Hava Schwartz | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (original) (raw)
Papers by Hava Schwartz
Israel Studies Review, 2017
This article examines the gradual conversion of the areas surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem a... more This article examines the gradual conversion of the areas surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem and spaces overlooking the Temple Mount into national symbolic landscape. Within this space, ancient Jewish sites function as national monuments, tied together through landscaping. A continuum of space and time is gradually being created in the shadow of Muslim and Christian monuments, in stark contrast to the Palestinian neighborhoods. The visual and textual symbolism and imagery that accompany the space emphasize the memory of the absent Jewish Temple. Thus, the creation of national symbolic landscape is simultaneously the creation of a new 'Holy Geography' and the replacement of traditional forms of Jewish memory by tangible and visual memory. The absent Temple serves as a meta-image of this symbolic national landscape and as the missing national monument, thus reflecting and promoting the rise of a symbiosis between religious and national aspirations.
Hebrew University, 2022
With the gradual spatialization of Christian memory in Late Antiquity, the first Holy Land church... more With the gradual spatialization of Christian memory in Late Antiquity, the first Holy Land churches were built in places identified with a particular figure or event of religious significance. This tradition persisted in the construction of churches in the Byzantine, Crusader and modern periods in an evolving Christian “sacred geography”. The pilgrims travelling the Holy Land encountered the loca sancta identified with divine presence, as
structured within monumental architecture and represented in its imagery.
The following study explores the visual imagery and space of a new pilgrimage site in the map of Christian sacred geography: Magdala, on the north-western shore of the Sea of Galilee.
Officially named "the Magdala Tourist Center", the site was founded by Fr. Juan Maria Solana, a Catholic priest of the congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, on land that he had purchased gradually, beginning in 2006, in order to build a guest house for pilgrims.
The location below Mt. Arbel and north of Tiberias, had been identified since the nineteenth century as the site of Magdala of the New Testament, preserved in the name of the local Arab village el-Mejdel and the Jewish town of Migdal. Salvage excavations on the newly purchased land by the Israeli Antiquities Authority and later by a Mexican delegation, discovered the ruins of a Jewish town from the Early Roman period. Within the ruins, on the site designated for the construction of the guesthouse,
a first century synagogue was discovered in 2009. In the main hall of the synagogue the archaeologists discovered a unique stone, covered with reliefs depicting elements from the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
This discovery, which drew immense academic and popular interest, was presented by the initiators of the site as a sign of Divine Providence. The new Magdala Center was termed the "hometown of Mary Magdalene", its synagogue presented as the place where Jesus taught, and the new site was defined as a "crossroads of Jewish and Christian history".
The evolving religious significance of the site was structured into the artistic and architectural design of the Magdala church - officially referred to as a "spirituality center" - dedicated in 2014. The guesthouse built later and inaugurated in 2019, looks over the ruins of the synagogue that are the focal point of an archaeological park, in a compound which has
since become a tourist attraction and a pilgrimage site.
The narrative and the visual and spatial components of the site conform with familiar patterns of Christian localization of religious memory in the Holy Land. However, as in previous periods, the visual features of a holy site are shaped not only by tradition but also by the specific conditions of time and of space. Magdala has been shaped under political,
theological and technological conditions that distinguish it dramatically from earlier churches; the new Christian site has been developed under the authority of the Jewish state, in the context of post-conciliar Catholicism, and within a technological reality radically different
from that in which pilgrims encountered their destinations in the past.
This study examines both the ways in which the visual and spatial components of Magdala resonate with existing traditions, and the ways in which it diverges from them, expressing new forms and meanings of Christian sacred space.
On the basis of the historical, theoretical and methodological background discussed in the introduction, the study explores the visual shaping of Magdala as a pilgrimage site through three aspects.
The first chapter examines the architecture of the Magdala church, in relation to traditions of Holy Land church architecture. This comparative perspective, in which the main points of reference will be Byzantine and modern architecture, points to the use of traditional architectural elements that serve to validate the site's sanctity as a locus sanctus, while the
novelties in the shaping of these elements indicate the formation of new relations between subject and ecclesiastical space. I suggest that these features challenge the traditional boundaries between the sacred and the profane by the sacred being visually available, ratherthan concealed.
