The Jews Should Keep Quiet
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and the Holocaust
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Jewish Publication Society
Published:1st Sep '19
Should be back in stock very soon
This book critically examines the Roosevelt administration's policies towards European Jewry during the Holocaust, revealing troubling truths and missed opportunities for rescue.
Based on recently uncovered documents, The Jews Should Keep Quiet offers a critical reassessment of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration's policies regarding European Jewry during the Holocaust. Rafael Medoff delves into the complexities of how these policies were shaped, highlighting the administration's deliberate suppression of European immigration, which fell far below the limits set by U.S. law. The book reveals that FDR's administration not only rejected proposals to utilize empty Liberty ships for transporting Jewish refugees but also denied requests to bomb the railways leading to Auschwitz, despite the proximity of American airstrikes to these critical targets.
In exploring FDR's motivations, Medoff addresses the president's private sentiments toward Jews and draws compelling parallels between his rhetoric about Jews and Asians. The book illustrates how the administration's exclusionary policies towards Jewish refugees mirrored the internment of Japanese Americans during the same period. This connection raises important questions about the underlying attitudes that influenced these decisions.
The Jews Should Keep Quiet also examines the significant impact of FDR's relationship with Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, a leading figure in American Jewry during the 1930s and 1940s. Medoff documents how Roosevelt and his allies pressured Wise to temper criticism from the Jewish community regarding the administration's actions, leading to a largely compliant response from American Jews. Ultimately, the book weighs the realistic options that the administration had for rescue actions, suggesting that different choices could have saved countless lives.
"Judicious and nuanced."—Drew Darien, Journal of American History
"Meticulously documented . . . sober . . . an important contribution to our understanding of the American government's response to the Holocaust, and that of Franklin D. Roosevelt at the helm of power."—American Historical Review
"The Jews Should Keep Quiet is the culmination of more than three decades of research, and it is devastating. Few readers will come away from Rafael Medoff ’s book without their view of FDR having been signicantly changed."—David G. Dalin, Jewish Review of Books
"Readers with an interest in World War II, 20th-century political history, Jewish history, and the Holocaust should find this an incisive and insightful exploration of the leading figures of this period."—Library Journal, starred review
"With meticulous detail, Medoff documents the entwined failures of an indifferent president and a sycophantic Jewish leader."—Jerold Auerbach, Algemeiner
"An essential study shedding further light on a watershed period, attempting a challenging balanced approach with irrefutable evidence condemning two major figures whose close collaboration ultimately carried disastrous consequences."—CCAR Journal/The Reform Jewish Quarterly
"This sad chapter in the history of American Jewry should serve as a keen example to all in today's Jewish community that we cannot assume that liberal, left-wing ideology is inherently pro-Jewish."—Alan Jay Gerber, Jewish Star
"The Jews Should Keep Quiet is a historical accounting of lies, deceptions and subterfuge promulgated by Roosevelt and his administration on American Jews and their leaders together with the struggles of Wise, as a recognized Jewish leader, and the American Jewish community against the tide of growing anti-Semitism and a racially-biased president. Medoff, as a first-rate historian of the Holocaust, clearly communicates what my poorly educated immigrant grandmother instinctively recognized, 'Roosevelt was a great president, except for the Jews.'"—Fred Reiss, San Diego Jewish World
"Readers interested in American Jewish history or American politics will definitely want to read this unsettling, but important, work."—Rabbi Rachel Esserman, Reporter
"Rafael Medoff . . . has come closer than anyone before him to explaining the inexplicable. He does so in a new book titled, The Jews Should Keep Quiet: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and the Holocaust."—Sol Stern, Tablet Magazine
ISBN: 9780827614703
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
408 pages