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New Perspectives on Modern Jewish History Zohar Segev The World Jewish Congress during the Holocaust New Perspectives on Modern Jewish History Edited by Cornelia Wilhelm Volume 7 Zohar Segev The World Jewish Congress during the Holocaust Between Activism and Restraint ISBN 978-3-11-032002-2 e-ISBN 978-3-11-032026-8 ISSN 2192-9645 The e-book of this title is freely available on www.degruyter.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2014 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Typesetting: Michael Peschke, Berlin Printing: CPI books GmbH, Leck ♾ Printed on acid free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Preface One way that historical research differs from other fields of academic inquiry is in the isolation of the scholar. We generally sit alone reading documents in archives and write our articles and books without co-authors. But, this book could not have been written without material and moral assistance from colleagues, family and friends. Archival documents constitute the basis for the historical research that has led to the writing of this book. This research could not have been carried out without the devoted help and professional skill of archive workers in the United States and in Israel. My deepest thanks to those in the Central Zionist Archive in Jerusalem, in the Archive of the American Jewish Historical Society in New York, in the Yad Vashem Archive in Jerusalem and in the American Jewish Joint Distri- bution Committee (JDC) in New York and Jerusalem. A special debt of gratitude is due to Professor Gary Zola, head of the Jacob Rader Marcus American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati, Ohio and to his staff, who managed to combine a homelike environment with consummate professional skills. The preservation and maintenance of World Jewish Congress documents in the Cincinnati Archives is a shining example of archival work. The generous scholarships received from the Cincinnati archive, together with the outstanding physical surroundings I enjoyed at the archive and on the Hebrew Union College campus in Cincinnati were central to the possibility of completing this research. Heartfelt thanks are extended as well to research workers and colleagues whom I consulted in the course of my writing: Anita Shapira, Mark A. Raider, Daniel Gutwein, Lee Shai Weissbach, Hasia Diner, Ronald W. Zweig, David Myers, Aviva Halamish, Ofer Schiff and Jonathan D. Sarna. Conversations with them opened up new research perspectives; their comments removed obstacles, clar- ified difficulties and brought research issues into sharper focus. The research forum at the Chaim Weizmann Institute for the Study of Zionism and Israel at Tel Aviv University, headed by Prof. Shapira, afforded significant historical insights for my research in general and for this book in particular. The Jewish History Department and the Faculty of Humanities at the Univer- sity of Haifa were my home in the full sense of the word while I wrote the book. I thank them for their support over the years. Last but certainly not least is De Gruyter Publishers that brought the project to its conclusion. Fortunate is the author who has a publisher with such a dedi- cated and courteous professional staff. Special thanks are due to the manuscript editor Marcia D. Rothschild, to the publisher’s editor Dr. Julia Brauch and to Prof. Cornelia Wilhelm, editor of the series New Perspectives in Modern Jewish History. vi Preface As the book was being written, our family life was going through far-reaching changes. Facing the Mediterranean from Mount Carmel, a wonderfully support- ive new family arose. To my life partner Naama, to her children and to mine, this book is dedicated. Contents Preface v List of figures ix Introduction: The Founding of the World Jewish Congress 1 Chapter 1 World Jewish Congress Activity in the United States during World War II 23 The World Jewish Congress and Reports of the Holocaust of European Jewry 23 The World Jewish Congress Leadership and the Jewish Public in the United States at the Time of the Holocaust 35 Chapter 2 Stephen Wise, Nahum Goldmann, and the Question of Palestine in 1940s America 43 The Episode of the Pro-Zionist Proposals in Congress 43 The Party Platforms 76 Moderation and Restraint: The Response by American Jews to the Holocaust and the Struggle for the Establishment of the State of Israel 91 Chapter 3 The World Jewish Congress’s Rescue Effort 115 The “Soul Searching” Conference in Atlantic City 115 Philanthropy and Politics: The World Jewish Congress and the Jews of Europe 1936–1942 124 The Untold Story: The Operation to Rescue Children in Portugal 134 From Denmark to Bulgaria: The Involvement of the World Jewish Congress in Further Rescue Operations in Europe 158 Chapter 4 Diaspora Nationalism, The