Holocaust Survivors, Aliens and Others in Israeli Cinema and Literature

Using historical sources, literary texts and films, this book examines how Israeli society constructed itself through the “other”, the outsider; those who were removed and distanced from it, and those who, in a gradual, painful and difficult process, were accepted into it. It focuses on the encounter between Holocaust survivors and Israeli society and explores the cultural debate in Israel surrounding the Holocaust. The book describes the charged meeting between Holocaust survivors and veteran Israelis as one test case that reflects the many and varied processes through which Israeli society learned to value the rights, space, and memories of other outsiders, and delineates the changes which occurred in Israeli society as a result of the encounter with the Holocaust.

2004 (Am Oved Publishers / The Open University of Israel), 213 pp., cat. # 10551

Professor Nurith Gertz, of the Department of Literature, Language and the Arts at the Open University of Israel, is an expert on Israeli cinema and literature. She is the author of Myths in Israeli Culture: Captives of a Dream (Vallentine Mitchell, 2000).

For additional information, contact the Rights and Permissions Department.