The Holocaust Memorial Museum: Sacred Secular Space

by Avril Alba

Overview

The Holocaust Memorial Museum reveals and traces the transformation of ancient Jewish symbols, rituals, archetypes and narratives deployed in these sites. Demonstrating how cloaking the 'secular' history of the Holocaust in sacred garb, memorial museums generate redemptive yet conflicting visions of the meaning and utility of Holocaust memory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137451354
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	01/14/2014
Series:	The Holocaust and its Contexts
Edition description:	1st ed. 2015
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.04(d)

About the Author

Avril Alba is Lecturer in Holocaust Studies and Jewish Civilisation at the University of Sydney, Australia. From 2002-2011 she was the Education Director at the Sydney Jewish Museum where she also served as the Project Director/Curator for the refurbishment of the Sydney Jewish Museum's permanent exhibition 'Culture and Continuity'. She teaches, researches and consults in the areas of Holocaust representation, Jewish and museum studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. The Holocaust Memorial Museum: A Built Theodicy
2. Negative Epiphany: From Sinai To Washington
3. From Tent to Temple: Resurrection in Jerusalem
4. A Redeemer Cometh: The Survivor in the Space
Conclusion: The Return of Myth to History

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Meticulous international research, thoughtfully nuanced interpretation, lucid and penetrating writing these qualities distinguish Avril Alba's groundbreaking comparative study of major Holocaust museums in Australia, Israel, and the United States. A rising star in Holocaust studies, Alba probes and tests the meanings that these 'sacred secular spaces' ascribe to the Shoah. The results are as poignant and gripping as they are significant and challenging." - John K. Roth, Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Claremont McKenna College, USA

Editorial Reviews

Alba’s book is an outstanding contribution to the discussion of what can and ought to follow the imminent arrival of the post-participant stage in Holocaust memorialization.” (Arthur Shostak, The European Legacy, Vol. 22 (5), March, 2017)

From the Publisher