Emil Fackenheim
Encyclopedia
Emil Ludwig Fackenheim, Ph.D.
(June 22, 1916 – September 18, 2003) was a noted Jewish philosopher and Reform rabbi
.
Born in Halle
, Germany
, he was arrested by the Nazis
on the night of November 9, 1938, known as Kristallnacht
. Briefly interned at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp
(1938–1939), he escaped with his younger brother Wolfgang to Great Britain
, where his parents later joined him. Emil's older brother Ernst-Alexander, who refused to leave Germany, was killed in the Holocaust
.
Held by the British as an enemy alien
after the outbreak of World War II
, Fackenheim was sent to Canada
in 1940, where he was interned at a remote internment camp near Sherbrooke, Quebec
. He was freed afterward and served as the Interim Rabbi at Temple Anshe Shalom in Hamilton
, Ontario
, from 1943 to 1948. After this he enrolled in the graduate Philosophy
Department of the University of Toronto and received a Ph.D.
from the University of Toronto
with a dissertation on Medieval Arabic Philosophy
(1945) and became Professor
of Philosophy (1948–1984). He was among the original Editorial Advisors of the scholarly journal Dionysius
.
Fackenheim researched the relationship of the Jews with God, believing that the Holocaust must be understood as an imperative requiring Jews to carry on Jewish existence and the survival of the State of Israel. He emigrated to Israel in 1984.
"He was always saying that continuing Jewish life and denying Hitler a posthumous victory was the 614th law," referring to the 613 mitzvot
given to the Jews in the Torah
. See The 614th Commandment.
, a claim that meets strong opposition in some quarters. Despite the controversy over this part of Fackenheim's claim, the content of his message is a subject of serious dialogue both within and beyond the Jewish community. Opposition to the goals of Hitler is a moral touchstone that has implications for several sensitive issues.
(commandments) as compiled by Maimonides
. These laws cover all aspects of life. Fackenheim asserted that tradition could not anticipate the Holocaust, so one more law, a 614th Commandment, became necessary. "Thou shalt not hand Hitler posthumous victories. To despair of the God
of Israel
is to continue Hitler’s work for him." This proposes that people of Jewish heritage have a moral obligation to observe their faith and thus frustrate Hitler's goal of eliminating Judaism from the earth.
Fackenheim came to this conclusion slowly. A professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto
and a Reform
rabbi, he did not become a Zionist until 1967, when his reaction to the Holocaust and its implications for Jewish law crystallized:
In a fuller expression of his sentiment, Fackenheim explains the concept this way:
commandments. Wording that expresses this concept in the form of a commandment may also give offense.
This becomes a contentious point because references to a "614th commandment" are not unique to Fackenheim. This concise term has other shortcomings besides the theological objection. To count this as an addition to Jewish law is an implicit statement that it applies only to Jews. Opposition to the goals of Hitler is a universal concept. Gentiles can respect it by studying the Holocaust and opposing anti-Semitism. In Christian
contexts this ideal sometimes appears as the "11th commandment." Christians generally recognize 10 commandments. This may give unintentional offense to Jews who recognize a different 11th commandment and may lead to confusion with other unrelated ideas that Christians have called an 11th commandment.
Although there is no single formulation that expresses this concept in terms that avoid controversy, posthumous victories and Hitler appear in most descriptions.
as a necessity to prevent a second Holocaust. Had a Jewish state existed in the 1930s, it could have accepted Jewish refugees and rescued large numbers of people. This opinion carries clout with most Jewish people although the specifics of how to apply it in contemporary politics is a subject of debate. Boris Shusteff invokes it in a conservative opposition to Israeli withdrawal from occupied settlements.
Despite the explicit connection to Zionism, few sources mention Hitler and posthumous victories in reference to Islam
. Christian
Palestinian
Sami A. Aldeeb
Abu-Sahlieh of the Swiss
Institute of Comparative Law in Lausanne paraphrases it ironically in a defense of Palestinian interests. Where a form of it appears in the Asia Times
as part of a quote from Robert Novak
, the cultural resonance appears to go unnoticed.
primary school teachers gives the concept in a guide for informing children about the Holocaust. Richard A. Cohen of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte
cites it in an essay, "The Holocaust is a Christian Issue."
