A Long-Run View of Israeli Society through the Looking Glass of Mourning Announcements in the Press

Abstract

This study analyzes death (‘mourning’) announcements published in the Hebrew press in twentieth century Mandatory Palestine and Israel within the context of a decades-long social and cultural transformation. It discusses the process of diffusion of these announcements, the shifting forms of postmortem allocation of prestige, trends of inclusion and exclusion, the variable functions of the announcements and the extent to which public notice of death has been increasingly or decreasingly monitored by friendship, kinship, asso-ciational and occupational networks.