Abstract
The extensive propaganda campaign waged by the Anglo-Zionist alliance undoubtedly had a significant impact upon world Jewry, but it evolved somewhat differently to what was anticipated by Whitehall. The underlying assumption of Britain’s Zionist policy, that the Jews were united by a collective sense of Zionist identity, was incorrect. Not only was Zionism a minority movement, albeit a growing one, among Jewry, but there was no such thing as an innate Jewish consciousness, Zionist or otherwise. Jewish identities were contingent, fluid and highly contested. Moreover, the Jewish component of an individual’s identity was by no means a priority for many in their day-to-day lives, as was assumed to be the case in the British official mind. Jewry was splintered by class, geography, age, gender, politics, culture and religion, with a resulting myriad of competing Jewish identities and levels of interest in Jewish affairs.1
Jewry is composite in character. Differences therein are so great and so various that welding the parts into a harmonious whole would prove a superhuman task. It is characteristic of the Jew that he adheres tenaciously to his views … since tribal days Israel has never been in agreement … Their conceptions of Judaism are scarcely less diverse than are their views on other affairs of life …
Alfred M. Cohen, Jewish Comment, Baltimore, 10 May 1918.
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Notes
For an alternative view, that emphasises the widespread influence of Zionism among American Jewry during the war, see Jehuda Reinharz, ‘Zionism in the USA on the Eve of the Balfour Declaration’, Studies in Zionism, 9, 2 (Autumn 1988), pp. 131–145.
Charles Israel Goldblatt, ‘The Impact of the Balfour Declaration in America’, American Jewish Historical Quarterly, 57 (1968), pp. 476–487
Christopher M. Sterba, Good Americans: Italian and Jewish Immigrants during the First World War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 170–172.
Naomi W. Cohen, American Jews and the Zionist Idea (New York: Ktav, 1975), pp. 20–22
Henry L. Feingold, Zion in America: The Jewish Experience from Colonial Times to the Present (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1974), p. 218.
On the fluid relationship between American Jewish identities and Americanness, see Hasia Diner, A Time for Gathering: The Second Migration, 1820–1880 (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1992)
Daniel Soyer, Jewish Immigrant Associations and American Identity in New York, 1880–1939 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997).
Urofsky, American Zionism, pp. 118, 128, 145–150; Ben Halpern, ‘The Americanization of Zionism, 1880–1930’, American Jewish History, 69, 1 (Sept. 1979), pp. 24–25.
Evyatar Friesel, ‘Brandeis’ Role in American Zionism Historically Reconsidered’, American Jewish History, 69, 1 (Sept. 1979), p. 48.
Yonathan Shapiro, Leadership of the American Zionist Organization, 1897–1930 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1971), p. 129.
Naomi W. Cohen, The Americanization of Zionism, 1897–1948 (Hanover and London: Brandeis University Press, 2003)
Tony Michels, A Fire in their Hearts: Yiddish Socialists in New York (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005)
Michael Berkowitz, The Jewish Self-image: American and British Perspectives, 1881–1939 (London: Reaktion Books, 2000)
Arthur Liebman, Jews and the Left (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1979)
Gerald Sorin, The Prophetic Minority: American Jewish Immigrant Radicals, 1880–1920 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985)
Melech Epstein, Jewish Labor in the U.S.A.: An Industrial, Political and Cultural History of the Jewish Labor Movement, Vol. I (New York: Trade Union Sponsoring Committee, 1950), pp. 335–420
John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860–1925 (New York: Atheneum, 1963), p. 205.
David M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), pp. 63–69.
Sara Schmidt, ‘The Zionist Conversion of Louis D. Brandeis’, Jewish Social Studies, 37 (1975), pp. 18–34
Jonathan D. Sarna, ‘“The Greatest Jew in the World since Jesus Christ”: The Jewish Legacy of Louis D. Brandeis’, American Jewish History, 81, 3–4 (Spring–Summer, 1994), pp. 356–359.
Zosa Szajkowski, Jews, Wars, and Communism, Vol. I (New York: Ktav, 1972), p. xii.
Kallen to Wise, 2 Nov. 1917, Kallen Papers, Box 31, Folder 22, AJA; Shapiro, Leadership of the American Zionist Organization, pp. 112–115; Sheila Stern Polishook, ‘The American Federation of Labor, Zionism, and the First World War’, American Jewish Historical Quarterly, 65, 3 (September 1975), pp. 232–233
Wise to Kallen, 24 September 1917, Horace Kallen Papers, Box 31, Folder 22, AJA; Irving Howe, The Immigrant Jews of New York: 1881 to the Present (London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976), p. 206.
See Soyer, Jewish Immigrant Associations, pp. 161–171; Deborah Dash Moore, At Home in America: Second Generation New York Jews (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), pp. 152–154.
