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The Americanization
of Zionism, 1897-1948 Naomi W. Cohen |
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Although much has been
written about philosophical and political Zionism, Zionism in the United
States prior to 1948 requires separate treatment. The early development of
American Zionism not only mirrors the paradoxes and challenges that faced
first - and second generation Jew adjusting to life in the United States, it
also has ramifications for contemporary attitudes of American Jews toward
Israel. According to Naomi
Cohen, American Zionism was shaped originally by three factors: the needs of
Jews in the Cohen demonstrates the
uniqueness of American Zionism through chapters that offer a fifty-year
historical overview of the Jewish community in the Focusing on Jewish
leadership and democracy, Cohen analyzes the contradictions inherent in
balancing political Zionism with Jewish participation in American public
policy. She examines theological arguments raised by early-twentieth-century
American reform Jews against Zionism, and she explores the meaning of public
debates on Zionism following the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the Arab
riots of 1929. Later chapters concern aspects of the immigration question
from the 1920s to the 1940s and offer an account of diplomatic negotiations
between an American non-Zionist and a British official on Jewish immigration
and settlement. The volume concludes with an analysis of the founding of Although Cohen recounts
different aspects of American Zionist history, she emphasizes how American
Zionists, singly, in groups, or through institutions, reconciled their
Zionist beliefs and activities with American principles and tastes. Indeed,
American standards and concerns underlie the harsh criticism of Zionism by
both Jews and non-Jews, a subject also treated in these essays. Using a range of
never-before-seen primary sources, Cohen strongly makes her case that,
without the Americanization of its ideology and politics, Zionism in the Although Herzl's teachings, tailored to conform to American
beliefs and public behavior, were in part watered down to suit American
Jewish sensibilities, they nonetheless had a powerful effect on American
Jewry. Naomi W. Cohen is the author of several
books on American Judaism, most recently Jews in Christian America: the
Pursuit of Religious Equality (1992), and Jacob H. Schiff: A Study in
American Jewish Leadership (UPNE, 1999) |
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