After Auschwitz, Jerusalem: In Memory of My Teacher, Leo Baeck.

After Auschwitz, Jerusalem: In Memory of My Teacher, Leo Baeck. I BEGIN BY THANKING PROFESSOR AMIR WHO HAS introduced me. The factthat it was he who introduced me has been emotional for me if onlybecause his father, Yehoshua Amir, was a fellow student of mine, backuntil 1938, of Leo Leo, in astronomyLeo[Lat.,=the lion], northern constellation lying S of Ursa Major and on the ecliptic (apparent path of the sun through the heavens) between Cancer and Virgo; it is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Baeck's at the Hochschule fur die Wissenschaftdes Judentums Wissenschaft des Judentums ("the science of Judaism" in German), refers to a nineteenth-century movement premised on the critical investigation of Jewish literature and culture, including rabbinic literature, using scientific methods to analyze the origins of Jewish traditions. in Berlin. Then he came on Aljyah, soon was expert inHebrew, good enough not only to teach but also, no mean task, totranslate Franz Rosenzweig's Stern der Erlosung. Once, as Hebrew teacher he welcomed Holocaust survivors There are many famous Holocaust survivors who survived the Nazi genocides in Europe and went on to achievements of great fame and notability. Those listed here were, at the very least, residents of the parts of Europe occupied by the Axis powers during World War II who survived in Israel,it must have been in the late 1940s or early 1950s, for Hanukkah. In1978, at a conference in Cologne, Germany he quoted what he said tothem: [1] Friends, let us kindle A portable e-book device from Amazon.com that provides wireless connectivity to Amazon for e-book downloads as well as Wikipedia and search engines. Using Sprint's EV-DO cellphone network, dubbed WhisperNet, wireless access is free. It also includes a built-in dictionary. the Hanukkah light What can I tell you ? Iknow where you come from. I can understand, if one of you tells me"`no longer believe in anything, not in God, not in man, not inlife. I have seen too much." But you have come to Israel, andperhaps for the first time in many, many years you feel: here I amwanted, here I am accepted, and here I am loved. You know we want togive you everything we can: a language, a place to live, company,friends, in a word, home. And now we kindle the Hanukkah light. Perhapsyou too can say in this hour: "a miracle has happened to us." In the midst Adv. 1. in the midst - the middle or central part or point; "in the midst of the forest"; "could he walk out in the midst of his piece?"midmost of a world of darkness--death, lie and blood--we havefound a jug of pure oil and with this oil we have kindled kin��dle?1?v. kin��dled, kin��dling, kin��dlesv.tr.1. a. To build or fuel (a fire).b. To set fire to; ignite.2. alight. Afirst light in a new candlestick CandlestickA price chart that displays the high, low, open, and close for a security each day over a specified period of time. in the world. This has been, and is, my attempt to give an answer to Auschwitz. Gunther B. Ginzel, the editor of the book, adds: "The 220participants in the seminar were so deeply touched by Amir'slecture that the attempt of a discussion afterwards did not take place.This was largely due to the visibly moved Rabbi Amir who, 40 yearsearlier, hand in hand with his father, had stood before the burningsynagogue in Essen. This behavior of the listeners is all the moreremarkable since more then half the participants were born after the endof the war." The lecture that had begun this way was given at Hebrew UnionCollege The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (also known as HUC, HUC-JIR, and The College-Institute) is the oldest Jewish seminary in the New World and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism. , Jerusalem, on November 7, 2000, and two days after there musthave been memorial observances of Kristallnacht, 1938, in Berlin andVienna. But I doubt whether stress was placed on Leo Baeck Leo Baeck (May 23, 1873 – November 2, 1956) was an 20th century German-Polish-Jewish Rabbi, scholar, and a leader of Progressive Judaism.Baeck was born in Lissa (then in the Posen province of