American Jewish History articles from March 2001

American Jewish History archives from March 2001

ERRATA.(Correction Notice)
March 1, 2001... We regret that the following was omitted from the Table of Contents of 88.4 (December 2000): A Reexamination of a Classic Work in American Jewish History: Irving Howe's The World of Our Fathers, twenty-five years later Contributing Editor:...

Introduction.
March 1, 2001... In the brief period since the publication, in March 2000, of part I of this "America and the Holocaust" theme issue of American Jewish History, six new books(1) and four film documentaries(2) pertaining to aspects of this topic have appeared....

The Bergson Group, America, and the Holocaust: A Previously Unpublished Interview with Hillel Kook / Peter Bergson.
March 1, 2001... Why did we respond the way we did? The question should be: why didn't the others. We responded as a human and as a Jew should. Hillel Kook, 1973 Introduction Hillel Kook, born in 1915 in Lithuania, moved with his family to...

Frances Perkins and the German-Jewish Refugees, 1933-1940.
March 1, 2001... Shall we refuse the unhappy fugitives from distress that hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended to our forefathers arriving in this land? Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum on this globe? Thomas Jefferson, First...

Hollywood, Nazism, and the Jews, 1933-41(*).
March 1, 2001... The greatest single Jewish phenomenon in our country in the last twenty years has been the almost complete disappearance of the Jew from American fiction, stage, radio and movies. screenwriter and novelist Ben Hecht, 1944(1) Historians...

New Evidence Concerning the Allies and Auschwitz.
March 1, 2001... Within the title of the recent volume The Bombing of Auschwitz: Should the Allies Have Attempted To Do It? lies the tragic paradox that is at the heart of contemporary discussions about the Allies and Auschwitz. The title asks whether the...

"There are Times When Silence is a Sin": The Women's Division of the American Jewish Congress and the Anti-Nazi Boycott Movement.
March 1, 2001... From 1933 to 1941 the American Jewish Congress helped lead a consumer boycott of German-made goods in the United States in an effort to undermine the Hitler regime and alleviate the crisis of German Jews. While failing to bring an end to...

Arthur Szyk's Depiction of the "New Jew": Art as a Weapon in the Campaign for an American Response to the Holocaust.
March 1, 2001... Arthur Szyk believed that art could make a difference in the world. Throughout his career he created works that spoke to contemporary social and political issues--and none were more significant and powerful than the illustrations he used to...

They Looked Away (2000).(Review)
March 1, 2001... They Looked Away (2000), directed by Stuart G. Erdheim (Running time: 48 minutes) The enormous role of documentaries is obvious: they reach a far wider audience than an article in a specialized journal or a book with hundreds of footnotes....

Holocaust: The Untold Story (2001).(Review)
March 1, 2001... Holocaust: The Untold Story (2001), by The Freedom Forum/Newseum TV Productions; directed by Collette P. Fox, Megan Garnett, and Eddie Munden (Running time: 43 minutes) The enormous role of documentaries is obvious: they reach a far wider...

Evangelizing the Chosen People: Missions to the Jews in America 1880-2000.(Review)
March 1, 2001... Evangelizing the Chosen People: Missions to the Jews in America 1880-2000. By Yaakov Ariel. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. 354 pp. In the introduction to Evangelizing the Chosen People, Yaakov Ariel explains that...

Delayed Impact: The Holocaust and the Canadian Jewish Community.(Review)
March 1, 2001... Delayed Impact: The Holocaust and the Canadian Jewish Community. By Franklin Bialystok. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press 2000. xi+327 pp. Bialystok sets the stage: I address two questions in this book: What was the impact...

Jews and the American Slave Trade.(Review)
March 1, 2001... Jews and the American Slave Trade. By Saul S. Friedman. New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers, 1998. xiv + 326 pp. This is a difficult book to review, not least because of its serious purpose in refuting a charge that has become...

Urban Exodus: Why the Jews Left Boston and the Catholics Stayed.(Review)
March 1, 2001... Urban Exodus: Why the Jews Left Boston and the Catholics Stayed. By Gerald Gamm. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999. xii + 384 PP. Suburbanization was undoubtedly the most influential post-World War II demographic factor shaping...

Shopping for Identity: The Marketing of Ethnicity.(Review)
March 1, 2001... Shopping for Identity: The Marketing of Ethnicity. By Marilyn Halter. New York: Schocken Books, 2000. x + 245 pp. What do we make of the astounding recent changes in attitudes towards ethnicity? Why did our immigrant grandparents seek to...

Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia.(Review)
March 1, 2001... Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Edited by Paula E. Hyman and Deborah Dash Moore. New York: Routledge, 1997. 2 volumes, xxxi + 1770 pp. Asserting that American Jewish women have not been "constructed as a category of...

Converging Movements: Modern Dance and Jewish Culture at the 92nd Street Y.(Review)
March 1, 2001... Converging Movements: Modern Dance and Jewish Culture at the 92nd Street Y. By Naomi M. Jackson. Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2000. xii + 288 pp. This important and well-documented book provides valuable insights...

Suddenly Jewish: Jews Raised As Gentiles Discover Their Jewish Roots.(Review)
March 1, 2001... Suddenly Jewish: Jews Raised As Gentiles Discover Their Jewish Roots. By Barbara Kessel. Hanover: Brandeis University Press/University Press of New England, 2000. 130 pp. Who am I? For most, the basics of gender, race, and nationality...