Hillel Kook
Encyclopedia
Hillel Kook also known as Peter Bergson (Hebrew: פיטר ברגסון), was a Revisionist Zionist
activist, politician, and prominent member of the Irgun
.
in 1915, the son of Rabbi Dov Kook, the younger brother of Abraham Isaac Kook
, the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi
of the British Mandate in Palestine. In 1924, his family immigrated to Palestine
, where his father became the first Chief Rabbi of Afula
. Hillel Kook received a religious education in Afula and at the Religious Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav in Jerusalem and was an unregistered student of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University. While there, he became a member of Sohba, or "Comradeship", a group of students who would later become prominent in the Revisionist movement, including David Raziel
and Avraham Stern
.
Kook joined the pre-state Haganah
militia in 1930 following widespread Arab riots. In 1931, Kook helped found the Irgun
, a group of militant Haganah dissidents, and fought with them in Palestine through most of the 1930s. He served as a post commander in 1936, and eventually became a member of the Irgun General Headquarters.
. He first went to Poland
, where he was involved in fundraising and establishing Irgun cells in Eastern Europe. It was there that he met the founder of the Revisionist movement, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, and became friends with his son Ari
. At the founders' request, Kook traveled to the United States
with Jabotinsky in 1940, where he soon served as the head of the Irgun and revisionist mission in America, following the elder's death in August. This assignment was clandestine, and Kook publicly denied he was affiliated with the Irgun many times while in America.
, Yitzhak Ben-Ami, Alexander Rafaeli, Shmuel Merlin
, and Ari Jabotinsky
. The Bergson Group was closely involved with various Jewish and Zionist
advocacy groups, such as the American Friends for a Jewish Palestine and the Organizing Committee of Illegal Immigration. The group also founded some separate initiatives of its own, specifically the Committee for a Jewish Army of Stateless and Palestinian Jews, whose goal was the formation of an Allied fighting force of stateless and Palestinian Jews. Some credit the later formation of the Jewish Brigade
, a British
unit of Palestinian Jews, with Kook's activism. Two American members of the Bergson Group were author and screenwriter Ben Hecht
and cartoonist Arthur Szyk
.
Initially the Bergson Group largely limited its activities to Irgun fundraising and various propaganda
campaigns. The outbreak of World War II
saw a dramatic transformation in the group's focus. As information about the Holocaust
began to reach the United States, Kook and his fellow activists became more involved in trying to raise awareness about the fate of the Jews in Europe. This included putting full-page advertisements in leading newspapers, such as "Jews Fight for the Right to Fight", published in The New York Times
in 1942, and "For Sale to Humanity 70,000 Jews, Guaranteed Human Beings at $50 a Piece", in response to an offer by Romania
to send their Jews to safety if the travel expenses would be provided. On March 9, 1943, the Group produced a huge pageant in Madison Square Garden
written by Ben Hecht
, titled "We Will Never Die", memorializing the 2,000,000 European Jews who had already been murdered. Forty thousand people saw the pageant that first night, and it went on to play in five other major cities including Washington, D.C.
, where First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
, six Supreme Court
Justices, and some 300 senators and congressmen watched it.
In 1943, Kook established an "Emergency Committee for the Rescue of European Jewry". The Committee, which included Jewish and non-Jewish American writers, public figures, and politicians, worked to disseminate information to the general public, and also lobbied the President
and Congress to take immediate action to save the remnants of Europe's Jews. United States immigration laws at the time limited immigration to only 2% of the number of each nationality present in the United States since the census
of 1890, which limited Jews from Austria
and Germany
to 27,370 and from Poland
to 6,542; even these quotas often went unfilled, due to United States State Department pressure on US consulates to place as many obstacles as possible in the path of refugees.
The proposal to admit more refugees was ratified by the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
, and, in response to the pressure, President Roosevelt
subsequently issued an administrative order for the establishment of a special national authority, the War Refugee Board
(WRB) to deal with Jewish and non-Jewish war refugees. An official government emissary sent to Turkey
was of considerable assistance in the rescue of Romania
n Jewry. The WRB saved about 200,000 Jews. (Wyman 1984:285) Those rescued through the WRB were probably mostly in Hungary, in part through the Raoul Wallenberg
mission which was sponsored by the WRB.
