Study: Yom Hashoah has gained universal message for Israelis

By HAVIV RETTIG GUR
Over the past 60 years, the meaning of Yom Hashoah, Israel’s official “Memorial Day for Holocaust and Heroism,” has changed greatly in the Israeli public consciousness, from a day that invoked collective solidarity to one with a more universalist message.
That’s one of the conclusions of a study to be published soon by a Safed Academic College researcher that examined Israeli printed media from 1953, the year Yom Hashoah was established by Knesset law, to the 2000’s.
“The Holocaust motif changed in media coverage of Yom Hashoah in keeping with political and social changes in Israeli society,” reads a summary of the study’s conclusions.
According to Alonit Berenson, the researcher who conducted the study as her Master’s thesis at the college, during Israel’s first two decades, Israelis saw strong identification with the Holocaust as an integral part of their Israeli identity, carrying with it a message of the importance of collective solidarity. By the 1980’s, that collectivist message was being challenged as media coverage of the Holocaust shifted away from national themes toward personalized stories of survivors.
In the 1990’s, the collectivist message was further challenged as the left-wing Israeli paper Ha’aretz gave voice to post-Zionist interpretations of the Holocaust, challenging traditional Israeli views about Yom Hashoah.
At the same time, the largest Israeli daily, Yediot Aharonot,while it did not generally print anti- or post-Zionist views, “saw anoticeable change toward presenting multiple opinions on the day,including those challenging the Zionist establishment,” according tothe summary.
As the 1990’s progressed, Israeli media seemed tofind a new message in the day of commemoration, with “coverage of theJewish nation’s Holocaust taking on universalist significance. Duringthis period, [Israel’s printed] press offered coverage of the genocidesof other nations, with the message that the lesson of the Holocaust wasa universal one.” Berenson, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivorswho is currently pursuing a PhD at Bar Ilan University, said herresearch was intended “to continue the important effort to commemoratethe Holocaust.” The study won an excellence award from the Institutefor Holocaust Research at Bar Ilan University.