Children of Job : American second-generation witnesses to the Holocaust / Alan L. Berger.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Foreword / Elie Wiesel -- Ch. 1. Introduction. The Second-Generation Witness: Inheriting the Holocaust. Particularism and Universalism. Children of Survivors and Children of Job. Theological Sequelae. Universal Questions. The Search for Tikkun -- Ch. 2. From Pathology to Theology: The Emergence of the Second-Generation Witness. The American Second Generation: A Brief History. A New Generation of Jewish Writers and Filmmakers. Post-Auschwitz Covenant Theology. Elie Wiesel and the Additional Covenant. Irving Greenberg and the Voluntary Covenant. Emil L. Fackenheim and the Search for a Post-Aushwitz Tikkun Olam. Richard L. Rubenstein: "God after the Death of God" -- Ch. 3. Second-Generation Novels and Short Stories: Jewish Particularism. Damaged Goods. Summer Long-a-Coming. Maus. Short Stories: A Biographical Note. Stories of an Imaginary Childhood and While the Messiah Tarries. Dancing at the Club Holocaust and Forms of Captivity and Escape. Elijah Visible --

Ch. 4. Second-Generation Novels and Short Stories: Jewish Universalism. The Flood. White Lies. Dancing on Tisha B'Av and Winter Eyes -- Ch. 5. Second-Generation Documentaries and Docudramas: Jewish Particularism. Kaddish. A Generation Apart. Breaking the Silence. Half-Sister, Everything's For You, and In Memory. Angst. The Docudramas: The Dr. John Haney Sessions and Open Secrets -- Ch. 6. Second-Generation Documentaries and Docudramas: Jewish Universalism. As If It Were Yesterday. Weapons of The Spirit. So Many Miracles. Voices From The Attic -- Ch. 7. Whither The Future? Working through the Holocaust. Riders towards the Dawn. Children of Job and Covenantal Judaism.

Focusing on the novels and films of daughters and sons of Holocaust survivors, this book sheds light on the relationship between the Holocaust and contemporary Jewish identity. It is the first systematic analysis of a body of work that introduces a new generation of Jewish writers and filmmakers, as well as revealing how the survivor's legacy is shaping - and being shaped by - the second generation.

Carefully studying the work of these contemporary children of Job, Berger demonstrates how the offspring, like the survivors themselves, represent a variety of orientation to Judaism, have significant theological differences, and share the legacy of the Shoah. Berger clearly shows that members of the second generation participate fully in both the American and Jewish dimensions of their identity and articulates distinctive second-generation theological and psychosocial themes.