See Alan Silverstein, Alternatives to Assimilation: The Response of Reform Judaism to American Culture, 1840–1930 (Hanover and London: Brandeis University Press, 1994).
Naomi W. Cohen, Jacob H. Schiff: A Study in American Jewish Leadership (Hanover and London: Brandeis University Press, 1999)
Samuel Spring, ‘The Opposition to Zionism — An Analysis and a Plea for Tolerance’, The Menorah Journal, 4, 5 (Oct. 1918), p. 287.
Stuart E. Knee, ‘From Controversy to Conversion: Liberal Judaism in America and the Zionist Movement, 1917–1941’, YIVO Annual, 17 (1978), pp. 261–262.
Avrom Lesin, ‘The Two Redemptions’, Di Tsukunft, 23, 1 (Jan. 1918), p. 10.
See Jerome C. Rosenthal, ‘A Fresh Look at Louis Marshall and Zionism, 1900–1912’, American Jewish Archives, 32, 2 (Nov., 1980), pp. 108–118
Stuart E. Knee, ‘Jewish Non-Zionism in America and Palestine Commitment 1917–1941’, Jewish Social Studies, 39, 3 (1977), p. 209.
Ralph P. Boas, ‘Program of Zionism Menaces Jewish Unity’, New York Times, reprinted in Emanu-El, 4 Jan. 1918, p. 1. On the liberal and Reform opposition to Zionism and the Balfour Declaration, also see Naomi W. Cohen, ‘The Specter of Zionism: American Opinions, 1917–1922’, in Melvin I. Urofsky (ed.), Essays in American Zionism, 1917–1948, The Herzl Year Book, 8 (New York: Herzl Press, 1978), pp. 95–102.
Professor Morris Jastrow, ‘The Objections to a Jewish State’, The Menorah Journal, 4, 3 Qune 1918), p. 136.
David Werner Amram, ‘Answering Professor Jastrow’, The Menorah Journal, 4, 3 Qune 1918), p. 148.
Moses Rischin, ‘The Early Attitude of the American Jewish Committee to Zionism (1906–1922)’, Publication of the American Jewish Historical Society, 59 (Sept. 1959–1960), p. 195
Charles Reznikoff (ed.), Louis Marshall, Champion of Liberty: Selected Papers and Addresses, Vol. I (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1957), p. 717.
Stephen S. Wise, Challenging Years: The Autobiography of Stephen Wise (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1949), p. 192.
Joseph Rappaport, ‘Jewish Immigrants and World War I: A Study of American Yiddish Press Reactions’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1951), pp. 331–332. On the limited influence of Poale Zion at this time, see Raphael Medoff, ‘Review Essay: Recent Trends in the Historiography of American Zionism’, American Jewish History, 86, 1 (Mar. 1998), pp. 127–128.
Shalom Ash, ‘The Victory’, Di Tsukunft, 22, 12 (Dec. 1917), p. 673.
Joseph Rappaport, ‘The Allied-Central Power Controversy in Zionism’, in Isidore S. Meyer (ed.), Early History of Zionism in America (New York: American Jewish Historical Society and Theodor Herzl Foundation, 1958), pp. 314–315
Inter-Allied Labour and Socialist Conference, Memorandum on War Aims, 20–24 February 1918 (London: publisher unknown, 1918), pp. 9–13
On the twists and turns in Zhitlovsky’s political career, see David H. Weinberg, Between Tradition and Modernity: Haim Zhitlovski, Simon Dubnow, Ahad Ha’Am and the Shaping of Modern Jewish Identity (New York and London: Holmes and Meier, 1996)
Chaim Zhitlovsky, ‘Arguments against Eretz Israel. (Written and Oral Arguments)’, Di Tsukunft, 23, 6 (June 1918), pp. 366–371.
Chaim Zhitlovsky, ‘Arguments against Eretz Israel. (Written and Oral Arguments)’, Di Tsukunft, 23, 6 (June 1918), pp. 366–371.
Zivion, ‘Zionist Will and Zionist Possibilities (An Answer to Dr. Zhitlovsky)’, Di Tsukunft, 23, 9 (Sept. 1918), p. 546.
Polishook, ‘American Federation of Labor’, p. 243; Samuel Halperin, The Political World of American Zionism (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1961), p. 160.
Berkowitz, Jewish Self-image, pp. 125–126; Moses Rischin, ‘The Promised Land in 1925: America, Palestine and Abraham Cahan’, YIVO Annual, 22 (1995), pp. 81–104
See, for example, Mark Raider, The Emergence of American Zionism (New York and London: New York University Press, 1998), p. 43.
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© 2007 James Renton
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Renton, J. (2007). Perception vs. Reality: American Jewish Identities and the Impact of the Balfour Declaration. In: The Zionist Masquerade. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230286139_9
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