Nadene Goldfoot
Widespread pogroms accompanied the 1905 Russian Revolution, inspired by the Pro-Tsarist Black Hundreds. In Odessa, Leon Trotsky provided arms so the Zionists could protect the Jewish community and this prevented a pogrom. Zionist leader Jabotinsky eventually led the Jewish resistance in Odessa. During his subsequent trial Trotsky produced evidence that the police had organized the effort to create a pogrom in Odessa.
Half the world's Jews lived within the confines of the Russian Empire in 1917, and of these, a third lived in the Ukraine. Simon Petlyura became commander of the Ukrainian Nationalist forces and these forces, as did the anti-Bolshevik White Russian troops, took to systematically massacring Jews. Between 1918 and 1921, when the Bolsheviks assumed control of the Ukraine, over 50,000 Jews were killed, a further 100,000 were permanently maimed or died of wounds and 200,000 Jewish children became orphans.
Prior to the Holocaust, Reform Judaism, which started in Germany, then spread to USA, rejected Zionism as inconsistent with the requirements of Jewish citizenship in the diaspora. The opposition of Reform Judaism was expressed in the Pittsburgh Platform, adopted by the Central Conference of American Rabbis in 1885: "We consider ourselves no longer a nation but a religious community, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the administration of the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the Jewish state."
Under Herzl's leadership, Zionism relied on Orthodox Jews for religious support, with the main party being the orthodox Mizrachi of the Middle East such as Palestine. However, as the cultural and socialist Zionists increasingly broke with tradition and used language contrary to the outlook of most religious Jewish communities, many orthodox religious organizations began opposing Zionism.
Nicholas II was the last tsar of Russia under Romanov rule. His poor handling of Bloody Sunday and Russia’s role in World War I led to his abdication and execution. Then In February 1917 the tsar was overthrown and Alexander Kerensky became Prime Minister of the Russian Empire. Jews were prominent in the new government and the British hoped that Jewish support would help keep Russia in the war.
In June 1917 the British army, led by Edmund Allenby, invaded Palestine. The Jewish Legion participated in the invasion and Jabotinsky was awarded for bravery. Arab forces conquered Transjordan and later took over Damascus.
On November 2, 1917, the UK foreign secretary, Lord Arthur Balfour, sent a letter to the leader of the British Jewish community, Lord Walter Rothschild, in which he stated his government’s support for a Jewish state in the area then known as Palestine. on November 2, 1917, the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, made his landmark Balfour Declaration, publicly expressing the government's view in favour of "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people", and specifically noting that its establishment must not "prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country".The World War I was over on November 11, 1918.
Then the Brits promptly gave 80% of the Jewish Homeland promised to the Jews, to the Arab Prince Abdullah because he needed a country other than Arabia.
The West is usually referring to the United States these days, and when a group of Revisionist Zionists from several countries arrived in New York, they made no headway. The leaders of the American Jewish Community were largely opposed to Zionism. Perhaps they were convinced it was a failure by their president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who believed support for Zionism would place an undue burden on Britain's relationship with the Arab world. Evidently they didn't pay attention to Rabbi Wise. But, Joining U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, and others, Wise laid the groundwork for a democratically elected, nationwide organization of 'ardently Zionist' Jews, 'to represent Jews as a group and not as individuals'. In 1917 he participated in the effort to convince President Woodrow Wilson to approve the Balfour declaration in support of Jewish settlement in Mandate Palestine. In 1918, following national elections, this Jewish community convened the first American Jewish Congress in Philadelphia's historic Independence Hall.
Rabbi Stephen Samuel (Weiss) Wise (1874–1949) was a prominent US Jewish leader in the 1933–1945 period and Zionist leader in the Progressive Era..Wise was an early supporter of Zionism. His support for, and commitment to Political Zionism was atypical of Reform Judaism, which had been historically non-Zionist since it adopted the Pittsburgh Platform in 1885. He was a founder of the New York Federation of Zionist Societies in 1897, which led in the formation of the national Federation of American Zionists (FAZ), a forerunner of the Zionist Organization of America.
At the Second Zionist Congress (Basel, 1898), Wise was a delegate and secretary for the English language. Born in Budapest in 1874 and the grandson of the Chief Rabbi of Eger, Hungary (a town about sixty miles northeast of Budapest), Stephen Wise immigrated to New York as a child. After his ordination as a Reform rabbi, he led a congregation in Portland, Oregon, where his liberal political convictions inspired him to fight for child labor laws and for the demands of striking workers. A charismatic orator, he became a champion for social justice and civil rights and was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He later became a strong advocate and vocal supporter of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's “New Deal.” Being in Portland, he was rabbi at Temple Beth Israel by 1900, before Rabbi Rose was rabbi there.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) found Wise's mixture of enlightened views and committed Zionism most agreeable, and they became friends when Einstein moved to the US. In a tribute to Wise on his 60th birthday, Einstein said, "Above all, what I admire in him is his bold activity toward building the self-respect of the Jewish people, combined with profound tolerance and penetrating understanding of everything human." Einstein had been offered the position of being President of Israel in 1948 but turned it down. Albert Einstein, a Jew, but not an Israeli citizen, was offered the presidency in 1952, but turned it down, stating: "I am deeply moved by the offer from our State of Israel, and at once saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept it.
