Yiddish Poetry as Holocaust Theology

8PM Eastern - Monday, 31 October - CLASS - with Mr. Daniel Kraft - The philosopher Theodor Adorno famously, or infamously, said that "poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric." But for a generation of Jewish writers, poetry after and about Auschwitz was...

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The philosopher Theodor Adorno famously, or infamously, said that “poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.” But for a generation of Jewish writers, poetry after and about Auschwitz was an essential way of grappling with, and grieving for, the Holocaust. Together we’ll look at Yiddish poets who turned to verse to craft theological responses to the Shoah. We’ll consider the ways that poetry can be a medium for theology, in addition to the specifics of these poets’ work, asking questions like: how does the Shoah change their relationships to God and to Torah, and how can poetry express the inexpressible?

Daniel Kraft is a writer, translator, and educator living in Richmond, Virginia. He holds a master's degree from Harvard Divinity School, where he was a Harry Austryn Wolfson Fellow in Jewish Studies and a resident at the Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions. Daniel  has taught at conferences, synagogues, and museums in North America and Poland, and his work has been supported by residencies, fellowships, and scholarships from institutions including the National Yiddish Book Center, the Community of Writers, and the Glen Workshop. His poems, essays, and translations appear in a number of publications, and he shares translations of Yiddish poetry in his newsletter at danielkraft.substack.com.