Some of the members of the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe were:
Hillel Kook (Peter Bergson) and Alex Hadani Rafaeli, Alex Wilf, Arieh Ben-Eliezer,
Arthur Szyk
, Ben Hecht
, Rabbi
Ben Rabinowitz (Robbins), Ari Jabotinsky
,
Esther Untermeyer, Gabe Wechsler, Senator
Guy Gillette, Harry Selden, Johan Smertenko, Konrad Bercovici
, M. Berchin, Samuel Merlin, Sigrid Undset
, Stella Adler
, Congressman Will Rogers, Jr.
, Yitzchak Ben-Ami.
There were many others who actively supported the "Bergson Group", for example a number of the best known people on Broadway and Hollywood, probably due to Ben Hecht's contacts (such as Kurt Weill
).
Kook and his followers were widely opposed by large sectors of the American public, particularly by many prominent American Zionist organizations. In December 1943, the American Jewish Conference
launched a public attack against the Bergsonites in an attempt to derail support for the resolution. (Wyman 1984:202)
The British embassy and several American Zionist groups, including the American Jewish Committee
and other political opponents sought to have Kook deported or drafted. (Wyman 184:346) They encouraged the IRS
to investigate the Bergson groups finances in an attempt to discredit them, hoping to find misappropriation, or at least careless bookkeeping, of the large amount of funds the groups handled. The IRS found no financial irregularities. (Wyman 1984:346) Among those trying to stop the Bergson Group's rescue activities were Steven Wise, Nahum Goldmann
and Congressman Blum . A State Department protocol shows Nahum Goldmann telling the State Department that Hillel Kook doesn't represent organized Jewry, and suggested either deporting him or drafting him for the war effort.(See the Wyman-Medoff book in References, with appendix)
Neither the U.S. Holocaust Museum nor Yad Vashem present the Bergson Group's activism, the intensity of opposition and its consequences and surrounding controversies.
article re speech by Eli Wiesel.
. The protest took place in Washington, D.C.
on October 6, 1943, three days before Yom Kippur
. While the Bergson Group was largely secular, Kook successfully used his family's rabbinic heritage to convince between 400 and 500 Orthodox
rabbi
s to attend. Among the participants were Rabbi Moshe Feinstein
, Rabbi Eliezer Silver
, president of the Va'ad Ha-Hatzala
and co-president of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo Friedman
(sometimes recorded as Solomon Mordechai Friedman), the Boyaner
Rebbe
of New York
and president of the Union of Grand Rabbis of the United States, Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz, rabbinical dean of the Mir Yeshiva
, Rabbi Naftali Carlebach, father of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach
, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Rabbi Charles Kahane, father of Rabbi Meir Kahane
, and Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg
and his father, Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Hertzberg. No representatives from Conservative Judaism
, or Reform Judaism
were present.
Joined by Bergson Group activists, the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America
, and a number of prominent members of Congress including William Warren Barbour
, the protesters marched on the United States Capitol
, Lincoln Memorial
, and White House
, pleading for U.S. intervention on behalf of the Jews in Europe. Though the delegation was reluctantly received by Vice President
Henry Wallace
, Franklin Roosevelt avoided them entirely, both out of concerns regarding diplomatic neutrality, but also influenced by the advice of some of his Jewish aides and several prominent American Jewish spokespeople (including Dr. Stephen Wise), who thought the protest would stir up anti-Semitism
and claimed that the marchers, many whom were both Orthodox as well as recent immigrants (or first-generation Americans) were not representative of American Jewry. Shortly before the protest reached the White House
, FDR left the building through a rear exit to attend an Army
ceremony, and then left for a weekend in the country. Disappointed and angered by the President's failure to meet with them, the rabbis stood in front of the White House where they were met by Barbour and others, and refused to read their petition aloud, instead handing it off to the Presidential secretary, Marvin H. McIntyre
. The march garnered much media attention, much of it focused on what was seen as the cold and insulting dismissal of many important community leaders, as well as the people in Europe they were fighting for. One Jewish newspaper commented, "Would a similar delegation of 500 Catholic priests have been thus treated?" http://www.wymaninstitute.org/special/rabbimarch/pg03.php Years later, Rabbi Soloveitchik, in recorded lectures, would bemoan the betrayal of the Rabbis' mission by Stephen Wise, who dismissed them as a group of Orthodox rabbis who didn't represent anyone.
, who had become chief of the Irgun in 1943. Begin admonished Kook for various positions of his that strayed from the official Irgun party-line. These included Kook focusing on the transportation of illegal immigrants to Palestine instead of his "primary" assignment, arms shipments to Irgun fighters, as well as his (rather common) usage of the term "Palestine". At the time Kook was in the habit of saying "Palestine Free State", which Begin thought left too much potential for bi-nationalism. Begin demanded that Kook instead publicly refer to the future Jewish state as the "Free State of Eretz Israel". He also criticized Kook for keeping too high a profile, angrily reminding him that the Irgun was an underground organization and that he was supposed to be using his resources to help the revolt in Palestine, not organize parades and marches.