The second chapter on the artistic imagery of the Magdala church is comprised of several sections, each of which discusses the location, medium, iconography and style of one work of art or a series of works of art in or near the church. Two major questions run through each of the sections: the relations between image and viewer, and between image and place as locus sanctus. The artistic localization of New Testament events and the original form and content of representation in the various works of art, express new interpretations of religious figures and themes in relation to iconographic traditions. These new meanings, I suggest, resonate with contemporary Catholicism in the contexts of gender and Jewish and Christian relations, as well as with contemporary forms of subjectivity.
The third chapter examines the compound of the Magdala Center and its
surroundings, from which the church draws much of its symbolic meaning. Part 1 focuses on the archaeological ruins and their display, integration and replication in the Madgala Center and in other sites of display. Special attention is paid to the Magdala stone and the meanings
that have been attached to it through narrative of agents and visitors to the site, and through multiple forms of visual representation.
Part 2 examines the natural and commercial landscape of the Magdala Center within the Christian sacred geography by the Sea of Galilee,
and its visual representations in artistic imagery, in pilgrimage trails to Magdala, in virtual pilgrimage, and in products offered for sale in the Magdala Center. In the conclusion of this chapter, I point to the historical narrative and image of the Holy Land /Israel constructed through the archaeology and landscape, and to the symbiotic relations between the religious and commercial landscape.
In the conclusion, I suggest that Magdala expresses an affinity to various aspects of Protestant aesthetics which are described in each of the chapters. However, while Magdala differs from earlier modern Catholic churches, I suggest that it shares some distinct features with a number of more recent Catholic sites in Israel, marking the emergence of a new phase of Holy Land Christian sites. This emerging phase is characterized by various forms of visual realism and symbolism that shape new relations between viewer and image, between space and text, and between Christians and Jews. Ultimately, this new phase redefines subjective experience and the collective significance of Christian sacred space in the Holy Land.
This work seeks to examine the space surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem, as Jewish-National sy... more This work seeks to examine the space surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem, as Jewish-National symbolic landscape. The work will focus on an aesthetic analysis of the landscape and the vision regarding it, while discussing Jerusalem landscape as an expression of Jewish-Israeli identity.
This work seeks to examine the space surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem, as Jewish-National sy... more This work seeks to examine the space surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem, as Jewish-National symbolic landscape. The work focuses on an aesthetic analysis of the landscape and the vision regarding it, while discussing Jerusalem landscape as an expression of Jewish-Israeli identity.
The core of the space in discussion is the National Park surrounding the City walls, that runs within and between villages, neighborhoods, cultural and commercial centers and archaeological excavations with connections to open spaces, thus creating a touristic compound that surrounds the Old City. Although the plan for surrounding the Old City with a ‘green belt’ is not new, the plan is still an ongoing project involving vigorous attempts to expand the territory of the National Park; an attempt that ties together political, national and religious dimensions.
The vision of a ‘green belt’ surrounding the Old City, is rooted in the early days of the British Mandate over Palestine and in several plans created during this period. The Israeli plans for the City Walls National Park that were prepared soon after the 1967 war and following the occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem, were presented as reviving the British plans. However the unification of pre-1967 Israel and the holy places, was charged with symbolic as well as with territorial and demographic aims that, from the start, turned the creation of the National Park, into a project loaded with national and political implications. In the emotional atmosphere and with the sense of urgency that followed the war, the planning of the space surrounding the Old City under was seen as a national project, and was presented as an act of conservation and restoration of an ancient landscape.
The western part of the National Park that changed the seamline along which poor Jewish neighborhoods were situated prior to 1967 was completed in a relatively short period of time. However, the development of the National Park and the open spaces along it in the areas of East Jerusalem which were under Jordanian rule before 1967 was more gradual. Hence the space which was supposed to comprise an urban “whole”, remained fragmented. This space - and especially that which ran east and south-east of the Old City - on which the thesis focuses, is sensitive in many aspects: it lies in and between Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem; within it are sites with religious significance such as the Mount of Olives,; Jewish, Christian and Muslim cemeteries, churches, the gates of the Temple Mount and the viewpoints over it; within the National Park there are also many archaeological excavations, especially in and around the village of Silwan, the Western section of which (Wadi Hilweh and the City of David in it) is within the National Park.
