Mar
28
Regime of Assimilation and Guilt: A Hebrew Catholic Reflection
Nazis arresting Dutch Jews
Since researching the West branch of my mother's family tree, who had remained in the Netherlands as orthodox Jews and their almost total destruction in the death camps of Poland, I have gained a greater appreciation for the horror of many Jews when family members become baptised. For them being baptised is an abandonment of the Jewish people by the genocide of assimilation. Thus, I have developed a kind of survivor's guilt. That my mother's branch went to England and mostly assimilated with very few maintaining any Jewish connection after a few generations is true.
Since researching the West branch of my mother's family tree, who had remained in the Netherlands as orthodox Jews and their almost total destruction in the death camps of Poland, I have gained a greater appreciation for the horror of many Jews when family members become baptised. For them being baptised is an abandonment of the Jewish people by the genocide of assimilation. Thus, I have developed a kind of survivor's guilt. That my mother's branch went to England and mostly assimilated with very few maintaining any Jewish connection after a few generations is true.
