“Destruction Becomes Creation”: The Theological Reaction of National Religious Zionism in Palestine to the Holocaust

Abstract

Abstract Despite the extensive scholarly attention devoted to the thorny issues of faith raised by the Holocaust, the response of religious Zionists in Palestine during the Second World War remains underexamined. This article identifies a number of their prevailing, often coexisting, and sometimes contradictory theological explanations for the Holocaust: punishment for sins (such as assimilation, lack of a homeland, or reduced childbirth), common early in the war; the “birth pangs of the messianic age,” which gained credence as the war continued; and “divine hiddenness,” a notion that emerged late in the war. These ideas also found expression in the belief that repentance had the ability to hasten redemption and to bring persecution to an end.