The House of the Fallen and the Risen

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The

The memorial House centers found in most Israeli cities are designed, above of all, to commemorate the country’s fallen soldiers, yet these the emblems of national identity are rife with contradictions. In the process Fallen of documenting history, death and and pain, they also attempt to direct the visitors’ gaze the “‘[…] while as for you, Achilles, no man was in the past more fortunate, nor in the future shall be; for formerly, during your life, we Argives gave forward, toward you equal honor with the gods, and now you are a mighty lord among the the future – and dead when here. Then do not grieve at having died, Achilles.’ thus have been ‘So I spoke, and straightway answering me said her: ‘Mock not at death, Risen glorious Odysseus. Better to be the hireling of a stranger, and serve a man transformed of mean estate whose living is but small, than be the ruler over all these into full-fledged dead and gone.’” museums (Homer, The Odyssey, translated by George Herbert Palmer, ¬ Tula Amir New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004)

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hen I entered the which was originally lined with windows, The Paths on one side of the path, while vegetation when one stands to the south, the only parts memorial center was similarly blocked, and in the past four The garden is traversed by two paths that The use of vegetation in may be seen peering over the wall on its of the building that are visible are the roof for fallen soldiers years, as already mentioned, the northern create a pedestrian passageway running on a other side. The wall conceals the building and the windows located below it, which in Tel Aviv during wall has gradually been covered over. This north-south axis, from Bnei Moshe Street to Israeli gardens is often from those passing by on Bnei Moshe Street; jut up over the vegetation-covered hill. The my last visit there, memorial center, which is situated on Pinkas Pinkas Street. The central path is wide enough in this manner, the small residential street roof lends the building the appearance of a the lobby was filled Street, was planned in 1960 by the architects (about 14 meters) to serve as a plaza of sorts charged with meaning is not overshadowed by the building, while monolith – a single block of stone rising up withW a graceful group of girls in pink ballet Israel Lothan[2] and Zvi Toren.[3] It is situated at the entrance to the building. This is not a that exceeds aesthetic affording an enjoyable view of the garden. At from the terrain – thus endowing it with a suits, holding up their faces to the parents within a spacious garden in the center of Tel ceremonial plaza, yet it clearly communicates the same time, the wall isolates those walking dramatic quality and distinguishing it from the who were busy applying their makeup. The Aviv, like a negative space cut into the urban to those walking or driving down the street down the path from the surrounding urban surrounding urban environment. girls and their families had assembled for sphere. In 1993, an auditorium planned by that the wide path leads to an official building. and gardening values. sphere. The wall continues into the building the dress rehearsal of a dance school’s annual the architect R. Teldor was integrated into The path-plaza is located on the western side and bisects it: The larger, southern part of Memorial Centers performance. In contrast to this scene of the building. of the building, closer to the heart of the city, In this case, the the building contains the lobby and entrance The memorial center in Tel Aviv is one sweet mayhem, the courtyard of the eternal and invites visitors into the garden and into to the auditorium on one side, and offices of a series of similar institutions located flame, which is open to the sky, seemed more The Garden the building itself. The same path narrows to memorial center is and restrooms on the other. The texture of throughout the country. These sites share no silent than ever. The hall of the fallen, which When viewing the memorial center approximately three and a half meters as it the scrubbed concrete wall is transformed clear-cut visual or architectural characteristics. is entered through this courtyard, was entirely from Pinkas Street, one hardly notices the continues north toward Bnei Moshe Street. surrounded by local on the interior by a layer of plaster, only to They were built over an extensive period of empty. Empty, yet filled with the names of concealed building, which is enveloped by, The second path running through the garden re-acquire the same rough, scrubbed texture time based on different plans, were finished numerous fallen soldiers – more than 4,800 and partially buried in, the garden. Tali Alon is located on the eastern side of the building, vegetation, which in the courtyard, which is accessed through with a variety of materials and were designed dead residents of Tel Aviv. As writer and Moses notes that the garden, which was and similarly enables pedestrians to walk across the lobby. Outdoors, the wall is transformed to serve a range of additional functions. The translator Dan Daor has described this space, planned by Avraham Karavan as a memorial the lot. appears to have always once again into a sign, which bears the names one element that is common to all the centers three of its walls are covered with “lists with garden, supports and enhances the experience of “The brave men who rebelled and rose up I have visited over time is the hall bearing the names of all the soldiers who died in of commemoration that unfolds within the The Wall existed there naturally, in defense during the battles fought for Israeli the names of the fallen. This hall is typically Israel’s wars. Democratically listed, without building’s interior.