A Response To Issues Of Anti-Judaism During World War II

As a response to issues of anti-Semitism elicited by Nazi’s during World War II the Jewish religion modified their traditions practices. During World War II “the so-called “Final Solution,” the Nazi genocide of 6,000,000 Jews, as well as many Roma and disabled people” (Burke) resulted in a need for acculturation and emancipation of the Jewish people. During the time of Nazi Germany “no matter how illogical and contradictory the charges, Jews were to blame, whether for Marxism, liberalism, communism, or rampant capitalism” (Burke) Jewish lives and property were destroyed because they were represented as racially “other” and subjected to propaganda that conditioned non-Jews to see Jewish people as vermin and beneath other members of society. Jews were driven to

Judaism promoted the separation between religion and state “since it has enabled them to guarantee their legal rights and their civic freedoms.” (Arkush 647). In order to integrate into the non-Jewish world Judaism adopted acculturation; Judaism learned to adopt and implement the ideas, values, and behaviour of non-Jews. Zionism was another response to the anti-Semitism created. Zionism is one of the first post-modern religious movements of the Jewish people (Neusner 160), after World War II Jews would not want to return to Europe following the murders that took place (Neusner 160) so they generated the goal to create a Jewish national state in Palestine. Zionism was the self-emancipation of the Jewish people, and it involved creating a separate Jewish State (Neusner 160). Leaders of the emancipation/acculturation movement promoted integration of Jewish people into modern society which resulted in the changing of the Jewish religious