Begin's letter illustrated the deep tensions that existed between the formal Irgun leadership and its independent and influential activists in the United States. It also revealed the increasing ideological schism that emerged between the camps of Begin, who inherited the political and military infrastructure of Jabotsinky, and Kook and his followers, who saw themselves as Jabotinsky's true ideological and political heirs. This tension would later come to a head when Kook and many of the Bergson Group members returned to Israel after its establishment in 1948.
and the Irgun
on the beaches of Kfar Vitkin
and Tel Aviv
. Following the Altalena Affair
, Kook was arrested with four other senior Irgun commanders and held for over two months. Of the five, only Kook was a member of the Bergson Group. The five were eventually released after about two months.
Kook served in the first Knesset
as part of the Herut
party list, but quit the party with his close friend and fellow Herut Member of the Knesset Ari Jabotinsky
. This followed two years of ongoing disagreements with their colleagues, particularly Menachem Begin
, over the party's leadership and direction. Kook, who had returned to Israel after a ten-year absence, was now confronted with the reality that the country and movement he had fought for bore little resemblance to his ideals. Kook and Jabotinsky served as independent or "single" MKs for the remaining months of their terms, the first ever to do so. Profoundly disillusioned with the Israeli political process and future of the Revisionist movement, Kook left Israel in 1951 with his wife and daughter. In 1968, four years after his wife's death, he returned to Israel with his two daughters. He remarried in 1975 and lived near Tel Aviv
until his death in 2001.
had made a conscious choice to become "integrated" citizens of their naturalized countries. This distinction between Jews and Hebrews was another major sticking point between Kook and the larger Irgun leadership as early as the mid-1940s. Kook's views in this area can be seen as a more moderate version of the "Canaanist
" ideology espoused by Yonatan Ratosh
. Like Ratosh, Kook was influenced by Adolf Gurevich, a Betar activist with connections to Bergson Group members Shmuel Merlin
and Ari Jabotinsky
.
Kook had a specific body of critiques concerning what he saw as the distortion of Zionist philosophy and idealism by Israeli politics. He maintained that he had always conceived of Israel being a "Jewish state" by having a majority of Jewish citizens, not through specific associations to Jewish nationalism. Paradoxically, Kook's "theocratic
" vision of Israel gave him a great deal of ideological flexibility in regards to some of Israel's more intractable problems. He supported according all non-Jewish citizens of Israel with full rights and privileges, and once, in an interview with an Israeli Druze
, commented that, like Jabotinsky, he saw "no reason" why the State of Israel could not have a non-Jewish president. He was in favor of amending the Law of Return
to consider prospective immigrants on an individual, and not national or religious basis, except for cases of immediate danger.
Kook was also a strong supporter of Israel's constitution, which had been stalled during its writing in 1948 and never completed. Kook claimed that a formal constitution could have solved many ongoing issues in Israeli society, such as discrimination against Israeli Arabs, by providing all of Israel's citizens with a clearly defined, and egalitarian, role in Israeli nationalism. He once remarked that the lack of a constitution was "Israel's greatest tragedy", that Ben-Gurion's decision to change the Israeli governing body from a Constituent Assembly
to a Parliament
had been a putsch, and that he regretted not having resigned from the Knesset immediately after the decision had been made. Kook also favored the creation of a Palestinian state, albeit one established in modern-day Jordan
. He was one of the first Israelis to call for a Palestinian state shortly after the Six-Day War
. For the remainder of his life, Kook adamantly claimed that his positions would have been shared by his ideological father, Jabotinsky.
Kook repeatedly referred to himself as a post-Zionist
, and was one of the first in Israeli society to voluntarily (and positively) adopt the term.
Since the late 1990s, some historians have attempted to restore Kook to a position of semi-prominence by re-examining and evaluating the significance and importance of his American activities during World War Two, and, in a secondary capacity, his role as a political opponent of Begin. One allegation Kook historians and supporters have made is that Kook's adversaries, both in Israel and America, have historically downplayed some of his accomplishments, as well as attempted to minimize their own role in curtailing his activities. David Wyman
and Rafael Medoff
, co-authors of a 2002 Kook biography, suggested that, had it not been for the interference of the American Jewish establishment, Kook might have become as successful (and noteworthy) a rescuer as Oskar Schindler
or Raoul Wallenberg
. Some have also suggested that Kook's story remains politically troubling for authority figures in Israel and America, as it illustrates that their main priorities were not in promoting awareness of the Holocaust, in trying to stop it, or in helping the survivors flee Europe.
