Reflections on "The Holocaust as an Identity Marker"
"What [Fackenheim] claims all [self-affirming] Jews hear is a 'commanding voice' from Auschwitz that tells them they must persist as Jews, lest they grant Hitler a post-humous victory. … In the face of all those terrible murders, many Jews, whatever their ideological commitments, have been moved by a strong resolution to continue as Jews..." (Alter, Feb 1981, p.55) "American Jews, [Novick] argues, may have given Hitler a posthumous victory by tacitly endorsing his definition of the Jew as despised pariah." (Penkower, Mar 2000, p.129) " 'What we have done is to make the murder of the Jews of Europe into one of the principal components of the civil religion of American Jews' " (Neusner, Aug 1979, quoted in Alter, Feb 1981, p.55) "Serious problems do arise with the near fixation of American Jews on the Holocaust. … can the destiny of Jews be joined decisively to victimization? … the Holocaust, while vital to understanding Jewr