Holocaust education in the post-secular era: Religious-Zionist lessons from the Holocaust

Abstract

ABSTRACT Applying Arthur Chapman’s conceptualization, this article explores Religious Zionist (RZ) Holocaust education and the way it has changed over the years. Beyond RZ’s increasing influence within Israeli society, this examination provides a unique example of faith-based Holocaust education that adheres to rationalism while teaching God’s power over history. The diachronic textual analysis reveals dramatic changes in RZ Holocaust education over the past eight decades. Similar to faith-based education around the world, RZ focused initially on a deontological lesson highlighting the duty of the religious person under any circumstances. Following the 67 War, a distinct consequentialist-theological lesson was added, clarifying the obligation of the Jewish people to respond to the process of redemption embodied in the Zionist movement. As for the present day, the study profiles a new post-secular ontological lesson about the atrocities that people are capable of perpetrating in a godless world. This lesson is intertwined into a novel meta-narrative, one based not on modern ideologies but on the Bibal and the vision of the Prophets. The conclusions of this article help to create analytical categories for exploring faith-based Holocaust education around the world—a topic that has emerged in recent decades as one of great importance.