New Book by Professor Emeritus
John Roth Addresses
Ethics After Holocaust

John K. Roth, the Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, has edited a new book, The Double Binds of Ethics After the Holocaust: Salvaging Fragments, a collection of essays exploring what can be done in ethical theory and its practice to respond effectively to the impact of the Holocaust and genocide.
Written by a group of international scholars who were brought together by a seminar Roth led at the United States Holocaust Museum, the book has been several years in the making. Roth contributed the first chapter of the book, "Double Binds: Ethics after Auschwitz," and provided interpretation drawing the essays together.
"For the authors of this fine collection, to speak of ethics after the Holocaust is to choke on one's words yet to continue speaking. It is a double-bind: what you must do but cannot, what you cannot do but must," said Peter Ochs, the Edgar Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies at the University of Virginia. Ochs believes, "This is ethics today: without the cozy comforts of a moral higher ground. And this is a book to read today: for all who ask what happened to ethics in our contemporary world."
Roth urges young people "to immerse themselvesthrough study and practical experiencein encounters with injustice and suffering" in order to uphold ethical values.
"I think that such experience drives home the difference between right and wrong, and if that difference is deeply recognized and felt, it can lead people to pursue what is right and good and to oppose and resist what is wrong and destructive, Roth says. Encounters with the Holocaust and other mass atrocity crimes can move people in such ways, he added.
When asked about his favorite aspect of the book, Roth emphasized the determination and courage the book hopes to instill in readers. "The Holocaust and other mass atrocities scarcely make us more confident that human beings will act as they should. But those same disasters show how important it is for us to keep trying to do so. The book attemptsin the individual essays and collectivelyto encourage salvage efforts of that kind, and that's what I like best about it."
The book was also edited by Jennifer L. Geddes and Jules Simon and is available from Palgrave Macmillan.
Roth has authored or edited more than 40 books, including a thoroughly revised edition of Approaches to Auschwitz: The Holocaust and Its Legacy (Westminster John Knox Press, 2003) and Ethics During and After the Holocaust: In the Shadow of Birkenau (Palgrave Macmillan 2005). In 2007-2008, Roth served as the Robert and Carolyn Frederick Distinguished Visiting Professor of Ethics at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He was named the 1988 U.S. National Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Emily Meinhardt '10