Jesuit Kaddish: Jesuits, Jews, and Holocaust Remembrance by James Bernauer, S.J. (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Jesuit Kaddish: Jesuits, Jews, and Holocaust Remembrance by James Bernauer, S.J. Beth A. Griech-Polelle Jesuit Kaddish: Jesuits, Jews, and Holocaust Remembrance. By James Bernauer, S.J. (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press. 2020. Pp. xxx, 220. $55.00. ISBN: 9780268107017). In James Bernauer's work, readers are drawn into the distinctive elements of Jesuit spirituality: the examination of conscience and the discernment of spirits in order to address and more fully understand the Holocaust and members of the Society of Jesus's attitudes toward Jews. His work challenges the reader to think about how Jesuits thought about the Jews. How did Jesuits perpetrate evil against the Jews, but also how did actions of Jesuits bring about good for Jews as well? By scrutinizing the conduct of Jesuits, the hope is to gain not only a greater understanding of the events of the Holocaust, but also to achieve a type of reconciliation [End Page 420] with the Jewish community. The Kaddish is recited as a prayer of mourning that praises God and the gift of life. From the opening chapter the reader is invited to accompany Bernauer on a pilgrimage. He begins with the work of Pope Saint John Paul II in seeking forgiveness for past sins against the Jews. In calling for genuine brotherhood with the Jews, the Pope made confessions of guilt for Catholics who participated in crimes against Jews, from his visit to Auschwitz in 1979, through his visit in 2000 to Yad Vashem in Israel. In all of these travels, the Pope instructed Catholics that honestly addressing the errors of the past would be a step toward atonement and forgiveness. What the Pope had done was earth-shattering in importance. The Pope had recognized that in order for a true reconciliation with Jews to happen, Catholics would first have to remember what had actually occurred. Readers continue their pilgrimage in Chapters Two and Three, learning about the concept of "asemitism" which was often practiced within the Society of Jesus. Asemitism meant strict separation between Jews and Catholics, accompanied by an indifference to what was happening to Jews in society. This attitude of indifference also did not argue against other forms of antisemitism that were running rampant in European society. It essentially rendered Jews and their problems invisible to Catholics. Despite the separation that "asemites" might have wished for, there were tracts published intimating that Jesuits and Jews shared similar characteristics, e.g., a desire for world domination, wealth, etc. By Chapter Three, one encounters the subtler forms of Jesuit hostility toward Jews, particularly in the realm of fears over the sexualization of culture which were then linked to a supposed Jewish materialist, carnal way of living. The Jesuits were calling for chastity and obedience. The Church, along with the Nazi state, were out to cleanse the German people from the sensual and erotic elements of Weimar Germany. That frequently meant that "Jewish influence" had to be eradicated. The final portion of the pilgrimage brings readers out of the darkness of the previous chapters. Here we encounter French and German Jesuits who realized that they were part of a larger, wider community: the community of the human race. They recognized that one could not remain indifferent. These individuals aligned themselves with persecuted Jews, at times sacrificing their lives in order to save the persecuted. The work then takes us back to the central image of the pilgrimage, where the image of Jesus as a Jew becomes central to our understanding of Catholicism and concludes with the author's proposed statement of Jesuit repentance. The Society of Jesus has come a long way from its early history of banning men of Jewish origin as members to embracing true community with Jews. A 1995 Jesuits' General Congregation recognized the need for special dialogue with Jews, "The first covenant which is theirs and which Jesus the Messiah came to fulfill, has never been revoked. A shared history both unites us and divides us from our elder brothers and sisters, the Jewish people, in whom and through whom God continues to act for the salvation of the world" (p. 118). Bernauer's work on the evolution...