Book Review of Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory
This paper provides a critique of the book Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory by Yosef Havim Yerushalmi. Yerushalmi identifies a series of correlations between what is accepted as matters of faith by the Jewish people and selectivity attached to decisions made on faith-based issues. Compartmentalized within the decision to remember, however, is what Yerushalmi suggests is the decision to retain a sense of anger at past events. The act of memory for the Jewish people, Yerushalmi suggests, is thus not so much the act of preserving their individuality and their sense of community, but rather also integrates the wounds carried onto the Jewish people since the disintegration of their homeland.
