The Afterlife of Religion

Abstract

This chapter examines a form of the afterlife of the religious dimension of some of the Jews that went through the Holocaust and either survived or were remembered by survivors. It focuses on the literary genre of the Orthodox Holocaust memoir in English and its significance for members of the contemporary haredi community. It also introduces a different kind of process that transports certain aspects of the Holocaust experience from the past into the present. The chapter talks about how the afterlife has the power to engender life, and it emphasizes that the Orthodox Holocaust memoir validates Orthodox values among contemporary haredi Jewry that thirst for spiritual encounters. It explains how the Orthodox Holocaust memoir provides access to the spiritual ideals and values of Judaism in its idealized depictions of the ’lost Eden.’