Immigration, Ideology, and Public Activity from an American Jewish Perspective: A Journey Across Three Continents by Zohar Segev (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Immigration, Ideology, and Public Activity from an American Jewish Perspective: A Journey Across Three Continents by Zohar Segev Michael Keren (bio) Immigration, Ideology, and Public Activity from an American Jewish Perspective: A Journey Across Three Continents. By Zohar Segev. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2022. x + 233 pp. One of the hardest questions related to the Holocaust concerns the failure of Jewish organizations in the United States to persuade the American government to rescue European Jews by the bombardment of Auschwitz or by any other means. In order to understand that failure, it is useful to look at the persuasion efforts made at the time by American Jewish leaders as well as by second level officials within American Jewish organizations. Zohar Segev's book is based on the personal archives of four Europeanborn Jews who found refuge in the United States during the Second World War and held several positions in American Jewish organizations. Arieh Tartakover, an historian and sociologist who later taught at the Hebrew University, chaired the World Jewish Congress's Welfare and Relief Committee; Arieh Kubovy, later an Israeli diplomat and head of Yad Va'shem, chaired the World Jewish Congress's Rescue Committee based in New York; Benjamin Akzin, a jurist who later taught at the Hebrew University, was a consultant to the American Zionist Emergency Council in Washington; and Jacob Robinson, a lawyer and researcher, founded the Institute of Jewish Affairs, the research arm of the American Jewish Congress and the World Jewish Congress. The experience of individuals who operated within the American Jewish organizational network in the 1940s seems an invaluable source for an exploration of the political, administrative and cultural causes behind the successes and failures of that network to rescue Jews during the Holocaust. Since the author has decided, however, that this question [End Page 418] is beyond the scope of his study, we are left with a description of activities conducted by the four men, mainly letters they wrote, which in themselves had no impact on the outcome of the war. Some of the letters are quite instructive though, if only because of the responses they elicited. Consider the responses Kubovy received to letters he wrote to Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy. In August 9, 1944, he conveyed a request from a Jewish activist in Czechoslovakia to bomb Auschwitz and the railway lines leading to it, which McCloy rejected on the grounds that such actions would require the use of significant air power and might not be effective. He also made the incredible claim that the bombardment could lead the Germans to institute even stricter measures against the Jews. When a few weeks later Kubovy sent McCloy another letter calling not for aerial bombing but for destruction of the death camp by paratroopers, the response was striking in its bureaucratic language. The assistant secretary informed Kubovy that the operations he suggested fell within the jurisdiction of the Allied Mediterranean Commander, who had been fully informed of the situation in the death camp areas. McCloy added that he was sure the theater commander "would do anything he felt he could to check these ghastly excesses of the Nazis" (87). One wonders why this dismissive response led Segev to conclude that it reflects serious consideration of the matter by government officials in Washington and American military leaders. The author is aware of the enormous frustration the four men felt as a result of the ineffectiveness of the rescue efforts they took part in. However, with some exceptions, such as Kubovy's criticism of Stephen Wise, president of the World Jewish Congress, we are given few clues as to their attitudes toward the top Jewish leadership, a matter which, once again, is claimed to be beyond the scope of this study. The book thus makes a contribution by bringing to light documents by four refugee immigrants who worked in American Jewish organizations during the 1940s and played an active role in the Zionist movement before and after the establishment of the State of Israel, but the documents are still awaiting an analysis within a broader scope. [End Page 419] Michael Keren University of Calgary and Western Galilee Academic College Michael Keren...