Doing oral histories in the Middle East
To the Editor:
Re “ On Fiery Birth of Israel, Memories of 2 Sides Speak” (Tel Aviv Journal, May 18):
Those who criticize the current oral history projects (and other such projects) because of the fallibility of individual memory miss the point. It is precisely the differences among retrospective accounts, and how they do and do not agree with otherwise documented history, that make them most useful.
People live within the pasts they construct and, to whatever degree, within the pasts that are constructed for them. The relationship between memory as lived and history as documented is always a complex dialogue — each informing, and disinforming, the other.
Meanwhile, there are different accounts within groups, between groups and among historians (who also rarely agree with one another).
Difficult as it may be, attempting conversation within such cacophony is where the action is. Indeed, in the Middle East, such conversations may reflect whatever hope we still have.
Henry Greenspan
Ann Arbor, Mich., May 18, 2009
The writer has been practicing oral history for more than 30 years and is the author of “On Listening to Holocaust Survivors: Recounting and Life History.”
Re “ On Fiery Birth of Israel, Memories of 2 Sides Speak” (Tel Aviv Journal, May 18):
Those who criticize the current oral history projects (and other such projects) because of the fallibility of individual memory miss the point. It is precisely the differences among retrospective accounts, and how they do and do not agree with otherwise documented history, that make them most useful.
People live within the pasts they construct and, to whatever degree, within the pasts that are constructed for them. The relationship between memory as lived and history as documented is always a complex dialogue — each informing, and disinforming, the other.
Meanwhile, there are different accounts within groups, between groups and among historians (who also rarely agree with one another).
Difficult as it may be, attempting conversation within such cacophony is where the action is. Indeed, in the Middle East, such conversations may reflect whatever hope we still have.
Henry Greenspan
Ann Arbor, Mich., May 18, 2009
The writer has been practicing oral history for more than 30 years and is the author of “On Listening to Holocaust Survivors: Recounting and Life History.”