Forest as Commemoration in Jewish-Israeli Memory Culture: A Study in Environmental Memory (Memory Studies: Global Constellations)

Situated within the broadly understood subfield of environmental memory studies, this book explores Israeli forests as spaces of commemoration.It investigates their significance in the Jewish-Israeli memory culture over the last century, as well as their role as a recurrent form of environmental memorial, understood as a commemoration that uses the organic as both the symbolic and the building substance.In doing so, it reveals the roles that the natural environment plays in memory practices: as a carrier of symbolic meanings, but also as an acting, more-than-human element of memorial spaces. Employing the perspective of environmental hermeneutics, the analysis is grounded in the realities of the Israel/Palestine conflict and reflects on the convoluted intersection of ideological, political, socio-economic, personal, and institutional dimensions of local tree planting.Simultaneously, it draws from instances of arboreal commemorations found in other geographical and cultural contexts, si