Special Feature

Making the Awful Meaningful William B. Helmreich

F or twenty-five years a sort of "selective amnesia" existed among Jews in general with regard to the

greatest catastrophe to befall the world Jewish commu- nity in modern times. Although many memoirs were penned by survivors and several excellent general his- tories were written, it was not until about 1970 that the Holocaust emerged as a major focus for the entire Jewish community and that people began to engage in soul- searching introspective and retrospective analyses on a wide scale. Much of the credit for the mass awakening belongs to Elie Wiesel, whose books have sold millions of copies. In addition, works such as Dorothy Rabinowitz's New Lives and Helen Epstein's Children of the Holocaust have ushered in an era of unprecedented interest not only in the Holocaust but in its effects upon people today. Also, books written especially for children have begun to appear with increasing frequency, as the Jewish community seeks to grapple with the implications of the Holocaust for future generations.

Perhaps no other community in America has been as directly affected by the Holocaust as the Orthodox Jewish community, the majority of whose members are either survivors themselves or children of survivors. Yet it is only in recent years that Orthodox leaders have begun making a greater effort to explain the Holocaust to their community. In an attempt better to understand this phenomenon, I spoke with students and leaders of ad- vanced rabbinical seminaries that serve the strictly Or- thodox Jewish community. In these institutions, known as yeshivas, Bible and Talmud are studied from early morning until late at night, and their method of coping with the Holocaust would seem to offer a good case study of how human beings in general adjust to cata- strophic events. This instance is somewhat special be- cause the survivors and their children, in addition to confronting the horror of the Holocaust itself, are faced not only with re-creating the social fabric of their lives,

but with coming to grips with the question of why God would permit such things to happen to those who be- lieved so strongly and followed the tenets of the faith so carefully.

Rather than viewing the Holocaust as a threat to its belief system, the yeshiva community has translated the destruction of its people in a way that strengthens the faith of its members. It is a highly detailed and complex approach, and this article is meant only to provide a gen- eral introduction to its main points. Moreover, while the general approach of the yeshiva is accepted by the Or- thodox community at large, there is considerable varia- tion, with more liberal Orthodox Jews tending to ques- tion more as well as adopt somewhat different positions on certain issues.

Faith and Understanding

For the Orthodox Jew, rooted as he is in tradition and accepting as he is of God's will, the terror of the Nazi era can only be considered within a framework of faith. That the event defies explanation is seen as a characteristic of faith itself, for were it to be explainable it would no longer require belief; it would be self-evident. More than any other work, the Book of Job is seen by Orthodox Jews as the prototype for those wishing to understand the Holocaust. When Job attempts to discover the reasons for which he suffers, God tells him to have faith and not question; and, in the final analysis, his faith is rewarded.

Adopting the Jobean position enables the strictly Or- thodox Jew to weather almost any crisis. Misfortune is regarded as a test of one's faith. This theme emerged time and again in interviews on the topic conducted in 1978 with students from various yeshivas:

As believing Jews, we thank God for the bad as well as the good. When my father died I was 12 years old. It was right before my bar-mitzvah. You

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have to understand that this is Hashem's (God's) will.

20-year-old student Breuer's Yeshiva

New York City

You have to be able to explain to people that what Hashem does is he constantly tests us. Hashem has his ways, ways which we don't always understand. And Hashem brings destructions to the world in order to stimulate us to do teshuvah (penance).

19-year-old student Ner Israel Yeshiva

Baltimore

Unfortunately we don't know the reasons, but I believe there were reasons. But God doesn't have to let us know His reasons. His job is not to answer us. Maybe in thirty or forty years we'll find out the reasons. And even though He had His reasons, it was a very sad story that we had to fall so low to deserve that.

