Background
Medoff, Rafael was born on September 13, 1959 in New York City.
( This in-depth look at a controversial faction of Americ...)
This in-depth look at a controversial faction of American Zionism fills a void in the story of American Zionism--and in the story of American Judaism. This book recounts the fascinating and little-known story of the militant American Zionists who lobbied Congress, rallied American public opinion, and influenced British-American relations in their campaign for Jewish statehood in the 1930s and 1940s. Although these activists have been dismissed as fanatics who fragmented the American Zionist movement, Rafael Medoff reveals that the faction--which included an Academy Award-winning screenwriter and several future members of the Israeli parliament--was more influential than has been previously acknowledged. These militants stirred America's conscience by placing controversial newspaper ads, lobbying conservative as well as liberal members of Congress, and staging dramatic protest rallies. Through these tactics, Medoff shows, they attracted a wave of support from an extraordinary cross-section of leading Americans, including comedians Harpo Marx and Carl Reiner, actors Vincent Price, Marlon Brando, and Jane Wyatt, musician Leonard Bernstein, and rising young politicians Jacob Javits and Hubert Humphrey. Medoff also describes the shadowy underground division that smuggled weapons to the Holy Land in caskets, naming and interviewing for the first time members of this gunrunning network. Based on years of archival research and interviews and written in a compelling style, Militant Zionism in America documents events that reshaped the American Jewish community, influenced American foreign policy, and contributed to one of the most extraordinary events of modern history: the creation of the State of Israel. Rafael Medoff is a Visiting Scholar at the State University of New York -- Purchase College.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0817353704/?tag=2022091-20
( In his landmark bestseller, The Abandonment of the Jews...)
In his landmark bestseller, The Abandonment of the Jews, David Wyman exhaustively detailed America’s failure to help rescue the victims of Nazi genocide. But one man, Peter Bergson, led a tireless battle against that tide of indifference, making it impossible for American leaders to plead ignorance of the German atrocities. Now, Wyman, along with Rafael Medoff, tells for the first time the story of the man who led America’s most effective campaign to rescue victims of the Holocaust. A Race Against Death utilizes extensive firsthand interviews to present Peter Bergson’s own account of his remarkable life and struggles. Facing deportation from America and threats on his life, Bergson employed every conceivable method to influence policy and public opinion: he personally hounded Congressmen to support a rescue; placed controversial full-page ads in major newspapers demanding action; and drew a record crowd of 40,000 to a rally and memorial pageant at Madison Square Garden. Award-winning historian David Wyman is the definitive authority on America’s actionand inactionduring the Holocaust. In A Race Against Death, he and Rafael Medoff return to this tragic era in American history and chronicle one of its few heroes.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/156584761X/?tag=2022091-20
( Jewish Americans and Political Participation explores t...)
Jewish Americans and Political Participation explores the rise of the Jewish people from hardscrabble immigrants to the highest echelons of political power. The book provides an overview of American Jewish life, including the impact of immigration, domestic antisemitism, the Holocaust, and U.S–Israel relations. A chapter is devoted to protest politics, covering such events as President Grant's Order #11 (expulsion edict), tenants and shirtwaist-makers strikes, the 1943 rabbis march on Washington, and Jewish responses to the Rosenberg case. The book also covers participation in social movements such as abolition, Jewish defense organizations, and the New Left. A chapter is devoted to Jewish participation in electoral politics, from Jewish interest in early socialism to Jewish advisers and the emergence of Jewish conservatism. There are also biographies of Jewish American officials and political officeholders.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1576073149/?tag=2022091-20
(The Jewish attachment to Zion is many centuries old. Whil...)
The Jewish attachment to Zion is many centuries old. While the modern Zionist movement was organized a little more than a century ago, the roots of the Zionist idea reach back close to 4,000 years ago, to the day that the biblical patriarch Abraham left his home in Ur of the Chaldees to settle in the Promised Land, where the Jewish state subsequently arose. From that day to the establishing of the state of Israel in 1948, the Jewish people have been in a constant struggle to either regain or maintain their homeland. Although 60 years have now passed since the establishment of Israel, many of the political and religious factions that made up the Zionist movement in the pre-state era remain active. The second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Zionism―through its chronology, maps, introductory essay, bibliography, and over two hundred cross-referenced dictionary entries on crucial persons, organizations, and events―is a valuable contribution to the appreciation for both the diversity and consensus that characterize the Zionist experience.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0810859580/?tag=2022091-20
Medoff, Rafael was born on September 13, 1959 in New York City.
Bachelor in Jewish studies, State University of New York, 1982. Master of Arts in Jewish History, Yeshiva University, 1984. Doctor of Philosophy in Jewish History, Yeshiva University, 1991.
Visiting instructor department history and Center for Jewish Studies Ohio State University, Columbus, 1991—1994. Consulting historian Jewish History Society Maryland, Baltimore, 1997—1999, Jewish History Society Greater Washington, 1997—2001. Visiting scholar Jewish Studies program State University of New York, Purchase, since 1994.
Associate editor American Jewish History, New York City, since 2002. Director David Son of Wyman Institute Holocaust Studies, Melrose Park, Pennsylvania, since 2002.
( Jewish Americans and Political Participation explores t...)
( In his landmark bestseller, The Abandonment of the Jews...)
( This in-depth look at a controversial faction of Americ...)
(The Jewish attachment to Zion is many centuries old. Whil...)
Member of Association Jewish Studies, Organization American Historians, American History Association, American Jewish History Society (academy council since 1998).