Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition

Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition by Yael Zerubavel discusses the construction of memory and the invention of traditions in Mandatory Palestine and in the State of Israel. The book describes some unusual Israeli or Zionist practices associated with Masada and Bar Kochba archeological excavations. Rather like Nadia Abu el Haj in Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society, Zerubavel describes the use of archeology and other scholarship to construct Zionist national identity. Other scholars have investigated the political use of archeology in various contexts. Not only Max Weinreich and Eric Hobsbawm provide similar analysis in their published works, but Constructing "Korean" Origins: A Critical Review of Archaeology, Historiography, and Racial Myth in Korean State Formation Theories by Hyung Il Pai addresses precisely that same issues with regard to the development of Korean national consciousness. Even though Abu el Haj focuses more narrowly on professional archeologists whereas Zerubavel looks at Israeli society as a whole, both authors make similar points in their books, and Zerubavel provides support for some of the claims for which Nadia Abu el Haj has been most criticized. Zerubavel received the 1996 Salo Baron Prize of the American Academy for Jewish Research for her work while Nadia Abu el Haj is the target of an international campaign to drive her out of Columbia/Barnard. The difference in the responses evoked by the two authors merits a scholarly study in itself.

This book stands unique among efforts to discuss comemoration and Israeli national character. Her selection of the three examples is brilliant in providing a window into collective consciousness and the construction of a people.One can only hope that more such work will arise and be published. This book is a MUST HAVE for anone interested in Israel.