Memories of Shoah I
After World War 2 memorials were added to the Launceston Synagogue windows to remember family members killed by the Nazis. You can read them for yourself. In the English speaking world the word "holocaust" has become the most common term for this period in which 6 million Jews were slaughtered. But there is in fact a very good reason why many Jews now prefer the term "shoah" שואה .
Professor Zev Garber explains:
"Whereas “holocaust” is inevitably a God-focused word, because of its older meaning, the word Shoah (devastation, destruction) is human-focused and is not loaded with theological overtones. This is why I prefer the name, Shoah.
Language determines how we think. If we call the slaughter of six million Jews a “holocaust,” we are consciously or subconsciously, connecting victims of genocide with “sacrificial victims,” and perpetrators of murder and genocide with Levites and Temple priests. Such thinking further distracts us from the human evil by putting too much focus on God and theology.
Using the term shoah, however, puts the focus squarely back on the tragedy of the Jewish genocide and the evil perpetrated by the Nazis. Though this does not absolve us from grappling with the Shoah’s theological ramifications, choosing to call the slaughter of six million Jews by such a human-focused term forces us to consider the very human reality of this most catastrophic event in Jewish and indeed, human history."
www.thetorah.com/article/the-slaughter-of-six-million-jew...
Memories of Shoah I
After World War 2 memorials were added to the Launceston Synagogue windows to remember family members killed by the Nazis. You can read them for yourself. In the English speaking world the word "holocaust" has become the most common term for this period in which 6 million Jews were slaughtered. But there is in fact a very good reason why many Jews now prefer the term "shoah" שואה .
Professor Zev Garber explains:
"Whereas “holocaust” is inevitably a God-focused word, because of its older meaning, the word Shoah (devastation, destruction) is human-focused and is not loaded with theological overtones. This is why I prefer the name, Shoah.
Language determines how we think. If we call the slaughter of six million Jews a “holocaust,” we are consciously or subconsciously, connecting victims of genocide with “sacrificial victims,” and perpetrators of murder and genocide with Levites and Temple priests. Such thinking further distracts us from the human evil by putting too much focus on God and theology.
Using the term shoah, however, puts the focus squarely back on the tragedy of the Jewish genocide and the evil perpetrated by the Nazis. Though this does not absolve us from grappling with the Shoah’s theological ramifications, choosing to call the slaughter of six million Jews by such a human-focused term forces us to consider the very human reality of this most catastrophic event in Jewish and indeed, human history."
www.thetorah.com/article/the-slaughter-of-six-million-jew...