Reflections of an Unconverted Convert

“Murray Haar’s story—no, his journey away from and his return to his Jewish roots and identity—sets his book far apart from those recounted by other children of Holocaust survivors, me included. It deserves not only a wide readership by both Jews and Christians and others but important conversations as well, for he has much to teach us all about life and faith in the aftermath of this horrific tragedy.”


—Steven Leonard Jacobs, University of Alabama, from the foreword





“It may be too late to hear the cries of living Holocaust survivors—witnesses like Elie Wiesel of blessed memory. Yet we can still hear their children. As an ‘unconverted convert,’ Murray Haar offers just such a voice. Like Wiesel, resplendent with interrogative power, Haar refuses to let God off the hook of Holocaust betrayal and death. With impassioned questions, Haar confronts the problem of God. It’s a privilege to listen.”


—Franklin Arthur Wilson, retired senior pastor, Luther Memorial Church





“Through the prism of Elie Wiesel, Israel’s rich but underappreciated lament tradition, the book of Job, and his own experiences in both the Jewish and Christian faiths, Murray Haar explores what it means to speak honestly and faithfully about God after the Holocaust. Haar skillfully weaves memoir, midrash, and musings about the problem of God together in a discussion of how what happened ‘in those days’ remains deeply relevant for honest faith in our current day.”


—John E. Anderson, Presentation College