The Female Face of God in Auschwitz
A Jewish Feminist Theology of the Holocaust
Price: $41.95
Add to Cart- ISBN: 978-0-415-23665-2
- Binding: Paperback (also available in Hardback)
- Published by: Routledge
- Publication Date: 13th March 2003
- Pages: 240
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About the Book
The dominant theme of post-Holocaust Jewish theology has been that of the temporary hiddenness of God, interpreted either as a divine mystery or, more commonly, as God's deferral to human freedom. But traditional Judaic obligations of female presence, together with the traditional image of the Shekhinah as a figure of God's 'femaleness' accompanying Israel into exile, seem to contradict such theologies of absence. The Female Face of God in Auschwitz, the first full-length feminist theology of the Holocaust, argues that the patriarchal bias of post-Holocaust theology becomes fully apparent only when women's experiences and priorities are brought into historical light. Building upon the published testimonies of four women imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau - Olga Lengyel, Lucie Adelsberger, Bertha Ferderber-Salz and Sara Nomberg-Przytyk - it considers women's distinct experiences of the holy in relation to God's perceived presence and absence in the camps.God's face, says Melissa Raphael, was not hidden in Auschwitz, but intimately revealed in the female face turned towards the other as a refractive image of God, especially in the moral protest made visible through material and spiritual care for the assaulted other.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1. Reading Post-Holocaust Theology from a Feminist Perspective 2. The Hiding of God's Face in Auschwitz 3. Feminist Intimations of the Holy in Auschwitz 4. Face to Face (with God) in Auschwitz 5. A Mother/God in Auschwitz 6. The Redemption of God in Auschwitz 7. The Princess and the City of Death: A Feminist Maaseh, after Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav. Notes. Select Glossary of Hebrew and Yiddish Terms