The efforts over the past few years to raise the touristic value of the space east of the Old City and to revive the aesthetic values of the original plan for the park - as an integral, continuous and “organic” space - have taken place in the context of urban changes in East Jerusalem, as well as under the political events of the last decades, at the center of which has been Jerusalem. The political tensions and urban changes emphasize the contrast between the areas of the National Park and their surroundings, while turning the expansion of the National Parks as symbolic landscape into a battleground between two contesting spaces: the National Park, and the Palestinian space in East Jerusalem. The influence of organizations and movements with a religious and messianic agenda on the National Parks, charges this symbolic battle with a religious dimension whose relationship with the national and political dimensions is highly complicated..
Around the sites that they include the National Parks create a framework of of landscape and of narrative, thereby turning the space into a national symbolic landscape, seemingly equivalent to national monumental landscapes of capital cities, that present a national narrative and shape national identity. The attempt to construct the heterogenic space around the Old City as a national core and as Israeli national landscape, must be seen in the context of major differences between Jerusalem and other cities and of the controversial international status of Jerusalem. Hence these attempts create meanings that are quite different from other models of symbolic landscapes in capital cities. While symbolic landscapes are typically formed around monuments - statues and buildings with national-historic meaning - the Jerusalem monuments in the Jewish landscape are sites that play the role of monuments by turning the gaze to them as symbols of memory and by the mythicization of them and of their surroundings.
The attempt to create a continuous and total space, involves acts of exclusion and of destruction. No less, is it aimed at unifying landscape into a continuous narrative, revolving round a “Jewish-national-story”, the validity of which is tied to its visibility. The fragmented nature of the space - due to its religious, ethnic and urban heterogeneity - is compensated for by the creation of a coherent narrative within the landscape, connecting fragments of space into a temporal whole. Thus the joining together of various sites is in essence a curatorial act of creating an “archive” of Jewish memory within the landscape holding within it elements of remembrance and erasure, of contrasts between original and representation. The creation of the National Park has been presented as an act necessary for the preservation of heritage, as an act of restoration and rehabilitation of the existing landscape; however the exposure of ancient archaeological layers and the conservation of ancient monuments are in actuality creation of a new landscape. Moreover, this creation is at the same time forming a new way of seeing the landscape, as an iconic Jewish-national space, expressing the engraving of historic, literary and mythic Jewish memory into the landscape.
The front-on symbolic battle between the Israeli and the Palestinian spaces within and surrounding the National Park is imbedded in the symbolism of the National Park. Therefore, the Palestinian presence that is marginalized from the national space and its mythic dimension, acts as scenery for the emerging of an Israeli identity created by the national space. It is, therefore, not only a battle between two physically opposed spaces, but also a battle between the mythic areas and temporary areas. The influence and domination of messianic groups within the space of the national landscape, as well as over the symbolism created within it, charge this dichotomy between the Israeli-Jewish and Palestinian-Muslim images with theological meaning, which culminates in the Temple Mount.
Temple Mount, visible from the landscape surrounding the Old City from north, east and south, is portrayed in the visual and textual images within the National Park, as crowned by the Jewish temple. The Temple as a central image in Jewish memory, becomes - in the concrete landscape - dominant void of the aesthetic environment. Within this aesthetic logic dominating and shaping the space, Temple Mount with the mosques becomes an aesthetic “flaw” in the Jewish Landscape.
The tension inherent in Jewish Nationalism, between religion and nation, between history in the secular sense and theological time, seeps through these processes of shaping the landscape. Paradoxically, the ideology and theology go hand in hand with touristic-style “staged authenticity” shaping the landscape. The attempt of creating “proper” spaces, as phrased by Jacque Derrida, entails a metaphysical expectation for the appearance of “presence” and “truth” that undermines any delay.