. Methodist minister Rev. Robert A. Hill quotes Fackenheim in a sermon with this context:
, a German-born Catholic
theologian and Professor Emeritus in Religious Studies at McGill University
in Montreal
, expresses the effect of this concept on Christian
views toward conversion. From the perspective of most Christian faiths, whose doctrines normally advocate conversion of nonbelievers, this represents a deep respect for Fackenheim's concept:
Fackenheim's affirmation of his Jewish heritage, although embraced by many other Holocaust survivors, was by no means universal. Physicist Lise Meitner
had been born and brought up Jewish. She rejected newspaper attempts to characterize her as a Jew following the bombing of Hiroshima
when the press learned that she had been the first scientist to recognize nuclear fission
. Decades before Hitler rose to power she had become a Lutheran. Although the Nazis stole her savings and ruined her career she refused to work on the bomb or let Hitler define her identity.
and Canada
. Several circumstances complicate these unions from the perspective of the Jewish community. Different movements within Judaism recognize different standards for conversion to Judaism and transmission of their heritage. Social pressure generally falls upon men to marry Jewish women because all movements recognize a Jewish woman's offspring as Jews.
(Note: Starting in the late 1960s, several movements in Judaism ceased recognizing Jewish women's offspring as Jews if the women intermarried. The Reconstructionist movement of the United States, followed by the Reform movement of the U.S. in 1983, declared that they would accept the children of either an intermarried Jewish father or an intermarried Jewish mother as Jews only if the children are raised as Jews. If the children are not raised as Jews, and later wish to join the Reform or Reconstructionist movements in the U.S., they must convert. The Society for Humanistic Judaism in the U.S. will accept the children based on their own self-identification. The Orthodox and Conservative movements in the U.S. still require the conversion of patrilineal [Jewish fathers] children, but accept the children of Jewish mothers, regardless of how they are raised. Jewish Renewal rabbis do not have denominational guidelines, and go on a case-by-case basis.)
The moral ban against giving Hitler posthumous victories can inspire conflict about the juncture of personal choice and shared heritage. Rev. Elizabeth A. Lerner, a Unitarian Universalist minister and the product of a mixed marriage, belongs to a religion that has traditionally not actively sought converts from other belief systems. Her statements express both sympathy with Holocaust victims and rancor against one of the injunction's implications:
A strong advocate of personal choice, she condemns a rabbi's pressure of a Jewish man on the eve of a marriage to a Catholic bride:
A puzzling twist to this controversy is the fact, apparently not well known, that Prof. Fackenheim himself was intermarried, and the Jewishness of one of his children was rejected by an Israeli Orthodox court, even though that son was converted via Orthodox ritual as a child, and is a citizen of Israel. (See, "Rabbinical Court casts doubt on conversion of son of famed Jewish theologian" in the Jerusalem Post, January 19, 2009).
According to this news article, his wife converted to Judaism some time after the marriage. Jews using Fackenheim's admonition not to give posthumous victories to Hitler as a reason to dissuade people from intermarrying are apparently not aware that Fackenheim was himself intermarried.
finds this idea compelling yet incomplete. In a Passover
essay for SocialAction.com she addresses it sympathetically before embracing the Passover tradition and its Seder
ritual as a more meaningful story:
Rabbi Marc Gellman rejects it outright in a 2005 Newsweek
column:
Focusing not on Fackenheim's conception of Jewish identity but on Zionism, renowned scholar Daniel Shoag presents a critique of this view from within the Jewish community in The Harvard Israel Review:
Perhaps the strongest rejection of Fackenheim's idea of the 614th commandment comes from Rabbi Harold M. Schulweiss:
Rabbi Michael Goldberg has developed this sort of criticism in his book Why Should the Jews Survive?: Looking Past the Holocaust Toward a Jewish Future.
