The Israeli myth  

The holocaust and its meanings have been mythologized and “nationalized” by the Israeli society to be used as a tool of educating the young Israelis to become the ‘new Jews’: active, productive, self-defending, rooted in Israel. By doing so, a screen was created, a screen of defending holiness wrapping and protecting the subject from any real discussion. Provoking questions, especially from the younger Israeli generation, who was born and raised in Israel, was almost impossible. As a result, many Israelis do not truly try to understand the meaning of the holocaust, and chose to concentrate on the rituality related to it. As the historian Zimmerman puts it, "both the Shoa and anti-Semitism are instrumentalized in the interest of Israeli policy" (2003).