Overview

More than fifty years after it ended, the Holocaust continues to leave survivors and their descendants, as well as historians, philosophers, and theologians, searching for words to convey the enormity of that event. Efforts to express its realities and its impact on successive generations often stretch language to the breaking point - or to the point of silence. Words whose meaning was contested before the Holocaust prove even more fragile in its wake. David Patterson and John K. Roth identify three such ""after-words"": forgiveness, reconciliation, and justice. These words, though forever altered by the Holocaust, are still spoken and heard. But how should the concepts they represent be understood? How can their integrity be restored within the framework of current philosophical and, especially, religious traditions? Writing in a format that creates the feel of dialogue, the nine contributors to After-Words tackle these and other difficult questions about the nature of memory and forgiveness after the Holocaust to encourage others to participate in similar inter- and intrafaith inquiries. The contributors to After-Words are members of the Pastora Goldner Holocaust Symposium. Led since its founding in 1996 by Leonard Grob and Henry Knight, the symposium's Holocaust and genocide scholars - a group that is interfaith, international, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational - meet biennially in Oxfordshire.

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9780295984063

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Reviews

After-Words reflects the best tradition of the dialogic process; so lively is the exchange between its contributors that readers get drawn into the vortex of ideas and arguments, finding themselves wishing for the opportunity to join in the conversation and raise their own observations, dissents, and cautions. --Hubert G. Locke, University of Washington The section on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is especially timely now. Insightful responses amplify and explore the extremely complex set of competing myths, ideologies, and national interests at stake here. --James E. Young, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Author Information

David Patterson is Bornblum Chair in Judaic Studies, University of Memphis. John K. Roth is Edward J. Sexton Professor of Philosophy and director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights, Claremont McKenna College. They are both editors of and contributors to After-Words. The other contributors are Rachel N. Baum, Britta Frede-Wenger, Leonard Grob, Peter J. Haas, Henry F. Knight, Juergen Manemann, and Didier Pollefeyt.

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