The Damascus ritual murder affair, in sharp contrast to many previous blood libel cases, did not go unnoticed; it provoked a stormy reaction amongst Jews and non-Jews throughout the Western world. It coincided with a ritual murder affair in Rhodes and in other places. The Damascus case induced the Western Jewish leadership to intervene, and spurred the mission of Crémieux and Montefiore to the Middle East on behalf of Syrian Jews. Although the mission failed to overturn the ritual murder accusation, it became a cause célèbre of Western Jewry. The mission was carried out at a time of a complex international situation and itself became a factor of international relations. The affair aroused mixed reactions in the European press, which sometimes upheld the blood libel myth or was ambivalent about it, and in clerical and academic circles. It launched both Christian "restorationist" projects and early forms of Jewish nationalism. The affair was mythologized in Jewish historiography, which has tended to see it as a turning-point in modern Jewish history, as well as in antisemitic discourse, where it became a recurring argument for the "truth" of the blood libel.

An immensely valuable ocntribution. As the last generation of witnesses to the Holocaust testify to its horrors, tehy must also testify to its heroes - those who risked all to safe lives. These movingly told stories restore our faith in the human spirit. --William Shirer The mystery of the rescue phenomenon will probably always elude us. As the rescuers' narratives in this remarkable volume show, the acts of saving Jews seemed spontaneous and natural, and thus the mystery of the rescue act begins to unravel radiantly. The insights which this interdisciplinary collection of essays subtly pieces together s how in unique fashion the preconditions, or the possibilities, of individual and collective courage. --Dennis B. Klein, author of Jewish Origins of the Psychoanalytic Movement A distinguished group of internationally known individuals, Jews and non-Jews, rescuers and rescued, offer their enriching first-person accounts and reflections that explore the question: Why did the Danes risk their lives to rescue the Jewish population?

Twenty years of research by the author have made this a most comprehensive work on the Holocaust detailing many aspects of the tragedy often overlooked in other sources. events related to the period in even the most remote parts...

Translated from the Hebrew: "Toledot ha-yehudim bi-Sefarad ha-notzrit", 2nd ed. (1965), with some additions, principally in the notes. Originally published in Hebrew in Tel-Aviv: Daat, 1945. A second edition appeared in English in 1992. An introduction by Benjamin R. Gampel (pp. xv-lvii), written for the 2nd English edition, gives a scholarly critique of Baer's book.

Two sections deal with antisemitism. Pp. 169-182 discuss the immigration era of the late 19th-early 20th centuries, when anti-Jewish rhetoric characterized Jewish immigrants as dirty, poor, and prone to crime. American Jews reacted by trying to "improve" their poor cousins, by sending them away from New York, and by establishing social aid and defense organizations. They protested against oppression of Jews abroad, e.g. in Russia and Romania, and attempted to convince the USA to keep its gates open to Jewish immigration. Pp. 207-222 discuss the increase in the 1930s of antisemitism, both populist and elite, and including pro-Nazism, until the U.S. entry into World War II. American Jews then attempted, with little success, to help rescue Jews from Europe. Maintains that even a unified Jewish community could not have attained more, given the American social and political climate.

While today the Nazi genocide of Jews is seen as a massacre unique in its savagery and a central feature of World War II, in 1933-45 it was accepted in the USA, and in the Western world in general, as one of the many wartime brutalities, almost understandable and predictable. Political leaders, public opinion, and later the Allied military greeted the first news concerning the Nazi persecution and murder of Jews with disbelief; later, when the facts of the Nazi mass murder of Jews became apparent, they tended to conflate the Nazi victimization of Jews with that of other ethnic groups. There was a tendency to diminish the scope of the genocide and even to see it as, at least partly, deserved by the victims. These views found expression in a commonly shared reluctance to receive Jewish refugees from Nazism. Opinion polls of the late 1930s-early 1940s show that the American public was consistently against any relaxation of immigration restrictions. In Western Europe and the rest of the Americas, sentiments were similar: some countries were ready to admit Poles, Czechs, and other refugees, but not Jews. These sentiments can only partly be ascribed to the economic hardships of the 1930s; their main cause was antisemitism, ethnic opposition to the Jewish alien. In the postwar years, the tendency to silence and trivialize the Holocaust persevered; it was only in the 1960s that public opinion recognized the Holocaust as unique. Argues against Peter Novick's view, according to which Holocaust memory initially fell victim to the Cold War. Contends that, in the 1960s, most people thought that the "Jewish question" was finally solved - by emancipation, assimilation and, last but not least, by the Nazi mass murder.

Using an interactive format that includes removable letters, documents, and personal effects, this visual history of the Jews in America follows the successive waves of Jewish immigration to the United States, from the eighteenth century to the present day. 30,000 first printing. Traditions Book Club Main.