There are few survivors of the Holocaust , and many feel their memories and opinions deserve respect. The idea that people must not further Hitler's goals has become a meaningful part of public discourse about Judaism, Zionism, and anti-Semitism, but many who discuss it sympathetically do not embrace it wholeheartedly. Some in the newer generations who understand the Holocaust as history feel the injunction to grant Hitler no posthumous victories denies positive interpretations of the subjects it addresses.
The preceding discussion, rich as it is, does not begin to do justice to Fackenheim's achievements and teaching as a professor and scholar of philosophy (in his years as professor of Kantian, Hegelian, and German idealistic philosophy at the University of Toronto) — above all as a scholar of Hegel; nor does it do justice to his oft expressed indebtedness to Leo Strauss
, who was for Fackenheim the exemplar of what it means for a Jew to pursue the philosophic vocation in the times in which we live.
For those who are interested in Fackenheim's contribution to the understanding of how strictly rationalist philosophizing can and must be a part of the crown of Jewish existence in our time, worth pondering is Leo Strauss's judgment that Fackenheim's book on Hegel — The Religious Dimension in Hegel's Thought (1967) — is the strongest alternative to Kojeve's atheistic interpretation of Hegel.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
(June 22, 1916 – September 18, 2003) was a noted Jewish philosopher and Reform rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
.
Born in Halle
Halle, Saxony-Anhalt
Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, he was arrested by the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
on the night of November 9, 1938, known as Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
. Briefly interned at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
(1938–1939), he escaped with his younger brother Wolfgang to Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, where his parents later joined him. Emil's older brother Ernst-Alexander, who refused to leave Germany, was killed in the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
.
Held by the British as an enemy alien
Enemy alien
In law, an enemy alien is a citizen of a country which is in a state of conflict with the land in which he or she is located. Usually, but not always, the countries are in a state of declared war.-United Kingdom:...
after the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Fackenheim was sent to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in 1940, where he was interned at a remote internment camp near Sherbrooke, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. He was freed afterward and served as the Interim Rabbi at Temple Anshe Shalom in Hamilton
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, from 1943 to 1948. After this he enrolled in the graduate Philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
Department of the University of Toronto and received a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
from the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
with a dissertation on Medieval Arabic Philosophy
Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy is a branch of Islamic studies. It is the continuous search for Hekma in the light of Islamic view of life, universe, ethics, society, and so on...
(1945) and became Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of Philosophy (1948–1984). He was among the original Editorial Advisors of the scholarly journal Dionysius
Dionysius (journal)
Dionysius is a scholarly journal published by the Department of Classics at Dalhousie University. It was established originally in 1977, and a new series began in 1998. It publishes articles on the history of ancient philosophy and theology, and has a special interest in the Aristotelian and...
.
Fackenheim researched the relationship of the Jews with God, believing that the Holocaust must be understood as an imperative requiring Jews to carry on Jewish existence and the survival of the State of Israel. He emigrated to Israel in 1984.
"He was always saying that continuing Jewish life and denying Hitler a posthumous victory was the 614th law," referring to the 613 mitzvot
613 mitzvot
The 613 commandments is a numbering of the statements and principles of law, ethics, and spiritual practice contained in the Torah or Five Books of Moses...
given to the Jews in the Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
. See The 614th Commandment.
Do not give Hitler posthumous victories
Holocaust survivor Emil Fackenheim created this concept and advocated it as what he believed to be the "614th commandment" or "614th mitzvah." The often paraphrased idea behind that name represents an imperative that people must not act in ways that validate Hitler or his beliefs. He asserted that this should be an addition to Jewish Talmudic LawTalmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
, a claim that meets strong opposition in some quarters. Despite the controversy over this part of Fackenheim's claim, the content of his message is a subject of serious dialogue both within and beyond the Jewish community. Opposition to the goals of Hitler is a moral touchstone that has implications for several sensitive issues.
A new moral imperative
Traditional Jewish law contains 613 mitzvot613 mitzvot
The 613 commandments is a numbering of the statements and principles of law, ethics, and spiritual practice contained in the Torah or Five Books of Moses...
