Fragments of History (Extract)

By JOSEPH R. HOFFMAN
Extract from Issue 16, November 24, 2008 of The Jerusalem Report. To subscribe to The Jerusalem Report click here. The 1948 Declaration of Independence; a page from the diary of ill-fated astronaut Ilan Ramon salvaged from the wreckage of the Columbia space shuttle in 2003; and a letter written by Shimon Bar Kokhba, leader of the 2nd century rebellion against Rome. Those are just a few of the 150 documents and artifacts that make up "Blue and White Pages," a moving exhibition at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, produced in partnership with the State Archives to mark the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence. It opened on October 10 and runs until February 2009. Pride of place goes to the Declaration of Independence, a scroll which, unrolled, measures 4 ft x 1 ft (120 x 30 cm), with its opening line, "The Land of Israel is the birthplace of the Jewish people, spiritually, religiously and politically." That may be an eternal truth, but unfortunately the Declaration itself is literally fading, notes State Archives director Yehoshua Freundlich, who told The Report that the archives are working to prevent further deterioration with the American scientists who helped repair the 1776 U.S. Declaration of Independence. The genuine artifact, written in ink on parchment, will be in place for only a limited time in the exhibition. Afterwards a facsimile will replace it. "You'll never be able to tell the difference," Freundlich says with a smile. The ancient exhibits, from the museum's collection, are juxtaposed with the modern ones, mostly from the State Archives. The museum's Chief Curator-at-large Yigal Zalmona, who is also the show's co-curator, notes that the second oldest document on display is a 6th-century BCE inked pottery shard from the ancient city of Lakhish, southwest of Jerusalem, which mentions the destruction of Azekah, a nearby town, by the Babylonians under Nebuhadnezzar, who continued to Jerusalem to sack the city and destroy the temple in 586 BCE. (The oldest is the Arad letter, a letter to Eliashib, commander of a fortress in southern Judea, asking him to give wine and flour to the Kittiyîm [possibly Cypriot mercenaries], Tel Arad, 7th-6th century BCE, ink on pottery.) "The Lakhish document signifies the loss of our freedom," Zalmona tells The Report, "and the Declaration of Independence bears witness to its restoration." He continues, "In the Bible [Jeremiah 34:7], it states 'the lights went out in Azekah' but with the birth of the state in 1948, the lights go back on again." The exhibition opened just before the Sukkot holiday, giving a timely poignancy to the letter on papyrus from Shimon Bar Kokhba, the leader of the 132 CE Judean rebellion against Rome. In it, the rebel leader states his concern about the difficulties in providing his troops with the four species (lulav, etrog, hadass and arava) for the celebration of the festival. Hanging on flagpoles next to the exhibition hall are a Union Jack and an Israeli flag, both of which have historical significance. The Union Jack, which belongs to the museum, is the actual flag that was lowered in Haifa port as the British soldiers departed Mandatory Palestine in 1948, while the Magen David in the Archives collection, is the first Israeli flag to be hoisted at the United Nations in its temporary home in Lake Success, New York, one year later. On the adjacent wall are black-and-white photographs of those two events. The documents and artifacts are laid out in a small room with dark blue walls and low-wattage lighting, which protects the fragile, light-sensitive documents from bleaching and fading, as well as imparting an atmosphere of intimacy and reverence for the exhibits and the national milestones that they represent. Ido Bruno, the exhibition designer and co-curator, told The Report it was important to make it cozy and easy to navigate, in contrast to the dusty, boring and labyrinthine image evoked by the word "archive." Bruno says he examined approximately 1,000 documents before choosing the final 150. "My choices were based, to a large extent, on visual impact, even though they are not, strictly speaking, examples of fine art," he says. "Therefore, I placed the most colorful designs nearest the entry. I wanted to give a glimpse of the calligraphic side." He also grouped documents by type. "I mounted items that deal with foreign relations together, such as letters from Queen Elizabeth II, Pope John Paul II, Argentine president Juan Peron and Soviet premier Nikolai Bulganin." Due to the priceless nature of these documents, "security concerns were as important as design needs, and a balance had to be struck," Bruno says. "There were certain types of documents that could not be shown. Anything that has to do with national security or issues of privacy, which ruled out the diaries of [Prime Minister] Golda Meir and [Finance Minister] Pinhas Sapir and certain pages from [astronaut] Ilan Ramon." The exhibition presents the items in a modest, straightforward fashion, avoiding the temptation to ballyhoo the objects, like blowing up a document 100 times and having it projected on the ceiling. "We do not need to pizazz this up. There is something very powerful about looking at a little scrap of papyrus," Israel Museum director James S. Snyder told The Report. "Somehow it has survived the centuries to gives us a glimpse of the past." In many cases, the more mundane the item, the more electrifying its presence. Everyone knows, for example, that blue and white are the colors of Israel, but how many are aware how the specific blue shade was picked? The answer is provided by the display of a patch of blue cloth, much like a sample for a tablecloth or curtain, which subsequently became the official blue chosen by the flag committee. A single piece of textured cloth, stapled to cardboard, the swatch could just as easily have been discarded after its "job" was done. Instead, it becomes one more building block in telling the story of the state. Extract from Issue 16, November 24, 2008 of The Jerusalem Report. To subscribe to The Jerusalem Report click here.