A play, The Accomplices
, written by Bernard Weintraub and based on Kook's wartime efforts in the United States premiered at The New Group
in 2007 and played thereafter in regional theatres. It played also in Jerusalem in April 2009.
The role of Hillel Kook (aka "Peter Bergson") was played twice onstage by actor Steven Schub (lead singer of The Fenwicks), in 2008 at The Fountain Theatre and in 2009 at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles. Rafi Poch played Hillel Kook in Jerusalem.
stated "Hillel Kook didn't save anyone.".
Yad Vashem's modern, new museum's chamber on rescue excludes Hillel Kook and the rescue group he led, but does present some other Jews as rescuers, including Dr. Rudolf Kastner
, whom many in Israel consider to be at best highly controversial in the Holocaust context, and at worst to have been a traitor. Since Yad Vashem is the Israeli government's Holocaust center this is one of the many indications that the State of Israel declines recognizing Hillel Kook's rescue efforts. Apparently Hillel Kook is presented in an obscure corner of the Washington Holocaust museum situated in such a manner that about 2% of the visitors see it
- From A Manifesto of the Hebrew Nation, 1944.
Why did we respond the way we did? The question should be, why didn't the others? We responded as a human and as a Jew should.
- On his Holocaust activism, 1973.
I, who was the liaison officer of the Irgun central command with Jabotinsky, and who accompanied him almost daily for four years—remained loyal to his teachings. I also believe that the Land of Israel, on both banks of the Jordan River, is our historic homeland. But I am also certain that had Jabotinsky lived today, he would have argued that now, after we've achieved our independence, our mission is to attain peace in order to establish the Israeli people as the political heir of the Jewish people.- Interview in 1977.
There is no exile. The exile ended on May 14, 1948.
- Interview in 1982.
Revisionist Zionism
Revisionist Zionism is a nationalist faction within the Zionist movement. It is the founding ideology of the non-religious right in Israel, and was the chief ideological competitor to the dominant socialist Labor Zionism...
activist, politician, and prominent member of the Irgun
Irgun
The Irgun , or Irgun Zevai Leumi to give it its full title , was a Zionist paramilitary group that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization haHaganah...
.
Early life
Hillel Kook was born in LithuaniaLithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
in 1915, the son of Rabbi Dov Kook, the younger brother of Abraham Isaac Kook
Abraham Isaac Kook
Abraham Isaac Kook was the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandate for Palestine, the founder of the Religious Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav, Jewish thinker, Halachist, Kabbalist and a renowned Torah scholar...
, the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi
Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities...
of the British Mandate in Palestine. In 1924, his family immigrated to Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, where his father became the first Chief Rabbi of Afula
Afula
Afula is a city in the North District of Israel, often known as the "Capital of the Valley", referring to the Jezreel Valley. The city had a population of 40,500 at the end of 2009.-History:...
. Hillel Kook received a religious education in Afula and at the Religious Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav in Jerusalem and was an unregistered student of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University. While there, he became a member of Sohba, or "Comradeship", a group of students who would later become prominent in the Revisionist movement, including David Raziel
David Raziel
thumb|David RazielDavid Raziel was a fighter of the Jewish underground during the British mandate, and one of the founders of the Irgun.-Biography:...
and Avraham Stern
Avraham Stern
Avraham Stern , alias Yair was a Jewish paramilitary leader who founded and led the militant Zionist organization later known as Lehi .-Early life:Stern was born in Suwałki, Poland...
.
Kook joined the pre-state Haganah
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
militia in 1930 following widespread Arab riots. In 1931, Kook helped found the Irgun
Irgun
The Irgun , or Irgun Zevai Leumi to give it its full title , was a Zionist paramilitary group that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization haHaganah...
, a group of militant Haganah dissidents, and fought with them in Palestine through most of the 1930s. He served as a post commander in 1936, and eventually became a member of the Irgun General Headquarters.
World War II
In 1937 Kook began his career as an international spokesperson for the Irgun and Revisionist ZionismRevisionist Zionism
Revisionist Zionism is a nationalist faction within the Zionist movement. It is the founding ideology of the non-religious right in Israel, and was the chief ideological competitor to the dominant socialist Labor Zionism...