Israel Studies Review, 2017
This article examines the gradual conversion of the areas surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem a... more This article examines the gradual conversion of the areas surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem and spaces overlooking the Temple Mount into national symbolic landscape. Within this space, ancient Jewish sites function as national monuments, tied together through landscaping. A continuum of space and time is gradually being created in the shadow of Muslim and Christian monuments, in stark contrast to the Palestinian neighborhoods. The visual and textual symbolism and imagery that accompany the space emphasize the memory of the absent Jewish Temple. Thus, the creation of national symbolic landscape is simultaneously the creation of a new 'Holy Geography' and the replacement of traditional forms of Jewish memory by tangible and visual memory. The absent Temple serves as a meta-image of this symbolic national landscape and as the missing national monument, thus reflecting and promoting the rise of a symbiosis between religious and national aspirations.
Hebrew University, 2022
With the gradual spatialization of Christian memory in Late Antiquity, the first Holy Land church... more With the gradual spatialization of Christian memory in Late Antiquity, the first Holy Land churches were built in places identified with a particular figure or event of religious significance. This tradition persisted in the construction of churches in the Byzantine, Crusader and modern periods in an evolving Christian “sacred geography”. The pilgrims travelling the Holy Land encountered the loca sancta identified with divine presence, as
structured within monumental architecture and represented in its imagery.
The following study explores the visual imagery and space of a new pilgrimage site in the map of Christian sacred geography: Magdala, on the north-western shore of the Sea of Galilee.
Officially named "the Magdala Tourist Center", the site was founded by Fr. Juan Maria Solana, a Catholic priest of the congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, on land that he had purchased gradually, beginning in 2006, in order to build a guest house for pilgrims.
The location below Mt. Arbel and north of Tiberias, had been identified since the nineteenth century as the site of Magdala of the New Testament, preserved in the name of the local Arab village el-Mejdel and the Jewish town of Migdal. Salvage excavations on the newly purchased land by the Israeli Antiquities Authority and later by a Mexican delegation, discovered the ruins of a Jewish town from the Early Roman period. Within the ruins, on the site designated for the construction of the guesthouse,
a first century synagogue was discovered in 2009. In the main hall of the synagogue the archaeologists discovered a unique stone, covered with reliefs depicting elements from the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
This discovery, which drew immense academic and popular interest, was presented by the initiators of the site as a sign of Divine Providence. The new Magdala Center was termed the "hometown of Mary Magdalene", its synagogue presented as the place where Jesus taught, and the new site was defined as a "crossroads of Jewish and Christian history".
The evolving religious significance of the site was structured into the artistic and architectural design of the Magdala church - officially referred to as a "spirituality center" - dedicated in 2014. The guesthouse built later and inaugurated in 2019, looks over the ruins of the synagogue that are the focal point of an archaeological park, in a compound which has
since become a tourist attraction and a pilgrimage site.
The narrative and the visual and spatial components of the site conform with familiar patterns of Christian localization of religious memory in the Holy Land. However, as in previous periods, the visual features of a holy site are shaped not only by tradition but also by the specific conditions of time and of space. Magdala has been shaped under political,
theological and technological conditions that distinguish it dramatically from earlier churches; the new Christian site has been developed under the authority of the Jewish state, in the context of post-conciliar Catholicism, and within a technological reality radically different
from that in which pilgrims encountered their destinations in the past.
This study examines both the ways in which the visual and spatial components of Magdala resonate with existing traditions, and the ways in which it diverges from them, expressing new forms and meanings of Christian sacred space.
On the basis of the historical, theoretical and methodological background discussed in the introduction, the study explores the visual shaping of Magdala as a pilgrimage site through three aspects.
The first chapter examines the architecture of the Magdala church, in relation to traditions of Holy Land church architecture. This comparative perspective, in which the main points of reference will be Byzantine and modern architecture, points to the use of traditional architectural elements that serve to validate the site's sanctity as a locus sanctus, while the
novelties in the shaping of these elements indicate the formation of new relations between subject and ecclesiastical space. I suggest that these features challenge the traditional boundaries between the sacred and the profane by the sacred being visually available, ratherthan concealed.
