THE NAZI’S JEWISH SON

THE NAZI’S JEWISH SON
YEHUDIS LITVAK
Rabbi Dr. Aharon Shear Yashuv was born Wolfgang Shmidt in Germany. His interest in the Holocaust sparked his journey to becoming a member of the Jewish people.
by Yehudis Litvak
January 28, 2024
8 min read
Rabbi Dr. Aharon Shear Yashuv was born Wolfgang Shmidt in Germany. His interest in the Holocaust sparked his journey to becoming a member of the Jewish people.

There are many stories of children of Nazis who completely rejected their parents’ beliefs and distanced themselves from their actions. Some went so far as to convert to Judaism and join the Jewish people.

Most of these converts prefer to remain anonymous. They would rather erase their Nazi connections completely. A notable exception is Rabbi Dr. Aharon Shear Yashuv, Professor Emeritus of Jewish Philosophy at Bar-Ilan University, who is very open about his background. Born Wolfgang Shmidt in Bochum, Germany in 1940, he converted to Judaism and moved to Israel in 1970. Currently, Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv resides in Jerusalem’s Old City.

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Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv’s father was a member of the Nazi party. He fought in the Nazi army during World War II and was captured and imprisoned in the Soviet Union for five years after the war. Though he saw him briefly at age 4, he didn’t really get to know his father till he was 10. They never had much of a relationship.


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“There was not a special relationship, because whenever we talked about recent German history, there was silence… They didn’t like to talk about the Nazi period, and that was strange to me. So even as a youngster, I made some connections.”


To this day, Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv does not know to what extent his father was involved in the Holocaust. He’d heard rumors that his father participated in the SS but was not able to confirm them through historical research.

Learning about the Holocaust
As a young teenager, Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv was fascinated by history. That’s when he learned about the Holocaust. “I became more and more interested in Jewish questions… If you’re dealing with recent German history, you’re dealing with a Jewish question, because you’re dealing with the Holocaust, and the Holocaust is a Jewish affair.”

Growing up, Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv did not know any Jews personally. His town’s synagogue was destroyed on Kristallnacht and its Jewish residents were murdered in the Holocaust.

At around age 15, his interest in “Jewish questions” led him to visit a synagogue in a nearby town, where he met Jews for the first time. He continued coming to the synagogue on Shabbat, got to know the community members, and was often invited for Shabbat meals.

At the same time, Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv joined a Christian-Jewish youth group. In high school, he organized a group trip to Israel, where they stayed in a church’s guest house. This was before the Six Day War, when the Old City in Jerusalem was off limits to Jews. As Christians, the group was able to visit the Old City and the Western Wall. Jerusalem made a strong impression on Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv, and he knew he would be back.

Eventually, says Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv, “this historical interest in the Holocaust, which was the starting point of my approach to Judaism, became in the course of the years more theological-philosophical.” In college, he studied theology and philosophy. He analyzed and consciously rejected the Christian doctrine and found himself drawn to Jewish theology. He especially appreciated the concept of halacha – Jewish law which guides a religious Jew’s daily life.

This whole concept of love is a failure in the history of the Church. Inquisition – that is love? Accusing Jews of poisoning wells – that’s love? The Crusades – that’s love? The Holocaust is a product of Christian Europe.

“In Christianity, there is only love,” he explains. “But ‘love’ has to be spelled out. And it is not spelled out. And therefore, this whole concept of love is a failure in the history of the Church. Inquisition – that is love? Accusing Jews of poisoning wells – that’s love? The Crusades – that’s love? The Holocaust is a product of Christian Europe. Now comes Judaism, spelling out what love means in the daily law, which penetrates all realms of life… This is the great message of Judaism, and Christianity failed because they canceled it.”

Going to Israel
Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv realized that his experience of Jewish life in post-Holocaust Germany was very limited. He was looking for “a much more serious frame of Jewish existence,” and his teachers recommended that he go either to Israel or to the United States.