17-year-old student Mirrer Yeshiva

Brooklyn

In this last quote and the one preceding it, it is possible to discern the tension between total acceptance on the one hand and the need for answers on the other. Both students state that God's ways are unfathomable. Yet both seem to be groping for reasons, with one saying God wants "to stimulate us to do teshuvah (penance)" and the other remarking how " low" the Jewish commu- nity must have sunk "to deserve that." Does this posi- tion mean that a search for answers is wrong? Not quite. There is a subtle distinction being made here between doubting and searching, between explanations and re- sponses. While the Orthodox viewpoint does not regard it as appropriate to advance specific explanations for the Holocaust, it recognizes the trauma that the event evokes and the resulting need to understand it. Thus Rabbi Joseph Elias of Breuer's Yeshiva speaks of "searching for a clue to the meaning of events" and of trying "to provide some key to the disaster that befell us." Yet be- neath all the groping and theorizing is the recognition that the need to provide meaning is, more than anything else, evidence of man's frailty and fallibility.

The quest for understanding inevitably leads to the notion of wrongdoing--that some sin or sins are respon- sible for such calamities. Addressing himself to this topic, Rabbi Mordechai Gifter of Telshe Yeshiva in Cleveland states the Orthodox position:

The navi (prophet) explains that the exile from Je- rusalem is a result of sin--is a relationship of crime and subsequent punishment--whether we under- stand the sin or not. Punishment is not brought without sin and there is no churban (destruction) that is not punishment.

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This is, however, a general response, for man is viewed as incapable of knowing for what specific sin(s) he is being punished.

While not citing it as a cause and effect relationship, Rabbi Elias notes the "coincidence" of assimilationist tendencies among the Jews during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the fact that the Holocaust occurred subsequent to these developments, observing pointedly that Berlin was the birthplace of such ideas. He also mentions the development of the Jewish enlighten- ment and the rise of secular nationalism (read Zionism) which he regards as an effort to imply that the Jewish na- tion was like any other nation. Rather than serving to ex- plain the Holocaust, these statements constitute an attack against those in the Jewish community who regarded the culture and lifestyle of the larger society as the embodi- ment of their hopes and dreams.

As much as anything, it is the magnitude of the catas- trophe that raises questions and is so disturbing. Rabbi Gifler comments that "other nations sin and yet their punishment is not so severe." It is here that the special relationship that purportedly exists between God and the Jewish people is introduced to explain its suffering. Like a child with his parents,

We are assured that we do have . . . . A Father in Heaven who cares for us and is concerned enough with our spiritual status to demonstrate his disfavor [italics added].

In this manner, the pain experienced by the Jewish peo- ple is seen as a process by which they become purified.

The question of resistance is a gravely disturbing one to many Jews today. Even as they read the accounts of Jewish resistance, there seems to be a nagging question about why it did not occur on a wider and more massive scale. In a study I conducted in 1973 on the question of how young Jews today feel about the Holocaust, it be- came evident that many of them could not understand what they perceived as abject surrender. The following responses were typical:

Why didn't they fight? Some did, but not enough. No one really had the courage to stand up. Not even the American Jews.

19-year-old sophomore Brooklyn College

The Jews just sort of accepted it and went off to the concentration camps like sheep.

18-year-old freshman Yale University

How did the Jews let themselves be led to the camps? Why didn't they fight back? If I was going to a camp I think I would have fought back and refused to go.

20-year-old junior City College of New York

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One student at Yale said he was taking a course in Jewish identity because he was "'sick and tired of my own pic- ture of the Jew as a sniveling coward." Further probing revealed a lack of awareness of the odds confronting the Jewish community during this period. Few seemed to take into account that the Jews were a civilian popula- tion, that they lived amongst peoples who were hostile to them, that they lacked weapons, and that their failure to resist was no different from the response of others who came under Nazi rule. Almost all appeared to resent having to carry the burden of identification with a people perceived by others as "passive and unresisting."

Those interviewed on this subject in the yeshiva com- munity displayed far greater awareness of the difficult circumstances that had faced European Jewry. While such awareness may be due in part to the fact that they were interviewed four and five years later, when general knowledge of the Holocaust had risen considerably, they probably knew more partly because so many had parents and other relatives who had survived the experience. In fact, quite a few cited their parents as having influenced their perceptions:

My parents explained to me that nothing like this had ever happened before. Oh sure, Jews had been persecuted, but no czar or pope had ever said: "We're going to kill all of you."

