Mount of Memory

Dafna Matok and David Menicovich

“You are about to enter the Mount Herzl military cemetery. The thirty milestones situated along the visitors’ path uniquely narrate the story of Zionist revival in the land of Israel.”⁽¹⁾ These are the opening words of the brochure given to visitors as they enter the grounds of the cemetery on Mount Herzl. Whether you are an athlete, a senior diplomat or a famous actor – if you arrive in Israel on an official visit, you will most likely be taken to Mount Herzl, which has come to serve as an introduction of sorts to ‘the story of Israel’. This site functions as the imagined space of Israeli nationhood, and as such assembles the major events, places and people whose commemoration partakes of the crystallization of collective Israeli memory.

Over time, Herzl’s tomb and the military cemetery in its vicinity have been transformed into the state of Israel’s mount of remembrance and the nation’s official site of commemoration. This transformation began during the summer of 1949, when the remains of Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl, the founding father of Zionism, were laid to rest on the mount. Several years later, the military cemetery of the country’s capital was established on the northern slope of Mount Herzl. Every layer later added to this site was similarly permeated with elements that reinforce the Jewish, Zionist, Israeli narrative. Other monuments commemorating particular events or groups of people have gradually been added on, as have paths connecting certain monuments to one another. Future plans include a hall of remembrance, a memorial center for fallen soldiers and a visitors center, among other structures. The overall plan for the site also includes a group of commemorative buildings and burial zones dedicated to these themes. The fact that the “life stories” of the heroes in question are the stories of their deaths, and that the representation of their collectivity consists of their being buried side by side, reflects the ideological need to create a link between man and land and, to an even greater degree, among blood, man and land. The mount thus presents proof to the world of the connection between the nation and its land, while also representing to Israelis a societal covenant between the individual and the collective. a given network.

Like many other sites in Israel, Mount Herzl is the result of the reconstruction of nature for ideological purposes. The mount has been artificially cultivated in order to facilitate the projection of a conceptual program onto its surface; this program partakes of an ideological whole, which links Israel’s landscape to the country’s national and social organizing principles. The importance of this program, and the effort put into its implementation upon the existing topography, have created a site whose final form is an expression of a prolonged negotiation between landscape and ideas of nationhood. In this process of negotiation the topology of the mount – that is, the relations between its topography and its chronology – has played a pivotal role in the spatial organization of its various elements. The story of Zionist revival is described by means of topography and of architectural monuments, which are arrayed upon Mount Herzl along both temporal and spatial axes. Mount Herzl, the ‘Mount of Remembrance’, will be examined here in relation to the two different aspects of the term “topology”, ⁽²⁾in relation to the understanding of topography and time as creators of place, and in relation to the set of connections delineated by the spatial networks contained within the site.

The Topology of a Mount
The site of the Mount Herzl memorial complex was carefully chosen. It is situated at the entrance to Jerusalem and is located 834 meters above sea level, so that it is seen from afar while offering a view of the surrounding mountains. Other factors that influenced the selection of this site were it being out of the range of the Jordanian army, which at that time controlled eastern Jerusalem; and the desire to build the cemetery on land owned by Jews.

The mount, whose form is reminiscent of a pyramid, automatically creates a framework of meaning based on the ratio between surface area and height. This framework expresses a strict hierarchical connection between the geographical attributes and location of each commemorative structure and the significance given to those it commemorates. Herzl’s tomb is situated at the top of the mount, while the military cemetery and various other memorials are located on its slopes.

The topology of Mount Herzl is not the outcome of natural erosion. It is the fruit of engineering and architectural planning, which were instigated by ideological and political processes. This topology consists of a network of spaces formed upon steps that have been carved into, or added onto, the hillside, and which create a succession of walled divisions and planar surfaces. The man-made steps, or terraces, create the necessary spatial separations that represent the categories of which the myth consists (categories composed of people, unit names, names of battlefields, events, dates, etc.). The variously shaped terraces and spatial partitions created in the cemetery thus constitute a thematic structure that narrates the history of the Israeli army. ⁽³⁾The artificial topology aims to create a direct relation between the material surface and the historical narrative, between topography and chronology. As the national historical account has become increasingly structured, the surface of the mount has become increasingly cultivated; the virginal, mountainous terrain has given way to a colossal monument that is at once natural and artificial, and which has become the spatial embodiment of Zionist-Israeli memory.

