MANY QUESTIONS, FEW ANSWERS: THE HOLOCAUST IN THE THEOLOGY OF LOUIS JACOBS

Abstract

Louis Jacobs identified the Holocaust—and the creation of Israel—as the two most significant events influencing contemporary Jewish consciousness. Yet his engagement with the theological implications of the Holocaust is notably limited. Since many of his writings are focused on issues facing those he termed “the Jew in the pew,” this absence of detailed consideration of the theological questions posed by the Holocaust seems particularly perplexing. This paper will consider if there is an explanation for this lacuna.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. See http://louisjacobs.org/pdf/bibliography.pdf for a bibliography of Louis Jacobs's writings.

2. Jacobs (1989) produced an autobiography which provides his own account of his life story (see also Cosgrove 2008).

3. The appeal of Telz Yeshiva in particular could have derived from the fact that his father's family was from the town. It was also the Telzer method of analytic talmudic study that he imbibed in Manchester Yeshiva, and he explains in his autobiography that he felt his studies would be extended by the type of learning he would encounter in the Telz yeshiva itself. Although he never made it there, Gershon Greenberg offers an account of the theology taught there as the yeshiva came under German occupation and suffered at the hands of the Nazis that blended Musar (ethical) thought with the Telzer method of talmudic analysis. The result was not so much to explain suffering as to fit it into an established account of God and human obligation that could be seen to resonate with the position Jacobs would develop (see Greenberg 2004).

4. Formal prayers of intercession on behalf of Jews under Nazi rule began to be composed by the Office of Chief Rabbi from 1933 (see Hertz 1938, vol. 1, 366–367). A number of others would follow. See Tomlin (2006, 204ff.) for further analysis of the role in British Jewry of special prayers during the War, their influence across the Orthodox spectrum, and his comment on the lack of originality in the composition of these prayers.

5. For consideration of the efforts by differing bodies working in the Jewish community in Britain to ameliorate the situation of Continental Europe's Jews, analysis of the press coverage in the varied available publications, and broader discussion of British Jewry's response to the Second World War and the Holocaust, see Alderman (1998), 265–320, Bolchover (2003), Wasserstein (1993), Kushner (1994), London (2000), Tomlin (2006), Shatzkes (2002), Shindler (2003), Cesarani (2003), and Gorny (2012). On the press coverage in Britain of the Final Solution, Gorny interestingly praises the coverage of the Jewish Chronicle, recognizing the difficulties it faced in a British context (184). This can be contrasted with Cesarani's more critical assessment of the newspaper: “Throughout the first part of 1943, even at the height of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, the Jewish Chronicle's leading articles dealt with controversies at the Board of Deputies and parochial matters such as the development of Jews’ College” (185). Yet Cesarani notes also how the newspaper faced

unremitting pressure … to avoid the appearance of “special pleading.” … While the nation's very existence was at stake, it was an unpropitious time for one, small section of it to assert the plight of its co-religionists in occupied Europe. (188)

6. Jacobs recalled how at his wedding in Manchester in 1944, Dessler, who had travelled to attend, prepared some ash to put on Jacobs's head, to symbolize an awareness of the limits of his joy in a period of exile. Since this was placed under the top hat Jacobs was wearing, the blending of the yeshiva world and a more modern Orthodoxy, a feature of both the wedding and Jacobs's future life, was readily apparent in this act (see Jacobs 1989, 65). For an uncritical, hagiographic account of Dessler's life see Rosenblum (2000). For further analysis of Dessler's thought, see also Ross (1984).

7. Tomlin (2006, 116) notes how rabbis volunteered for short-term service in Germany at camps in Belsen, Celle, and Diepholz. Regarding post-war appeals for material support, see 198ff.

