SOURCE: "The Evolution of the Israeli Attitude Toward the Holocaust as Reflected in Modern Hebrew Drama," in Hebrew Annual Review, Vol. 9, 1985, pp. 31-52.

In the following essay, Avisar studies the treatment of the Holocaust in Israeli drama of the 1950s and 1960s.

The appropriation of the Holocaust into the Israeli national consciousness has always been problematic and painful. Following the realization of the Jewish state in 1948, the quest for cultural identity prompted only a reserved and diffident identification with Jewish history. Most Israelis viewed themselves as being the antithesis of the perennially homeless and persecuted Diaspora Jews. In particular, it was difficult to overcome their sense of massive victimization during World War II and reconcile it with the pride and assertiveness that followed the impressive triumphs and accomplishments of the young Jewish state.

To be sure, the catastrophe of European Jewry and the building of a homeland in...