Of Spirit and Eternity: The Holocaust Responsa of Rav Oshry

Speaker in image: Dr. Simon Holloway

From 1941-1944, Rav Ephraim Oshry was interned in the Kovno Ghetto. There, in addition to hunger and privation, the inhabitants were subjected to unceasing labour under the threat of violence. Many of the ghetto residents were deeply religious, and turned to Rav Oshry with questions of a practical, ethical and philosophical nature. Burying copies of his answers onsite, he was able to retrieve and publish them after the war, where they stand as the most exhaustive testament to rabbinic decision-making during the Holocaust.

In this talk, Dr. Simon Holloway will consider the nature of the questions that Rav Oshry sought to answer – both those that were asked by ghetto residents and those that he thought of himself. We will also consider the import of his answers and what they tell us about the nature of spiritual resistance in the Kovno Ghetto.

Dr. Simon Holloway is the Head of Education at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum. He previously worked as an Educator at the Sydney Jewish Museum.