Voices of Survivors

Abstract

This practical theological study on intercultural reconciliation investigates peacebuilding as a community practice of Jewish-Christian engagement. With exilic meaning-making that signaled the inner wounding of Holocaust survivors, spiritual mutism became an entry point to dialogue and reconciliation in Canada. For a broad perspective on the victim-centric phenomenon, a lens of cultural trauma was used in analysis of empirical and historical data for locating the empathy and inner exilic workings of child survivors in their practice with diverse people of faith. Characterized as “shared space,” intercultural reconciliation emerged from trauma-informed religion. The Holocaust marked a pivotal period in world history and a turning point in Christian-Jewish relations. Starting in 1960, child survivors participated in the first ecumenical community organization after the Holocaust. Within two years of its civil rights initiative, Christian-Jewish Dialogue of Toronto (CJDT) was incorporated by the Anglican Church of Canada. Contributions to greater belonging with support for survivor agency facilitated their healing from cultural trauma. In bearing “witness” to the Holocaust, CJDT participants saw lives transformed with the post-traumatic growth and a legacy of embodied mercy, truth and reconciliation in the voices of survivors.