[4] The use of vegetation Standing at the beginning of the main path, sovereignty and independence – members of separated from the rest of the building and rank, position or heroic feat […]. As the gaze in Israeli gardens is often charged with one can see the five-meter-high wall rising up so that the visitor the Haganah, Etzel and Lehi.” from the activities that take place there by progresses through the list of names, from meaning that exceeds aesthetic and gardening at the point where it ends, and separated from means of a second lobby, and it is usually the War of Independence through to the values. In this case, the memorial center is it by a pebbled area. Like the facade of the seems to be walking The Building empty, silent and dark. Lebanon War, something rather surprising surrounded by local vegetation, which appears building itself, it is made of brushed concrete The memorial center is divided into four The initiative to create the country’s first is revealed. If this presentation is to be to have always existed there naturally, so that (an iron brush is used to expose the aggregate through a fragment of main areas. Its central space serves as a lobby, memorial center preceded the end of Israel’s believed then not only are there no heroes, the visitor seems to be walking through a concealed within the cast). This wall fulfills from which the building’s different functions War of Independence. An announcement but in fact there has only been one long fragment of the local landscape. The garden numerous functions: To begin with, it serves as the local landscape branch out. The lobby provides access to the written by two bereaved mothers, and war, which began with the establishment of created by Karavan isolates the building from the support for a sign composed of large metal auditorium, which may be used for theater, published in three morning newspapers in the state of Israel and continued until there the road; visitors may walk along the wide letters, which are affixed to it individually music and dance performances.[5] It also leads December 1948, urged all mothers who lost was no more room on the wall.”[1] Since this granulite paths that lead to the building, yet to form the words “Memorial Center” (in to the artists’ entrance, which is located below their sons in the war to unite and found a essay was written in 2006, a new portion of they cannot enter it. The garden is filled with Hebrew, Yad Labanim, the name for this type the auditorium, to the offices and restrooms, center dedicated to fallen soldiers. This first the memorial wall has been affixed to the plants that Karavan collected throughout the of commemorative building, literally translates and to the courtyard. The courtyard, in turn, step toward the creation of the country’s adjacent wall of windows, bearing additional country: It contains a mixture of different as “Memorial for the Sons”). The words leads into the building’s main space, the hall of ongoing commemorative tradition was names. The fallen continue to die. The year species, which were brought together in an “Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality” appear below, the fallen. The building is surrounded by an significantly described as a “memorial for the the hall was inaugurated, the names of all the attempt to create a seemingly natural and followed by the symbol of the city, which is unusually high roof (about 2.3 meters high), sons,” rather than a “memorial for the fallen.” dead soldiers fit onto its western wall, which untouched landscape. The flora typical of somewhat smaller than the letters. The wall which appears to be hovering above the walls. Indeed, the Israeli sociologist Oz Almog is reached by means of an elevated platform the land of Israel thus serves, in this case, to directs the visitors to the right, toward the A row of windows located right below the notes the manner in which this and similar accessed by three steps. The southern wall represent the land itself. second path (which is ten meters long) and roof allows light to penetrate into the different names forge a connection between the fallen was covered next. Then the eastern wall, toward the entrance. The garden slopes off parts of the building. As already mentioned, and their living comrades through the use

