Masada Myth: Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel [Paperback]

Nachman Ben-Yehuda (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 8, 1995

In 73 A.D, legend has it, 960 Jewish rebels under siege in the ancient desert fortress of Masada committed suicide rather than surrender to a Roman legion. Recorded in only one historical source, the story of Masada was obscure for centuries. In The Masada Myth, Israeli sociologist Nachman Ben-Yehuda tracks the process by which Masada became an ideological symbol for the State of Israel, the dramatic subject of movies and miniseries, a shrine venerated by generations of Zionists and Israeli soldiers, and the most profitable tourist attraction in modern Israel. Ben-Yehuda describes how, after nearly 1800 years, the long, complex, and unsubstantiated narrative of Josephus Flavius was edited and augmented in the twentieth century to form a simple and powerful myth of heroism. He looks at the ways this new mythical narrative of Masada was created, promoted, and maintained by pre-state Jewish underground organizations, the Israeli army, archaeological teams, mass media, youth movements, textbooks, the tourist industry, and the arts. He discusses the various organizations and movements that created "the Masada experience" (usually a ritual trek through the Judean desert followed by a climb to the fortress and a dramatic reading of the Masada story), and how it changed over decades from a Zionist pilgrimage to a tourist destination. Placing the story in a larger historical, sociological, and psychological context, Ben-Yehuda draws upon theories of collective memory and mythmaking to analyze Masada's crucial role in the nation-building process of modern Israel and the formation of a new Jewish identity. An expert on deviance and social control, Ben-Yehuda looks in particular at how and why a military failure and an enigmatic, troubling case of mass suicide (in conflict with Judaism's teachings) were reconstructed and fabricated as a heroic tale.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The Masada Myth is both a scholarly and a passionate book, analyzing with great clarity the relationship between deviance and mythology.”—Pat Lauderdale, Stanford University --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Nachman Ben-Yehuda is professor of sociology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is the author of Deviance and Moral Boundaries, The Politics and Morality of Deviance, Political Assassinations by Jews, and (with Erich Goode) Moral Panics.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press (December 8, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299148343
• ISBN-13: 978-0299148348
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #969,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting lesson in how history is written, June 25, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Masada Myth: Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel (Paperback)

Starting from the little that is known of Masada from the writings of Josephus and the archeological excavations which have taken place at the site, Nachman ben-Yehuda traces the development of the "history" of Masada over the course of the twentieth century and the use to which this history has been put in the building of Israeli national identity. Recognizing that little may be certain as to who was actually at Masada (patriots or thugs) and what actually happened there (suicides or murders), he traces the development of the Masada story into a "never again" national saga. Very interesting reading for anyone interested in the development of historical truth, and how loosely it might relate to what really happened. The book is well written, although somewhat repetitive in places, and (for example, in showing how various youth groups in Palestine and later Israel dealt with Masada) sometimes tells us more than we need to know about the subject. Recommended reading

17 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jesephus is on thing, the legend another, January 3, 2001

By 

Paul Schwartzberg (Berlin, Germany) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Masada Myth: Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel (Hardcover)

What really happened?

It's really impossible to know, for sure. The only available source is Josephus. And Josephus as a source raises doubts. But he is the only source.

His original Aramaic texts have not been found. And only the translated Greek texts have been found. It was generally acceptable at the time, that the Roman translators would allow their own interpretation into text.

The modern Israeli legend on Masada, of the heroic last stand there by the Zealots, does not correspond to the translated writings of Josephus. For one thing it was the Sicarii who were besieged by the Romans, rather than the Zealots. The Sicarii were a splinter group, detached from, at odds, and in conflict with the Zealots.

Nachmans book starts with his own discovery of the discrepancy between what he use to believe (the legend) and what Josephus narrates. Without this discovery or knowledge, Nachman's book looses it's significance. Nachman discovered this through his own incredulous reaction to an article written by David Rappaport that contradicted the Masada legend. Nachman after a few hour perusal of Josephus, had to subsequently agree with Rapaport & then he got the idea to write a book on how Josephus's rendition was turned into a legend.

I would suggest potential readers to find the complete texts of Josephus (if you do not already have it) and follow the index for all citations of the word "Masada", as Nachman did & you will reach Nachman & Rapport's conclusion. Josephus rather depicts the Sicarii (not the Zealots) as pervasive thugs and murderers.

Nachman then shows how the Masada legend was created (via interviews with one of it's main creators (Shmaria Gutman)) and shows how the legend is more attributed to Israel's 20th century reality, than to Josephus.

Nachman, investigated how the last stand of alleged thugs and murderers, as this is the very way Josephus describes the Sicarii, was instead made into a modern national legend, and it's function as such.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfet, January 28, 2011

By 

Becca.P - See all my reviews

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