20-year-old student Chaim Berlin Yeshiva

Brooklyn

My uncle lived in a small town in Poland and it was impossible to resist. He and some of his friends went to the local Polish partisan organiza- tion and they refused to help them because they were Jewish.

24-year-old student Beis Medrash Govoha

Lakewood, N.J.

The concept of martyrdom (kiddush Hashem) has been glorified through the centuries by believing Jews who saw it as a way in which the Jew sanctified God's name and frustrated the oppressor by escaping from his temporal world. Unlike the secular Jew, the Jew who had faith could find dignity and fulfillment in the belief that death is an act of destiny.

This does not at all mean that the Orthodox foreswore resistance during the Nazi era. There were numerous cases of Orthodox Jews who resisted violently. But when such action was suicidal, it became very important to imbue one's death with spiritual meaning. Moreover, there were countless instances of nonviolent resistance, as Orthodox Jews took great risks and endured severe hardships to uphold their faith. This point is repeatedly emphasized by those in the yeshiva world. Rabbi Yisroel Saperstein writes in a religious journal:

Jews who smuggled into the concentration camps tefillin (phylacteries), Chumashim (Bibles) . . . in- stead of an extra morsel of food, or their jewels, or m o n e y . . . Jews who lit Chanukah neiros (candles) in the depths of Auschwitz and Buchenwald-- where they had a minyan (quorum for a religious service). . . Jews who baked matzos in the Kluga Death Camp in Estonia.

For Orthodox Jews, as well as for Jews in general, the proper question on this subject seems to be not "Why did the Jews fail to resist?" but rather, "How is it possible to resist under such circumstances?"

Search for Meaning

Although, as already indicated, the Orthodox do not believe that the Holocaust necessarily occurred because of a specific sin, they do see it as a warning to those who think it possible to escape one's Jewishness by renounc- ing the faith. They point out that Hitler did not distin- guish between those who were or were not observant. Besides viewing it as a verification of their non-assimi- lationist position, they see the tragedy as providing an impetus for some in the community to repent.

The Holocaust has a special significance for under- standing how the yeshiva community looks at the world. Since its members were particularly hard hit, the com- munity possesses a deep-rooted suspicion of the non- Jewish world that far transcends the question of differing belief systems. In an interview Rabbi Yaakov Ruder- man, head of the Ner Israel Yeshiva, expressed deep pessimism when asked about the implications of the Holocaust:

People think the Holocaust made the world feel sympathy for the Jews but it really didn't result in sympathy. It just showed that it could be done. There is more anti-Semitism than ever before. From the Holocaust we learned that you can't even trust educated Gentiles.

A student at Breuer's Yeshiva echoed these comments when he said:

Sure it can happen again. And I don't think anyone would care. All you need is one person to rouse everybody. You're never safe from another Holocaust. Remember that Germany was very civilized and technologically advanced. Yet it hap- pened there.

Such anxieties are heightened by the fact that those non-Jews with whom the yeshiva student has contact are often those who insult and revile him. Because of his dress, the yeshiva student, like his Hasidic counterpart, is frequently a target for ethnic slurs and even attacks. Virtually no yeshiva student has grown up without at least one such encounter. As a student at Yeshiva Torah Vodaas put it:

When I lived in the Bronx as a kid, I used to be called names by the Puerto Ricans and the Blacks. But even now, in Englewood, New Jersey, there'll be white middle-class kids who'll throw pennies at me on Shabbos (the Sabbath) as I come home from shul (synagogue).

The impact of such experiences upon a population so directly affected by the Holocaust can result in a fear of anti-Semitism even where it is unlikely to be a factor. For example, accounting is a field where the presence of observant Jews, many of whom wear yarmulkes while at work, is not unusual. Yet a student at one yeshiva ex- pressed considerable apprehension that he might be de- nied a job if he let it be known that he was Jewish:

A lot of my friends are going for interviews to ac- counting firms and they say when they go to the interviews they plan to take their yarmulkes off. The reason is that they're afraid of any anti- Semitism that will prevent them from getting a job.

