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Giddon Ticotsky. 5/2024. “The Small Synagogue At Heart: On Ruins And History In Yehuda Amichai'S Oeuvre”. In Burkhard Hose, Daniel Osthoff And Yona-Dvir Shalem (Eds.), "Auf Meinem Tisch Liegt Ein Stein..” – Festschrift Zum 100. Geburtstag Von Yehuda Amichai / “On My Desk There Is A Stone..” – Commemorative Publication For The 100Th Birthday Of Yehuda Amichai, Pp. 201-19. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann. Abstract
In Yehuda Amichai’s writings, recurrent instances of visiting ruins serve to confront individuals with history. This motif appears to engage with the romantic tradition prevalent in literature and art, which typically glorifies the ancient majesty of ruins. However, Amichai’s treatment of ruins diverges from this tradition; Rather than employing ruins to impart a collective–historical lesson, he employs them to underscore the ephemeral nature of human existence. The first sections of this article explore these instances of visiting ruins, while the subsequent sections focus on a specific subset: ruined synagogues. Through depictions of synagogues in the Galilee (in the northern part of Israel) and in Würzburg, both in his poetry and prose, emerges the unique, humanistic ethics of Amichai’s oeuvre.
Can literature be given a concrete home? The story of the establishment of the Gnazim Archive of Modern Hebrew Literature recounts the attempt to institutionalize this body of literature in the context of the founding of the State of Israel—while simultaneously challenging its demands. This book reveals the persistent tension between the “Republic of Letters” and the nation-state, as well as the painful cost of realizing the ideal and embodiment of the metaphor of “a home for literature” within the “national home.” The Stitches of Hebrewness traces the history of the Gnazim Archive both in its own right and as a mirror of the formation of the canon of modern Hebrew literature. Like any mirror, the archive reflects reality as it is—and in reverse: The canon is thus revealed in a new light, with its erasures, rewritings, and repressions. Perhaps more than anything, the book unfolds the story of a culture and society grappling with a moment of crisis between three overlapping yet conflicting temporal frameworks: Jewish time, Hebrew time, and Israeli time.
