The Encyclopedia of World Religions

holy, idea of the S 207

Further reading: Lucy S. Dawidowicz, The War against the Jews, 1933–1945 (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975); Ann Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl (New York: Pocket Books, 1953); Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust (New York: H. Holt, 1987); Richard Rubenstein, After Auschwitz (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1966). holy, idea of the Concepts of that which is set apart because of its divine power. Religion presup poses a split-level universe. To the traditionally religious person, the world is not homogeneous. Religious people are likely to have a definite aware ness of spiritual places, whether churches or tem ples or PILGRIMAGE sites, as different from ordinary places, such as homes or offices. There one speaks in a hushed voice and makes special gestures in a reverent way. Two words are used in English to describe these kinds of places and experiences: holy and sacred. They have been the subjects of two impor tant books on religion, The Idea of the Holy by Rudolf O TTO and The Sacred and the Profane by Mircea E LIADE . Reflecting the way the two words have somewhat different nuances, Otto empha sized the powerful, mysterious, “numinous,” shuddery if not terrifying yet also fascinating and attracting quality of holy times and places and the divine being within them. These ranged from the burning bush and the summit of Mount Sinai as M OSES knew them to divine encounters of today. Eliade discussed more human sacred places and times, such as those of temples and festivals. But he recognized that they depend ultimately on “theophanies” or divine manifestations that marked them out and set them apart. Either way, religion in anything like its tra ditional form needs to have at its core awareness of the holy and the sacred. It must recognize that G OD or ultimate reality is wholly other than the human world, confronting it with awesome power and presence. Religion adds something else. It says that between the holy and the ordinary world are “doors and windows.” God can reveal himself to people,

All told, almost 12,000,000 people lost their lives during the Holocaust. Roughly half of these were Jews, a third of the Jewish population in the world. Other victims included communists, gyp sies, homosexuals, and the mentally ill. REACTIONS One reaction to the Holocaust has been the attempt to bring the perpetrators to justice. In trials held in Nürnberg, Germany, from Novem ber 1945 to October 1946, the Allies tried and convicted several Nazi leaders. Since then, other Nazi leaders have also been brought to justice. The most notorious was Adolf Eichmann, the overseer of the concentration camps, who was executed in 1962. A second reaction to the Holocaust has been the attempt to memorialize the victims. Struc tures at former camps, such as Auschwitz, remind the world of the atrocities committed there. So do monuments and museums like the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. Works of literature, such as the powerful novel, Night, by the Nobel Prize-winning author Elie Wiesel, convey a sense of the horrors of the camps. In addition, a new day has been added to the Jewish calendar, Yom ha Shoah, Hebrew for Holocaust Day. A third reaction to the Holocaust was increased support for establishing a Jewish state in the terri tory of Palestine ( see Z IONISM ). Before the Holocaust many Jews opposed this goal or were lukewarm in supporting it. After the Holocaust only Hasidic Jews continued to oppose the idea ( see H ASIDISM ). On May 14, 1948, Israel was officially declared a state. A Jewish state, Israel is seen as a haven for all Jews in times of persecution. Finally, many Jews and Christians have seen the Holocaust as a challenge to FAITH . It seems to call into question many of their cherished beliefs about G OD . Some have found resources in their tra ditions to deal with these atrocities. Others have felt it necessary to modify or abandon traditional assertions. For example, some have concluded that God cannot be omnipotent. Others have concluded that after the Holocaust it is no longer possible to believe in God.