Female Face of God in Auschwitz

<p>The dominant theme of post-Holocaust Jewish theology has been that of the temporary hiddenness of God interpreted either as a divine mystery or more commonly as God's deferral to human freedom. But traditional Judaic obligations of female presence together with the traditional image of the Shekhinah as a figure of God's 'femaleness' accompanying Israel into exile seem to contradict such theologies of absence. <em>The Female Face of God in Auschwitz</em> the first full-length feminist theology of the Holocaust argues that the patriarchal bias of post-Holocaust theology becomes fully apparent only when women's experiences and priorities are brought into historical light. Building upon the published testimonies of four women imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau - Olga Lengyel Lucie Adelsberger Bertha Ferderber-Salz and Sara Nomberg-Przytyk - it considers women's distinct experiences of the holy in relation to God's perceived presence and absence in the camps. <br>God's face says Melissa Raphael was not hidden in Auschwitz but intimately revealed in the female face turned towards the other as a refractive image of God especially in the moral protest made visible through material and spiritual care for the assaulted other.</p>