The Jewish Press and the Holocaust, 1939-1945: Palestine, Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union

by Yosef Gorny

Overview

This book presents the results of comprehensive research into the world's Jewish press during the Second World War and explores its stance in the face of annihilation of the Jewish people by the Nazi regime in Europe. The research is based on the major Jewish newspapers that were published in four countries – Palestine, Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union – and in three languages – Hebrew, Yiddish, and English. The Jewish press frequently described the situation of the Jewish people in occupied countries. It urged the Jewish leaders and institutions to act in rescue of their brethren. It protested vigorously against the refusal of the democratic leadership to recognize that the Jewish plight was unique because of the Nazi intention to annihilate Jews as a people. Yosef Gorny argues that the Jewish press was the persistent open national voice fighting on behalf of the Jewish people suffering and perishing under Nazi occupation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107425262
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/17/2014
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Yosef Gorny is Professor Emeritus of Jewish History at Tel-Aviv University, where he served since 1970. His main fields of interest and research are the history of Zionism; the building of the Jewish national entity in Eretz-Israel (Palestine); the Jewish-Arab conflict; the relations between the State of Israel and the Jewish Diaspora in the United States and in Europe; and the Zionist Labor Movement in Palestine and the anti-Zionist Labor movement in Eastern Europe. His books include Zionism and the Arabs, 1882–1948: A Study of Ideology; The State of Israel in Jewish Public Thought: The Quest for Collective Identity; Converging Alternatives: The Bund and the Zionist Labor Movement, 1897–1985; and Between Auschwitz and Jerusalem. He has been a visiting professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York University, Illinois State University, Urbana, and the University of Chicago.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: the transnational community; Part I. From Concern to Outcry: 1939–42: 2. The Hebrew-language press in Palestine (Davar, Hatzofe, Ha'aretz, Haboqer, Hamashqif); 3. Sounding the alarm: the American Jewish press, 1939–42; Part II. The Illusion Dashed: 1942–5: 4. The Hebrew-language press in Palestine; 5. The American Jewish press; 6. The British Jewish press; 7. The brief days of Jewish national unity (Aynikayt, 1942–5); Part III. The Individual Confronts the Horror: 8. Itzhak Gruenbaum: 'the main defendant'; 9. The optimism that deludes the intellectuals; 10. Between Lidice and Majdanek; 11. Remarks on the continuing Jewish angst; 12. Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

"Gorny's conceptual study refreshingly adds to the serious treatment of the Jewish press, is daring in its comparative analysis, and remarkable for the author's ability to dive into the dense and formidable archives of several newspapers written in Hebrew, Yiddish and English."
Chicago Jewish Star

From the Publisher