Volume 4 No 1 - Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

2012] COULDN’T HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU 323
moral values, of the quest for truth and integrity—can become deeply corrupted
by a totalitarian state. Great institutions can become small, great
scholars can diminish themselves, and university and church politics can
become petty indeed.
Though there is no violence in this work, it paints a painful picture and
shatters the illusions of academics, clergy, and laity that somehow their
religious or intellectual values would promote ethical and responsible
behavior. Would that it were so!
But Ericksen will not permit cheap grace or easy absolution. This is a
work that lingers, provokes, and challenges. The younger generation of
scholars are prepared to ask tough questions and to be unwilling to settle for
easy answers.
*Michael Berenbaum is a professor of Jewish studies and director of the Sigi Ziering
Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust at
the American Jewish University in Los Angeles.