Jewish Theologians

Many of the Theologians which will be discussed, were alive during the Shoah and the terror of the Third Reich, but did much of their writing later, sifting through the difficult doctrine's of what seemed to be God's Silence in the Holocaust and the constant role of Pain in Jewish existence. ¹ Jewish theology of the day took mainly two roads: one path encouraged a new Jewish Humanism, abandoning traditional concepts of God and Being, and the other, opposite point of view urged a return to Jewish Identity and meaning in relationship to the God of Israel. Some felt the need to push politically for the rebirth of Israel, and others argued it must be done in providence only: it was on this scene that the Pogrom of centuries wandered.
Below are included historical Jewish influences, WWII influences and modern day influences.

MARTIN BUBER

As a young man, Martin Buber was grew keenly aware of his role as a Jew in the World. While being raised in European Culture, as he entered his twenties his concern for the identity of the Jews increased: he became at a young age a representative of the World Zionist Organization. Known as a philosopher, theologian and existentialist, his concept of the "I-Thou" relationship and the importance of our relationship with God and Man as utterly authentic, as well as the critical nature of a name and personhood before God, he became an outspoken critic of the Third Reich, and of nominal German Theologians who made the policies of the 3rd Reich palatable to Christians and the world community. [see Kittl]. Forced to flee from the oppression of Hitler, he continued his warnings about the devouring nature of the new regime. He resigned from University of Frankfurt in 1933, and was exiled in 1938, leaving for Jerusalem, but not before beginning a Jewish Education Program for those segregated by the 3rd Reich. He continued as a worldwide voice in Jewish Theology and Humanism until his death in 1965

VIKTOR FRANKEL

Viktor Frankel was one of the many victims of a concentration camp in WWII. During his long days of suffering, he examined with care and concern, the means a person has of surviving the worst circumstances of earth. Jewish but perhaps not traditional theologically, he found he could 'create his own meaning', which was to become the foundation for his later existential position expressed in his famous work "Man's Search for Meaning". Frankel found he could survive terrible ordeals of beatings and cruelty by forcing his mental state: remembering for example, happier times when he and his wife were together. While Frankel is not included by all as a Jewish Theologian per se, his influence has been greatly felt in modern theology.

ELI WIESEL

The Name Eli Wiesel is probably better known than most other Holocaust survivals . Born in Sighet Hungary, the Nazis did not reach the village till later in the war. At prayer in the Synagogue, the Nazis marched in and violently took captive and deported most in the village. Separated from his mother and sister, Eli Wiesel was taken to Auschwitz with his father to encounter horrors that most young men can never imagine. Wiesel left Auschwitz the only surving member of his family and went on to be a journalist and then writer and theologian in Europe and the U.S. writing voluminously and poignantly about Jewish life, identity and the Shoah. His theology shows in such works as Night (& the trilogy); A Jew Today"; & "The Trial of God", as well as many other works. An orthodox Jew, he has won many awards and held a position in Theology at Boston University, and is greatly responsible with others such as Simon Wiesenthal and Michael Berenbaum for bringing the suffering of the Jewish people during history and the Shoah to light.

JEWISH WRITERS AND THEOLOGIANS INFLUENCING SHOAH THEOLOGY

This Section is Currently under Construction

SPINOZA

KARL MARX

DR.SIGMUND FREUD

THEODOR HERZL

M. MENDELSSOHN

FOOTNOTES

1. The Reason not much is pre-eminent in Jewish theology and Writing from about 1930 to 1945 in Germany and Europe is certainly not a lack of writing or will to write, but due to the nature of the times. A wave of Anti-Semitism was sweeping Europe after 1914, as the Jews were equated with Bolshevism , or early communism and were considered degenerate and marxist. Anti-Semites taught the dangerous myth of Jewish World Control, and even before the race laws and civil rights restrictions of 1933 and 1935, it had become very difficult for Jewish Theologians, Philosophers, Academics, Musicians, Artists and Government Workers to either keep their positions or speak and write openly. Many writers obtained agents outside Germany in order to keep their copyrights and ability to publish. Public performances and speeches were banned, and by 1933, one had to be a member of the Party in order to keep University Positions, of which a criteria was Aryanism. Jews became 'guests' in Germany and not citizens, unable to access normal civil procedures, and open practice of Judaism was discouraged.