Civil sanctity and national memorial days: An analysis of Israeli teachers’ educational beliefs

Teachers’ beliefs regarding civil sanctity were studied in the context of their pedagogical activities regarding two Israeli national memorial days-Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Day and Holocaust Remembrance Day. Interviews were conducted with 30 educators in six secular and six religious junior high schools with diverse populations and 12 memorial ceremonies were observed. Teachers’ beliefs regarding civil sanctity were revealed. These include the relationship between civil and religious sanctity, how sanctity is represented pedagogically, the existence of hierarchies of sanctity in schools and processes of sanctification and desanctification in schools.