JEWISH AMERICA & ISRAEL 1948-1950

David Ben-Gurion insisted that if Zionist America wanted to take part in Israeli policymaking they had to "make Aliyah".  ZOA could afford only to be sympathetic and supportive.  Mass emigration of Jewish America to Israel did not occur because we loved being American.  However, most of the financial support for Israel from the Jewish Diaspora came from Jewish America.

HARRY TRUMAN'S SUPPORT OF A JEWISH STATE

Following the Holocaust, in 1947, Harry Truman approved the Jewish partition of Palestine.  In spite of State Department opposition to the establishment of a Jewish state on the grounds that it would be "objectionable to the Arabs", Truman announced his intentions to recognize the state 2 months before Israel declared its independence.

AMERICAN IMMIGRATION POLICIES 1939-1945

United States immigration policies between 1939 and 1945 were essentially anti-immigration.  A case in point is the Wagner-Rogers Child Refugee Bill which would've allowed 20,000 German children temporary sanctuary in America.  It was supported by the American Federation of Labor (AFL), the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, but was opposed by the American Legion, among other groups.  It was withdrawn when it was amended so that the children replaced 20,000 adult visa applicants.

The cruise ship St. Louis was not allowed to dock in Miami even though 734 of the 936 passengers aboard were approved for immigration.  All 907 of the passengers who were not allowed off in Havana had to return to various countries in Europe.

These immigration practices, among others, led to a sharp increase in ZOA membership - from 8,600 in 1932, to 43,000 in 1939, to 200,000 by 1945.

The main obstruction to immigration was, as I've noted earlier, the United States State Department.  They didn't appoint Herbert Pell as United States representative on the War Crimes Commission until April 1943, 10 months after the Commission was esablished.  They didn't even send him to the Commission's headquarters in London until December 1943.  Pell resigned later because of lack of State Department support.  At the Bermuda Conference the United States again offered only to finance the refugee support and evacuation efforts of neutral nations.

The Intergovernmental Committee of Refugees (ICR) was formed with the intention of placing refugees in its member nations.  Nazi Germany offered to sell ICR 150,000 Jews for $1,200,000,000 but ICR had no authority to make the purchase.  When Nazi Germany sent a delegation of Jews to ICR headquarters in London they refused to help because ICR never actually existed.

In December 1943 the United States Treasury Department attempted to take over the refugee policy from the State Department.  Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. submitted a "Personal Report to the President" in which he accused the State Department of being "indifferent, callous, and perhaps even hostile".  Franklin Roosevelt then established the War Refugee Board (WRB) in January 1944.  The WRB facilitated the rescue of 118,000 of us but even these efforts were obstructed by the State Department.  As an example, the State Department prevented a WRB message from reaching the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which ceased refusing to push for a presence in concentration camps, or increase its staff in Hungary, until after 400,000 of us were deported to Auschwitz.

AMERICAN ANTI-SEMITISM 1900-1938

Although discrimination is against the principles of the United States Constitution, "social anti-Semitism" flourished in pre-World War 2 America.  We appeared "dirty".  We were accused of money hoarding.  We were refused entrance in clubs, resorts, colleges, neighborhoods.  We were prevented from working in medicine, law, and education.  In spite of this 55% of employed Jewish America achieved positions as professionals by 1957.

Laws establishing immigration quotas began in 1882.  By 1924, the annual quota from all countries was 153,774.  The labor movement, in many areas begun by us, was opposed to increases.  The United States government refused to protest the treatment of Jewish Germany.  Secretary of State Cordell Hull maintained that protest would aggravate the situation.  Franklin Roosevelt would also not allow it.  In 1938, immigration from Germany was increased to 65% of quota but evacuation efforts amounted to offering neutral countries money to accept refugees.  After the Kristallnacht of 1938 Franklin Roosevelt insisted that immigration laws would not be relaxed and the United States maintained economic ties with Nazi Germany.

