Overview

American Jews' mobilization on behalf of Soviet Jews is typically portrayed as compensation for the community's inability to assist European Jews during World War II. Yet, as Pauline Peretz shows, the role Israel played in setting the agenda for a segment of the American Jewish community was central. Her careful examination of relations between the Jewish state and the Jewish diaspora offers insight into Israel's influence over the American Jewish community and how this influence can be conceptualized. To explain how Jewish emigration moved from a solely Jewish issue to a humanitarian question that required the intervention of the US government during the Cold War, Peretz traces the activities of Israel in securing the immigration of Soviet Jews and promoting awareness in Western countries. Peretz uses mobilization studies to explain a succession of objectives on the part of Israel and the stages in which it mobilized American Jews. Peretz attempts to reintroduce Israel as the missing, yet absolutely decisive actor in the history of the American movement to help Soviet Jews emigrate in difficult circumstances.

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9781412856751

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Pauline Peretz has written an insightful and important book based on exhaustive research and documentation. Her brilliant analysis explains the role of the American and Israeli governments, as well as that of the American Jewish community, in encouraging or discouraging the immigration of Russian Jews to the United States. One of the most important books ever written on this critical period in the history of the Jews. --William Helmreich, City College of NY and CUNY Graduate Center Review on the French version of this book, The campaign on behalf of Soviet Jewry for the right to emigrate was a transnational social and political movement for human rights that spanned decades, and culminated with considerable success. Between 1948 and 1991 approximately 1.3 million Jews emigrated from the Soviet Union. . . . Pauline Peretz's finely etched study demonstrates the complexity of the movement and the conflicting agendas that motivated the major protagonists. . . . Peretz's narrative weaves together analysis of those competing agendas on the levels of public and state policy, communal mobilization, and social activism. . . . This is an outstanding study that is admirable in its attention to detail, groundbreaking in its exploration on the role of Israel in shaping (or attempting to shape) a complex international movement to its own advantage, and appropriately nuanced in drawing conclusions. It is the best book on the theme available. --R. Craig Nation, The Journal of American History Review on the French version of this book, To my knowledge, nothing quite like this book exists. . . . International historians will be impressed by the work's cross cultural analysis and the blending of sources from Israel, several European countries, the former Soviet Union, and of course the United States. Others will be pleased to see that the analysis is not limited to the rarefied world of policy makers but includes broad social and intellectual movements. . . . The saga of how the American Jewish community and American leaders came to embrace the cause of freedom for Russian Jews had not been told well until Pauline Peretz came along. --Olivier Zunz, University of Virginia Review on the French version of this book, A very important book. . . . This promises to be one of the more thoughtful and constructive interpretations of how the American Jewish community was and was not able to influence American public policy. --Julian Zelizer, Princeton University

Review on the French version of this book, The campaign on behalf of Soviet Jewry for the right to emigrate was a transnational social and political movement for human rights that spanned decades, and culminated with considerable success. Between 1948 and 1991 approximately 1.3 million Jews emigrated from the Soviet Union. . . . Pauline Peretz's finely etched study demonstrates the complexity of the movement and the conflicting agendas that motivated the major protagonists. . . . Peretz's narrative weaves together analysis of those competing agendas on the levels of public and state policy, communal mobilization, and social activism. . . . This is an outstanding study that is admirable in its attention to detail, groundbreaking in its exploration on the role of Israel in shaping (or attempting to shape) a complex international movement to its own advantage, and appropriately nuanced in drawing conclusions. It is the best book on the theme available. --R. Craig Nation, The Journal of American History To my knowledge, nothing quite like this book exists. . . . International historians will be impressed by the work's cross cultural analysis and the blending of sources from Israel, several European countries, the former Soviet Union, and of course the United States. Others will be pleased to see that the analysis is not limited to the rarefied world of policy makers but includes broad social and intellectual movements. . . . The saga of how the American Jewish community and American leaders came to embrace the cause of freedom for Russian Jews had not been told well until Pauline Peretz came along. --Olivier Zunz, University of Virginia A very important book. . . . This promises to be one of the more thoughtful and constructive interpretations of how the American Jewish community was and was not able to influence American public policy. --Julian Zelizer, Princeton University

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Pauline Peretz

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