The Faith and Doubt of Holocaust Survivors

Many speak for and about the survivors of the Holocaust, but until now, no one has spoken to them as Rabbi Brenner has done. The Faith and Doubt of Holocaust Survivors reveals the victims' frank and thought-provoking answers to searching questions about their experiences: Was the Holocaust God's will? Was there any meaning or purpose in the Holocaust? Was Israel worth the price six million had to pay? Did the experience in the death camps bring about an avowal of faith? A denial of God? A reaffirmation of religious belief? Did the Holocaust change beliefs about the coming of the Messiah, the Torah, the Jews as the chosen people, and the nature of God? These were only some of the questions for which Reeve Robert Brenner felt compelled to find answers, before the generation of survivors had passed away, and the impact and import of the Holocaust for those who had known the up-close meaning of atrocity had been lost. In oftentimes brilliant, stunning, and stirring prose, the frank and thought-provoking answers to these pointed and personal questions are offered.

Reeve Robert Brenner is the tenured rabbi of the Bethesda Jewish congregation and has taught in universities including as the first rabbi of St. Vincent's College and Seminary, I Patrobe, Pennsylvania.