A revised version of two courses of lectures delivered as part of the Broadcast University series of Israel Army Radio. Discusses the struggle of Jews for survival under Nazi rule, and attempts at aid and rescue by Jews in the Western democracies and Palestine, by foreign governments, and by "Righteous Gentiles". Emphasizes that the Nazis decided to murder all the Jews only in autumn 1940; until then no one could have foreseen the Holocaust to come. When the first reports of mass murder were received, they met with disbelief on the part of most Jews as well as non-Jews. This lack of awareness explains why the potential victims were slow to escape or resist; and, in conjunction with the prevalence of antisemitism and the political impotence of world and Palestinian Jewry, it also explains the failure of the outside world to come to their rescue. Among the topics covered are the search for countries of asylum; the Transfer Agreement; illegal immigration to Palestine; the ghettos and the Judenräte; the resistance groups and armed uprisings in the ghettos; Jewish partisans; underground rescue groups; negotiations with SS functionaries for Jewish lives; and the British Foreign Office's blocking of rescue proposals.

In the face of almost universal Holocaust denial among Arabs, presents evidence of Arab involvement in all aspects of the Holocaust (e.g. persecution, confiscation of property, and forced labor). Describes cases of active collaboration (e.g. sadistic torturers and camp guards) and indifference to the fate of the Jews. In the European context, shows how Vichy France implemented the Holocaust in North Africa. Demonstrates how the Holocaust has largely been ignored, forgotten, or denied in the postwar Arab world. Provides information about the Holocaust as it affected Jews in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, including about labor camps whose existence had been lost to history. The second half of the book relates cases of "righteous" Arabs who saved Jews. Among the latter are Khaled Abdelwahhab and Si Ali Sakkat of Tunisia; Si Kaddour Benghabrit, the rector of the Great Mosque in Paris; the ruler of Tunisia, Moncef Bey, and his prime minister Mohamed Chenik; and Sultan Muhammad V of Morocco. In conclusion, relates how some Arabs are beginning to question Holocaust denial. Pp. 197-198 present a list of sites of 104 French, German, and Italian labor camps in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.

Whether they came from Sioux Falls or the Bronx, over half a million Jews entered the U.S. armed forces during the Second World War. Uprooted from their working- and middle-class neighborhoods, they joined every branch of the military and saw action on all fronts. Deborah Dash Moore offers an unprecedented view of the struggles these GI Jews faced, having to battle not only the enemy but also the prejudices of their fellow soldiers. Through memoirs, oral histories, and letters, Moore charts the lives of fifteen young Jewish men as they faced military service and tried to make sense of its demands. From confronting pork chops to enduring front-line combat, from the temporary solace of Jewish worship to harrowing encounters with death camp survivors, we come to understand how these soldiers wrestled with what it meant to be an American and a Jew. Moore shows how military service in World War II transformed this generation of Jews, reshaping Jewish life in America and abroad. These men challenged perceptions of Jews as simply victims of the war, and encouraged Jews throughout the diaspora to fight for what was right. At the same time, service strengthened Jews' identification with American democratic ideals, even as it confirmed the importance of their Jewish identity. GI Jews is a powerful, intimate portrayal of the costs of a conflict that was at once physical, emotional, and spiritual, as well as its profound consequences for these hitherto overlooked members of the "greatest generation."

"At 6 P.M. on April 7th, 1944 sirens shrieked continuously as two prisoners escaped from Auschwitz. Once free, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler wrote a report that detailed -- for the first time -- the mechanics of the Nazi Death Factory. The report -- known now as the Vrba-Wetzler Report on the Auschwitz Protocols -- warned the world that the Nazis were preparing to kill nearly 800,000 Hungarian Jews. The report was smuggled to Switzerland and eventually reached the U.S. State Department, the Vatican, and the British Embassy in Berlin. I Escaped from Auschwitz is the first-hand account of his daring escape. It also includes the full text of the Auschwitz Protocols which is considered by many to be one of the most important documents of the twentieth century. The subsequent handling and mishandling of the report contained in this book has marred history forever." --

Describes the bombing of the Temple, Atlanta's oldest synagogue, in October 1958, against the background of anti-Black and anti-Jewish violence prevalent in the South at the time. States that "whites aimed at blacks through the Jews, " and that 10% of the bombs in the South in 1954-59 exploded at synagogues, rabbis' homes, and Jewish community centers. The target of the Atlanta bombing was the Temple's rabbi, Jacob M. Rothschild, a vigorous advocate of racial integration. Describes Rothschild's activities, as well as those of George Michael Bright, a member of the neo-Nazi Columbians and the racist National States' Rights Party, one of five men indicted in the Temple bombing. Describes the trials of the accused, none of whom were convicted; Bright's trial ended in a deadlock and declaration of a mistrial, while the other four were acquitted.