8. Shindler (2003) assessing coverage of Nazi anti-Semitism and the Holocaust in the British national press notes: “In the monocultural world of the 1930s, Jews who did not assimilate and dissolve into the wider society were suspect. They manifested a distinct form of ‘un-Englishness’ by their insistence on maintaining their difference.” Nonetheless,

the very notion of Nazi anti-Semitism was similarly un-English. It was an affront against the liberal conscience and struck at the roots of a civilized behaviour which characterized the English way of life. It was a competition between these two dislikes which confused and characterized British understanding and response. (157)

The perceived necessity for British Jewry to demonstrate its Englishness was also evident in the selection of a new chief rabbi after the War, following the death of Hertz in 1946. One explanation for Alexander Altmann, one of the leading contenders, being rejected was his German background. It should be noted that Altmann and Siegfried Stein—both German Jews—were two of Jacobs's most important teachers once he left yeshiva (see Cosgrove 2008).

9. For an analysis of the Jacobs Affair which purportedly developed in response to Jacobs's published views on revelation, see Freud-Kandel (2006, 123ff.). See also the analysis of events leading up to the Jacobs Affair in Cosgrove (2008).

10. Brodie acknowledged the importance of the Holocaust in his thought in his final conference address at the Conference of Anglo-Jewish Preachers in May 1965. He commented there how “two dominant motifs,” the Holocaust and the significance of the State of Israel, “have possessed me during these seventeen years [as chief rabbi] and appear whenever I seek to impress religious obligations which lie upon the Remnant in Israel” (1969, 84). See further Brodie (1959).

11. Diner (2009) has notably critiqued the received account regarding popular avoidance of considerations of the Holocaust. In a British context, theological engagement was limited. Distinctions between a Holocaust consciousness and consideration of its theological implications may also more broadly be relevant. For further consideration of the development of Holocaust theology, see also Greenberg (1994). In Greenberg, Katz, and Biderman (2006, 11), he notes the work that has been required by himself and others including Eliezer Schweid, Pesach Schindler, and Mendel Piekarz to overturn the assumptions of both historians and theologians regarding Jewish thought's silence about the Shoah prior to its “reawakening” in the 1960s.

12. Jacobs's position here in certain respects assumes the Holocaust is not unique in Jewish experience. As such, it is interesting to note the contribution of Steven T. Katz to the Jacobs festschrift (Cohn-Sherbok 1991). Katz's essay addresses the question of the uniqueness of the Holocaust and posits that “It is not at all clear to me that there is a direct, and preferred, theological meaning to be drawn from the exceptionality of this event” (42). Rather, arguments about uniqueness “represent, in essence, a priori impositions that are extrinsic to the Death Camps and rooted in deeply held prior theological positions” (43).

13. I am grateful to Paul Morris, Ivor Jacobs, Naomi Bar-Yosef, and others for sharing their personal recollections.

14. Examples of such survey literature include Jacobs (1968b, 1987, 1991, 1995b, 2003, 2005). The one publication where Jacobs does have a chapter on the Holocaust is a textbook he produced (1984).

15. See, for example, Jacobs (1991, 12). It should nonetheless be noted that in a review of Berkovits's Faith After the Holocaust, Jacobs acknowledges the author's

honest attempt not exactly to solve the problem of evil but to show how a man of faith can learn to live with it and yet remain secure in his faith. There is no facile optimism in this passionate book.” (Jewish Journal of Sociology, 25:2, (Summer, 1974) 348)

16. See Jacobs (1990) which exemplifies the traditionalism of his beliefs about God.

17. This idea is expressed by John Keats in a letter to his siblings George and Georgiana Keats, 21 April 1819: “Call the world if you please ‘The vale of Soul-making’” (see Scott 2002, 290). It is quoted frequently by Jacobs and highlights his efforts to construct a bridge between two world views by using ideas from English literature to express religious teachings.

18. See, for example, Avot 4:17

Better is one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world than the whole life of the World to Come; and better is one hour of blissfulness of spirit in the World to Come than the whole life of this world.

19. See also Wittenberg (2008–2009).

Additional information

Miri Freud-Kandel is Fellow in Modern Judaism at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies and teaches for the faculties of Oriental Studies and Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford.