Volume 4 No 1 - Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

350 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 4:341
JSA Lifetime Achievement Award
For more than half a century, Richard L. Rubenstein has been a unique voice in
Holocaust and genocide scholarship. His first work, After Auschwitz, caused considerable
controversy within the Jewish community, as he insisted that no Jewish
theology would be adequate if it did not address the twin revolutions of 20thcentury
Jewish history: the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel.
And address these issues he did. His timing was impeccable; for an entire generation,
these issues were paramount to an understanding of the Jewish experience,
and Rubenstein’s own writings anchored one part of the debate.
Few thinkers are privileged to reach the age of four score and eight with no
loss to their intellectual vigor and moral ardor. Fewer still see the issues that they
raised half century ago still occupying center stage. Rubenstein’s The Cunning of
History made two central and enduring points: that the Holocaust was an expression
in the extreme of what was common to the mainstream of Western civilization,
and that the central issue of our time was how society responded to the issue of
superfluous population. This debate is dominating the political landscape of 21stcentury
America as the covenant between generations is fraying and we are reexamining
our responsibilities to the old and the young, to those who cannot work,
and to those who can find no place in our globalized economy.
Rubenstein has brought the insights of a lifetime of work to bear on the question
of radical Islam and the Jewish people and the West. The result was a powerful
and deeply disturbing work that engages the reader in considering issues that
polite society would prefer to avoid.
For more than forty years he has been my esteemed teacher, my friend, my
Doctor Father, and we consider each other family. While we don’t always agree,
we have respected our differences and celebrated the intellectual engagement those
differences allow. I cherish our relationship. I cherish his intellectual integrity and
brilliant insights. We all look back on the past with admiration and look forward to
his ongoing contribution.
—Michael Berenbaum