Yehuda Bauer: A Gentleman and a Scholar
The hallmark of a truly great person is their willingness to admit when they are wrong.
Truly great scholars, in admitting error, are subjecting themselves to an additional layer of humiliation. All their scholarship, past and future, can be called into question. All the work that has been based on theirs needs to be reconsidered.
Professor Yehuda Bauer, who passed away aged 98 on Friday, was a truly great person and an important, venerated scholar. He had the courage to correct his scholarship when he discovered a mistake – admittedly, not a mistake in facts or even conclusions, but a mistake in emphasis.
I had the privilege, indeed the honour, of learning from Professor Yehuda Bauer and it was precisely at that turning point in his thinking. I was able to observe his greatness as a scholar, a teacher and as a person.
When working for the Jewish community in Australia, I learnt that Professor Bauer’s son was studying “down under” and that the professor was planning on visiting him. I wrote and asked if he would give a lecture to the community and he agreed. (I should add that in those days, we did not pay guest lecturers for their time, so it was an act of generosity on his part.)
Of course, his lecture was a great success and when Professor Bauer said he planned to return the following year, I invited him to give a mini-course in our community education program.
He wrote back agreeing to our terms and asked that participants use a particular edition of his textbook. After enquiring from the publisher, I wrote back to him and said that we would need to use an earlier edition, as that particular version was not available in Australia.
Professor Bauer was very angry. He explained to me that between editions, he had changed the entire orientation of the book. In fact, the publisher was not supposed to be selling the previous edition at all!
I was anxious to learn what the new orientation was and how it differed from the earlier one. It was not long before I was able to sit in on the classes. With great humility, Professor Bauer began the course with the explanation for which I was waiting. In recent years, he had realized that Shoa scholarship, in which he had been a major force, had focused on the perpetrators. It was time to focus on the Jewish story: the heroism, the resistance, the life and culture that was lost, the human dignity, the diversity of opinions and lifestyles that had flourished. Nazism had tried to eliminate the Jewish people. By telling the story of the Shoa through describing what the Nazis believed, what they decided and what they undertook – the horrors they perpetrated – we are giving them another victory. He wanted to reclaim our history.
This was a turning point for me as an educator. I saw a great teacher explain to a group of students where he had been wrong.
Humility was one of Professor Bauer’s qualities that I encountered in Australia but not the only one. He also revealed a wit and a sense of humour that was quite unexpected. Honouring us with his presence for dinner at our home, he entertained all our guests with anecdotes and reflections. He managed to turn the story of his visit to the home from which his family had fled in 1939 into a humorous tale that had everyone entranced.
Time passed and I had no contact with this extraordinary scholar and gentleman until I found myself only a couple of years ago at a meeting that he was addressing. Although well past what people would describe as “retirement age”, he spoke articulately and passionately, with deep wisdom and thought-provoking ideas.
After his presentation, I wanted to reintroduce myself and thank him for his teaching. There was no need for the former. As I approached him, he looked up and immediately asked after my brother, with whom he had worked on Shoa commemoration and in fighting antisemitism. I felt honoured that he remembered who I was but realized that it was not about me: it was the quality of the man.
His expertise and scholarship did not define him and did not do credit to the most important qualities he had. He was so much more than an expert. May we remember him and learn from him in all ways possible.