America, Its Jews, and the Rise of Nazism
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: December 2000
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 314
ISBN-13: 9780253338099
Subjects: American studies; Central government; Imperialism; Jewish studies; Jewish Holocaust; Jews In The U.S; Social Science; History - General History; History: American; USA; Holocaust; Jewish - General; United States - 20th Century; Ethnic Studies - General; 19th century; 20th century; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews; Politics and government; Public opinion; United States
First sentence: It was only in America that a civilization was conceived with the pronounced intent of accommodating all (white) peoples.
Description: "What did American Jews do to help the threatened Jewish communities of Europe as the Nazi grip tightened in the 1930s? Why didn't they do more to help Jews leave Europe and bring them to America?

Probing these questions, Gulie Ne'eman Arad finds that, more than the events themselves, what was instrumental in dictating and shaping the American Jews' response to Nazism was the dilemma posed by their desire for acceptance by American society, on the one hand, and their commitment to community solidarity, on the other. When American Jews were faced with the desperate plight of European Jews after Hitler's accession to power, they were hesitant to press the case for immigration for fear of raising doubts about their patriotism.

In this gripping and thoroughly researched account, Arad places the American Jewish encounter with Nazism within the overall history of the American Jewish experience from the mid-nineteenth century and offers a persuasive explanation of the ambivalent political response of American Jewish leaders in dealing with the Roosevelt administration."--BOOK JACKET.