Germany, now in Poland) and began his education near Breslau at the (in whosememory my lecture is given), and I doubt even more whether stress waslaid, in either place, on "After Auschwitz, Jerusalem," mymain topic. (My lecture itself will show that the comma is notsuperfluous.) For those old enough to remember, and those too young to haveexperienced it, Kristallnacht 1938 was the last occasion the Hitlerregime could have been toppled-by the world without, or Germans braveenough, righteous enough, but not all that many--and there would havebeen no war, no 50 million dead, no Holocaust. For me there is a resemblance between Berlin, 1935-1938 andJerusalem 1983--today: Berlin then was, Jerusalem is now, the place ofJewish action Jewish Action is an American Orthodox Jewish magazine published by the Orthodox Union.The magazine generally presents a Modern Orthodox viewpoint, and covers "topics of interest to an international Orthodox Jewish audience... , Jewish events. But there is one difference, and it istruly vast: Berlin was where some of us, I included, got out, with greatluck, by action. In Jerusalem I will stay, also with great luck, thistime with no action of mine involved, ad meah v-esrim till "ahundred and twenty." Rabbi Leo Baeck stayed in Berlin, on a principle that wasmomentous: he would stay there so long as even a minyan min��yan?n. pl. min��ya��nim or min��yansThe minimum number of ten adult Jews or, among the Orthodox, Jewish men required for a communal religious service. was left. Heknew the Nazis wanted Germany to be judenrein, but could not have knownof the practice, carried out by none more diabolically, systematicallythan Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich (7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was an SS-Obergruppenf��hrer, chief of the Reich Security Main Office (including the Gestapo, SD and Kripo Nazi police agencies) and Reichsprotektor (Reich Protector) of Bohemia and Moravia. , of my own home town of Halle, toward his--as itwere, "messianic"--goal, not by mass expulsion but by massmurder at Treblinka, Auschwitz, other places. As German-born, American-educated historian Klaus Fischer Klaus Fischer (born 27 December 1949 in Kreuzstra?l near Lindberg (Bayerischer Wald) in Regen (district), Germany) is a former German football player and coach. Career haswritten, such as Reinhard Heydrich forced Jews "to organize theirown destruction, and pay for every penny of it, a scheme worthy of theworst sadists." [2] Philosophers must find anew, more adequate definition of"sadism": the Marquis de Sade Noun 1. Marquis de Sade - French soldier and writer whose descriptions of sexual perversion gave rise to the term `sadism' (1740-1814)Comte Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade, de Sade, Sade is no longer enough. In his younger days Leo Baeck had already fought for Judaism, in areview of Adolf von Harnack's supposedly liberal, in factfashionably anti-Jewish Essence of Christianity, and later had writtenhis own famous, much revised, much reprinted "Essence ofJudaism." But now, already at 60, Baeck, with war on Nazism a new necessity,had begun his own campaign by 1935, in a Kol Nidre Kol Nidre:see Yom Kippur. Kol NidrePrayer sung in Jewish synagogues at the start of services on the eve of Yom Kippur. The prayer begins with an expression of repentance for all unfulfilled vows, oaths, and promises to God during the previous year. prayer, distributedin Berlin synagogues. Its climax was as follows: We stand before our God. With the same resolution with which wehave confessed our sins, personal and collective, let us say that weperceive with revulsion the lies uttered against us, the false chargesmade against our faith and its defenders. Let us trample theseabominations Abominations is a 3 issues Marvel Comics limited series created by Ivan Velez Jr (writer), Angel Medina (penciller) and Brad Vancata (inker).ran from Dec 1996 to Feb 1997 1 - follows events in Hulk: Future Imperfect. beneath our feet. His prayer ended: We are filled with sorrow and affliction. Standing in silencebefore our God we express what lies on our souls. May this mute prayergo forth and be heard above all