(commandments) as compiled by Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
. These laws cover all aspects of life. Fackenheim asserted that tradition could not anticipate the Holocaust, so one more law, a 614th Commandment, became necessary. "Thou shalt not hand Hitler posthumous victories. To despair of the God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
is to continue Hitler’s work for him." This proposes that people of Jewish heritage have a moral obligation to observe their faith and thus frustrate Hitler's goal of eliminating Judaism from the earth.
Fackenheim came to this conclusion slowly. A professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
and a Reform
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
rabbi, he did not become a Zionist until 1967, when his reaction to the Holocaust and its implications for Jewish law crystallized:
It was at a meeting, just before the Six Day War. It was a meeting in New YorkNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and I had to make a speech. Before that, the Holocaust had never been essential to my ideology. However, when the chairman said, 'You've got to face it,' I had to face it. I said the most important thing I ever said.
In a fuller expression of his sentiment, Fackenheim explains the concept this way:
... we are, first, commanded to survive as Jews, lest the Jewish people perish. We are commanded, secondly, to remember in our very guts and bones the martyrs of the Holocaust, lest their memory perish. We are forbidden, thirdly, to deny or despair of God, however much we may have to contend with him or with belief in him, lest Judaism perish. We are forbidden, finally, to despair of the world as the place which is to become the kingdom of God, lest we help make it a meaningless place in which God is dead or irrelevant and everything is permitted. To abandon any of these imperatives, in response to Hitler's victory at Auschwitz, would be to hand him yet other, posthumous victories.
Terminology
In dialogue about this subject, choice of words is a sensitive matter. Within the Jewish community, some absolutely reject Fackenheim's assertion that this could be called a commandment. Commandment 580 already forbids adding to the TorahTorah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
commandments. Wording that expresses this concept in the form of a commandment may also give offense.
This becomes a contentious point because references to a "614th commandment" are not unique to Fackenheim. This concise term has other shortcomings besides the theological objection. To count this as an addition to Jewish law is an implicit statement that it applies only to Jews. Opposition to the goals of Hitler is a universal concept. Gentiles can respect it by studying the Holocaust and opposing anti-Semitism. In Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
contexts this ideal sometimes appears as the "11th commandment." Christians generally recognize 10 commandments. This may give unintentional offense to Jews who recognize a different 11th commandment and may lead to confusion with other unrelated ideas that Christians have called an 11th commandment.
Although there is no single formulation that expresses this concept in terms that avoid controversy, posthumous victories and Hitler appear in most descriptions.
Zionism
Fackenheim applied this reasoning to the state of Israel and its Law of ReturnLaw of Return
The Law of Return is Israeli legislation, passed on 5 July 1950, that gives Jews the right of return and settlement in Israel and gain citizenship...
as a necessity to prevent a second Holocaust. Had a Jewish state existed in the 1930s, it could have accepted Jewish refugees and rescued large numbers of people. This opinion carries clout with most Jewish people although the specifics of how to apply it in contemporary politics is a subject of debate. Boris Shusteff invokes it in a conservative opposition to Israeli withdrawal from occupied settlements.
Despite the explicit connection to Zionism, few sources mention Hitler and posthumous victories in reference to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
Sami A. Aldeeb
Sami A. Aldeeb
Sami Awad Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh, born September 5, 1949 in Zababdeh, near Jenin in West Bank is a lawyer, Christian of Palestinian origin and SwissHe was the head of the Arab and Islamic Law in the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law from 1980 to 2009...
Abu-Sahlieh of the Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
Institute of Comparative Law in Lausanne paraphrases it ironically in a defense of Palestinian interests. Where a form of it appears in the Asia Times
Asia Times
Asia Times was a newspaper launched in Thailand by Thai tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul in 1995. The newspaper hired talent from around the world to produce a regional English-language newspaper....
as part of a quote from Robert Novak
Robert Novak
Robert David Sanders "Bob" Novak was an American syndicated columnist, journalist, television personality, author, and conservative political commentator. After working for two newspapers before serving for the U.S. Army in the Korean War, he became a reporter for the Associated Press and then for...