The second chapter on the artistic imagery of the Magdala church is comprised of several sections, each of which discusses the location, medium, iconography and style of one work of art or a series of works of art in or near the church. Two major questions run through each of the sections: the relations between image and viewer, and between image and place as locus sanctus. The artistic localization of New Testament events and the original form and content of representation in the various works of art, express new interpretations of religious figures and themes in relation to iconographic traditions. These new meanings, I suggest, resonate with contemporary Catholicism in the contexts of gender and Jewish and Christian relations, as well as with contemporary forms of subjectivity.
The third chapter examines the compound of the Magdala Center and its
surroundings, from which the church draws much of its symbolic meaning. Part 1 focuses on the archaeological ruins and their display, integration and replication in the Madgala Center and in other sites of display. Special attention is paid to the Magdala stone and the meanings
that have been attached to it through narrative of agents and visitors to the site, and through multiple forms of visual representation.
Part 2 examines the natural and commercial landscape of the Magdala Center within the Christian sacred geography by the Sea of Galilee,
and its visual representations in artistic imagery, in pilgrimage trails to Magdala, in virtual pilgrimage, and in products offered for sale in the Magdala Center. In the conclusion of this chapter, I point to the historical narrative and image of the Holy Land /Israel constructed through the archaeology and landscape, and to the symbiotic relations between the religious and commercial landscape.
In the conclusion, I suggest that Magdala expresses an affinity to various aspects of Protestant aesthetics which are described in each of the chapters. However, while Magdala differs from earlier modern Catholic churches, I suggest that it shares some distinct features with a number of more recent Catholic sites in Israel, marking the emergence of a new phase of Holy Land Christian sites. This emerging phase is characterized by various forms of visual realism and symbolism that shape new relations between viewer and image, between space and text, and between Christians and Jews. Ultimately, this new phase redefines subjective experience and the collective significance of Christian sacred space in the Holy Land.
This work seeks to examine the space surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem, as Jewish-National sy... more This work seeks to examine the space surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem, as Jewish-National symbolic landscape. The work will focus on an aesthetic analysis of the landscape and the vision regarding it, while discussing Jerusalem landscape as an expression of Jewish-Israeli identity.
This work seeks to examine the space surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem, as Jewish-National sy... more This work seeks to examine the space surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem, as Jewish-National symbolic landscape. The work focuses on an aesthetic analysis of the landscape and the vision regarding it, while discussing Jerusalem landscape as an expression of Jewish-Israeli identity.
The core of the space in discussion is the National Park surrounding the City walls, that runs within and between villages, neighborhoods, cultural and commercial centers and archaeological excavations with connections to open spaces, thus creating a touristic compound that surrounds the Old City. Although the plan for surrounding the Old City with a ‘green belt’ is not new, the plan is still an ongoing project involving vigorous attempts to expand the territory of the National Park; an attempt that ties together political, national and religious dimensions.
The vision of a ‘green belt’ surrounding the Old City, is rooted in the early days of the British Mandate over Palestine and in several plans created during this period. The Israeli plans for the City Walls National Park that were prepared soon after the 1967 war and following the occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem, were presented as reviving the British plans. However the unification of pre-1967 Israel and the holy places, was charged with symbolic as well as with territorial and demographic aims that, from the start, turned the creation of the National Park, into a project loaded with national and political implications. In the emotional atmosphere and with the sense of urgency that followed the war, the planning of the space surrounding the Old City under was seen as a national project, and was presented as an act of conservation and restoration of an ancient landscape.
The western part of the National Park that changed the seamline along which poor Jewish neighborhoods were situated prior to 1967 was completed in a relatively short period of time. However, the development of the National Park and the open spaces along it in the areas of East Jerusalem which were under Jordanian rule before 1967 was more gradual. Hence the space which was supposed to comprise an urban “whole”, remained fragmented. This space - and especially that which ran east and south-east of the Old City - on which the thesis focuses, is sensitive in many aspects: it lies in and between Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem; within it are sites with religious significance such as the Mount of Olives,; Jewish, Christian and Muslim cemeteries, churches, the gates of the Temple Mount and the viewpoints over it; within the National Park there are also many archaeological excavations, especially in and around the village of Silwan, the Western section of which (Wadi Hilweh and the City of David in it) is within the National Park.
