The Response of Orthodox Jewry in the United States to the Holocaust: the Activities of the Vaad Ha-Hatzala Rescue Committee, 1939-1945'
H-Judaic Levy on Zuroff, 'The Response of Orthodox Jewry in the United States to the Holocaust: The Activities of the Vaad Ha-Hatzala Rescue Committee, 1939-1945' Review published on Friday, February 1, 2002 Efraim Zuroff. The Response of Orthodox Jewry in the United States to the Holocaust: The Activities of the Vaad Ha-Hatzala Rescue Committee, 1939-1945. New York: KTAV Publishing, 1999. 316 pp. $35.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-88125-666-6. Reviewed by David B. Levy (PhD candidate, Baltimore Hebrew University) Published on H-Judaic (February, 2002) Introduction: A Lasting Contribution to the field of Shoah Studies Efraim Zuroff's expertly researched, well documented, and well written workThe Response of Orthodox Jewry in the United States to the Holocaust: The Activities if the Vaad Ha-Hatzala Rescue Committee, 1939-1945, is an important, unique, and significant addition to Shoah Studies. This illuminating, balanced, and insightful work draws on previously unpublished hitherto unused archival documents, interview testimony, private papers, manuscripts, reports, correspondence and dissertations as well as published books and articles in Holocaust Studies. The integration of written, archival, and oral testimony into a critically astute narrative makes this work unique. The well organized, coherent, and thoughtful narrative account that emerges is one bound to serve as a lasting contribution to the field, bringing more clarity, revealed knowledge, insight, and understanding regarding the history of a key orthodox organization and troubled time. This fascinating and seminal work holds the reader's interest in a captivating, spellbinding, and highly readible narrative. In his Foreword to the book, Yehuda Bauer comments, "His descriptions make fascinating reading; his analysis is thought provoking and innovative.
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