, the cultural resonance appears to go unnoticed.
Holocaust remembrance
The concept encounters broad acceptance in connection with Holocaust remembrance. In the late twentieth century, efforts to document the memories of remaining Holocaust survivors echoed the notion that preserving these facts for future generations was a way to keep Hitler and his ideas in the grave. A guide for BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
primary school teachers gives the concept in a guide for informing children about the Holocaust. Richard A. Cohen of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte , also known as UNC Charlotte or simply Charlotte, is a public research university located in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States...
cites it in an essay, "The Holocaust is a Christian Issue."
Caution against anti-Semitism
The phrase finds resonance within Christian communities as a rebuke against anti-SemitismAnti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
. Methodist minister Rev. Robert A. Hill quotes Fackenheim in a sermon with this context:
...the fact is that Christianity has been pervasively guilty of latent and patent anti-Semitism and the Gospel of John has been one of its sources. We have and can learn from this failure, by carefully monitoring our use of religious language...and our Jewish brothers and sisters can teach us to continue, with Jacob, to wrestle with God.
Conversion to other religions
Within the broader context of religious tolerance, this concept applies to the sensitive subjects of conversion and intermarriage. Gregory BaumGregory Baum
Gregory Baum, OC is a Canadian theologian.Born in Berlin, Germany, he came to Canada from England in 1940. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and physics in 1946 from McMaster University, a Master of Arts degree in mathematics in 1947 from Ohio State University, and a Th.D...
, a German-born Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
theologian and Professor Emeritus in Religious Studies at McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, expresses the effect of this concept on Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
views toward conversion. From the perspective of most Christian faiths, whose doctrines normally advocate conversion of nonbelievers, this represents a deep respect for Fackenheim's concept:
After Auschwitz the Christian churches no longer wish to convert the Jews. While they may not be sure of the theological grounds that dispense them from this mission, the churches have become aware that asking the Jews to become Christians is a spiritual way of blotting them out of existence and thus only reinforces the effects of the Holocaust.
Fackenheim's affirmation of his Jewish heritage, although embraced by many other Holocaust survivors, was by no means universal. Physicist Lise Meitner
Lise Meitner
Lise Meitner FRS was an Austrian-born, later Swedish, physicist who worked on radioactivity and nuclear physics. Meitner was part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, an achievement for which her colleague Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize...
had been born and brought up Jewish. She rejected newspaper attempts to characterize her as a Jew following the bombing of Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
when the press learned that she had been the first scientist to recognize nuclear fission
Nuclear fission
In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts , often producing free neutrons and photons , and releasing a tremendous amount of energy...
. Decades before Hitler rose to power she had become a Lutheran. Although the Nazis stole her savings and ruined her career she refused to work on the bomb or let Hitler define her identity.
Intermarriage
Intermarriages between Jews and non-Jews are relatively common in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Several circumstances complicate these unions from the perspective of the Jewish community. Different movements within Judaism recognize different standards for conversion to Judaism and transmission of their heritage. Social pressure generally falls upon men to marry Jewish women because all movements recognize a Jewish woman's offspring as Jews.
(Note: Starting in the late 1960s, several movements in Judaism ceased recognizing Jewish women's offspring as Jews if the women intermarried. The Reconstructionist movement of the United States, followed by the Reform movement of the U.S. in 1983, declared that they would accept the children of either an intermarried Jewish father or an intermarried Jewish mother as Jews only if the children are raised as Jews. If the children are not raised as Jews, and later wish to join the Reform or Reconstructionist movements in the U.S., they must convert. The Society for Humanistic Judaism in the U.S. will accept the children based on their own self-identification. The Orthodox and Conservative movements in the U.S. still require the conversion of patrilineal [Jewish fathers] children, but accept the children of Jewish mothers, regardless of how they are raised. Jewish Renewal rabbis do not have denominational guidelines, and go on a case-by-case basis.)
