The Spiritual Upheaval in Israel in the Wake of the Holocaust

Living in British Mandate Palestine during World War II, psychologist Fishel Schneersohn analyzed how the Jewish community in the land of Israel was contending with reports of genocide in Europe. His work, originally delivered as a talk at Kibbutz Hulda near the city of Rehovot on June 7, 1943, is considered one of the first studies of human responses to collective trauma. He looks at psychological defense mechanisms and stresses that Jews were using tools of avoidance while confronting a tragedy too vast to comprehend. Schneersohn argues that while individuals attempted to maintain a façade of normalcy, the community in the land of Israel was, in fact, undergoing a profound spiritual crisis.