Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation

Book excerpt: Marc Ellis fine book about the future of the Jewish community was first published in 1987. But twenty years on, in the light of recent events in the Middle East and post-September 11, its powerful message of hope, directed towards a people 'poised between Holocaust and empowerment', remains as powerful, apposite, and pressingly relevant as it was before. Ellis begins with two poles: the holocaust and the pain and vision that issue from it. This leads him into ethics, and he highlights the contrast between the depth of Jewish ethical commitment and the paucity of renewal movements within Judaism. The author then addresses all suffering peoples, and the Christian liberation movements active among them, so that the holocaust may be set in a wider context. Against this background, Ellis sees it as essential that the journeys and visions of dissenting Jews - such as Etty Hillesum and Martin Buber - should be re-appraised. An alternative perspective of what it means to be Jewish begins to emerge, and in the final chapter a Jewish theology of liberation is essayed, which is a theology prepared 'to enter the danger zones of contemporary Jewish life', often at some cost.