Recovering a Voice: West European Jewish Communities After the Holocaust - Couverture rigide

Weinberg, David H.

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1906764107 ISBN 13 : 9781906764104

Editeur : The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2015

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

This multi-national study focuses on the efforts by the Jews of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands to reconstruct their lives after World War II. These efforts have largely been ignored, perhaps because the emphasis on assisting survivors in displaced persons camps and on developing Israel as the center of Jewish life after the Holocaust diverted attention from the struggle by Jews in Western Europe to recover their voice and sense of purpose. The book sets the record straight, presenting the challenges that the Jews in the three communities faced, both in the national context and in the world Jewish arena, and examining how they dealt with them. The book begins by reviewing the actions taken by international Jewish agencies and local leaders to revive Jewish communities in the three countries materially and institutionally, remodeling them as efficient, self-sustaining, and assertive bodies that could meet new challenges. With the creation of the State of Israel, Jews who stayed in Western Europe had to defend their decision to do so while nevertheless showing public support for the new nation. There was also a felt need to respond quickly and effectively to any sign of anti-semitism. In addition, tensions arose between Jews and non-Jews concerning wartime collaboration in deportations, and the need to memorialize Jewish victims of Nazism. The Cold War offered challenges of its own: the perceived need to exclude communist elements from communal affairs was countered by a resistance to pressures from American Jewish leaders to sever links with Jews in Eastern Europe. Yet, beneath the show of assertiveness, Jewish life was fragile, not only because of the physical depletion of the population and of its leadership, but because the Holocaust had shaken religious beliefs and affiliations and had raised questions about the value of preserving a collective identity. In response, community leaders developed new educational, religious, and cultural approaches to allow a diverse population to express its Jewish consciousness. The comprehensive approach offered here is a valuable addition to existing studies on the regeneration of Jewish life in individual European countries. Underscoring the similar political, cultural, social, and economic issues facing Jewish survivors, the book demonstrates how - with the aid of international Jewish organizations - France, Belgium, and the Netherlands used unprecedented means to meet unprecedented challenges. It is a story worth telling that adds much to our understanding of post-war European Jewish life. [Subject: History, Jewish Studies, Holocaust Studies, European Studies]

Revue de presse :

This meticulously researched book explains why Jews stayed in Europe after the Holocaust and the challenges they faced . . . indispensable reading for the understanding of the situation of Jews in today's Europe. --Michael Brenner, Chair of Jewish History and Culture, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, and director, Center for Israel Studies, American University, Washington DC

In 1945 the Jewish communities of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands seemed to have been left with little more than a catastrophic past; the future seemed almost too bleak to contemplate. Within two decades, however, new foundations had been laid and new organizational structures set up, and each community was evolving in its own way and with its own new dynamic. Some would call this a miracle, but David Weinberg shows that it was actually the result of a historical process achieved through far-reaching vision and purposeful human action. Combining detailed information with overview and analysis, he reconstructs the interplay between individuals and institutions that determined this historical process. Carefully researched and clearly written, it is an important contribution to our understanding of this period. --J.C.H. Blom, Professor Emeritus of Dutch History, University of Amsterdam; former director of the Netherlands Institute of War Documentation

David Weinberg s Recovering A Voice provides a clear and comprehensive overview of the institutional rebirth of the French, Belgian, and Dutch Jewish communities in post-Holocaust Europe. His well researched study offers an indispensable and impartial account, warts and all, of the complex political, cultural and ideological interactions and tensions among American, British, and continental Jewish actors as they charted postwar Jewish life both before and after the birth of the State of Israel in a setting dominated by the Cold War. The significance of Weinberg s book transcends the postwar time period he set out to study. For the tensions he analyzes reappear, virtually unchanged, in the post-1989 European Jewish setting, leading one to wonder about the actual weight of these recovered Jewish voices in an ever more torn Jewish world. --Diana Pinto, author of A New Jewish Identity for Post-1989 Europe

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
• Date d'édition: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1906764107
• ISBN 13: 9781906764104
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 420