{"product_id":"the-americanization-of-zionism-18971948-brandeis-series-in-american-jewish-history-culture-and-life-9781584653462","title":"The Americanization of Zionism  1897-1948 (Brandeis Series in American Jewish History  Culture and Life)","description":"\u003cp\u003eAlthough much has been written about philosophical and political Zionism  Zionism in the United States prior to 1948 requires separate treatment. The early development of American Zionism not only mirrors the paradoxes and challenges that faced first and second-generation Jews adjusting to life in the United States  it also has ramifications for contemporary attitudes of American Jews toward Israel. According to Naomi Cohen  American Zionism was shaped originally by three factors: the needs of Jews in the United States and Europe  the stance of the American government  and the demands of non-Jewish public opinion. Within these broad parameters  the development of Zionism in the United States was linked to specifically Jewish American forcesacculturation  the struggle over communal leadership  and the impact of American antisemitism. Cohen demonstrates the uniqueness of American Zionism through chapters that offer a fifty-year historical overview of the Jewish community in the United States and its relationship to its own government  to European events  and to political developments in the yishuv. Focusing on Jewish leadership and democracy  Cohen analyzes the contradictions inherent in balancing political Zionism with Jewish participation in American public policy. She examines theological arguments raised by early-twentieth-century American reform Jews against Zionism  and she explores the meaning of public debates on Zionism following the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the Arab riots of 1929. Later chapters concern aspects of the immigration question from the 1920s to the 1940s and offer an account of diplomatic negotiations between an American non-Zionist and a British official on Jewish immigration and settlement. The volume concludes with an analysis of the founding of Israel debates of the 1940s  employing the responses of the American Jewish Conference and the Jewish Theological Seminary to illuminate contemporary American Zionist attitudes. Although Cohen recounts different aspects of American Zionist history  all emphasizes how American Zionists  singly  in groups  or through institutions  reconciled their Zionist beliefs and activities with American principles and tastes. Indeed  American standards and concerns underlie the harsh criticism of Zionism by both Jews and non-Jews  a subject also treated in these essays. Using a range of never-before-seen primary sources  Cohen strongly makes her case that without the Americanization of its ideology and politics  Zionism in the United States would have made little headway. Although Herzls teachings  tailored to conform to American beliefs and public behavior  were in part watered down to suit American Jewish sensibilities  they nonetheless had a powerful effect on American Jewry.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45651854098485,"sku":"ByrdShop_1584653469","price":390.53,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781584653462.jpg?v=1781842246","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-americanization-of-zionism-18971948-brandeis-series-in-american-jewish-history-culture-and-life-9781584653462","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}