Crisis and Covenant

Alan L. Berger teaches in the Department of Religion and directs the interdisciplinary Jewish Studies Program at Syracuse University. His essays on Holocaust fiction and pedagogy, Jewish mysticism, and the sociology of Judaism appear in a variety of places. He has also written study guides for Alinsky's Children, a film project dealing with children of Holocaust survivors.

"I am convinced that this book will be an important contribution to the understanding of events and issues that defy understanding. "Much has been written about the theology of the Holocaust, and also about the literature of the Holocaust. What Alan Berger has done is to combine both. Furthermore, he deals more with writers than with concepts, or rather: he deals with concepts through the works of writers." — Elie Wiesel, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, Boston University"How have American, Jewish writers of fiction faced the Holocaust in a post-Auschwitz world? In a penetrating critique of Bellow, Ozick, Roth, Nissenson, Malamud, et al., Alan L. Berger raises this crucial question and examines it against the ancient and modern claims of the Covenant as it has acted within Jewish life and in religious Judaism. What results is a book insightful, thoughtful, carefully crafted, that establishes Berger as a first-rate critic who has fully mastered the fiction and the writers whom he examines. He is also an established Holocaust scholar. The combination provides all students of American fiction with a major new work of high merit." — Robert W. Ross, University of Minnesota"This thoughtful and fresh book casts a beam of light in a dark, unexplored literary horizon. It reveals how the central Jewish writers of our time grapple with the awesome, horrifying implications of the Holocaust. Many of these authors—Ozick, Malamud, Nissenson, and Singer, for example—are not usually considered Holocaust writers, but this book breaks beyond the easy categories of theology and literary criticism. Berger skillfully demonstrates here the interweaving of Jewish destiny and meaning with literary and narrative invention. An original, arresting and important work." — Irving Greenberg, President, National Jewish Resource Center

• 1. Introduction: Jewish Existence Covenant Transformations Covenant and Modernity The Contemporary Covenantal Crisis Literary Response to Covenant Crisis American Judaism and the Holocaust Contributions of American Jewish Holocaust Novelists 2. Holocaust as Watershed Holocaust Problematics Theological Responses Theology and Literature Is the Holocaust Beyond Artistic Expression? Who Should Write of the Holocaust? Trivializing the Holocaust American Jewish Writers and the Holocaust: A Critique The Role of the American Jewish Novelist 3. Holocaust Responses I: Judaism as a Religious Value System The Holocaust and American Diaspora Jewry Hasidic Tales Considering the Evidence Arthur A. Cohen Cynthia Ozick Hugh Nissenson Elie Wiesel Isaac B. Singer Conclusion 4. Holocaust Responses II: Judaism as a Secular Value System Considering the Evidence Bernard Malamud Saul Bellow Susan F. Schaeffer Cynthia Ozick Pre-Holocaust America: Jewish Existence and Covenant Diminishment Hugh Nissenson Robert Kotlowitz Conclusion 5. Holocaust Responses III: Symbolic Judaism Considering the Evidence Philip Roth Richard Elman Edward Lewis Wallant Norma Rosen Bernard Malamud Conclusion 6. Holocaust and Covenant The Central Question for Contemporary Judaism Holocaust Fiction Lato Sensu Problems and Possibilities Notes Index