Images [1] Dan Daor, “Why Remember and Whom,” in Life Saver: Typology Kiryat Ono and for its Kiron and Rimon neighborhoods; Immigrated to Israel, worked for a year with Zeev Rechter [4] Tali Alon Moses, “A Study of Two Memorial Gardens in Tel Aviv: Yad Labanim Memorial Building of Commemoration in Israel (exh. cat.), 10th International plan for Kikar Hamedina, Tel Aviv (together with Niemeyer (1949); established an independent firm (1950); retired The Memorial Center Garden and the Memorial Center Forest,” 1960, architects: Israel Lothan and Zvi Toren Architecture Exhibition, the Venice Biennale, 2006, pp. 142-149. and Aba El-Hanani); the Soldier’s House, Haifa; and high-rise (1987). Selected projects: Meonot Dubnov, Tel Aviv (1950); in Public Space (exh. cat.), eds. Yael Moria and Sigal Barnir, Tel Photographs by Shachar Cotani, 2010 [2] Israel Lothan, born in Russia (1913), died in Israel (1997). apartment buildings in the Bavli neighborhood, Tel Aviv and Gordon School, Herzliya (1951); MAPAI House, Herzliya Aviv Museum of Art, 2003, p. 248. Studied architecture at the Technion, Haifa (1936–1939) in the Ganei Hapark neighborhood, Ashdod. (1961); WIZO House, Herzliya (1962); Pediatric Orthopedics [5] This information is taken from the Tel Aviv municipality’s and graduated following the end of World War II (1945). [3] Zvi Toren. Born in Czechoslovakia (1913), died in Israel. Department, Assaf Harofeh Medical Center (1964); Be’er business license for the building, filed in the city engineer’s Lived and worked in Tel Aviv. Served as a planner for the Studied architecture at the Polytechnicum in Brno, Yaakov psychiatric center (1968); Yavneh School (1970); archive. government planning department and for the housing Czechoslovakia (1931–1936); was conscripted into the Czech municipal synagogue, Ramle (1971); Hashalom synagogue, department (1949–1953); established an independent army, fled to England and joined the army of the Czech Tel Aviv (1971); residential neighborhood, Ra’anana (1973). architecture firm (1952). Selected projects: master plan for government in exile (1939). Returned to Prague (1945). . .03.Fall.2010. .142.143.

of general terms such as “sons” or “boys,” orphans who sacrificed the person dearest to values and unite citizens in a community. The as well as “our dead,” “our boys” and “our them.” This organization similarly has different gods worshipped by the followers of civilian youth.”[6] Moreover, the emphasis put on the chapters located in local memorial centers. religion are the nation, the state and the word “sons” communicates a specific message, Every memorial center is run by an executive homeland. which in a certain sense has a diminutive committee, which includes a representative of function (about 20 percent of those fallen the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization, The Typology of Commemoration in the war of 1948 were 19 or 20 years old). whose role is to care for the personal needs of When I curated the exhibition “Life Saver” The sons are children who will be forever organization members who reside within the for the Israeli Pavilion at the 2006 Venice young, and who shall eternally remain in precincts of the municipality. Architecture Biennale, I examined the the “possession” of their parents, who are Maoz Azaryahu, a scholar specializing in typology of Israeli commemorative practices empowered by the collective as those who Israeli commemorative practices, has studied and the relationship between architecture sacrificed their sons for the country. From this the country’s two central state-related cults and society. The memorial centers discussed perspective, the story of the fallen is the story – the cult of independence and the cult of in this article belong to the category of of an ongoing modern sacrifice, akin to the the fallen, both of which shape Israeli civilian commemorative and memorial structures. biblical sacrifice of Isaac. culture.[7] Their importance, according to Their role is to address an especially charged The organization responsible for Azaryahu, lies in defining, alongside other subject, while appealing to a large and commemorating the country’s fallen symbols and myths, the hegemonic version heterogeneous audience and communicating soldiers was founded in 1949; it is supported of the Israeli-Jewish nation-state’s political to it a clear message during the limited period by the Ministry of Defense and by local identity, while serving to mediate between of time spent in the building. As such, these municipalities, and continues to officially individuals and the community that is structures are an example of an extreme represent bereaved families. Its role is to assist politically organized within the framework expression of architectural symbolism. in the rehabilitation of these families, to of the state. These memorial centers, together The most immediate question raised by this commemorate the fallen and to transmit their with local memorial monuments and type of structure has to do with architectural legacy, while endowing their death in battle memorial gardens, serve as the site of national manipulation and its legitimacy. In other with collective meaning. The organization ceremonies. Oz Almog similarly relates to words, can architecture, in general, and operates local offices in memorial centers this idea of a national cult given expression memorial architecture, more specifically, throughout the country. These centers, through the culture of bereavement, and presume to control the emotions of the in turn, are constructed and financed points out that the dimension of bereavement viewer, to produce a certain experience and, independently by each municipality, at times creates an emotionally meaningful experience ultimately, to shape individual and collective with the support of the Israel National and a sense of deep commitment to the state. consciousness? In Israel, commemorative and Lottery and additional donors. There are only Memorial monuments, which thematically