Winter + Spring 2025

At the end of a heart-wrenching week of Holocaust remembrance, we welcome to the bimah Menachem Rosensaft, whose new book, Burning Psalms: Confronting Adonai after Auschwitz, recasts the sacred poetry of our tradition to seek meaning in the lingering horrors of the abyss.

Giving voice to the trauma that haunts children of victims and survivors, the reimagining of the original 150 biblical psalms turns praise into dirges, festivals into mourning — yet audaciously opens a pathway to pursue justice, find comfort and seek beauty in this world.

Born in the Displaced Persons camp of Bergen-Belsen, the son of two concentration camp survivors, Menachem Rosensaft is a New York City attorney and founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. Author of Poems Born in Bergen-Belsen, he served on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council and has long been active in promoting Holocaust remembrance that includes other acts of genocide. He teaches at Columbia and Cornell and is a General Counsel Emeritus for the World Jewish Congress.