other sound. [3] But, with their bark of Heil Hitler, even in the prayers ofDeutsche Christen chris��ten?tr.v. chris��tened, chris��ten��ing, chris��tens1. a. To baptize into a Christian church.b. To give a name to at baptism.2. a. , the Berlin mute prayer was not heard. But for thisand subsequent efforts, Baeck was jailed, five times. When I came to the Berlin Hockschule, later in the same year, Baeckwas head of the Reichsvertretung, the emergency organization of GermanJews The Jewish presence in Germany is older than Christianity; the first Jewish population came with the Romans to the city Cologne. A "Golden Age" in the first millennium saw the emergence of the Ashkenazi Jews, while the persecution and expulsion that followed the Crusades led to the , not because he was "chief rabbi "Chief Rabbinate" redirects here. See also Chief Rabbinate of Israel.Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognised religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. "--there was no suchinstitution in Germany--but for two reasons: first, because of thegenerally-held Jewish view--orthodox, liberal as well assecularist--merely--"racial"--that in this time of anguishthere was no one else, even remotely comparable; and, secondly, becauseBaeck himself considered it his duty. One may be sure he did not enjoyit. Baeck accepted this office not in spite, but because of the fact,that he recognized, sooner than most others, that this, after a thousandyears, was the end of German Jewry, of German Judaism. Hence, although he had to meet Nazi officials, perhaps once a week,he also taught the twenty or thirty of us twice a week, and doing so wasmore important to him than meeting Nazis; this was not just ourimpression, it was so in fact: no wonder we listened. One of his subjects was Midrash. I remember one Midrash he taughtus, on Shir ha-Shirim 2:7: I adjure ad��jure?tr.v. ad��jured, ad��jur��ing, ad��jures1. To command or enjoin solemnly, as under oath: "adjuring her in the name of God to declare the truth" you, 0 daughters of Jerusalem by the gazelles, and by the hinds of the field that you awaken not, nor stir up love until it please. This midrash takes the "Song of Songs" as referring, notto secular love but to the love between God and Israel. Baeck taught usthis Midrash in Berlin, and perhaps also in Theresienstadt, where he wasdeported; but, accidentally surviving the Nazi Reich, can he havetaughtitin London and Cincinnati, where he was until his death in 1956?The pious among Jews had waited long for divine Love, much too long, andthen came Treblinka, Auschwitz and all the other places of mass murder. Perhaps the answer to the question--did Baeck teach this Midrash inLondon or Cincinnati?--lies in the other subject he taught in Berlin:homiletics hom��i��let��ics?n. (used with a sing. verb)The art of preaching.homileticsthe art of sacred speaking; preaching. — homiletic, homiletical adj. , preaching, and how to do it. One word must never appear in asermon, he taught us--the word "I," "Ego." He notonly taught us this lesson but also practiced it in his own life: hetook the horrors he knew, silently, to his grave. After the Third Reich Third ReichOfficial designation for the Nazi Party's regime in Germany from January 1933 to May 1945. The name reflects Adolf Hitler's conception of his expansionist regime—which he predicted would last 1,000 years—as the presumed successor of the Holy Roman was over I visited Baeck in London. He toldme about how he and another had pulled a heavy wagon in Theresienstadtand, while pulling it, that they discussed Plato and Isaiah. I muchwanted to ask him about Nazi crimes, but did not dare. Elsewhere he haswritten about them, in just one page: Theresienstadt was a camp not forJewish life, but for Jewish death, and was designed to drive Jews intocrime, so that then the Nazis could "punish" them. Why did Baeck take Nazi crimes, silently, to his grave? In my view,because he wanted Judaism, progressive Judaism Progressive Judaism is an umbrella term for all strands of Judaism which embrace pluralism, modernity, equality and social justice as core values and believe that such values are consistent with a committed