Essay on Tragedy in Jewish History

Israel is undoubtedly a country for the history books with its great conflicts, victories, atrocities, and deep necessity which makes it quite unique from any others and there are perhaps no better words to describe its history than with “tragedy” and “triumph.” After this semester, I feel that I have a pretty clear viewpoint on these ideas. The triumph of Israel is its very existence both in general and specifically as a place for Jewish people that saved thousands and harbored refugees in times

has posed as a challenge to the belief in the God of tradition who intervenes in history. It is questioned by Rubenstein, ‘how can Jews believe in an omnipotent, beneficent God after Auschwitz?. Therefore, maintaining belief in an all loving and all powerful God after the Holocaust has unsurprisingly been difficult for some Jews. Jewish scripture reveals how God intervened in the history to save his people from tragedy and to punish for sin. For example, the destruction of the temple in 70CE and God’s

our world for as long as humans have themselves. Discrimination has caused problems in societies all throughout history. But despite all of the terrible things that have happened because of prejudice and discrimination, it continues to live on in our world today. Anti-Semitism, prejudice against Jews, is a form of discrimination that has caused perhaps the most problems throughout history. Many people describe anti-Semitism as more than simply "prejudice" or "discrimination" against Jews. It is often

Josephus was a first century author who recorded Jewish-Roman history. He was born Jewish, and even fought against the Romans in the first Jewish-Roman war. But after being captured and later freed by the Roman emperor, Joseph was given Roman citizenship. Josephus’ seven-book collection of The Jewish War was written around 75AD. The Jewish War covers Jewish history from the time Jerusalem was captured, to the first war between Jewish and Roman people; the same war he fought in as a Roman citizen

Holocaust is, by definition, a tragedy. HaShoah, the Hebrew word for the Holocaust, translates to “the catastrophe.” The very notion of humor during the Holocaust may seem incongruous, appalling, and wildly inappropriate. Tragedy is seen as serious, while comedy is typically lighthearted in nature. However, there is precedence for ‘comic relief,’ the presence of humor in tragedy with the desired effect to relieve tension. Frequently, comic relief is used so that tragedy does not overshadow us in darkness

that caused the Holocaust, in addition to the narrator's identification with the Jews and their history of oppression.    

like this can be sensitive, paradoxical and intimate to people’s identity and their social locations. In America, we come from variety of cultural backgrounds and consist of different types of community based on religion. Being an American could be Jewish, Christian, Italian, gay or firefighter. Therefore, finding your position is not easy while balancing all other factors among your community. Factors may come from family, friends, community and religion and those could be very confusing to your own

national memorial. Linenthal mentions how some thought that a memorial dedicated just to the Holocaust would cause people to ignore the rich history of Judaism as an entire civilization. Another argument was that funds that could be aiding Jews that are still suffering from anti-Semitism in foreign lands or to help those that were Jewish and struggled to remain Jewish in a secular culture. It was also thought that possibly remembering the Holocaust too well would muddle the relationship between Jews’ and

out the fallacy in the remembrance of the burning down of Kreshchatik. As described, it was the Soviets who committed the acts but the Soviet state following the war presented the acts as German doing. Due to this, the Soviet state has distorted history to make Ukraine look as if it suffered under the sole hands of Nazis and

believe is most important is our history. Not just American or European history, but all world history. This means from the very beginnings of Mesopotamia to the Black Death in Europe to the rise of communism in China to the recent presidential race of 2016 in America. The history of humanity from the very beginning to the end is often forgotten that should be remembered. As Karl Marx once said “History repeats itself, first a tragedy, second a farce.” History tends to repeat itself if it's