As a result of such attitudes, many of which take root quite early in the student's life, contact with those who are not Jewish is limited even after the young man de- parts from the yeshiva and begins making his way into the world. It is a position that is considerably buttressed by the knowledge that dietary and other religious restric- tions would, in any event, impose severe limitations upon socializing with those who do not share similar val- ues and practices.

As part of the general increase in attention to the sub- ject, the Jewish community at large has designated a spe- cial day to commemorate the Holocaust. The strictly Orthodox have unequivocally rejected this idea on two interrelated grounds, one philosophical, the other prag- matic. In their view the Holocasut is not, in any funda- mental way, a unique event in Jewish history, but simply the latest in a long chain of anti-Jewish persecutions that began with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and continued with the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisi- tion, the fierce attacks on the Jews in the Ukraine in 1648 led by Bogdan Chmielnicki, and the hundreds of po- groms to which the Jewish community has been sub- jected over the centuries. They do admit that the Holocaust was unique in scale and proportion, but do not consider this a distinction justifying its elevation into a separate category. Moreover, they argue that the prob- lem is no different if one Jew is murdered than if six mil- lion meet with such a fate. While they recognize the psy- chological value of commemorating the event, they be- lieve that to observe it as a separate day would demean and minimize the significance of Tisha Ba'av (the Ninth of Ab), the official day of mourning for the destruction of the Temple, which they regard as the greatest of all catastrophes. Rather than separately memorialize the Holocaust, they would prefer to see it incorporated into the observances marking Tisha Ba'av, with separate prayers for those who died during this era.

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If the Holocaust is not to be treated as a singular event, the Orthodox do, nonetheless, feel that certain very im- portant lessons can be drawn from it. Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner, the late head of the Chaim Berlin Yeshiva, ar- gues that the Holocaust was the culmination of a one- hundred-and-fifty-year period in which the centuries old pattern of Gentile-Jewish interaction underwent a fun- damental change for the first time since the days of the Temple:

There was a shift from generations of Gentile mis- treatment of Jews which, if unwelcome, was nevertheless expected and indeed announced by our oppressors--to an era where promises of equality were made and then broken, rights were granted and then revoked, benevolence was antici- pated, only to be crushed by cruel malevolence.

As examples, Rabbi Hutner cites various rights granted to Jews in the wake of the French Revolution that were later invalidated or never kept; the Soviet Minority Rights Law, later abolished by Stalin; and the Balfour Declaration, which was followed by Britain's anti- Jewish policies in Palestine. Finally, he notes the turn- about in German-Jewish relations a hundred and ten years after the Jews were presumably "emancipated" by Prince Karl August von Hardenberg. In Rabbi Hutner's eyes, these events are part of an overall historical pattern that "reflects the greater cosmic plan of the Creator of the universe" and that is part of a process that will eventually result in redemption for the Jewish people.

Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, head of Breuer's Yeshiva, as- serts that the "grief and suffering" brought about by the Holocaust should be directed "towards specific spiritual needs." In his view it is imperative that Jews extract positive lessons from the Holocaust, quoting a passage attributed to the eighteenth-century sage, Rabbi Mendele Kotzker: "He who is a l ive . . , should then remind him- self that he lives yet ." Rabbi Perlow sees the challenge of the Holocaust as one in which what was lost must be rebuilt:

It demands of our diminished people . . , that their Yiddishkeit (Jewishness in the religious sense) and their actions must consciously replace that of our perished brethren . . . . Every Ben Torah (student of the Bible) must live with the compelling realization that his learning has to make up for that of ten like him whose lives were swept up in the flames.

Teaching and Reflection

There are no course, seminars, or lectures on the Holocaust in any of the strictly Orthodox, advanced yeshivas. Occasionally, a teacher or dean will talk about the era, but almost never as a separate topic. Since the elementary and high-school yeshivas from which most seminary students graduated also have not presented material or talks on the subject, students are compelled to learn about these events on their own. On the other hand,

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since at least some available reading material on the Holocaust is acceptable to the strictly Orthodox, and since many students come from families where the topic has often been broached, one might ask whether teaching it is really necessary.

