Drawing on the responses of seven hundred survivors, Reeve Robert Brenner reveals the changes, rejections, reaffirmations, doubts, and despairs that have so profoundly affected the faith, practices, ideas, and attitudes of survivors, and, by extension, the entire Jewish people.
Many survivors carried their deepest secrets and innermost beliefs silently, from internment to interment. But Brennerâs quest provided the impetus for many survivors to end their silence about the past and come forth with their feelings. In poignant vignettes scattered throughout the book, their answers to these profound questions are offered, disclosing ardent, overpowering passions and sensibilities.
Reeve Robert Brenner is the tenured rabbi of Congregation Bet Chesed in Bethesda, MD, and has taught in universities, including St. Vincentâs College, where he was its first rabbi. Brennerâs American Jewry and the Rise of Nazism received a YIVO Jewish Scholarship Prize.Â