The moral ban against giving Hitler posthumous victories can inspire conflict about the juncture of personal choice and shared heritage. Rev. Elizabeth A. Lerner, a Unitarian Universalist minister and the product of a mixed marriage, belongs to a religion that has traditionally not actively sought converts from other belief systems. Her statements express both sympathy with Holocaust victims and rancor against one of the injunction's implications:
My father was descended from a long line of rebbeRebbeRebbe , which means master, teacher, or mentor, is a Yiddish word derived from the Hebrew word Rabbi. It often refers to the leader of a Hasidic Jewish movement...
s, and a great grandfather was sacrificed as part of a pogromPogromA pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
…that was what encouraged relatives to leave for this country. While Jewish law would not consider me Jewish, Hitler's law would have put me in the death camps and with those who died. That sense of vulnerability has never left me, and I believe I share this with all Jews everywhere.
A strong advocate of personal choice, she condemns a rabbi's pressure of a Jewish man on the eve of a marriage to a Catholic bride:
They searched long and hard for a rabbi who was willing to perform the wedding...and in the car on the way to the hotel, the rabbi was talking to the groom about his imminent marriage and said to him: 'You are completing Hitler’s work.' This terrible, hateful thing he said is not actually that unusual...Jews actually say this to each other when one of them is leaving, or marrying outside the fold.
A puzzling twist to this controversy is the fact, apparently not well known, that Prof. Fackenheim himself was intermarried, and the Jewishness of one of his children was rejected by an Israeli Orthodox court, even though that son was converted via Orthodox ritual as a child, and is a citizen of Israel. (See, "Rabbinical Court casts doubt on conversion of son of famed Jewish theologian" in the Jerusalem Post, January 19, 2009).
According to this news article, his wife converted to Judaism some time after the marriage. Jews using Fackenheim's admonition not to give posthumous victories to Hitler as a reason to dissuade people from intermarrying are apparently not aware that Fackenheim was himself intermarried.
Criticism
Rabbi Toba SpitzerToba Spitzer
Rabbi Toba Spitzer became the first openly lesbian or gay person to head a rabbinical assembly in 2007, when she was elected president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Assembly at the group's annual convention, in Scottsdale, Arizona....
finds this idea compelling yet incomplete. In a Passover
Passover
Passover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt...
essay for SocialAction.com she addresses it sympathetically before embracing the Passover tradition and its Seder
Passover Seder
The Passover Seder is a Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted on the evenings of the 14th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, and on the 15th by traditionally observant Jews living outside Israel. This corresponds to late March or April in...
ritual as a more meaningful story:
...of a people born in slavery, freed by their God, and taken on a transformational journey. It is the story of the steps taken towards becoming a community bound by a holy covenant, where social relationships are defined by the Godly principles of tzedek and chesed, justice and love.
Rabbi Marc Gellman rejects it outright in a 2005 Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
column:
I am Jewish because my mother is Jewish, and, more importantly, because I believe Judaism is loving, just, joyous, hopeful and true. I am not Jewish, and I did not teach my children or my students to be Jewish, just to spite Hitler.
Focusing not on Fackenheim's conception of Jewish identity but on Zionism, renowned scholar Daniel Shoag presents a critique of this view from within the Jewish community in The Harvard Israel Review:
While Fackenheim's sentiments about the need for Jewish self-reliance in the form of a Jewish state are immensely popular, Fackenheim fails to locate a religious or divine source for his moral imperative. For Fackenheim, self-defense, and its manifestation in Zionism, are not religious values but rather things that precede religious value or stand outside of it. Thus Fackenheim locates the significance of the Jewish State in the Holocaust rather than in traditional Judaism...
Perhaps the strongest rejection of Fackenheim's idea of the 614th commandment comes from Rabbi Harold M. Schulweiss:
We abuse the Holocaust when it becomes a cudgel against others who have their claims of suffering. The ShoahShoahShoah may refer to:*The Holocaust*Shoah , documentary directed by Claude Lanzmann * A Shoah Foundation...
must not be misused in the contest of one-downsmanship with other victims of brutality....The Shoah has become our instant raison d'etre, the short-cut answer to the penetrating questions of our children: 'Why should I not marry out of the faith? Why should I join a synagogue? Why should I support Israel? Why should I be Jewish?' We have relied on a singular imperative: 'Thou shalt not give Hitler a posthumous victory.' That answer will not work. To live in spite, to say 'no' to Hitler is a far cry from living 'yes' to Judaism.