Jewish life. to live. However, Nazi crimes are not secret any more. Six years afterBaeck's death, Raul Hilberg Raul Hilberg (June 2 1926 - August 4 2007 in Williston, Vermont) was one of the best-known and most distinguished of Holocaust historians. His three-volume, 1,273-page The Destruction of the European Jews is regarded as the seminal study of the Nazi Final Solution. disclosed them as fully as anyone else,and now works on the Holocaust fill a big library. Then how can the COAR COAR Community Outreach & Advocacy for RefugeesCOAR Contracting Officer's Authorized RepresentativeCOAR Customer Order Acceptance RecordCOAR Continuous Operational Assessment and ResponseCOAR Customer Order Acquisition Record treat them as if they were best forgotten,and why am I, a paid-up member of the organization, bitterly critical ofit? Reform Judaism was founded with the "Pittsburgh Platform"of 1885, and such as I may have been dubious about it all along--itsnaivete na��ive��t��or na��?ve��t�� ?n.1. The state or quality of being inexperienced or unsophisticated, especially in being artless, credulous, or uncritical.2. An artless, credulous, or uncritical statement or act. and philosophical superficiality--that cut Judaism in Americaoff from Judaism in Europe. But in contrast to mere doubt, the veryplace of the 1999 conference--Pittsburgh again!--was an outrage, for noevents in the century between them have occurred that seem to havedisturbed either the planners of the conference and the rabbis expectedto attend. Moreover, beyond the place, the "principles" proclaimedin Pittsburgh can only be called shocking. [4] Inline with Jewishtradition, we do indeed affirm that every human being is createdb-tzelem Elohim, "in the image of God." Does it thereforefollow, to quote again, that "every human being is sacred"?What of Himmler, Heydrich, Goebbels, Hitler himself? Is there no suchthing--to quote Leo Baeck, in an essay to Germans, to be citedforthwith--as human "self-destruction"? Those formulating the"Pittsburgh II" principles seemed to have learned nothing fromthe Eichmann trial, widely publicized though it was. The principles get worse, as we turn from the perpetrators to thevictims. Dare we say--except in a "fear and trembling For the novel by Am��lie Nothomb, see Fear and Trembling (Nothomb).Fear and Trembling (original Danish title: Frygt og B?ven "Kierkegaard never knew of--that "Israel" is "singled out ... by our unique historyamong the nations to be witnesses to God's presence"? Thoseformulating these "principles" seem to have given no thoughtto "Israel" just "singled out"--now a devastating dev��as��tate?tr.v. dev��as��tat��ed, dev��as��tat��ing, dev��as��tates1. To lay waste; destroy.2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. word!--for murder in Europe and, among many other victims, so"uniquely" so, as Jews, as to be unable to say even Sh'maYisrael before a swift, wholly unexpectable death. Historian Klaus Fischer did well to describe Heydrich-type schemesas "worthy of the worst sadists." Calling philosophers for anew definition of "sadism," a Jewish philosopher would have toinquire into the fracture of the ancient biblical convenant, for theHolocaust was meant to destroy, for surviving Jewish believers, theirbelief in God, non-existent though in Nazi opinion he was. They werethorough enough even to give them soap. The scheme was cunning to theend. "Undress quickly for your shower," they would be told,"or your soup will get cold." But then, suddenly, without apossible Sh'ma Yisrael, came the gas into the chambers. Those adopting the Pittsburgh "principles" seem never tohave heard Elie Wiesel's "faith destroyed for ever" orPrimo Levi on the Muselmanner, a novel form of human existence, whose"life is not life" and whose "death is not death":this may be viewed as the sole or most radical Nazi "contributionto civilization." In addition to Wiesel and Levi, many others have spoken: but the"preamble" of the Pittsburgh conference calls the Holocaustmerely "unspeakable." Why do I speak on the subject at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem,instead of, for example, to Americans for a Safe Israel Americans for a Safe Israel