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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
An investigation of the response of American Jews to Nazism and the extermination of European Jewry. The demand for Jewish statehood politicized the rescue issue and made it impossible to appeal for American aid on purely humanitarian grounds. Berman tries to understand the constraints within which American Jews operated. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
A sophisticated analysis of how the Zionist understanding of the Holocaust shaped the development of American Jewish policies and political activism. Aaron Berman takes a moderate and measured approach to one of the most emotional issues in American Jewish historiography, namely, the response of American Jews to Nazism and the extermination of European Jewry.In remarkably large numbers, American Jews joined the Zionist crusade to create a Jewish state that would finally end the problem of Jewish homelessness, which they believed was the basic cause not only of the Holocaust but of all anti-Semitism. Though American Zionists could justly claim credit for the successful establishment of Israel in 1948, this triumph was not without cost. Their insistence on including a demand for Jewish statehood in any proposal to aid European Jewry politicized the rescue issue and made it impossible to appeal for American aid on purely humanitarian grounds. The American Zionist response to Nazism also shaped he political turmoil in the Middle East which followed Israel’s creation. Concerned primarily with providing a home for Jewish refugees and fearing British betrayal, Zionists could not understand Arab protests in defense of their own national interests. Instead they responded to the Arab revolt with armed force and sought to insure their own claim to Palestine, Zionists came to link he Arabs with the Nazi and British forces that were opposed to the establishment of a Jewish state. In the thinking of American Zionists, the Arabs were steadily transformed from a people with whom an accommodation would have to be made into a mortal enemy to be defeated. Aaron Berman does not apologize for American Jews, but rather tries to understand the constraints within which they operated and what opportunities-if any-they had to respond to Hitler. In surveying the latest scholarship and responding o charges against American Jewry, Berman’s arguments are reasoned and reasonable.
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