The World Jewish Congress during the Holocaust: Between Activism and Restraint

Description

Drawing on hitherto neglected archival materials, Zohar Segev sheds new light on the policy of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) during the Holocaust. Contrary to popular belief, he can show that there was an impressive system of previously unknown rescue efforts. Even more so, there is evidence for an alternative pattern for modern Jewish existence in the thinking and policy of the World Jewish Congress. WJC leaders supported the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine but did not see it as an end in itself. They strove to establish a Jewish state and to rehabilitate Diaspora Jewish life, two goals they saw as mutually complementary. The efforts of the WJC are put into the context of the serious difficulties facing the American Jewish community and its representative institutions during and after the war, as they tried to act as an ethnic minority within American society. Preface Contents List of figures Introduction: The Founding of the World Jewish Congress Chapter 1 World Jewish Congress Activity in the United States during World War II The World Jewish Congress and Reports of the Holocaust of European Jewry The World Jewish Congress Leadership and the Jewish Public in the United States at the Time of the Holocaust Chapter 2 Stephen Wise, Nahum Goldmann, and the Question of Palestine in 1940s America The Episode of the Pro-Zionist Proposals in Congress The Party Platforms Moderation and Restraint: The Response by American Jews to the Holocaust and the Struggle for the Establishment of the State of Israel Chapter 3 The World Jewish Congress’s Rescue Effort The “Soul Searching” Conference in Atlantic City Philanthropy and Politics: The World Jewish Congress and the Jews of Europe 1936–1942 The Untold Story: The Operation to Rescue Children in Portugal From Denmark to Bulgaria: The Involvement of the World Jewish Congress in Further Rescue Operations in Europe Chapter 4 Diaspora Nationalism, The World Jewish Congress, American Jewry, and the Post-War Rehabilitation of Europe’s Jews The Rehabilitation of Europe’s Jews The Institute of Jewish Affairs Diaspora Nationalism Summary Afterword Bibliography Archives Published Documents Index