Rabbi Michael Goldberg has developed this sort of criticism in his book Why Should the Jews Survive?: Looking Past the Holocaust Toward a Jewish Future.
Conclusion
During Fackenheim's last interview in 2000 he confronted the question, "Do you think Israel can ever come to the point where it doesn’t have to be in a state of resistance?"I think it will be a very long time. But I would say this. Will the time ever come when we can say Hitler's shadow is gone? I think, yes, it will come when Israel is accepted in peace with its neighbor states. But it doesn’t look like it will happen soon.
There are few survivors of the Holocaust , and many feel their memories and opinions deserve respect. The idea that people must not further Hitler's goals has become a meaningful part of public discourse about Judaism, Zionism, and anti-Semitism, but many who discuss it sympathetically do not embrace it wholeheartedly. Some in the newer generations who understand the Holocaust as history feel the injunction to grant Hitler no posthumous victories denies positive interpretations of the subjects it addresses.
The preceding discussion, rich as it is, does not begin to do justice to Fackenheim's achievements and teaching as a professor and scholar of philosophy (in his years as professor of Kantian, Hegelian, and German idealistic philosophy at the University of Toronto) — above all as a scholar of Hegel; nor does it do justice to his oft expressed indebtedness to Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss was a political philosopher and classicist who specialized in classical political philosophy. He was born in Germany to Jewish parents and later emigrated to the United States...
, who was for Fackenheim the exemplar of what it means for a Jew to pursue the philosophic vocation in the times in which we live.
For those who are interested in Fackenheim's contribution to the understanding of how strictly rationalist philosophizing can and must be a part of the crown of Jewish existence in our time, worth pondering is Leo Strauss's judgment that Fackenheim's book on Hegel — The Religious Dimension in Hegel's Thought (1967) — is the strongest alternative to Kojeve's atheistic interpretation of Hegel.
External links
- Obituary by Anne Bayefsky
- Holocaust Teacher Resource Center "Faith in God and Man After Auschwitz: Theological Implications" by Emil Fackenheim
- Habitus "Emil Fackenheim: The Last Interview" by Samuel Thrope
- National Public Radio interview with Ron RosenbaumRon Rosenbaum-Life and career:Rosenbaum was born into a Jewish family in New York City, New York and grew up in Bay Shore, New York. He graduated from Yale University in 1968 and won a Carnegie Fellowship to attend Yale's graduate program in English Literature, though he dropped out after taking one course...
, author of Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil," (audio). - Gamla "The 614th Commandment"
- Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring, Maryland "Another Thing You Didn’t Know or Completing Hitler’s Work"
- Newsweek "Inhumanity to Jews" by Rabbi Marc Gellman
- SocialAction.com "Torah Teachings for the Week Ending April 9, 2004 (Passover 5762)" by Rabbi Toba Spitzer
- "Auschwitz or Sinai" by Rabbi Sholom Stern, New York Board of RabbisNew York Board of RabbisThe New York Board of Rabbis is an organization of Orthodox, Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist rabbis in New York State and the surrounding portions of Connecticut and New Jersey....
- Jewish Council for Public Affairs "With What Shall We Enter the New Century?" by Rabbi Harold M. Schulweiss
- Jewish World Review "Whose Chanukah?" by Lawrence Charap
- Jewish-Christian Relations "Judaism After the Holocaust" by Dow Marmur
- Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem "No Justice, No Peace for a Canaanite Republic" by Sami A. AldeebSami A. AldeebSami Awad Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh, born September 5, 1949 in Zababdeh, near Jenin in West Bank is a lawyer, Christian of Palestinian origin and SwissHe was the head of the Arab and Islamic Law in the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law from 1980 to 2009...
Abu-Sahlieh - The 614th Commandment Society