Let’s start with the late Byelorussian-born Jewish American scholar Solomon Grayzel (1896 – 1980). He wrote numerous books, but one in particular made an impact in our household, A History of the Jews (1968). A sweeping examination of the Jewish people and their triumphs and tribulations, we had a well-thumbed copy of that particular paperback in our lounge room bookcase.

Presenting the foundation of the Zionist state of Israel in 1948 as the triumphant pinnacle of Jewish history over their antisemitic persecutors, he covered all the important and decisive twists and turns of their tortuous history from Babylonian captivity until modern times. He made one important observation that has stayed with me, regarding the relationship between the Jewish people and the United States.

Grayzel observed that without Jewish immigration, and immigrants in general, the US educational and university system would atrophy and die. Without the pipeline of immigration from Europe, the United States would wither and die on the vine – at least, their educational, scientific and publishing establishments. He was not wrong.

I was very young when I first read his book, and could not formulate my own thoughts on the subject. If Israel is a triumphal conclusion of the Jewish people’s struggle against genocidal antisemitism, why did the establishment of that state require the genocidal expulsion of the indigenous Palestinians?

I wish I had advice at the time on how to respond to Grayzel’s assertions. No, not because I was on an egotistical trip to prove my credentials and surpass Grayzel’s status as a historian. I am definitely not an expert in Jewish history. However, I did want to understand the underlying motivations of Grayzel’s framework, if only to be better prepared next time round.

A tiny firecracker about a big bang

Gerald Schroeder (1938 – ) is an Orthodox Jewish physicist, author and lecturer. Born in the United States, he moved to Israel in 1971 where he resides and works until today, in 1990, he published the first of what turned out to be multiple books trying to reconcile modern science with Orthodox Jewish religious doctrines, Genesis and the Big Bang.

Schroeder was not the first to try to reconcile the Big Bang theory with the biblical account of creation in Genesis. Pope Pius XII, in the 1950s, tried to suggest that the Big Bang (which was not actually an explosion) was scientific confirmation of the creation ex nihilo mythology in the Bible. Georges Lemaitre himself, Belgian priest, cosmologist and the founder of the Big Bang, strongly repudiated such an interpretation.

Schroeder valiantly tries to suggest, for instance, that the days mentioned in Genesis do not refer to our common understanding of 24-hour time periods, but denote time dilation, a concept known to physicists. This is a phase of Big Bang chronology during the microseconds in the initial frame of reference.

Schroeder is stretching the linguistic boundaries. A day may refer to millions of years, geological time eras, or the quark-gluon plasma in the immediate vicinity of the Big Bang.

That is all very creative, but does not amount to much. Indeed, Schroeder is attempting to demonstrate to his readers that he possesses vast scientific knowledge. He certainly does, but that does nothing to prove his case.

Indeed, Schroeder’s expertise is not in question, it is his philosophical approach that is dubious. He wants us to return to the pre-1850s state of science, when the overwhelming majority of scientists were devoted creationists, and upheld the literal inerrancy of the Bible. Louis Agassiz, for instance, was a fervently religious person. He was also the preeminent scientist in the fields of anthropology and biology.

Agassiz, a scientific authority in the United States regarding the Earth’s natural history, strenuously opposed biological evolution, mocked Darwin’s books, and upheld that the plan of creation divided humanity into superior and inferior races.

I wish I had advice from someone who could guide me through all the complexities of this topic, without being overwhelmed.

Elie Wiesel, the international intellectual limited by his nationalism

Elie Wiesel (1928 – 2016) was a Romanian born American intellectual and speaker. He survived the horror of the concentration camps in World War 2, and wrote numerous books about his experiences. He gained a kind of moral authority as a Holocaust survivor, and was promoted as a leading light in dark times.

Speaking out about human rights, and defending the victims of genocide, his internationalist vision had one enormous blind spot. He ignored the plight of the Palestinians, vociferously defending the Israeli government from all criticisms. His ultranationalist perspective lead him to see every criticism of the Israeli government’s practices as motivated by antisemitism.

The hidden hand of Judeophobia was the demon he perceived in every attack on the Israeli political establishment.

Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, he went on to support every US intervention overseas, such the American war on Iraq (in 1991, and 2003). He is not the first Nobel recipient to advocate for war. But he was outstanding in turning the Holocaust into a secular religion, a sacrament that was beyond human rationality or understanding.

True, the horrors of the Holocaust are confronting and challenge our ability to explore the inhumanity. Wiesel did his utmost to turn the Holocaust not into an object for understanding, but into an ideological prop for the criminal policies of the apartheid Israeli government.

Wiesel had his opinions, and that is fine. Turning his books into required reading in educational curricula, promoting his documentaries and interviews on television as the perspective of a morally upstanding intellectual – these do not insulate him from critical scrutiny.

His views were not those of just another scholar. Interviewed and promoted by Oprah, Wiesel gained an international audience and similarly highflying reputation. He helped to turn the Holocaust into a kind of exceptional theology. The genocide of European Jews was the ultimate mystery, according to Wiesel.

Questioning the irrational bases of religions, and theology, should be part of every adult’s intellectual maturity. The Holocaust may be the ultimate mystery, but the motivations of Wiesel are not. His Zionist nationalism ensured that he excluded the Palestinians from his ostensible internationalist vision.