is an American Jewish group that opposes all territorial withdrawals by Israel. It supports the Israeli settlement movement and campaigned against the Oslo Accords and the evacuation of settlers from Gaza. ? Because thepresent Jewish crisis is so deep as to call, not for furtherintra-Jewish quarrels but for Jewish unity, on all sides, and hence forJewish self criticism, not only within Reform Judaism, but also within"ultra-orthodoxy" on the extreme right (for which theHolocaust has never happened) and within "ultra-modernism" onthe extreme left (for which the perpetrators were"men-in-general" and for which the victims, too, were"men-in-general"). Self-criticism is necessary in world Jewry,above all, in Jerusalem. I therefore hope that, among those attending tonight, are orthodoxJews, who have never attended a liberal synagogue and, as well,Christians who, if ever attending a synagogue before, did not attend aliberal one, for they are "fundamentalists." In 1952 Leo Baeck published an essay in the German periodicalMerkur, Israel und das Deutsche Volk, in which he wrote that, NaziGermany notwith--standing, only rarely do Jews hate Germany, but theycannot help feel something resembling contempt: only cemeteries speak tothem in Germany. Otherwise the country has became strange to them. Towrite this must have been hard for him, a Feldrabbiner in the Great War,and a German-trained scholar to the end. The latter he certainly was. For reasons nobody seems to know, theNazis decided, only as late as on June 30, 1942 that the Hochschule mustclose. "For Baeck the announcement was devastating.... 'Inever saw Leo Baeck appear desperate,' said one of his students inhis final class, 'except once. This was when he learned that theHochschule would close.' The student remembered Baeck, the lines onhis face tight, his voice deeper, hoarser than usual, stating to thehandful of students in the room. 'Whatever happens to us, we stillhave produced the three greatest influences on the modem world: Marx,Freud and Einstein.' Then Baeck added; 'Just as we haveproduced Jesus, two thousand years ato.'" [5] But there is also another thought in the Merkur essay: There is one sentence in the Bible in which God says toIsrael--only He, the One, could say it--"you are a stiff-neckedpeople." Stiff-necked are also the shadows. They will not bend orbe pushed away. They accompany all Jews and stay with them, when theyenter a new soil. In the Land of Israel there is a motto "TheIngathering of the Dispersed." There too the dispersed are gatheredin, there too the dispersed speak. [6] Who are the "shadows" Baeck was speaking of in 1952? Theyare such as my Uncle Adolf Goldberg, a veteran of the Great War who wasstuck in Nazi Germany, for he had lost a leg in it, and was murdered in1942 by Himmler's SS, categorized among the insane and thecripples. Why was he stuck? What country would take a one-legged man,whose profession as lawyer, moreover, was useless anywhere else? But by dint of its uniquely heroic, uniquely Jewish, consciouslypost-Holocaust "Law of Return," Israel alone would have takenhim. Every other country asks would-be immigrants to show cause why theyshould be admitted. Israel alone has legislated that it must give causeto show why dispersed Jews should not be admitted, including Jews crazyenough not to recognize it. That, despite the Holocaust, the world, or decent parts of it donot value the "Law of Return"--which includes Jews from Iran,Iraq, other Arab countries--is distressing. Or perhaps it is naive of meto think that it is despite the Holocaust, rather than because of it;for to minimize the Law of Return, if possible to forget it, is tominimize, if possible to forget, the world's own guilt. Now allJews everywhere wanting a home, needing it, have one to come to; thoseneeding it desperately from 1933 to 1939, and even after had none. Butthe Nazi regime could have been toppled by the democracies in 1933,later in the 1930s by the French, and, as said before, as late as in theKristallnacht of 1938 by the world. In 1955, just briefly before his death, Baeck published Dieses di��e��sis?n. pl. di��e��sesSee double dagger.