In order to understand the connections between the various architectural elements constructed in this space, we shall refer to the second meaning of the term “topology” - These connections relate to the thirty milestones (monuments, gravesites and memorial gardens) that are used in order to narrate the Zionist-Israeli story. These milestones belong simultaneously to several material and abstract spaces, which each entertain a unique relationship with the other spaces: physical space (the topography of the mount); historical space (the milestones as marking a chronology of events); and ideological space (the milestones as producers of meaning within the context of the Zionist narrative).

Physical Space
Mount Herzl is built as a complex comprised of several sections, which belong to different authorities: the Zionist section includes Herzl’s tomb, the plot of Jewish and Israeli dignitaries, and the plot of Zionist leaders. It is located at the top of the mount, and is managed by the World Zionist Organization. The military cemetery, which is located on the northern slope of the mount, and a number of other memorial sites are managed by the Department for the Commemoration of the Fallen at the Ministry of Defense.

Cypress and Pine trees were planted to distinguish between the various areas and terraces on the mount. At present, however, they cover the landscape and have come to form a uniform woodland, which partakes of the continuum of woodlands and forests that cover many parts of the country; planted as part of the Zionist enterprise of “land redemption”, these woodlands are related to the ideological framework in which forests function as commemorative sites. ⁽⁴⁾In addition to the Cypress and Pine trees, a copse of Cedar trees extends from the cemetery’s entrance to Herzl’s tomb. Planted by international dignitaries, these trees constitute another layer in the construction of this mount of remembrance, and become part of the ‘Zionist narrative’.

The uniform, continuous appearance of this landscape is enhanced by means of memorials and tombstones that are designed with formal restraint, and characterized by the repetition of similar elements. The tombstones and monuments are made either of hewn stone, which signifies sacredness (like the stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem), or of unhewn stone, which bespeaks modesty, simplicity and an intentionally anti-sculptural quality, as well as a connection to the earth the stones came from. The cemetery thus forms an extension of nature, a natural landscape once removed.The paved areas covering the slopes, the trees planted throughout the park and the numerous tombstones form a homogenous surface that blurs the divisions created by the quarrying of the mount.The use of natural materials forms a link between the constructed elements and the vegetation and natural elements, fusing them all into a uniform landscape.

Historical Space
Visitors to Mount Herzl follow an itinerary structured around thirty milestones, “which uniquely portray the story of Zionist revival in the land of Israel⁽⁵⁾”. These milestones impose another form of order upon the mount, which exceeds its physical, spatial infrastructure. The mount’s master plan, which dates from November 2001, includes an outline for the building of a visitors’ center devoted to the historical milestones along the itinerary. “The goal of the visitors’ center is to tell the story of the mount and of its three main plots: the Zionist plot (including Herzl’s tomb), the plot of national dignitaries, and the military plot. In this manner, visitors will be able to grasp the chronological thread that unites the components of the story of modern Jewish revival in the land of Israel. Since this is an especially charged and sensitive subject, it has been agreed that the chronology of the mount will dictate the different aspects of this narrative. That is, the story of the Mount Herzl cemetery will describe, in a consistent and chronological manner, the way in which things were established on the mount.”⁽⁶⁾

The itinerary⁽⁷⁾ constitutes the shortest route among this series of sequentially numbered milestones. It attempts to adhere to a topographical logic, rising gradually to Herzl’s tomb (the twenty-fifth station) at the top of the mount. The circular itinerary begins at the memorials for the Jewish casualties of the Second World War; it continues with memorials for those who lost their lives at sea⁽⁸⁾; common graves; a garden for soldiers missing in action; burial plots for groups of soldiers who were killed in action together during the Sinai War and the war in Lebanon; the plot of national dignitaries; the plot of Zionist leaders; Herzl’s tomb; burial plots for recently fallen soldiers; and one of the plots for the soldiers who fell in the Yom Kippur War.

Topographical constraints, rather than a chronological sequence of dates, dictate the order in which these memorials are integrated into the itinerary. The chronology they delineate is thus the chronology of the commemorative process itself – that is, the order in which decisions about the addition of a certain event to the commemorative complex were taken and implemented. For this reason, events of different historical magnitude are depicted side by side along the axis of the itinerary’s Zionist narrative. The chronology of events laid out on the mount thus offers a different version of historical continuity: the location of Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s tomb⁽⁹⁾ between Herzl’s tomb and the adjacent Yad Vashem National Memorial Authority – the National Center of Holocaust Remembrance – for instance, links together the political histories related to these monuments.The overriding principle of the itinerary is the spatial organization of the memorials; since it is disconnected from the date or magnitude of events, it strengthens the mount’s status as an autonomous space organized according to its own logic and bound by its geographical limits.

Ideological Space
Ideological space is composed of physical and historical space; it is represented through the network of memorials and tombstones, which function as ideological mechanisms in the service of the nation. A memorial serves both to shape a society’s collective memory and to facilitate the processing of loss and bereavement on an individual level, and as such unites public and private spaces of memory.The memorials on Mount Herzl and elsewhere in Israel have been assigned the continuous task of making present the Israeli- Zionist legacy.Commemoration of those who fell in the service of the state expresses the heroic sacrifice made by these soldiers, and relates their acts of heroism to the nation as a whole; the fighters are “the silver platter on which the Jewish state was presented.” ⁽¹⁰⁾The myth of heroic sacrifice thus establishes a collective commitment and charges the act of commemoration with social and cultural meaning. The system of commemoration becomes a mechanism that mediates between state and society on the one hand, and the bereaved families on the other. Personal bereavement is “nationalized,” and made part of collective memory.The fallen soldier becomes a national hero, and a symbol of courage and patriotic commitment. This process strengthens the national hegemony and the understanding that the sacrifice of lives, caused by the necessity of going to war, is what has enabled the state to exist.⁽¹¹⁾The physical situation of the monuments on Mount Herzl is translated into an ideologically meaningful set of relations: the relation between Mount Herzl and the adjacent Yad Vashem Museum, for instance, expresses the transition from Holocaust to national revival; another ideological connection is drawn between the tomb of Herzl, the dreamer who envisioned the founding of the nation, and the graves of those who sacrificed their lives in order for this dream to become a reality. These inextricable links between Herzl’s tomb and the military cemetery thus transform the myth concerning the vision of a Zionist state into a justification for the death of the heroes buried there.

The exploitation of the mount as a natural backdrop for the commemorative site partakes of the more general project of co-opting the country’s geography into the Zionist enterprise, which has necessitated the establishment of a connection between the secular state and its territory. In this context, the seemingly natural way in which the commemorative site and the mount itself are united into a homogeneous landscape serves as an alibi for forming a connection between the state of Israel and the land of Israel, whose people have returned to it after a prolonged exile.

The unification of these spaces into one monolithic entity constitutes the topology of the mount.Its form is the sum total of the influence of both physical and ideological forces, which have operated upon it since the foundation of the state of Israel. This process of negotiation between the mount and the role assigned it in the formation of the Israeli narrative is expressed through the particular spatial and organizational logic that has shaped the situation of commemorative monuments within its boundaries. This spatial organization does not conform to historical chronology or to the degree of importance of the commemorated events. Indeed, the associations formed between the various milestones on the mount are not the consequence of “the story of Zionist revival in the land of Israel”; rather, they constitute the very essence of the commemorative process that unfolds on Mount Herzl. In addition to the objects of commemoration themselves, bureaucracy, political agendas and the interests of various organizations have all played a pivotal role in this process, as have temporal, spatial and financial constraints.What is commemorated on Mount Herzl is thus transformed from “the story of national revival” to the enterprise of commemoration itself.

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