{"id":53161,"date":"2019-04-04T20:16:33","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T17:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=53161"},"modified":"2022-10-28T15:26:57","modified_gmt":"2022-10-28T12:26:57","slug":"history-and-memory-in-monuments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/history-and-memory-in-monuments\/","title":{"rendered":"History And Memory In Monuments"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[444,405,647],"acf":{"old_id":"53161","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":52762,"related_cahpter":"191","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"\"What is the meaning of these stones for you?\" - And to us?","content":"

Throughout history victorious nations mark their achievements through architectural monuments, and the Jewish people are no different. Upon entering the Land, Joshua constructs a monument from twelve stones to mark the achievement of crossing the Jordan River.<\/span><\/p>\n

This shall serve as a symbol among you: in time to come, when your children ask, \u2018What is the meaning of these stones for you?\u2019 you shall tell them, \u2018The waters of the Jordan were cut off because of the Ark of the Lord\u2019s Covenant; when it passed through the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.\u2019 And so these stones shall serve the people of Israel as a memorial for all time.\u201d (Joshua 4:6-7)<\/span><\/p>\n

The text tells us that Joshua created a monument to commemorate a specific historical moment, that marked the nation\u2019s inaugural moment of conquest and developing the land into a great country; a sentiment to live on in the collective memory of future Israelites.<\/span><\/p>\n

This tension between memory and history is pertinent in discussions of memorials and monuments. Nation-building memorials in particular affirm the greatness of a nation\u2019s birth, glorify war, and importantly concretize a certain historical moment into the nation\u2019s collective memory. Further, and importantly for this text, they often form a specific perspective and one that promotes an indigenous reading. <\/span><\/p>\n

Here Joshua is doing just that, reading the memorial formally, i.e. how the text describes the physical attributes. The twelve stones represent the twelve tribes, but the choice to use stones is significant. Stones come from the ground<\/span>, so rocks and other earthen materials are a way to connect disparate landscapes, symbolically linking two district geographic locations. Here the use of the stones is a way to visually and conceptually link the people to the land and mark their reclaiming of it. Further, the text makes no mention of carving, shaping or altering the stones in any way, so we can assume they were assembled in their natural state, which could be read as a statement about indigeneity and the Jewish people\u2019s right to this place. <\/span><\/p>\n

This symbolic association of rocks and geography is found in another instance of monument building recounted in the Bible. There are two instances in Jacob\u2019s life when he builds monuments: first, after his dream on his way to Laban\u2019s house (Genesis 28:18) , and second with Laban marking the separation between their households (Genesis 31: 51). In both of these instances Jacob uses stones to monumentalize geographical changes in his life and declare his connection to disparate landscapes. <\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, in the 20<\/span>th<\/span> Century, Jewish communities used stones to form memorials to the Shoah. The stones serve as metonyms for unrecovered graves, but in addition often symbolize the geography of the Shoah itself and the subsequent dispersal of European Jewry and culture. Just as with Joshua marking the Israelites\u2019 entrance into the land of Israel with stones, in the twentieth century Jews use the medium to signify the contemporary return of the Jewish people to Israel. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","image":{"ID":53162,"id":53162,"title":"jo4-river stones","filename":"jo4-river-stones.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo4-river-stones.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/history-and-memory-in-monuments\/jo4-river-stones\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jo4-river-stones","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":53161,"date":"2019-04-04 17:16:18","modified":"2022-03-14 11:31:43","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":350,"height":197,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo4-river-stones-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo4-river-stones-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo4-river-stones.jpg","medium_large-width":350,"medium_large-height":197,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo4-river-stones.jpg","large-width":350,"large-height":197,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo4-river-stones.jpg","1536x1536-width":350,"1536x1536-height":197,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo4-river-stones.jpg","2048x2048-width":350,"2048x2048-height":197,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo4-river-stones.jpg","post_full_size-width":350,"post_full_size-height":197,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo4-river-stones.jpg","home_baner-width":350,"home_baner-height":197}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Submerged Memories 3","main_caption":"History And Memory In Monuments","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"\"What is the meaning of these stones for you?\" - And to us?","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":53162,"id":53162,"title":"jo4-river stones","filename":"jo4-river-stones.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo4-river-stones.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/history-and-memory-in-monuments\/jo4-river-stones\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jo4-river-stones","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":53161,"date":"2019-04-04 17:16:18","modified":"2022-03-14 11:31:43","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":350,"height":197,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo4-river-stones-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo4-river-stones-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo4-river-stones.jpg","medium_large-width":350,"medium_large-height":197,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo4-river-stones.jpg","large-width":350,"large-height":197,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo4-river-stones.jpg","1536x1536-width":350,"1536x1536-height":197,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo4-river-stones.jpg","2048x2048-width":350,"2048x2048-height":197,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo4-river-stones.jpg","post_full_size-width":350,"post_full_size-height":197,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo4-river-stones.jpg","home_baner-width":350,"home_baner-height":197}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53161"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108900,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53161\/revisions\/108900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}