Rhetoric in flames: Fire inscriptions in Israeli youth movement ceremonials

Fire inscriptions have become an institutionalized form of ephemeral art in Israeli youth movement ceremonials. The symbolic meanings and rhetorical effects associated with the use of fire as a medium in this context are rooted in secular, European youth movement culture on the one hand, and in traditional Judaism on the other. The fire inscriptions symbolically mediate these two cultural strands in contemporary Israel, and serve as attention-commanding indexical signs enacting cultural form through the social and visual experience they provide.