Holocaust education and the semiotics of othering in Israeli schoolbooks
Join this event to hear Nurit Peled-Elhanan discuss her book which argues that the pedagogical narrative reproduced in Israeli schoolbooks views the migration of Jews to Israel as the felicitous conclusion of the journey from the Holocaust to the Resurrection.
Holocaust education and the semiotics of othering in Israeli schoolbooks
28 May 2024, 17:00 – 18:30
Nurit will argue that the narrative in these schoolbooks is one that negates all forms of diasporic Jewish life and culture and ignores the history of Palestine during the 2000-year-long Jewish "exile." This narrative, the book suggests, otherises three main groups vis-à-vis whom Israeliness is constituted: Holocaust victims, the Palestinian people and non-European (Mizrahi and Ethiopian) Jews.
Thus, a rhetoric of victimhood and power evolves, and a nationalistic interpretation of the "never again" imperative is inculcated, justifying the Occupation and oppression of Palestinians and the marginalisation of non-European Jews. This rhetoric is conveyed multimodally through discourse, genres, and visual elements.
This in-person event will be particularly useful for researchers.
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Nurit Peled-Elhanan
Nurit Peled-Elhanan is a retired lecturer in Language Education. She has studied the various aspects of Israeli discourse of education and has published, edited, and written extensively on classroom discourse, oral and written language development at school, and racism in the Israeli schools and in schoolbooks.
She has received several awards for her work, among which is the Sakharov Prize for Human Rights and the Freedom of Thought, awarded by the European Parliament.
Further information
Ticketing
Pre-booking essential
Cost
Free
Open to
All
Availability
Yes