Interviews with students revealed that many felt un- comfortable about their lack of knowledge on the sub- ject. They were au courant with the history of the period but had questions concerning some of the theological implications discussed earlier. The following discussion took place in 1978 among seven students in the dormi- tory of one of the well-known yeshivas. It was about 2:00 A.M., and we had been speaking for four hours. As a re- suit, the participants, although tired, were sufficiently relaxed in my presence to indicate their true feelings.

Student One: The discussion doesn't even come up in the yeshiva about the Holocaust. No one ever talks about it.

Student Two: But that doesn't mean that people don't to themselves.. .

Student Three: Yeah, they come to terms with it.

Student Four: I don't think everyone here has dealt with it. [nods of agreement]

Student Three: Yeah, but people may not want to think about something so painful.

Student Five: If God wants it that way, then that's the way it should be.

Student One: Oh c'mon! When Rav Hutner wrote about the Holocaust in the Jewish Observer, he didn't say that. He gave reasons about why it hap- pened.

Student Six: Yes, but when you're in a yeshiva en- vironment these things aren't going to bother you especially when ultimately you don't have very good answers anyway. [italics added]

Student Four: Well, I find myself asking the ques- tion, but I don't have a good answer. So what am I going to do about it?

Student Seven: I 'm satisfied knowing that my par- ents dealt with it. We're in a different generation. I guess my mind is just on other things.

Student Two [addressing me]: You know, you can't just write about what we say. The attitudes around here vary a lot and are sometimes opposed to each other.

Student Four: Well I have a lot of questions. I mean when the Holocaust was coming to Europe

and Jabotinsky said " I have the answer. We should all go to Israel, prrrrr, just like that," and the Gedolim (sages) what did they say? " N o . . . I think we should sit and learn another blatt (page) Gemora (Talmud)." If they knew philosophy . . . . if they knew what was going on, why didn't they turn to their people and say--"Gentlemen, this is what's happening"? Because they felt people should be willing to sacrifice themselves. But it's still a big question to me.

At this point several of the others began shouting at Stu- dent Four, accusing him of, among other things, blas- phemy, while others sprang to his defense.

No attempt will be made here to analyze in detail the import of the comment made by these students. Each person can judge them for himself. It would seem appa- rent, however, that not only is there confusion in the minds of some, but anxiety and pain as well. Throughout the discussion there was a certain defensiveness in the tone of some of the students. Afterwards one young man who had taken the view throughout that one ought not to question in this area, approached me and said: "You know, I think it isn't so much that we have questions but sometimes it helps when you can talk about something like that." Based on my own observations, perhaps no other topic in the yeshiva is discussed so extensively among the students, while almost never brought up at the official level by institution authorities.

To date, the advanced rabbinical seminaries have not taken any steps to discuss these issues. In its present form, there is simply no room in the schedule. The stu- dents study Talmud the entire day in the belief that this is the best way to achieve closeness to God. Some leaders have suggested that a course dealing with the Holocaust be offered on a voluntary basis during the students' free time. Whatever the case, discussion of the Holocaust is likely to grow within the yeshiva community as a new generation attempts to come to grips with its implica- tions. When this occurs, some difficult questions are going to be asked. Why did American Jews, most of whom were not Orthodox, escape the Holocaust? If the Holocaust was meant to be a special message to Or- thodox Jews that they were expected to do more, then why were nonobservant Jews also punished? If the Holocaust was meant to serve as a warning against the temptations of secular nationalism, then why did Zionists who left for Palestine before the war survive? Might not Hitler's racial anti-Semitism teach that all Jews are one, even the non-Orthodox? How the community answers such questions will be a reflection of its strengthas well as an indication of its ability to remain a powerful force within Judaism.l'-I

William B. Helmreich is professor of sociology and Judaic studies at the City College of New York and the City University Graduate Center. He is the author of two recenly published books, The World of the Yeshiva: An Intimate Portrait of Or- thodox Jewry and The Things They Say Behind Your Back.