Love or Perish: A Holocaust Survivor’s Vision for Interfaith Peace

In Love or Perish: A Holocaust Survivor's Vision of Interfaith Peace, Harold Kasimow speaks broadly to the why of an epic tragedy like no other in our history, the Holocaust. Each chapter addresses specific questions around this issue and attempts to present proposed solutions to the inevitable issues: how the Holocaust could happen, the search for meaning and for blame, how could God allow this to happen, and the struggle to rise above it after all the suffering. The indifference to human suffering was and remains rampant. How does a person or a society learn from such a horrific example of human depravity and indifference? Mass murder and suffering on an unimaginable scale opens wounds that may never completely heal. Kasimow's own thoughts and perspectives are blended in this narrative with the insight of select scholars and thinkers, some personal associates and mentors, each addressing aspects of this tragedy. All of us not only address the realities of the Holocaust but humanity's collective future and collective responsibility to each other.Kasimow asks where do we go from here? We are standing at a very real crossroads, you and I, with a cosmic choice: learn to live and love together or perish together. It is that simple. Clearly, we have the capacity to do horrible things to each other, sometimes in the name of nationalism, sometimes in the name of a conjured and vengeful, bloodthirsty god. Sometimes, just because we can. Sometimes, just from evil itself. But we also have the capacity to love and respect each other and help each other achieve greatness.There is a simple choice. Just because we are capable of monstrous evil, should we then just be evil, or indifferent to it? Or should we rise above it? Life has always been about choices, our choices, of what to do or what to become. It has always been about our belief in ourselves, our God, our fellows, and our future together. Kasimow notes that the choice of which path to follow is ours to make