Keeping the Past Alive: Memories of Israeli Jews at the Turn of the Millennium

We asked in an open-ended way in 1999–2000 what national and world events Israeli Jews consider most important from the past 60 years. Ten events were identified as foremost, including three from the time of independence and one that was quite recent. All the major memories are associated with efforts of the state through commemorations and in other ways to create a unitary collective memory. Five social background variables help account for which events are mentioned as most important: birth cohort, education, gender, eth-nic origin, and religiosity. Other specific factors such as personal Holocaust experience and voting preferences are also considered. KEY WORDS: Collective Memory; Israel; Birth Cohorts; Commemoration; Holocaust. “Collective memory, ” a concept drawn from the writings of Halbwachs ([1950] 1980, [1925] 1992), can be studied both at the societal level and at the level of individual memories (Olick, 1999; Young, 1993). Although it is plausible to assume that the two levels were generally consistent in stable, traditional societies, especially prior to the emergence of historiography a