Genocide in Jewish Thought

Abstract

Among the topics explored in this book are ways of viewing the soul, the relation between body and soul, environmentalist thought, the phenomenon of torture, and the philosophical and theological warrants for genocide. Presenting an analysis of abstract modes of thought that have contributed to genocide, the book argues that a Jewish model of concrete thinking may inform our understanding of the abstractions that can lead to genocide. Its aim is to draw upon distinctively Jewish categories of thought to demonstrate how the conceptual defacing of the other human being serves to promote the murder of peoples, and to suggest a way of thinking that might help prevent genocide.

Holocaust Abuse

“…Dershowitz then draws on the authority of Dalin and Rothmann's “‘ well documented ’ account of Husayni's role in the Holocaust” (Dershowitz , 200, emphasis mine). David Patterson relies on the authority of Serge Trifkovic for his own claims that Husayni badgered Nazi officials “to complete the extermination of Jews” even as he praises Trifkovic for “convincingly” demonstrating that the most potent heirs of Nazism today “are schools, religious leaders, and mainstream intellectuals in the Muslim, meaning primarily Arab, world” (Patterson , 119–20 and , 208; citing Trifkovic , 187; Patterson , 2; quoting Trifkovic , 188). Readers of Trifkovic will find scant evidence for such claims, though they will read that “Islam is a collective psychosis seeking to become global, and any attempt to compromise with such madness is to become part of the madness itself” (Trifkovic , 300).…”

“…For periodicals and books, many of which will be discussed below, see Trifkovic , 155–88; Longgrear and McNemar ; Timmerman , 107–14; Morse , 62–69; Friedman , 338–39; Dalin , 135–38; Dalin and Rothmann , 45–65; Vermaat ; Mallmann and Cüppers , 98–101; Dershowitz , 196–203; Patterson , 91–124; , 207–8; Rubin and Schwanitz , 1–10, 164–91, 190–94.…”

Book Review: The Failures of Ethics: Confronting the Holocaust, Genocide, and Other Mass Atrocities

“…Roth is hesitant to call for the recovery of a religiously grounded moral absolutismsomething embraced by, among others, David Patterson. 9 Roth seems forced to acknowledge that "ethical outlooks" are social constructs with a history, but even so something like the Holocaust can still serve as a negative absolute; in his view even a socially constructed ethics can still be extremely powerful. 10 The shortest chapter of the book, "Rape as Torture and the Responsibility to Protect"-a mere fourteen pages-is nevertheless important for its recognition that rape and other forms of torture have an as yet insufficiently understood enduring destructive potential: the ubiquity of rape as a weapon of genocide prompted the Outcome Document of the United Nations World Summit (2005), 11 along with Resolution 2150.…”