What role for revenge in Jewish life, literature and culture? | Aeon Essays

Jewish history is a living testimony to the power of ideas,

Since ancient times, in every place they have ever lived, Jews have represented the frightening prospect of freedom. As long as Jews existed in any society, there was evidence that it in fact wasn’t necessary to believe what everyone else believed, that those who disagreed with their neighbors could survive and even flourish against all odds. The J

Thus, the Jewish people could restore the honor lost to the Nazis by warring against Arabs in the breach. But better than substitute Nazis, the

What are stories for? That question becomes even harder to answer when we consider that an astonishing proportion of what counts today as “Jewish” literature in English is basically Holocaust fiction. If the purpose of literature is to “uplift” us, is it even possible to write fiction that is honest about the most horrifying aspects of the Jewish p