What does it mean to be a Jew? This question of ontological status seems to be more troubling to Jews than to the members of other religions, especially in the wake of the Holocaust and especially for those who were directly affected by the Holocaust - the survivors and their families. This paper examines how the Holocaust has been a central event in shaping identity for survivors and their children, as well as in some ways the identities of other 20th century and 21st century Jews, creating for some at least a sense of identity that is almost ethnocentric.
Much about Jewish identity has been changed forever as a result of the Holocaust. One of these fundamental changes has been the fact that Judaism has become a non-European religion; its three major centers (which together include more than three-fourths of world Jewry) are Israel, the Slavic region of the former Soviet Union, and the United States. (Although Jews constitute only a small fraction of the population of the United States, Judaism occupies a role far surpassing its numerical importance and is regarded with Roman Catholicism and Protestantism as one of the major American faiths.) To be Jew in the post-Holocaust world is thus to have to incorporate into one's sense of identity the sense of being part of a people scattered irrevocably far from one's homeland (Hartmen, 2000, p. 38). Thus, even for those who are secular in their beliefs and who have (for example) no idea of ever living anywhere but in California, there is the abiding sense of being part of a Diaspora, of being part of a people defined by the broken apart and sent in to exile.
The rights and needs of the world Jewish community, including Israel, have triggered deep conflicts with which Judaism has been involved with the Arab and then-Communist, now post-Communist worlds. Friction between Israel and the Arab states has created tension with Islam, while the political stand of Israel and the treatment of th...