History as Witness

Witnessing can assume many different forms including religious, literary, and legal versions. This chapter begins by focusing on examples of textual witnessing such as the sourcebooks of Tcherikower and Dubnow mentioned in Chapter 2 in which the compilers assembled troves of documents as a form of historical proof. The focus then shifts from the first to the second half of the twentieth century by discussing instances in which historians are called upon to take the stand in legal cases. The chapter explores a range of cases related to the Holocaust in which historians played important roles as witnesses, particularly the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem in 1961 in which historian Salo W. Baron was a key witness. The chapter concludes by discussing the libel trial brought by David Irving against Deborah Lipstadt in London in 2000 in which a “dream team” of historians, including Richard Evans and Christopher Browning, served as defense witnesses. The victory of Lipstadt’s side proved to be a vindication for memory, as well as history, and, as such, an indication of the somewhat porous boundary between them.

The Historian Between Remembering and Forgetting

The Conclusion begins by posing the question of what can be gained from the study of the past in making sense of the present. Historians today are of different minds on the question. This book is quite clear in two regards: first, modern historians have made constant identitarian investments in their work; second, this depth of engagement can and in fact does help in transforming history into a source of illumination on the present and future. For example, in thinking past the current stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, historians with deep engagements in the subject matter can use their knowledge of the past to open up new pathways of understanding through a rediscovery of discarded or neglected ideas. More generally, historians have in their toolkit an array of tools to enlighten the present. The utilities of history they have at their disposal include redemptive, ethical, advisory, and predictive functions. Especially in conflict or post-conflict situations, history can and should play a prominent part in the work of restorative justice.

A Brief Reflection on Method

It is unusual, to be sure, to offer a set of reflections such as these after the conclusion to a book, all the more so when they deal with the method putatively used throughout the book. Of course, it is almost as unusual—and perhaps a bit self-indulgent—for a historian to take the time to lay out his or her guiding theoretical principles, primitive as they may be....

History as Consolation

Consolation is a deeply rooted human emotion, as well as mode of religious expression. It also has been a frequent catalyst for Jewish historical production. Jewish chroniclers after the outbreak of the First Crusades turned to recording recent events as a means of demonstrating the moral virtue of the sacrificed Jews. Interestingly, this impulse to console through recourse to the past has animated modern Jewish historical writing as well, especially in the wake of tragedy. In the aftermath of anti-Jewish pogroms in 1903 and 1918-19, Elias Tcherikower and Simon Dubnow collected documentary traces both as a means of holding accountable the perpetrators and in order to demonstrate that the Jews were capable of surviving attempts at harming or destroying them. Meanwhile, in the midst of the darkest chapter in modern Jewish history, Emanuel Ringelblum and his colleagues in the Oyneg Shabbes group scrupulously recorded the manifold activities of the Warsaw ghetto as a form of cultural resistance, as well as a testament to the ultimate ability of the Jews to outlive their attempted exterminators. This chapter demonstrates that throughout their long historical journey, Jews often consoled themselves by recording past travails and their ultimate triumph over them.

History as Liberation

This chapter focuses on a recurrent tendency of modern Jewish historians to use their research as a tool of liberation. The first circles of scholars discussed in this chapter employed history to free themselves and their contemporaries from ossified religious traditions. The chapter begins by examining two Christian authors, Jacques Basnage and Hannah Adams, for whom history was a tool to promote their supersessionist vision. Meanwhile, Jewish scholars such as Leopold Zunz, Peter Beer, and Abraham Geiger used history as a lever to unhinge a modern notion of Judaism from excessive dependence on older Jewish and Christian models. A succeeding generation of historians made use of history to liberate Jews of their day from assimilationist biases against Jewish nationalism. The final pair of historians mentioned, Gerda Lerner and Paula Hyman, used history as an instrument in their struggle to liberate women, from both patriarchal subordination and historiographical neglect.

Introduction

The Introduction begins with the simple question that opens Marc Bloch’s classic book The Historian’s Craft: “What is the use of history?” This question has assumed particular urgency in the past decade as interest in the humanities and the study of history has waned. But well before, various modern commentators, ranging from Friedrich Nietzsche to Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, have questioned the utility of historical research that tells us more and more about less and less. In contrast to this claim, this chapter suggests that history, while it has the capacity to distort, can and often does edify. It also suggests that history should not be seen in opposition to memory, but rather frequently serves as a tool of remembrance. In this regard, the chapter engages in a sustained dialogue with Yerushalmi’s seminal 1982 book Zakhor, which posits a bright-line distinction between history and memory—as well as with other writings of his that present a more complicated assessment of the relationship between them.