memorial structures legitimize the needs of two cases in which the Ministry of Defense address the sanctity of the nation and of a society constrained to sacrifice lives, and financed the establishment of such centers national territory, therefore become not justify this society’s existential difficulties – those of the memorial center for Druze only a means of commemoration, but also a and the future price it will have to pay. The soldiers and the center for Bedouin soldiers. significant pedagogical tool in the context of justification of Israel’s wars legitimizes the The annual budget of each center is financed the ideological mechanisms that shape Israeli ongoing and future spilling of blood, the by the local municipalities and through society. Memorial centers are an integral part unconditional collaboration between the donations. It is worth noting that in 1991, a of what Almog refers to as a “civilian religion.” state’s security and military systems and its separate organization named the IDF Widows The structures and goals of civilian religion citizens and the total acceptance of the idea and Orphans Organization was founded in are similar to those of traditional religion: that the country’s survival is predicated on order to “promote, rehabilitate and provide a They legitimize the social order, sanctify social armed struggle. supportive environment to those widows and goals, motivate individuals to embrace national The Israeli experience of bereavement

[6] Oz Almog, The Sabra: The Creation of the New Jew, Berkeley, [7] Maoz Azaryahu, State Cults: Celebrating Independence and University of California Press, 2000 Commemorating the Fallen in Israel, 1948–1956, Sde Boker, Israel, 1995, pp. 1, 134, 197, in Hebrew. . .03.Fall.2010.

architectural structures, and which concerns and remains near its exterior for an additional side bordered on open fields, extending the center (dating back to 1952), in Petah Tikva, the past and the process of bereavement, is period of time. Past and present coexist as view all the way to the horizon). The third laid the foundations for this type of complex not the whole story. Here in Israel, buildings one lingers in the building, observes it and opposition, between “open” and “closed,” coexistence between memorial site and vital and monuments document historical events, walks through it – a physical transition that is shapes the relationship between the hall of commemorative project; the center and its death and mourning, yet also produce another accompanied by a symbolic transformation. the fallen and the interior courtyard, which is founder, Baruch Oren, received the Israel type of gaze that is oriented forward, toward Generally speaking, commemorative open to the sky. Prize for this achievement. In the mid- the future. Each of these buildings is charged architecture in Israel, which is emblematized 1960s, a new section designed to serve as with mediating between past, present and by the memorial center in Tel Aviv, uses such Functional Oppositions an exhibition space was added to the center future, while their location and design validate inverted architectural structures to produce a The fourth and unique type of opposition in Petah Tikva. The museum’s permanent existing local myths and social dictums. double gaze, which represents two different that distinguishes Israeli memorial centers collection contains hundreds of artworks, Architecture thus builds, if only unconsciously, kinds of time: It is simultaneously oriented from other types of commemorative structures including ones concerned with heroism, is not a private one, but rather one on an existing emotional platform related to backward toward a traumatic event worthy of involves the different functions attributed to the city’s music conservatory; in Ramle, the bereavement and the Zionist project. This harnessed to a collective idea. It is shaped social processes of commemoration. At times, commemoration, and forward toward future the architectural space. The immobile memory memorial center houses the city‘s museum[9]; museum space was recently renovated and by a uniquely wide range of expressive moreover, the clearly coded experience that life. The designers of these structures, who of the dead is contrasted with the building’s the Ashdod chapter holds numerous cultural transformed into an exhibition space featuring means, including numerous visual and unfolds within memorial structures is shaped are an integral part of Israeli society, exhibit dynamic use for a range of activities that activities and performances; in Ramat a series of challenging exhibitions – which conceptual ways of alluding to the bloody by specific architectural tools that exploit the the commemorative process with a three- partake of everyday life. The Memorial Center Hasharon, the memorial center also hosts art place it, together with the Herzliya Museum, sanctification of the state. The large number viewer’s defenselessness in order to lead him dimensional quality, which is represented Law, which was passed in 2007, provides an exhibitions; in Be’er Sheva and Yavneh the in the top ranks of Israeli contemporary art of Israeli commemorative and memorial to a specific conclusion. through the following series of dichotomies: institutional definition for the different kinds center houses a public library; and in Dimona institutions. structures is just one aspect of this