An account of Ulysses S. Grant's hotly contested Civil War decision to expel Jewish citizens from the territory under his command evaluates the reverberations of his decision on his career, the nascent Jewish-American community, and the nation's political process.

A general survey of the history of the Sephardic Jews, from Roman Spain to the independence of the Arab countries and the Jews' emigration to Israel. Pp. 1-144 describe Jewish life in Spain, as well as anti-Jewish persecutions under Visigoth and Spanish kings: antisemitic legislation, forced conversion, discrimination against Conversos, Inquisition tribunals, and expulsions.

This landmark book probes Muslims' attitudes toward Jews and Judaism as a special case of their view of other religious minorities in predominantly Muslim societies. With authority, sympathy and wit, Bernard Lewis demolishes two competing stereotypes: the Islamophobic picture of the fanatical Muslim warrior, sword in one hand and Qur'ān in the other, and the overly romanticized depiction of Muslim societies as interfaith utopias. Featuring a new introduction by Mark R. Cohen, this Princeton Classics edition sets the Judaeo-Islamic tradition against a vivid background of Jewish and Islamic history. For those wishing a concise overview of the long period of Jewish-Muslim relations, The Jews of Islam remains an essential starting point.

Bernard Wasserstein offers the first authoritative history of the fraught diplomatic relations surrounding the Holy City of Jerusalem. Jews, Muslims, and Christians have all claimed the city as their own over the centuries—as have a dizzying array of foreign nations. In the period between the founding of the city and its capture by Israelis in 1967, Jerusalem has been conquered at least thirty-seven times. “No other town,” wrote Arthur Koestler in 1948, “has caused such continuous waves of killing, rape, and unholy misery over the centuries as the Holy City.”Today, Jerusalem lies at the core of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It is the most deeply divided capital city in the world: its Arab and Jewish residents inhabit different districts, speak different languages, attend different schools, read different newspapers, observe different holy days—live, in almost every significant respect, different lives. Against the background of renewed violence in and around Jerusalem, this book explores the complicated origins of the current diplomatic impasse. Why is the question of Jerusalem so intractable? Why has it outlasted almost every other political dispute as a focus for diplomatic wrangling and collective violence? And what are the prospects for resolution?Meticulously researched, and written with humanity and elegance, this book offers an illuminating contribution to the effort to achieve a lasting negotiated settlement of a tragic conflict that affects us all.

"The Holocaust in the Soviet Union is the most complete account to date of the Soviet Jews during World War II and the Holocaust (1941-45). Reports, records, documents, and research previously unavailable in English enable Yitzhak Arad to trace the Holocaust in the German-occupied territories of the Soviet Union through three separate periods in which German political and military goals in the occupied territories dictated the treatment of the Jews."--BOOK JACKET.

During World War II, M.J.Nurenberger had a 'front row seat' to what he called the 'Jewish Civil War'. This 'war' was a fierce struggle between the 'pseudo-Zionist establishment' in North America and the 'Irgun' underground in what was then 'Eretz Israel' and their delegations in Washington and New York.This 'Jewish Civil War', according to M.J. Nurenberger, was the primary cause for the paralysis of organized and established American Jewry when Jews worldwide began to face the greatest challenge and ultimate tragedy of Jewish history - Hitler's war against the Six Million and their eventual extermination.Based upon exhaustive research in numerous archives, first-hand eye-witness accounts, and interviews with numerous participants, this book exposes the various events, the internal conflicts and bold initiatives which took place in the relations between the U.S. State Department, the Jewish Establishment and the Irgun. It also includes detailed and careful analyses of the Sternbuch Saga and the Musy Mission to Himmler, both of which were pivotal in sealing the fate of European Jewry.

The shtetl was a unique micro-society with its own customs, beliefs and rituals, its own social distinctions, organisation and civic structures. It was also a long and fascinating experiment in multiculturalism, cut short by the Holocaust. Before World War II, Bransk, in eastern Poland, was a shtetl whose population was equally divided between Poles and Jews. Today there are no Jews left in Bransk. In SHTETL, Eva Hoffman explores the culture and institutions of Polish Jews, and by probing the deep ambivalence that coloured relations between Poles and Jews on the eve of World War II, SHTETL throws new light on motives which influenced Christian villagers' descisions to rescue or betray their Jewish neighbours when the Nazis invaded. Hoffman brings a penetrating intelligence and compassionate eye to a history that is fraught with intensely private emotions and profound implications for humanity.