The memorial ceremony in Israeli schools: Between the State and civil society

Exploring memorial ceremonies conducted in Israeli schools over the past decade, this paper discusses the school memorial ceremony as a potential site for struggle over national identities, and schools as the social arena of an encounter between the State and civil society. Analysis of 50 ethnographies (elicited from semi-structured observations) revealed that school memorial ceremonies constitute a diversified interpretative field, which includes both canonic characteristics and elements of innovation and resistance. This ceremonial field is characterized by a tension between expressing 'other voices' of civil society and the process of cooptation into the national collective.