Shimon Redlich, "Bridge Builder: My Life Since the Holocaust" (Academic Studies Press, 2026)

August 16, 2026

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5 min read

In 1991, Ukraine became an independent state for the first time in centuries, and historian Shimon Redlich—a Holocaust child survivor who grew up in a multi-ethnic town near what is now Lviv—saw an opening. He had spent decades thinking about the relationships between Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians, and about how people carry hatred of entire groups long after the conditions that produced that hatred have changed. His new memoir, Bridge Builder: My Life Since the Holocaust (Academic Studies Press, 2026), is the fourth and final volume of his autobiographical series, covering his career as a historian, his efforts to bring controversial scholars to Israel, and his lifelong attempt to reconcile the past with the present without flattening complexity into black and white.

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What you'll learn

1 (02:06) **Introduction & Series Context** - Host Rabbi Mark Katz introduces Holocaust survivor and historian Shimon Redlich, whose new book *Bridge Builder* is the fourth and final volume in his life-story series.
2 (05:20) **Defining "Bridge Builder"** - Redlich unpacks the book’s title, suggested by Professor Gabby Finder, and explains what bridge-building means to him personally and professionally.
3 (08:12) **Path to Oral History & Holocaust Studies** - Redlich describes how his love for storytelling and human-centered curiosity led him from Jerusalem in the 1950s-60s toward a career in oral history and Holocaust research.
4 (09:22) **The "Academic Troublemaker" Concept** - Redlich defines his self-described role as an academic troublemaker who deliberately engaged with controversial figures and ideas beyond the prevailing consensus.
5 (15:21) **The Uniqueness of the Holocaust Debate** - Redlich explains the ongoing scholarly argument about whether the Holocaust is a unique, incomparable event or part of a broader spectrum of genocides and mass tragedies.
6 (19:58) **Ukraine, Memory, and Historical Revision** - Redlich addresses how Ukraine’s 1991 independence and the 2022 Russian invasion triggered efforts to rewrite Ukrainian-Jewish relations during the Holocaust.
7 (24:41) **The Sheptytsky Righteous Among the Nations Campaign** - Redlich details his decades-long effort to get Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky recognized by Yad Vashem for saving Jewish children during the Holocaust.

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Show Notes

How do you build bridges after living through one of history's greatest ruptures? In this episode, Rabbi Marc Katz sits down with historian Shimon Redlich to discuss his memoir Bridge Builder: My Life Since the Holocaust (Academic Studies Press, 2026), the concluding volume of his remarkable four-part autobiographical journey.

Picking up in the late 1950s, Bridge Builder follows Redlich from his years as a student in Jerusalem and the United States to his distinguished career as a professor at Ben-Gurion University. Along the way, he reflects on friendships that crossed religious and national boundaries, his encounters with Jews and non-Jews across Eastern Europe, and his willingness to engage difficult historical and political questions with honesty and empathy.

More than a memoir, the book is a meditation on memory, reconciliation, and intellectual curiosity. Drawing on both personal recollection and meticulous historical research, Redlich explores what it means to carry the legacy of the Holocaust while refusing to let it become the only lens through which to view the world. His story is one of survival, but also of dialogue, scholarship, and the lifelong work of building understanding across divides.

Together, Redlich and Katz discuss the relationship between memory and history, the challenges of confronting painful pasts, and why bridge-building remains one of the most important—and difficult—tasks of our time.

About our contributors:

Shimon Redlich, a child survivor of the Holocaust, was born in Lwow in 1935 and lived in nearby Brzezany until 1945, when he was repatriated to Lodz. He left Poland for Israel in 1950. He studied at the Hebrew University, Harvard, and New York University. He taught history at Ben-Gurion University for almost forty years. Redlich has written numerous books and articles on the history of the Jews in Eastern Europe and his memoirs, of which this book is the fourth and final volume.

Rabbi Marc Katz is the Senior Rabbi at Temple Ner Tamid and the author of Yochanan's Gamble: Judaism's Pragmatic Approach to Life (JPS).

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