SHEKHINAH: A Feminist Perspective in the Light of Holocaust

Women's stories culled from the memoirs of Holocaust survivors and the lessons to be learned from them have had no significant place in theological circles. This absence or obliteration has practically caused further oppression, suffering, and death to women victims of the Holocaust by depriving them of voice and placing them as subordinate 'other' to the heroic, prophesying, and valiant Jewish male victims and survivors. The absence of feminine representation matters as the female voice would have brought a different ring to the male theologians' consistent harping on God's retreat, absence, or hiddenness in the Jewish Holocaust tragedy. This article attempts to offer a broader understanding of: 1) how feminist theologizing differs from masculine theologizing, 2) how documentary evidences of women stories underpin a different kind of theorizing, and 3) how theology may take shape and appear from the points of view of women victims of the Holocaust, steering a theological discussion on Shekinah.