culture The common denominator shared by open and closed, dark and light, above and of uses to which such spaces may be put, it doubles as a center for youth activities. The memorial center in Herzliya is similarly of commemoration. Quotidian life in Israel these buildings is the unique “order” that below, near and far. These dichotomies are in order to “regulate the administration of The director of the Tel Aviv memorial home to the city museum. When the architect is marked by numerous holidays and special characterizes them all. This order is typical often represented through the monument’s memorial centers in local municipalities as center, Yosef Luttenberg, reports in one of Yaakov Rechter was asked to design the dates that commemorate national events and of local commemorative structures, yet does situation in relation to the landscape or to the spaces dedicated to commemorating Israel’s the center’s brochures that for many years, center in the mid-1960s, he suggested the themes. Similar processes of commemoration not pertain to other public buildings that are surrounding vegetation, which symbolizes life, fallen soldiers, and as educational centers for the Tel Aviv center was mainly dedicated to addition of functions that would transform it are given expression in place names such as not part of the commemorative legacy. The growth and continuity. Some buildings direct transmitting our military legacy and teaching commemorating and preserving the legacy of from a simple memorial monument into an Lohamei Hagetaot (in memory of Jewish essence of this order involves the creation of the viewer’s gaze out into the distance – into the values of heroism and volunteering. The the fallen.[10] The most significant element that activity-filled public building. His suggestion, fighters in the ghettos) or Netiv Halamed- inverted relations between different spaces, space, toward a source of meaning, toward the local municipality is authorized to construct bespeaks this function is the large, darkened which was accepted, was to integrate into the Hey (in memory of a group of soldiers killed and by extension between past and future – a future. a memorial center within its precincts, and hall of names, which “provokes a physical and building’s design an exhibition space for the during the War of Independence). Similar principle that is exploited in more than one The architecture of the Tel Aviv memorial use it for the following activities: (1) The emotional tremor” as one enters it. At present, municipal art collection. commemorative names are given to streets way in most buildings. Typically, the viewer center involves four types of oppositions. The commemoration of Israel’s fallen soldiers the director of this center is attempting to According to art critic and curator Ruti (for instance, From Communities to Heroes), spends a certain amount of time inside the first is the building’s “burial” in the ground, and the preservation of their memory; (2) integrate, alongside the commemoration of Direktor, Rechter’s request to add secular while the names of various individuals and building, and subsequently emerges from it which produces an inversion between “above” Educating local youth and the community, the dead, activities for the living – including functions to the Herzliya memorial serves to communities are also commemorated on and “below.” As one advances along the path transmitting our military legacy and a varied series of lectures and activities (such ambulances and emergency equipment, on toward the building’s entrance, the garden introducing the values of heroism and of as the performance by the young ballerinas trees, on various types of monuments, and can be seen rising up on the right, while volunteering; (3) Holding appropriate cultural mentioned earlier). in the names of public institutions, Internet additional vegetation may be glimpsed over activities.”[8] The nature of these “appropriate sites, military cemeteries, forests and so forth. the wall on the left. The second opposition activities” is not clearly defined, yet the Memorial Centers as Museums Although the desire to commemorate is also involves the relationship between “near” and brochures published by local memorial centers Two of the country’s memorial centers – in evident in other countries, the Israeli example “far,” which is given expression through an contain various examples of activities that are Petah Tikva and in Herzliya – have been is outstanding in terms of the sheer quantity architectural perspective that extends from the not related to the commemoration of IDF transformed into prominent art centers. of commemorative acts and of related forms building’s entrance, through the lobby and the soldiers: The Jerusalem chapter, for instance, They both house city museums, and in recent of architectural manipulation. open courtyard, all the way to the end of the holds folk dance classes for bereaved parents; years have become the locus of significant art The historical narrative that shapes these lot (when the building was created, its eastern in Afula, the memorial center is also home to world activities. The country’s first memorial

[8] The Memorial Center Law, 2007. [10] Shirli Golan, Belev Ehad, issue no. 11, September 2007, in [9] Belev Ehad, journal published by the memorial center Hebrew. organization Yad Labanim, issues 13, 14, in Hebrew. . .03.Fall.2010.

