|
"The
Holocaust as Change Agent" (review of Major Changes in the
Jewish People in the Wake of the Holocaust: Proceedings of the Ninth
Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, June 1993, edited by
Yisrael Gutman)
Since the
conference book under review covers a wide range of topics, and
Feingold found it difficult to locate a binding theme, he focuses
his review on the articles dealing with subjects that concern, but
are not confined to, Israeli scholars. Did Zionist ideology better
equip leaders to discern the developing threat in Europe? Was the
Zionist movement caught unprepared? What was the relationship
between the founding of the Jewish state and the Holocaust? What is
the historical valence of the Holocaust? Feingold finds that clear
answers still elude us, whether because the historical context is
not yet entirely clear, or because some of the questions are still
too laden with emotion. One major change in the Jewish people is
clear according to Feingold: little remains of the pre-Holocaust
European Jewish culture that served as the incubator of Zionism
whose abundance nourished Diaspora Judaism. At the same time, its
derivative Jewish cultures in Israel and the United States have thus
far managed to prevent the realization of the larger Nazi objective
of totally obliterating the Jewish presence in the world. |
