Establishing the Israel State Archives, 1948-1950

Abstract

The creation of a national archive or the reorganization of existing ones is commonly viewed as a significant step toward the creation of a nation-state. Archival documents can be highly significant in shaping the attitude of the emergent national culture toward its past. Indeed, the place of the archive in modern national movements and nation-states and its contribution to the shaping of a new collective identity are attracting increasing interest in the research community. Particularly interesting in the context of the State of Israel is the fact that some months after the establishment of the State in 1948, a decision was made to establish the State Archives, although the Central Zionist Archives had already existed for many years and enjoyed a dominant position in the preservation of national documents.

The aim of this essay is to analyze the discourse surrounding the establishment of the State Archives, as reflected in a process referred to as “Transition from the Zionist Community (Yishuv) to a State”. The scholarly discourse on this issue touches on some of the basic aspects of the emergent Israeli society, which in its early years confronted questions of statehood, the attitude towards its Jewish and Zionist roots, the shaping of Israeli identity, and the construction of a collective-national consciousness. In order to bring these questions into focus vis-à-vis the yishuv-tostate transition, the essay will discuss the decision to establish the State Archives and will explore two of its main outcomes: the fact that it ignored the centrality and importance of the Central Zionist Archives by creating a State-operated archive; and its impact on the Central Zionist Archives and what insights that can provide regarding the transition from yishuv to state.