Auschwitz or Sinai: Metaphor and the Meaning of Modern Israel

Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer is the President of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. Yehuda is a leading thinker and author on the meaning of Israel to American Jews, on Jewish history and Jewish memory, and on questions of leadership and change in American Jewish life. Yehuda led the creation of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America in 2010 as a pioneering research and educational center for the leadership of the North American Jewish

In 1982 David Hartman wrote of two metaphors for how we are to relate to Israel: Auschwitz demands vigilance against external threats, prioritizing the value of Jewish survival; Sinai sees Jewish sovereignty guided by the aspiration to achieve the covenant with God.

Three decades later, this tension remains in our communal conversation. Which metaphor is more accurate in understanding the state of Israel, and what does it mean to hold onto such metaphors in our relationship to it?