Between Home and Homeland
246 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
12 B&W figures
Paperback
Release Date:11 Dec 2018
ISBN:9780817359393
Between Home and Homeland
Youth Aliyah from Nazi Germany
SERIES:
Judaic Studies Series
University of Alabama Press
Between Home and Homeland is a fascinating account of young German Jews who immigrated to Palestine during the 1930s in the Youth Aliya movement.
As Hitler consolidated power, Jews and their allies in Germany began efforts to leave the country. Among them was the organization, Youth Aliyah. Based on abundant archival sources and a thorough use of secondary literature, Brian Amkraut details the story of the organization from its origins through its alliances and antagonisms with other Jewish organizations, and the challenges that vexed its efforts from every side, perhaps the greatest being sheer human naiveté ("surely things will get better").
Amkraut also discusses the identity dilemma for Jews who grew up feeling German, and then had to alter their self-image in the face of growing discrimination. He highlights the internal disagreements of Jewish agencies who wrestled with myriad problems. The author explores how German Jews were ideologically heterogeneous, and details how different groups coped with increasing antagonism in a variety of ways.
To this day, Youth Aliyah is considered by Israelis as a major contributor to the foundation of a Jewish presence leading to the modern state of Israel. Between Home and Homeland is an essential account of an important episode in the history of the Holocaust and the founding of the Isreali state.
As Hitler consolidated power, Jews and their allies in Germany began efforts to leave the country. Among them was the organization, Youth Aliyah. Based on abundant archival sources and a thorough use of secondary literature, Brian Amkraut details the story of the organization from its origins through its alliances and antagonisms with other Jewish organizations, and the challenges that vexed its efforts from every side, perhaps the greatest being sheer human naiveté ("surely things will get better").
Amkraut also discusses the identity dilemma for Jews who grew up feeling German, and then had to alter their self-image in the face of growing discrimination. He highlights the internal disagreements of Jewish agencies who wrestled with myriad problems. The author explores how German Jews were ideologically heterogeneous, and details how different groups coped with increasing antagonism in a variety of ways.
To this day, Youth Aliyah is considered by Israelis as a major contributor to the foundation of a Jewish presence leading to the modern state of Israel. Between Home and Homeland is an essential account of an important episode in the history of the Holocaust and the founding of the Isreali state.
'Adds to the excellent body of literature on German Jews. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.' —CHOICE
A first-rate book offering a highly focused and extensively researched analysis of Germany’s Youth Aliyah movement during the 1930s [and] filling lacunae in the scholarship of German Jewry and Zionism that has largely ignored the activities of this organization.’
—Keith H. Pickus, author of Constructing Modern Identities: Jewish University Students in Germany, 1815–1914
Brian Amkraut is executive director of the Siegal Lifelong Learning Program at Case Western Reserve University.
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Dealing with the Nazis
1. 1932—The Decisive Year
2. Spreading the Word
3. Emigration or Welfare Movement?
4. After the Pogrom
5. Conflicts and Resolutions
Epilogue
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Dealing with the Nazis
1. 1932—The Decisive Year
2. Spreading the Word
3. Emigration or Welfare Movement?
4. After the Pogrom
5. Conflicts and Resolutions
Epilogue
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
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