Zionism and the Arabs: An American Jewish Dilemma, 1898-1948

by Rafael Medoff

Overview

How have American Zionists maintained the delicate balance between their Americanism and their Zionism? How did they, as Americans, support the principle of democracy and at the same time, as Jews, support the creation of a Jewish homeland despite the pre-1948 Arab majority in Palestine? Looking at America-Holy Land relations during the years prior to the establishment of the state of Israel, Medoff explores this crucial question of American Jewish identity. Using original, previously unpublished archival material, this study presents an engaging account of a dilemma that is still very much an issue in today's political climate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275958244
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/11/1997
Series:	Bibliographies and Indexes in
Pages:	198
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

DR. RAFAEL MEDOFF is Visiting Scholar in the Jewish Studies Program at the State University of New York, Purchase College. He has also taught at Ohio State University and elsewhere, and his articles on American Jewry, Zionism, and related subjects have appeared in numerous scholarly jourbanals.

Table of Contents

The Day Nathan Straus Went to Church
The Arabs of Palestine: What Early American Zionist Leaders Believed
Delaying Democracy for the Sake of Zionism
Playgrounds and Universities: Early American Zionist Attempts to Improve Arab-Jewish Relations
Zionism and Democracy in the Wake of the 1929 Riots: The View from America
Justice Brandeis Scholarship Fund
The Rise and Fall of Hadassah's Committee on Arab-Jewish Relations
American Zionist Leaders and the Palestinian Arabs During World War II
From Demographic Dilemma to Refugee Problem
Between Survival and Assimilation
Selected Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Medoff (Jewish studies, State U. of New York) takes the choice American Jews had to make between Zionism and democracy as a case study to explore the process by which they dealt with their identities as individuals, Jews, and Americans. He primarily explores the middle ground between virulent opposition to Zionism by the offspring of German Jews who had immigrated in the middle 1800s, and the strong support by offspring of East Europeans who had come in the late 1800s and early 1900s and were least interested in assimilating to American culture. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews