Eliezer Berkovits - Holocaust Philosophy

Holocaust Philosophy

After the Holocaust, Berkovits asserted that God's "absence" in Nazi Germany should be explained through the classical concept of hester panim, "the hiding of the divine face." Berkovits claimed that in order for God to maintain His respect and care for humanity as a whole, He necessarily had to withdraw Himself and allow human beings—even the most cruel and vicious—to exercise their free will. Due to the role of Christianity in the Holocaust Berkovits rejected interreligious dialogue with Christians.