179-82
23. Baruch Avivi and Nathan Perski, Toldot Yisrael (The History of Israel), vol. 5 (Tel Aviv 1958)
24. Shimon L. Kirshenbaum, Toldot Am Yisrael be-Doronu (The History of Israel in Our Time) (Tel Aviv 1968), 278, emphasis added
25. See for example, Jacob Katz and Moshe Hershko, Yisrael ve-ha-Amim (Israel and the Nations), vol. 3 (Tel Aviv 1964), 185
26. See also Ephraim Shmueli, Toldot Amenu ba-Zman ha'Hadash (Our Nation's History in Modern Times), vol. 7 (Tel Aviv 1958), 37
27. Don-Yehiya, 'Memory and Political Culture', op. cit., 139-49
28. On the Eichmann trial, see Hanna Yablonka, Medinat Yisrael Neged Adolf Eichmann (The State of Israel vs Adolf Eichmann) (Tel-Aviv 2001)
29. Yechiam Weitz, 'Mishpat Eichmann k'nekudat mifneh' (The Eichmann Trial as a Turning-Point), Dapim Le-Heker Tekufat Ha-Shoah, 11, 175-89
30. Segev, The Seventh Million, op. cit., 323-84
31. Cited in Yablonka, Medinat Yisrael, op. cit., 63
32. Gideon Hausner, Justice in Jerusalem (New York 1968), 291-2. Emphasis added
33. Yablonka, Medinat Yisrael, op. cit., 105
34. Hora'at ha-Shoah, 35, 78, 47; emphasis in original
35. For a similar view on the impact of the trial on the educational system see Keren, 'Shimur ha-Zikaron', op. cit., 57
36. New York Times, 18 December 1960
37. For more on Ben-Gurion's views on the trial see Idith Zartal, 'From the People's Hall to the Wailing Wall: A Study in Memory, Fear and War', Representations, 69 (March 2000), 96-126
38. On the role of Holocaust survivors in shaping Israel's memory of the Holocaust, see Hanna Yablonka, 'Ma Lizkor ve-Keizad? Nizolei ha-Shoah ve-Izuv Yediata' (Survivor Meets the New Jew: Consciousness of the Holocaust in Israel) in Anita Shapira, Jehuda Reinharz and Jay Harris (eds), The Age of Zionism (Jerusalem 2000), 297-316
39. Dalia Ofer, 'The Strength of Remembrance; Commemorating the Holocaust during the First Decade of Israel', Jewish Social Studies, 6, 2 (2000), 24-55
40. Educational material for schools published by Holocaust survivors in this period includes Aryeh Bauminger, Nathan Blumental and Yossef Karmish, Ha-Yeled, ve-ha-Naar ba-Shoah u-ba-Gevura (The Child and the Adolescent in the Holocaust and the Heroism) (Jerusalem 1965)
