This story is a classic of modern Jewish literature and modern Jewish thought. Since its appearance in 1952, scholars, rabbis, and a very wide range of readers have continued debating the arguments in its pages. It is the story of two "friends" and survivors who meet several times between 1937 and 1948, and debate their faith and their place in the world. Now, retranslated from the Yiddish by prominent scholar Dr. Ruth R. Wisse, it is more relevant than ever. As she states at the end of her Afterword: "The debate in this story was never meant to end. Thus may it continue."