The efforts over the past few years to raise the touristic value of the space east of the Old City and to revive the aesthetic values of the original plan for the park - as an integral, continuous and “organic” space - have taken place in the context of urban changes in East Jerusalem, as well as under the political events of the last decades, at the center of which has been Jerusalem. The political tensions and urban changes emphasize the contrast between the areas of the National Park and their surroundings, while turning the expansion of the National Parks as symbolic landscape into a battleground between two contesting spaces: the National Park, and the Palestinian space in East Jerusalem. The influence of organizations and movements with a religious and messianic agenda on the National Parks, charges this symbolic battle with a religious dimension whose relationship with the national and political dimensions is highly complicated..
Around the sites that they include the National Parks create a framework of of landscape and of narrative, thereby turning the space into a national symbolic landscape, seemingly equivalent to national monumental landscapes of capital cities, that present a national narrative and shape national identity. The attempt to construct the heterogenic space around the Old City as a national core and as Israeli national landscape, must be seen in the context of major differences between Jerusalem and other cities and of the controversial international status of Jerusalem. Hence these attempts create meanings that are quite different from other models of symbolic landscapes in capital cities. While symbolic landscapes are typically formed around monuments - statues and buildings with national-historic meaning - the Jerusalem monuments in the Jewish landscape are sites that play the role of monuments by turning the gaze to them as symbols of memory and by the mythicization of them and of their surroundings.
The attempt to create a continuous and total space, involves acts of exclusion and of destruction. No less, is it aimed at unifying landscape into a continuous narrative, revolving round a “Jewish-national-story”, the validity of which is tied to its visibility. The fragmented nature of the space - due to its religious, ethnic and urban heterogeneity - is compensated for by the creation of a coherent narrative within the landscape, connecting fragments of space into a temporal whole. Thus the joining together of various sites is in essence a curatorial act of creating an “archive” of Jewish memory within the landscape holding within it elements of remembrance and erasure, of contrasts between original and representation. The creation of the National Park has been presented as an act necessary for the preservation of heritage, as an act of restoration and rehabilitation of the existing landscape; however the exposure of ancient archaeological layers and the conservation of ancient monuments are in actuality creation of a new landscape. Moreover, this creation is at the same time forming a new way of seeing the landscape, as an iconic Jewish-national space, expressing the engraving of historic, literary and mythic Jewish memory into the landscape.
The front-on symbolic battle between the Israeli and the Palestinian spaces within and surrounding the National Park is imbedded in the symbolism of the National Park. Therefore, the Palestinian presence that is marginalized from the national space and its mythic dimension, acts as scenery for the emerging of an Israeli identity created by the national space. It is, therefore, not only a battle between two physically opposed spaces, but also a battle between the mythic areas and temporary areas. The influence and domination of messianic groups within the space of the national landscape, as well as over the symbolism created within it, charge this dichotomy between the Israeli-Jewish and Palestinian-Muslim images with theological meaning, which culminates in the Temple Mount.
Temple Mount, visible from the landscape surrounding the Old City from north, east and south, is portrayed in the visual and textual images within the National Park, as crowned by the Jewish temple. The Temple as a central image in Jewish memory, becomes - in the concrete landscape - dominant void of the aesthetic environment. Within this aesthetic logic dominating and shaping the space, Temple Mount with the mosques becomes an aesthetic “flaw” in the Jewish Landscape.
The tension inherent in Jewish Nationalism, between religion and nation, between history in the secular sense and theological time, seeps through these processes of shaping the landscape. Paradoxically, the ideology and theology go hand in hand with touristic-style “staged authenticity” shaping the landscape. The attempt of creating “proper” spaces, as phrased by Jacque Derrida, entails a metaphysical expectation for the appearance of “presence” and “truth” that undermines any delay.