Language:
English
Year of publication:
1989
Titel der Quelle:
Modern Judaism
Angaben zur Quelle:
9,2 (1989) 197-211
Keywords:
Wiesel, Élie,
;
Akedah
;
Holocaust (Jewish theology)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Terminology
Abstract:
Discusses the original definition of the word "holocaust" (sacrifice, burnt-offering) and examines implications of the choice of the term to describe what the authors call the Jewish genocide, what it reveals about how the Jewish community sees itself in a post-Auschwitz world, and particularly its use by Elie Wiesel. Wiesel's choice of the term is connected with the figure of Isaac in the Akedah because it was essential for him to see God as having a role in the Holocaust. Discusses three archetypal images of Isaac: the silent sacrificial offering, the chosen victim, the first survivor. Argues against these archetypes, contending that they perpetuate mythologization of the event rather than showing the reality of ordinary human beings who exhibited extraordinary cruelty or underwent extraordinary suffering. States that "the Holocaust" should not be labelled as the cataclysmic event in history, but rather be seen as the primary case of what all people are capable of doing and what all people are capable of suffering.
Note:
Appeared also in "Remembering for the Future" (1989), in "Shoah; the Paradigmatic Genocide" (1994), and in their collection "Double Takes" (2004) 3-30.
URL:
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