Richard L. Rubenstein and the Death of “Ghetto Judaism”

Richard L. Rubenstein, who initiated the American debate about theological consequences of the Holocaust with the publication of After Auschwitz in 1966, is best known for his claim that God was dead. This proclamation of God’s demise is usually understood as a result of reasoning that includes the occurrence of the Holocaust among its premises. In the article, the author presents an alternative interpretation. Analyzing Rubenstein’s early essays, the author argues that his rejection of theodicy as traditionally construed and of the notion of God as the Lord of History should rather be read as a part of Rubenstein’s critique of “ghetto Judaism”—Judaism born in tragic and anomalous circumstances of exile, containing intrinsically problematic ideas of God, divine providence, and divine election. Heavily influenced by existentialism in general and by Paul Tillich’s rejection of traditional theism in particular, Rubenstein believed that traditional Judaism had outlived its purpose. In Rubenstein’s thought, Auschwitz—and those interpretations of the Holocaust that attempted to place it within the parameters of traditional vocabulary and the covenantal framework—the author submits, serves primarily as the most glaring example of the bankruptcy of “ghetto Judaism” and its God. It is not, however, the reason for this God’s death and Rubenstein’s argument is logically independent of the fact of the Holocaust.