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Holocaust and Genocide Studies 1988 3(4):371-381; doi:10.1093/hgs/3.4.371
© 1988 by United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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Articles

‘Faith, Ethics and the Holocaust’

SOME PERSONAL THEOLOGICAL AND RELIGIOUS RESPONSES TO THE HOLOCAUST*

IMMANUEL JAKOBOVITS

The Orthodox Torah Community, which represented the most intensive form of Jewish living and learning prior to World War II was virtually wiped out during the Holocaust. Despite the enormity of their losses, as compared to the rest of the Jewish people, they appear to be the group least concerned with confronting and commemorating the Holocaust. This may be attributed not only to a natural aversion to introducing religious innovations, but also to a defence mechanism which avoids the theological perplexities and questions posed by the Holocaust. Moreover, this avoidance is rooted in a traditional world-view which denies the uniqueness of the Holocaust, in relationship to previous national catastrophes. Hence, the Torah Community has focused on the future, rather than the past and has rebuilt their Community both numerically and institutionally beyond even the most optimistic expectations after the Community's near total destruction during the Holocaust.

*Presented at the ‘Remembering for the Future’ Conference, Oxford, 10–13 July 1988.


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