long admired for his intellect and political liberalism, as well as for the warm appreciation he displayed toward Jews at a time when so many other Americans were overtly . When Wilson first ran for president, in 1912, a remarkable political ad in Boston’s Jewish Advocate urged readers to join with “practically all the great Jewish leaders throughout the country” in supporting him, citing his progressive views on immigration and his willingness to abrogate a trade treaty with as punishment for its violations of Jews’ human rights. In large black letters, the ad listed famous Jews who supported Wilson, including financier , philanthropist , and ambassador . It urged all “thinking Jews” to join them.
As president, Wilson, frequently consulted with attorney , and in 1916, courageously nominated him as the first Jew ever to serve on the . He continued to back him in the face of widespread opposition from prominent businessmen and lawyers and succeeded in pushing the nomination through the Senate. The appointment marked a turning point in American Jewish history. Wilson also befriended a slew of other notable Jews, including , Samuel Untermeyer and .
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was beloved by the Jews of the USA. They thought he had rescued them. That has been why so many are Democrats. Roosevelt was inaugurated only five weeks after Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, on January 30, 1933. The new president was well-informed about the Hitler regime and its anti-Jewish policies.
New antisemitic laws and physical attacks on Jews in Germany were headline news in the United States throughout 1933. Thousands of Americans signed petitions or participated in marches, calling on the new Roosevelt administration to protest Nazi Germany. FDR, however, was cautious. Germany still owed American investors billions of dollars, borrowed to pay World War I reparations, and Roosevelt did not believe that the United States should intervene in the internal affairs of another country. He instructed the new ambassador to Berlin, William Dodd, not to make an official protest. Nazi persecution of German Jews, FDR supposedly told Dodd, was “not a governmental affair.”
Here’s the paradox. The U.S. immigration system severely limited the number of German Jews admitted during the Nazi years to about 26,000 annually–but even that quota was less than 25% filled during most of the Hitler era, because the Roosevelt administration piled on so many extra requirements for would-be immigrants. For example, as of 1941, merely having a close relative in Europe was enough disqualify an applicant–because of the Roosevelt administration’s absurd belief that the immigrant would become a spy for Hitler so that his relative in Europe would not be harmed by the Nazis.
Oh my gosh! Werner Oster arrived in May 1939, when Germany was closing their doors to Jews' leaving. He was perhaps the last to get out of Germany as they had invaded Poland in September 1, 1939! He got out because the Jewish agency asked my great uncle Max to sponsor a Germany Jew and take on all financial responsibility for him-part of the USA government requirements. Max accepted and got Werner a job with my father who was just starting his wholesale Meats business. Werner's father was a sausage maker so Werner knew the business. Werner's parents and 16 year old red-headed sister died in the Holocaust. They had chosen Werner to be the one to get out who could possibly then get them out after he got a job.
Why did the administration actively seek to discourage and disqualify Jewish refugees from coming to the United States? Why didn’t the president quietly tell his State Department (which administered the immigration system) to fill the quotas for Germany and Axis-occupied countries to the legal limit? That alone could have saved an additional 190,000 lives. It would not have required a fight with Congress or the anti-immigration forces; it would have involved minimal political risk to the president.
It's interesting, because England was about to go under from Hitler and the USA did not step into joining them in WWII. World War II began in September of 1939 when both Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany followings its invasion of Poland. While other allied nations such as Canada and Australia joined Britain and France in their fight against Nazi aggression in Europe, the United States remained on the outside.
It wasn't until the USA were attacked by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. Following the Declaration of War on Japan on December 8, 1941, the other Axis nations of Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. Congress responded, formally declaring a state of war with Germany in this Joint Resolution on December 11, 1941. In the end, the United States was forced into the war on December 7th, 1941 when Japan surprise attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor. With the help of American troops, the Allies were able to push back Germany in Europe by 1944 and the United States ended World War II in August of 1945 with the atomic bombing of Japan.
Harry S. Truman was the first to recognize Israel as a state. His partner in the men's clothing business, was Jewish and was his good friend. Because he had a good relationship with him, he had a place in his heart for the Jewish people, despite what his own cabinet cautioned.
Here we have presidents such as Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman that Jews have loved and that were all for Zionism, yet look what happened !
Resource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Zionism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I
https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2014-12-11/ty-article/.premium/1917-general-allenby-shows-how-a-moral-man-conquers-jerusalem/0000017f-db81-df9c-a17f-ff992e570000
https://brandeiscenter.com/the-truth-about-fdr-and-the-jews/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Samuel_Wise
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/franklin-delano-roosevelt
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