He applied and was accepted to a Ph.D. program at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, OH, where he spent three years and completed a dissertation about a German Jewish philosopher. While in America, Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv thought about his future and eventually made two life-changing decisions: to convert to Judaism and to make aliyah – move to Israel.

Before making aliyah, Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv spent the summer in Israel, where he visited the Merkaz HaRav yeshiva in Jerusalem. “I was very much impressed. For the first time, I saw what a yeshiva was like. It’s not university!” He was fascinated by the chavruta system, where the students boisterously learn Jewish texts in pairs. Upon his move to Israel, Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv studied at the Merkaz HaRav for three years.

Strained Relationship
Meanwhile, his family in Germany was not happy with his choices. During a vacation from yeshiva, Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv decided to visit Germany, together with a friend from yeshiva. The two friends stayed with Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv’s sister in Dusseldorf. His parents were on vacation in a resort town, and his sister suggested that they pass through Dusseldorf on the way home in order to see their son.

When his father found out that he brought along a Jewish friend, he refused to see him. “He never left his Nazi ideology, even after the war,” says Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv.

Back in Israel, Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv spent a Shabbat in Hebron together with other yeshiva and university students. There, he met his future wife, a Hebrew University student whose family had come to Israel from Algeria after the War of Independence. They got married six months later. The Merkaz HaRav yeshiva organized a beautiful wedding for the couple, with participation of “all the famous rabbis,” but no one from Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv’s family attended his wedding.

They drove for hours to his parents’ home, but once they got there, he could not bring himself to go inside and see his father.

The couple had five children. Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv spent six years in rabbinical studies, eventually receiving his ordination. He served as an army chaplain and as the rabbi of Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology.

“But my leanings remained academic,” says Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv. “The Technion is something of a bridge between rabbinate and the academic world.” He’d organized Torah studies for both students and professors but didn’t feel quite satisfied. He continues, “So after four years at the Technion, I tried to return to the academic world. Finally, I was accepted at Bar Ilan University Department of Philosophy, and there I remained almost 30 years, until I retired.” He is still in contact with the university. Though no longer teaching, he is involved in students’ dissertations.
While on faculty of Bar Ilan University, Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv spent two sabbatical years in Germany. When his wife and children joined him in Germany for the first time, his wife asked if she could meet his parents.

They drove for hours to his parents’ home, but once they got there, Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv could not bring himself to go inside. He recalls, “I remained in the car, and my wife with the little children went up to see my parents. They talked. My father was there. But because of my father, I couldn’t join that meeting.”

It was only several years later, after his father’s death, that Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv visited his mother together with his wife and children.

Now his mother is no longer alive. He keeps in touch with his sister’s family, who are much more accepting of his chosen lifestyle than his parents had been.

All my grandchildren and great-grandchildren are descendants of survivors of the Holocaust.

Belonging
Interestingly, Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv’s children married descendants of Holocaust survivors. He says, “All my grandchildren and great-grandchildren are descendants of survivors of the Holocaust.” He has warm relationships with his children’s parents-in-law and feels that they’ve completely accepted him and his family into their own families. “It speaks for the Jewish people,” he says. “I, of course, appreciate it very much. I never had any problems or hesitations from the Jewish side. It is a positive expression of Judaism.”

Having lived as a Jew in Israel for most of his life, Rabbi Dr. Shear Yashuv feels that he truly belongs. He says, “Becoming a Jew means identifying yourself with the Jewish people, embracing the Jewish people, becoming part of the Jewish people.”
Note: this article is based on video interviews with Rabbi Dr. Aharon Shear Yashuv, conducted by Dr. Les Glassman. The interviews, posted in January, 2023, are available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFWBNGmCLgw&ab_channel=Dr.LesGlassman and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpZF5bT8IGY&ab_channel=Dr.LesGlassman and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LemifXE9bWA&ab_channel=Dr.LesGlassman.

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