further sanctify death and the site in which contemporary art. The cultural critic Tamar it is commemorated.[11] In this manner, The memorial centers Berger’s analysis of the memorial complex in the memorial centers created during the Petah Tikva supports Direktor’s claim that art early years of Israeli independence created a created during the has served, in the context of local memorial dynamic of reciprocal exploitation between centers, as a tool for nation-building and as an the public and the private spheres, and early years of Israeli expression of its highest values: resurrection, between the national and the cultural: Art heroism, bereavement.[12] received a physical container and, in turn, independence created These commemorative sites seek to counter infused the commemoration center with life. the finality of death, which contradicts the This connection with art and culture has a dynamic of reciprocal vitality and infinity of life. As spaces of display, endowed the memorial center with a spiritual they resolve this contradiction by presenting dimension, while the commemorative exploitation between remarkable human achievements of the past functions have provided culture and art with that have culminated in the present moment, an official, public form of legitimization. the public and the while simultaneously freezing this past Over time, the museum building in Herzliya through systematic strategies of presentation. gradually broke away from the memorial private spheres, and Commemorative sites bring the dead into center and from its original collection. A the fold of the living, and render them “less later renovation endowed it with a separate between the national dead.” The situation of art museums within entrance, and blurred the connection between memorial complexes was designed to blur the two structures. This separation, according and the cultural: Art this contrast between the living and the dead to Direktor, points to the undeniable difficulty by resolving the modernist contradiction in containing the coexistence of art and death. received a physical between causality and historicism, and She herself, however, advocates the renewal of between dynamism, destruction and change. the connection between the commemorative container and, in And now back to the memorial center in sphere and the art world. This connection, Tel Aviv. The building’s architecture resolves she believes, will serve to provide a somewhat turn, infused the this same contradiction both in the course of different perspective on contemporary art, everyday life and on special commemorative whose centrality is at times blown out of commemoration center dates, while catering to different sectors proportion. Contemporary art may not seek of the public. The garden that isolates the for itself an eternal life; yet, as part of a larger with life building path, the wide entrance paths, the cultural context, it is nevertheless concerned high wall and the special character of the with memory. hall of the fallen endow the building with its The same process of detachment between structures in the museum complex (the ceremonial character, which is underscored in the memorial center and the art museum center dedicated to the city’s founders, the course of official events. Yet the sanctified may also be detected in the case of the the Holocaust memorial, Independence drama enacted by the building is partially Petah Tikva Museum of Art. The museum’s Park and the old tank it contains, and the camouflaged to allow for quotidian events. new entrance is separate from the entrance archaeological remains within the park) The fact that almost every town in the state to the memorial center, and does not underscore this connection. The connection of Israel is home to such a center enables the introduce the museum visitor to the site’s is further strengthened by the use of one of population to enjoy its everyday, communal commemorative dimension. In this case, the memorial center spaces for temporary uses, while preserving its function as a site of however, the proximity between the spaces, exhibitions of works from the museum’s memory whose importance, on a national and the existence of other commemorative permanent collection, alongside works of level, has thus far remained uncontested. ¬

[11] Ruti Direktor, “The Herzliya Museum as a Parable,” in Yaakov [12] Tamar Berger, In the Space Between World and Toy: The Model Rechter, ed. Osnat Rechter, Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, in Israeli Culture, Tel Aviv: Resling, 2008. 2003, pp.176-191.