By Rachel Baumann (The Jewish Book News) Reeve Robert Brenner The Faith and Doubt of Holocaust Survivors JBN: Were you surprised by the result of your research? Brenner: I think there is merit in referring to the “results” of
my study rather than the “result,” in the singular. Survivors took the questionnaire,
that is to say the instrument, very seriously. And the format presented pages
of deeply penetrating and perhaps often troubling questions: Questions of
the ultimate, religious questions and the kind of questions that nag at you
in the middle of the night along with some unspeakable memories. Fortunately,
they became speakable in time and I was personally fortunate to have spent
quality time with a great number of them. Many, of course, are now gone.
The questions elicited many reactions and a rich variety of important results.
One reviewer wrote of the remarkable wealth of the material in my book. What
he really meant was what a richly gifted community these special people represented.
I knew that the Jews of Europe were and are an enormously gifted population.
But I was nevertheless most surprised – often blown away – as were several
reviewers in their evaluation of the material of The Faith and Doubt of
Holocaust Survivors – by the great intellectuality and passionate intensity
of the survivors who people this book who help us understand the results.
I’d suggest the results, as I wrote in my new postscript on Objective Knowledge
and What is Judaism, are that what they do and believe as Jews is Judaism. Some statistical results fail to surprise me such as Jews are as likely to
turn away from God and faith as toward God and faith in extremes. The reasons
behind these changes continue to surprise me. I was also surprised by the
staying power of religious faith and commitment and how powerfully important
is upbringing in determining religious steadfastness change. I was surprised
most by the strength of character, defiant pride, and determination of Jews
to be Jews, which survivors exhibited in their extraordinary lives. The testimonies
narrated from their own lives are riveting. They have thought so much and
have seen so much. JBN: Can you make any generalization from your research:
Did Holocaust survivors generally retain their faith, lose it, or something
else? Brenner: Some generalizations may be made, but the insights behind
and in support of the generalizations are far more moving – as Eugene Borowitz
observed in his Shma review. Some generalizations, examples and results
are: that people who were believers before the Holocaust generally found
that the concentration camp experience and their survival confirmed their
beliefs while skeptics found that the Holocaust confirmed their skepticism.
Jews do not believe that evil is a necessary path to good. There aren’t many
Jews who believe in resurrection and that the reciprocation of the land of
Israel for the six million was too great a price. The six million were not
punished by God for their sins or the sins of others but upon their death
were elevated to a status beyond victimhood called holy and pure. They were
victims of German Nazi tyranny and not of God’s wrath. JBN: How has your study been criticized? If you had to
do it over again, what would you change? Brenner: When speaking to survivors, one would wish to ask numerous
questions on scores of subjects, to identify which subjects are forbidden
and when one is going too far, where we should tread lightly or not at all. I asked the questions listed previously and a great many others on God, Torah,
Chosenness, Messiah, Land, Evil, and The Meaning of Life. I wish I would have been able to ask some other questions that would have
gone far afield but not so very far afield after all, from my religious agenda
and questions of the ultimate. These inquiries come to mind as I wrote in
my introduction: How did you put the horrors out of mind? How did you reestablish
your life? How do you relate to your children and how do you see yourself
as different from other parents? What books do you read? Can you read books
about yourself and what happened to you and others? But every question opens slightly wider an entrance way to a soul. With the reprinting of The Faith and Doubt of Holocaust Survivors
by Jason Aronson, Inc., I did have a chance to do it over again. I was able
to clarify certain categorizations and definitions. I was also able to add
an essay, On Objective Knowledge and What is Judaism. With this essay
I have attempted to address the question of how to determine what is and isn’t
Judaism today and in prior generations and centuries. It was important too
for me to deal with the value of the survey as an instrument in making this
determination – its shortcomings and its worth. I was motivated by the question
critics ask: Of what value is a survey, however scientifically conducted,
in determining what is and what is not Judaism and whether or not survivors
offer a snapshot of what is Judaism for a community. JBN: Some people take the position that the Holocaust was
a singular and unique event while others disagree. What is your view? Brenner: The Holocaust is the name for a singular genocide, the Shoah,
the destruction of European Jewry. Every genocide is unique. And there have
been many – far too many genocides in our century. Genocides are ongoing
in a lifetime of a people. There’s never closure and genocides are never
quite over. They are simultaneously history and contemporary. I deliberately
began my book with the observation that, “the Holocaust is a midnight caller
who never takes leave.” JBN: We can understand if people lose faith during the
Holocaust. Can you share any perceptions you have about the people who might
have gained faith during this terrible era? Brenner: David Kranzler reviewing the book has written, “One is amazed
not at the fact that almost a little over half of the responders maintained
that the Holocaust experience has changed the intensity of their faith and
that two-thirds of that group found that it lost or reduced its faith. Rather,
what is amazing is the fact that almost one-third of those affected, deepened
rather than lessened their faith. One marvels at the invincibility of the
Jewish spirit which even at Auschwitz had such difficulty in dislodging.” JBN: How would you describe this book to someone who has
no familiarity with it? Brenner: The Faith and Doubt of Holocaust Survivors is a study of
the impact of the Holocaust on the faith, doubt, beliefs, practices, values,
and ideas of concentration camp survivors. The study traces their beliefs
and disbeliefs and behavior through four different periods of their lives:
before, during and after the Holocaust and today; and their stirring and profoundly
moving stories. Reeve Robert Brenner graduated from the City University of New York
and was ordained from the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion.
He is the Rabbi of Bet Chesed Congregation of Bethesda and has taught in universities
including as the first rabbi of St. Vincent’s College and Seminary, Latrobe,
Pennsylvania. He served as a United States Army Chaplain in West Germany,
and has lectured extensively. Rabbi Brenner is the inventor of the new sport,
Bankshot Basketball. Reeve Brenner’s articles, poetry, and fiction have appeared
in numerous journals and periodicals, and his American Jewry and the Rise
of Nazism received a YIVO Jewish Scholarship Prize. The Faith and Doubt
of Holocaust Survivors was a National Jewish Book Award finalist. He
has also published books of humor and has recently completed a scholarly work
on Jerusalem poetry, Eternal Jerusalem: Poetry. For an autographed
copy of The Faith and Doubt of Holocaust Survivors, please contact
Rabbi Brenner directly at 301-762-4241.