The Holocaust as Change Agent: Major Changes Within the Jewish People in the Wake of the Holocaust: Proceedings of the Ninth Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, June 1993, Edited by Yisrael Gutman and Avital Saf
Since the conference book under review covers a wide range of topics, and Feingold found it difficult to locate a binding theme, he focuses his review on the articles dealing with subjects that concern, but are not confined to, Israeli scholars. Did Zionist ideology better equip leaders to discern the developing threat in Europe? Was the Zionist movement caught unprepared? What was the relationship between the founding of the Jewish state and the Holocaust? What is the historical valence of the Holocaust? Feingold finds that clear answers still elude us, whether because the historical context is not yet entirely clear, or because some of the questions are still too laden with emotion. One major change in the Jewish people is clear according to Feingold: little remains of the pre-Holocaust European Jewish culture that served as the incubator of Zionism whose abundance nourished Diaspora Judaism. At the same time, its derivative Jewish cultures in Israel and the United States have thus far managed to prevent the realization of the larger Nazi objective of totally obliterating the Jewish presence in the world.