Yaakov Shabtai＇s ＂Departure＂ seems, at first glance, only to chronicle the illness and death of an unnamed grandmother living in Tel Aviv, as witnessed through the eyes of her grandson. The grandmother, an observan...Yaakov Shabtai＇s ＂Departure＂ seems, at first glance, only to chronicle the illness and death of an unnamed grandmother living in Tel Aviv, as witnessed through the eyes of her grandson. The grandmother, an observant Jewish woman with socialist politics, liberal social views, and many friends, differs strikingly from her Israeli family. They are wholly secular Jews who disavow belief in religion. They observe yahrzeits, Jewish religious festivals, and holy days only as long as grandmother lives. They discontinue all Jewish observance the moment the grandmother dies, thus allegorizing a complete intergenerational break in Jewish identity. The story ends with the melancholic narrator realizing that he has no memory of the date of his grandmother＇s death. This article contends that this seemingly simple narrative has profound historical and referential meanings. The story functions as an allegorical critique of escalating social and religious divisions in Israel, as well as the implications of the loss of Jewish religion on Jewish identity. ＂Departure＂ reveals that the process of dis-identification and post-Zionism begins with the family： symbolically with the figure of the grandmother, whose peaceful, sociable identity stands in peril of becoming removed from the possibilities of her mode of Jewish being influencing future generations.展开更多
The subject of the Holocaust appeared in Israeli art from the establishment of the State and onwards. The integration of the Holocaust in Israeli art through the years was influenced by Israeli society and the Israeli...The subject of the Holocaust appeared in Israeli art from the establishment of the State and onwards. The integration of the Holocaust in Israeli art through the years was influenced by Israeli society and the Israeli art institutional attitude towards the subject and by local historical events. As a result, we witness a development of two directions in Israeli art concerning the Holocaust. One of them has two facets： a massive use of images emphasizing the enormous personal as well as collective destruction of the Jewish nation as the ultimate victim that ＂the entire world is against us＂; While the other facet is that despite the Jewish people emerge battered and humiliated from the Holocaust, they built a country to be an immovable, permanent and safe place for the Jewish nation since ＂there is no one else except for us to do it＂. The other direction regarding the Holocaust that developed in Israeli art, examining in an universal approach the Israeli response to the Holocaust through the prism of local historical events occurring since the establishment of the State. Therefore, we see imagery that examines the aggressive impression of the Israelis, as an internal as well as external criticism of what seems as aggression and violence against another nation. In Israel, as well as in other Modem states, art is used as a means for expression of different viewpoints. In this article, I am focusing on the artistic references to the above approaches to the Holocaust.展开更多
文摘Yaakov Shabtai＇s ＂Departure＂ seems, at first glance, only to chronicle the illness and death of an unnamed grandmother living in Tel Aviv, as witnessed through the eyes of her grandson. The grandmother, an observant Jewish woman with socialist politics, liberal social views, and many friends, differs strikingly from her Israeli family. They are wholly secular Jews who disavow belief in religion. They observe yahrzeits, Jewish religious festivals, and holy days only as long as grandmother lives. They discontinue all Jewish observance the moment the grandmother dies, thus allegorizing a complete intergenerational break in Jewish identity. The story ends with the melancholic narrator realizing that he has no memory of the date of his grandmother＇s death. This article contends that this seemingly simple narrative has profound historical and referential meanings. The story functions as an allegorical critique of escalating social and religious divisions in Israel, as well as the implications of the loss of Jewish religion on Jewish identity. ＂Departure＂ reveals that the process of dis-identification and post-Zionism begins with the family： symbolically with the figure of the grandmother, whose peaceful, sociable identity stands in peril of becoming removed from the possibilities of her mode of Jewish being influencing future generations.
文摘The subject of the Holocaust appeared in Israeli art from the establishment of the State and onwards. The integration of the Holocaust in Israeli art through the years was influenced by Israeli society and the Israeli art institutional attitude towards the subject and by local historical events. As a result, we witness a development of two directions in Israeli art concerning the Holocaust. One of them has two facets： a massive use of images emphasizing the enormous personal as well as collective destruction of the Jewish nation as the ultimate victim that ＂the entire world is against us＂; While the other facet is that despite the Jewish people emerge battered and humiliated from the Holocaust, they built a country to be an immovable, permanent and safe place for the Jewish nation since ＂there is no one else except for us to do it＂. The other direction regarding the Holocaust that developed in Israeli art, examining in an universal approach the Israeli response to the Holocaust through the prism of local historical events occurring since the establishment of the State. Therefore, we see imagery that examines the aggressive impression of the Israelis, as an internal as well as external criticism of what seems as aggression and violence against another nation. In Israel, as well as in other Modem states, art is used as a means for expression of different viewpoints. In this article, I am focusing on the artistic references to the above approaches to the Holocaust.
