“The exception proves the rule” in Israeli commemorations of the “Righteous Among the Nations”

This study examines Israeli commemorations of non-Jews who rescued Jews during the Holocaust, from WWII to the present. I show that Israelis often use the concept of “Righteous Among the Nations” to stress that the rescuers were a small minority whose actions attest to the majority population’s antisemitism or indifference. Speaking of the “Righteous Among the Nations” as “the exception that proves the rule” enables Israelis to imagine the surrounding non-Jewish world and their place within it: to stress communal separation from the gentile world and justify the establishment of a Jewish state and/or to integrate Israel with the “nations of the world.”.