AMERICAN ZIONISM 1890-1940

Hoveve Zion (Lovers of Zion) was the international predecessor of the Zionist movement.  In America,  they published periodicals in the 1890s in Boston, Baltimore, and elsewhere.  They advocated a Jewish state as a buffer between Ottoman Turkey and Egypt.  The American Zionist Federation (AZF) was founded in 1898 but had very little "money, prestige, and political influence".  Hadassah, founded in 1912, was its women's membership organization and, under the leadership of Henrietta Szold, became the largest group in AZF.

Louis Brandeis took over the presidency of AZF in 1914 and, by doing so, became the leader of Jewish America.  Many of us were opposed to the Zionist requirement of "making Aliyah" because we had just arrived in America.  When Brandeis took over, he said that if we supported a Jewish state in Palestine it would be enough.  He reorganized AZF into the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) in 1917.

Jacob Schiff and Luis Marshall were the previous leaders of Jewish America.  Although they worked with Brandeis to end the Cloakmakers strike of 1910, they retaliated against him by talking Woodrow Wilson out of appointing him as Secretary of the Interior.  Wilson appointed him later to a seat on the United States Supreme Court.

The Balfour Declaration of 1917, which established Palestine as a Jewish homeland, was instrumental in reducing Jewish America's opposition to Zionism.  The Biltmore Conference of 1942 united American Zionists on the issue of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine following the Holocaust.  They felt that the continuation of our homelessness would lead only to future Holocausts and, therefore, would not put their efforts or limited funds into rescuing Jewish Europe.

The primary Jewish organization in America advocating rescue of Jewish Europe was Agudas Yisroel.  In the face of the overall Jewish fear of offending the British, Agudas Yisroel was the only organization to continue to send food to Poland.

After World War 2, ZOA became the leader of the international Zionist movement.  The issue of whether to choose armed resistance or "patient  constructivism" as the method for achieving Israel's independence was so divisive that Stephen Wise stepped down as ZOA president.  Among the American advocates of armed resistance were Peter Bergson and Ben Hecht, who campaigned for a Jewish army.

JEWISH EMPLOYMENT, BUSINESS, & THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN THE EARLY 1900s

Peddling became our profession - selling tinware, notions, fish, fruit, milk.  The profits from these endeavors were used to open shirt factories, the beginning of the garment industry.  Jewish farming enterprises were rare and short-lived due to a combination of floods, malaria. labor shortages, and financing difficulties.

The Educational Alliance tried to "Americanize" Eastern Europeans but adult education of Jewish immigrants was a difficult proposition.  The effect of Americanization on family life in the 1900s was adverse in many aspects.  Husbands deserted families.  Physical play vs. study became a battleground, which caused the beginning of a "generation gap".  Prostitution and gambling became the "Jewish vices".

The Jewish labor movement began to rise in the 1900s.  The Jewish Socialist Federation was the forerunner of the union/collective bargaining movement, teaching its members how to conduct meetings, effective speaking, and socialist theory.  They considered Zionism to be "a utopian fantasy".  However, they compromised with the Zionists over Labor Zionism's stance in favor of unrestricted immigration.  Some of the Jewish Socialists left the Federation to form the American Communist Party in support of the Bolshevik revolutionaries.  The Jewish Communists were very strong, publishing a daily newspaper, building housing projects, and offering health and life insurance.

United Hebrew Trades was a federation of 41 Jewish trade unions in 5 industries.  One of the member unions was the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), which went on strike for 3 months in 1909, affecting 20,000 workers.  This was followed by the Cloakmakers strike, in July 1910.

Workmen's Circle was a pioneer in social reform.  It provided its membership with health and burial benefits, lectures, schools, and its own social security.



ISSAC WISE

Issac Wise, a self-proclaimed rabbi, founded Hebrew Union College in 1875. Before then, all rabbis emigrated from Europe. Rabbi Wise was the leader of the Reform movement in America, which was essentially the religion of Jewish Germany. The Reform Jews were opposed to Zionism, and the idea of a Jewish state, because they felt Judaism was only a religious community. They even went as far as expelling Zionist sympathizers from Hebrew Union College. In spite of the efforts of the Reform movement, the majority of synagogues remained Orthodox.