1980/04/01 by Sarah E. Peck · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Asian American and Pacific Histories #Commission #Government (linguistics) #History #Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies #Judaism #Law #Nazism #Political science #Politics #Publicity #Race, History, and American Society #The Holocaust
paper · doi:10.1177/002200948001500208
openalex publication_date 1980/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/04
In 1943 a group of Palestinian Jews living in the United States formed the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe. The group hoped to force the reluctant United States government to rescue European Jews from Nazi extermination. Led by Peter Bergson, the Committee used dramatic publicity to awaken Americans to the plight of European Jewry, and to exert pressure upon the United States government to form an official rescue commission. However, Bergson's independent and unconventional tactics incensed Zionist leaders, who spoke for much of organized American Jewry. By condemning the activities of the Emergency Committee, instead of acting upon Bergson's rescue philosophy, organized American Jews missed an important chance to force United States intervention in the Holocaust.