The memorial ceremony in Israeli schools: between the State and civil society

Abstract

Exploring memorial ceremonies conducted in Israeli schools over the past decade, this paper discusses the school memorial ceremony as a potential site for struggle over national identities, and schools as the social arena of an encounter between the State and civil society. Analysis of 50 ethnographies (elicited from semi‐structured observations) revealed that school memorial ceremonies constitute a diversified interpretative field, which includes both canonic characteristics and elements of innovation and resistance. This ceremonial field is characterized by a tension between expressing ‘other voices’ of civil society and the process of cooptation into the national collective.

Notes

School of Education, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel. Email: [email protected]

Memorial ceremonies are not held in the Palestinian sector (except in Druze and Bedouin villages, whose sons serve with the Army) and in the ultra‐Orthodox sector.

Shas is a religious political movement of Asian‐African ethnicity whose schools mainly serve the lower economic strata.