[Medieval Latin, semitone (which was indicated by a double dagger), from Latin, quarter tone, from Greek diesis, Volk: Judische Existenz [7] and the second part was published in 1957.It is not a "conversion" from an earlier "system,"from "essentialism essentialismIn ontology, the view that some properties of objects are essential to them. The “essence” of a thing is conceived as the totality of its essential properties. " to " existentialism existentialism(ĕgzĭstĕn`shəlĭzəm, ĕksĭ–), any of several philosophic systems, all centered on the individual and his relationship to the universe or to God. ." It is anepitaph epitaph,strictly, an inscription on a tomb; by extension, a statement, usually in verse, commemorating the dead. The earliest such inscriptions are those found on Egyptian sarcophagi. for German Jewry. Leo Baeck died in 1956. Twelve years later Jews returned toJerusalem. The "shadows" still demand to be heard--in the viewof such as I, more urgently than ever--but had the Jews not returned toJerusalem, then in the long run, after 4000 years of existence,Auschwitz would have been despair. Baeck had once vowed to stay in Berlin so long as a minyan wasleft; we should now vow to stay in Jerusalem, and attract Olim from allover the world. EMIL L. FACKENHEIM is University Professor and Professor ofPhilosophy Emeritus at the University of Toronto Research at the University of Toronto has been responsible for the world's first electronic heart pacemaker, artificial larynx, single-lung transplant, nerve transplant, artificial pancreas, chemical laser, G-suit, the first practical electron microscope, the first cloning of T-cells, . In 1983 he wasVisiting Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Thought at HebrewUniversity, Department of Contemporary Jewry, and still lives inJerusalem. His recent publications include Jewish Philosophers andJewish Philosophy (1996) and The God Within: Kant, Schelling andHistoricity his��to��ric��i��ty?n.Historical authenticity; fact.historicityNounhistorical authenticity (1996); his Epitaph for German Judaism is forthcoming. NOTES (1.) Closure of an "Address by Yehoshua Amir to HolocaustSurvivors," Cologne 1978. Published in: Auschwitz alsHerausforderung fur Juden und Christen. Mit Beitragen von u.a. YehoshuaAmir, Franz Kardinal Konig, Israel Meir Levinger, Nathan P. Levinson,Johann Baptist Metz Johann Baptist Metz (born 1928) is a Catholic theologian. He is Ordinary Professor of Fundamental Theology, Emeritus, at Westphalian Wilhelms University in M��nster, Germany. , Rolf Rendtorff, Ernst Simon, hg von Gunther B.Ginzel (Heidelberg: Lambert Schneider 1980). Serie TACHLESS: ZUR SACHE;11, p. 450. (2.) Klaus P. Fischer, Nazi Germany: A New History (New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of :Continuum, 1995), p. 499. (3.) Leonard Baker, Days of Sorrow and Pain: Lea Baeck and theBerlin Jews (New York: Macmillan 1978), pp. 205f. (4.) "A Statement of Principles for Reform Judaism."Adopted at the 1999 Pittsburgh Convention Central Conference of AmericanRabbis The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), founded in 1889 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, is the principal organization of Reform Jewish rabbis in the United States. , May 1999-Sivan 5759, in: CCAR CCAR Central Conference of American RabbisCCAR Coordinating Committee for Automotive RepairCCAR Connecticut Community for Addiction RecoveryCCAR Compact CarCCAR Colorado Center for Astrodynamics ResearchCCaR Comprehensive Cost and Requirement Journal: A Reform JewishQuarterly, published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis,Winter 2000. (5.) Baker, pp. 264-265. (6.) Leo Baeck, Israel und dos deutsche Volk, p.902. Merkur,Vi.Jahrgang, 10. Heft (Oktober 1952): 901-911. (7.) Leo Baeck, Dieses Volk. Judische Existen (Frankfurt/M.:Europaische Verlagsanstalt, 1955). Leo Baeck, Dieses Volk. JudischeExistenz. Em zweiter Teil (Frankfurt! M.: Europaische Verlagsanstalt1957). Leo Baeck, This People Israel: The Meaning of Jewish Existence,translated and with an introductory essay by Albert H. Friedlander (NewYork: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965). This translation contains bothessays, first and second part.