41. Yisrael Gutman, Ha-Shoah Nosei Limudi (The Holocaust: An Educational Subject) (Tel Aviv 1961)
42. Sarah Nishmat, Le-Toldot ha-Shoah ve-ha-Meri (Towards a History of the Holocaust and the Rebellion) (Tel Aviv 1961)
43. Shapira, 'The Holocaust, Private Memory, Public Memory', op. cit., 40-58
44. Segev, The Seventh Million, op. cit.
45. Yablonka, 'Ma Lizkor ve-Keizad?', op. cit., 297-316
46. Divrei ha-Knesset, 24 March 1976, vol. 76, 2235
47. A leading Israeli writer, Yizhar Smilansky, said these words in an interview published in Davar, 5 April 1974, 2
48. Cited in Arye Carmon, 'Ha-hinukh be-Yisrael - sugyot u-ba'ayot' (Education in Israel - Issues and Problems) in David Zuker, Arye Carmon et al. (eds), Hinukh be-hevrah mithavah (Education in a Developing Society), vol. A (Jerusalem 1985), 168
49. National History Curriculum, 1975, 42-3
50. Moshe Zimmerman, Me-milkhama le-milkhama, 1918-1945 (From War to War, 1918-1945) (Jerusalem 1981), 179
51. Michael Ziv, Shemul Ettinger and Yakov M. Landau, Divrei ha-Yamim, vol. 4 (2) (Haifa 1964), 525
52. Haza'a le-hora' at ha-perakim shel toldot amenu ba-dorot ha-ahronimem (A Proposal for the Teaching of the History of our Nation in Recent Generations) (Jerusalem 1968), 14
53. National History Curriculum, 1970, 36
54. National History Curriculum, 1977, 14-15
55. Joseph Schwab, The Practical: A Language for Curriculum (Washington 1970)
56. Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education (Cambridge, MA 1960)
57. Benjamin S. Bloom et al., Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (New York 1956)
58. Shlomo Shavit, 'Tokhnit ha-limudim ha-hadasha be-historiah' (The New [National] Curriculum in History) in Shevach Eden (ed.), Al Tokhniot ha-limudim ha-hadashot (On the New Curricula) (Jerusalem 1971), 194-210
59. Zimmerman, Me-milkhama le-milkhama, op. cit., 191-7
60. Knesset Committee of Education and Culture, Protocols, 29 December 1976, 5
61. People like Hausner also acted individually to promote educational initiatives. See Gideon Hausner, El Morei Be'er-Sheva al Hanzahat Kehilot Yehudiot (To the Teachers of Beersheba on the Commemoration of Jewish Communities) (Jerusalem 1965)
62. idem, Ha-Shoah be-Khinukh ha-Noar - Erev Iyun be-Gymnasiah Herzlia (The Holocaust in Youth Education - A Study Evening at Gymnasiah Herzlia) (Tel Aviv 1962)
63. Aharon Yadlin, Ha-Hinukh le-Arakhim Zioniyim be-Beit ha-Sefer (Educating for Zionist Values in School) (Jerusalem 1971)
64. Aharon Yadlin, Etgarei ha-Hevrah ha-Yisraelit (The Challenges of Israeli Society) (Jerusalem 1976)
65. Divrei ha-Knesset, 2 August 1977, vol. 80, 567
66. Knesset Committee of Education and Culture, Protocols, 25 March 1980, 3-4
67. Israeli Ministry of Education, Khozer ha-Mankal (Director General's Newsletter) (Jerusalem), 39/8, 1 April 1979
68. Jackie Feldman, 'It is my Brothers whom I am Seeking - Israeli Youth Voyages to Holocaust Poland' (PhD diss. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2000), 2, 339
69. Divrei ha-Knesset, 18 March 1980, vol. 88, 2416; emphasis added
70. Julia Resnik, ' "Sites of Memory" ', 309-11
71. 'Va'adat ha-Hinukh ve-Hatarbut - Yom Iyun be-Nosei Hora'at ha-Shoah' (Knesset Committee of Education and Culture - A Study Day on Holocaust Education), 23 March 1981, Yad Vashem Pedagogical Centre, KA-I-68, 3
72. Ehe Shaltiel, 'Ha-Shoah - be-Mehkar u-be-Hora'ah be-Batei ha-Sefer' (The Holocaust - in Research and in School Teaching), Siah la-Moreh le-Historiah, vol. 7, 1979, The Zalman Shazar Centre for Jewish History, 5
73. Yisrael Gutman and Chaim Schatzker, The Holocaust and its Significance (Jerusalem 1987), 2nd edn, 219
74. Keren, 'Shimur ha-Zikaron', op. cit., 62
75. Gutman and Schatzker, The Holocaust and its Significance (English edn) (Jerusalem 1984), 134
76. Amnon Raz-Karkotzkin, 'Galut betokh Ribonut: Le-bikoret "shelilat ha-Galut" ba-Tarbut ha-Yisraelit' (Exile within Sovereignty: Toward a Critique of the 'Negation of Exile' in Israeli Culture, Part II), Theory and Criticism - An Israeli Forum, vol. 5 (1994), 127, footnote 28
77. Knesset Committee of Education and Culture, Protocols, 3 July 1990, 7-10
78. S. Bar-Asher (ed.), Moreshet Yahadut Ha-Mizrach, 21 March 1976, 49-50
79. U. Farago, 'Jewish Identity of Israeli Youth, 1965-1985' in Yahadut Zémanenu, Contemporary Jewry, A Research Annual, vol. 5 (Jerusalem 1989), 282, table 20 (in Hebrew)
80. Knesset Committee, 3 July 1990, 14