World Jewish Congress, American Jewry, and the Post-War Rehabilitation of Europe’s Jews 168 The Rehabilitation of Europe’s Jews 168 The Institute of Jewish Affairs 184 Diaspora Nationalism 201 viii Contents Summary 217 Afterword 224 Bibliography 227 Archives 227 Published Documents 228 Index 233 List of figures Figure 1: A poster advertising the Foster Parents Plan for European Jewish Children. AJA, 361 J11/5 105 Figure 2: Photographs of children hidden with peasant families in the Foster Parents Plan for European Jewish Children. AJA, 361 J11/5 106 Figure 3: World Jewish Congress Children Division, 1946. AJA, 361 J11/5 107 Figure 4: Nahum Goldmann. AJA, 361 J13/24 108 Figure 5: Stephen Wise. AJA, 361 J14/23 109 Figure 6: Program cover of the War Emergency Conference, Atlantic City, N.J., 26-30 November 1944. AJA, 361 J17/1 110 Figure 7: Participant tags of the War Emergency Conference, Atlantic City, N.J., 26-30 November, 1944. AJA, 361 J17/1 111 Figure 8: Poster of the American Committee for the Rehabilitation of European Jewish Children. AJA, 361 J18/1 112 Figure 9: War Emergency Conference at the St. Charles Hotel, Atlantic City, N.J., 26-30 November 1944 113 Introduction: The Founding of the World Jewish Congress The inaugural convention of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), which was attended by 280 delegates from 32 countries, took place in Geneva in August 1936. While the organization itself was new, its ideological roots lay in the transforma- tions experienced by the Jewish communities in the United States and Europe in the wake of World War I, and in the Balfour Declaration. The purpose of the WJC was twofold: to continue in the tradition of the American Jewish Congress (founded in 1918) and the Committee of Jewish Delegations (founded in 1919) to operate as a voluntary organization representing Jewish communities and orga- nizations worldwide vis-à-vis government authorities and international bodies, and to foster the development of social and cultural life in Jewish communities around the world. The establishment of the Congress, as well as the organizational and political activity of its institutions, was the outcome of an ideological view manifested in a wide range of speeches, journal articles, and minutes of meetings dating back to the beginning of the organization’s creation. In 1933, the American Founding Committee, in conjunction with the American Jewish Congress, distributed an open letter informing the Jewish public in the United States of the intention to found the organization, and explaining the ideological position that had driven the initiative.1 Its lead founder and first president was the Reform rabbi Stephen S. Wise, among the foremost Zionist leaders in the United States and an active supporter of the Democratic Party.2 The founders proceeded upon the assump- tion that the condition of world Jewry in 1933 unequivocally demonstrated to Jews 1 Letter of the Founding Committee of the World Jewish Congress, October 26, 1933, documents of the World Jewish Congress at the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, OH. Manuscript collection 361, box A40, folder 4 (hereafter AJA, 361 A40/4). 2 For a general account of the WJC see Leon A. Kubowizki, Unity In Dispersion: A History of the World Jewish Congress (New York, 1948); and Isaac I. Schwarzbart, 25 Years In the Service of the Jewish People: A Chronicle of Activities of the World Jewish Congress August 1932–February 1957 (New York, 1957). Among the other leading figures who actively participated in the founding of the organization were the Zionist leader Leo Motzkin, and Louis Lipsky, the former chairman of the American Zionist Organization. For an appreciation of the dominance of the United States, see letter from Nahum Goldmann to Eliezer Kaplan, Treasurer of the Jewish Agency at the time, January 11, 1943, Central Zionist Archive in Jerusalem, record group Z-6, file 2755 (hereafter CZA, Z-6/2755). On the organization’s total financial dependence on the United States, see letter from Nahum Goldmann to Stephen Wise, December 17, 1936, AJA, 361 A1/1. For an example of the vo- luminous works on Wise, see Melvin I. Urofsky, A Voice That Spoke for Justice: The Life and Times of Stephen S. Wise (Albany, 1982). 2 Introduction: The Founding of the World Jewish Congress and non-Jews alike that the Jewish Diaspora was a distinct entity that shared a single destiny. The drafters of the letter believed that the signing of the Balfour Declaration made it possible for international recognition of the need for the establishment of a national home in Palestine to go hand in hand with recogni- tion of the existence of a Jewish entity in the Diaspora—that the national home in Palestine and the Jewish Diaspora were two sides of the same coin.
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