Yehuda Bauer (1926-2024): An Appreciation

A Tribute to Yehuda Bauer who died this week at the age of 98, productive to the very end, teaching to the very end, engaging in the most important issues of our time to the every end,

He was a scholar’s scholar and a teacher’s teacher. His knowledge was masterful. His ability to transmit was he knew even greater. Without simplifying the complexity of the information he presented, he was able to present it so clearly, so lucidly that one marveled at how one  had previously regarded the issue as difficulty.

I learned about friendship by observing Yehuda Bauer. His partnership with Yisrael Gutman of blessed memory, with whom I worked closely on two books, was an example of that friendship, loyalty, camaraderie, respect, admiration, consideration, teamwork. Each was formidable in their own right; more formidable, more influential working together. And those of us who work in this field are acutely aware of the toll that it takes, and friendship is even more indispensable.

I learned about courage from Yehuda — courage and honesty. He said what he meant, he meant what he said. He spoke his mind, even when it made his audience uncomfortable.

I have experienced Yehuda Bauer as a critic, serious and pointed. I remember many a time in the early days of my work with the President’s Commission when his words were challenging, insistent that what he now calls the singularity of the Holocaust, its Jewish dimension be protected and not submerged. He challenged President Carter’s definition if 11 million based on Simon Wiesenthal’s invented but politically advantageous numbers, and was fearful of the false universalization of the Holocaust.

I had greater confidence that the Museum could adequately and accurately represent the totality of Nazi victims without negating, deemphasizing, or diluting the centrality of the Jews.

Yet, his voice became a voice of conscience and we were better off for his criticism, even for the fear of his criticism.

I learned and continued to learn about teaching from Yehuda. He expressed complex ideas with admirable clarity. He never believed that to be profound one had to be incomprehensible, or to be taken seriously one had to be obscure. He never spoke down to his students, but he was demanding. I took an undergrade course with Yehuda at the Institute 59 years ago, when American students who spoke Hebrew could take mainstream courses. I barely remember the subject or the syllabus I do remember the exceptional teacher. And every time I heard him speak, whether to academics or a general audience, it is an event. I know I am in the presence of a master who has only gotten better with age, more liberated with age. His use of language, clarity of thought, breadth and depth knowledge, and use of the power of narrative are exceptional.

Most of all, I respect his values, Jewish values, humanistic values.  He can be a denizen of many worlds, comfortable in many languages, at home in diverse cultures. His Jewish values inform and seek to enhance his humanistic values, and his humanistic values shape and even transform his Jewish values. He is comfortable with the tension between them when they clash: yet they dwell within him without tension but with fullness and wholeness. Within him, they become one.

It is perhaps important to note that despite the brilliance of Holocaust scholars in Israel and his many grateful there is no Israeli on on the horizon who can quite fulfill his role in the world with such knowledge, such eloquence, such dignity, and respect.

His presence was a blessing, so too his memory!