In the Face of Emergency: American Jewish Leadership and the Bergson Group, 1943

Yuri Keum

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Scholarly and public discussions regarding the rescue effort of the Bergson Group and the responses of American Jewish leadership to the Holocaust have been widely polarized. The subject often invokes a dichotomous comparison between two main figures: Rabbi Stephen Wise as a representative of American Jewish leadership vs. Hillel Kook, the leader of the Bergson Group. While the schism between the two men was evident in the pre-war years, the animosity between them intensified even further during the Holocaust – leading to a bitter legacy that remains the subject of heated historiographical debates to this day. Through a content analysis of archival documents from the Hillel Kook Collection, the current article offers an in-depth analysis of the Bergson Group and the American Jewish establishment; primarily by examining the Emergency Conference to Save Jewish People in Europe, led by the Bergson Group (July, 1943), in relation to the Wise- led American Jewish Conference (August, 1943). Eschewing the consequence-oriented approach that stems from historical hindsight and the prevalent discourse of “missed opportunities”, this archival examination not only highlights the motives of the Bergson Group and its activities for the doomed Jews in Europe, but also critically discusses the multifaceted emergency that faced American Jewry during the years in question. It is precisely because of this emergency, and not despite it, that both Kook and Wise clung to their respective approaches and attempted to advance their separate agendas, leading to an intensely competitive and divisive reality in the American-Jewish arena during the agonizing, pivotal year of 1943.
Translated title of the contributionאל מול פני השואה: מנהיגות יהודית-אמריקנית וקבוצת ברגסון, 1943
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)153-184
Number of pages32
Journalישראלים: כתב עת רב-תחומי לחקר ישראל
Volume9
StatePublished - 2019

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