. He first went to Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, where he was involved in fundraising and establishing Irgun cells in Eastern Europe. It was there that he met the founder of the Revisionist movement, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, and became friends with his son Ari
Ari Jabotinsky
Eri Jabotinsky was a Revisionist Zionist activist, Israeli politician and academic. He was the son of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder of the opposition movement within Zionism at the time, and later served in the Knesset between 1949 and 1951, as a member of the opposition Herut party of Menachem...
. At the founders' request, Kook traveled to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with Jabotinsky in 1940, where he soon served as the head of the Irgun and revisionist mission in America, following the elder's death in August. This assignment was clandestine, and Kook publicly denied he was affiliated with the Irgun many times while in America.
Bergson Group
While in America, Kook led a group of Irgun activists under the pseudonym "Peter Bergson", supposedly to avoid embarrassing his family (particularly his famous uncle Abraham Isaac) with his political activities. The name "Bergson Group" or "Bergsonites" eventually became used to refer to all the members of Kook's immediate circle. The Bergson Group was composed of a hard-core cadre of ten Irgun activists from Europe, America and Palestine, including Aryeh Ben-EliezerAryeh Ben-Eliezer
Aryeh Ben-Eliezer was a Revisionist Zionist leader, Irgun member and Israeli politician.-Biography:Ben-Eliezer was born in 1913 in Vilnius in the Russian Empire . His family immigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine in 1920, and he attended high schools in Tel Aviv...
, Yitzhak Ben-Ami, Alexander Rafaeli, Shmuel Merlin
Shmuel Merlin
Shmuel Merlin was a Revisionist Zionist activist, Irgun member and Israeli politician.-Biography:Merlin was born in Kishinev in the Russian Empire , where he attended high school and joined the Betar movement. From 1933 to 1938 he was Chief Secretary of the Executive of the World Union of...
, and Ari Jabotinsky
Ari Jabotinsky
Eri Jabotinsky was a Revisionist Zionist activist, Israeli politician and academic. He was the son of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder of the opposition movement within Zionism at the time, and later served in the Knesset between 1949 and 1951, as a member of the opposition Herut party of Menachem...
. The Bergson Group was closely involved with various Jewish and Zionist
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
advocacy groups, such as the American Friends for a Jewish Palestine and the Organizing Committee of Illegal Immigration. The group also founded some separate initiatives of its own, specifically the Committee for a Jewish Army of Stateless and Palestinian Jews, whose goal was the formation of an Allied fighting force of stateless and Palestinian Jews. Some credit the later formation of the Jewish Brigade
Jewish Brigade
The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group was a military formation of the British Army that served in Europe during the Second World War. The brigade was formed in late 1944, and its personnel fought the Germans in Italy...
, a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
unit of Palestinian Jews, with Kook's activism. Two American members of the Bergson Group were author and screenwriter Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
and cartoonist Arthur Szyk
Arthur Szyk
Arthur Szyk was a graphic artist, book illustrator, stage designer and caricaturist. Arthur Szyk was born into a Jewish family in Łódź, in the part of Poland which was under Russian rule in the 19th century. He always regarded himself both as a Pole and a Jew...
.
Initially the Bergson Group largely limited its activities to Irgun fundraising and various propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
campaigns. The outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
saw a dramatic transformation in the group's focus. As information about the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
began to reach the United States, Kook and his fellow activists became more involved in trying to raise awareness about the fate of the Jews in Europe. This included putting full-page advertisements in leading newspapers, such as "Jews Fight for the Right to Fight", published in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
in 1942, and "For Sale to Humanity 70,000 Jews, Guaranteed Human Beings at $50 a Piece", in response to an offer by Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
to send their Jews to safety if the travel expenses would be provided. On March 9, 1943, the Group produced a huge pageant in Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
written by Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
, titled "We Will Never Die", memorializing the 2,000,000 European Jews who had already been murdered. Forty thousand people saw the pageant that first night, and it went on to play in five other major cities including Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, where First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
, six Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
Justices, and some 300 senators and congressmen watched it.
In 1943, Kook established an "Emergency Committee for the Rescue of European Jewry". The Committee, which included Jewish and non-Jewish American writers, public figures, and politicians, worked to disseminate information to the general public, and also lobbied the President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
and Congress to take immediate action to save the remnants of Europe's Jews. United States immigration laws at the time limited immigration to only 2% of the number of each nationality present in the United States since the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 1890, which limited Jews from Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
to 27,370 and from Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
to 6,542; even these quotas often went unfilled, due to United States State Department pressure on US consulates to place as many obstacles as possible in the path of refugees.
The proposal to admit more refugees was ratified by the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is a standing committee of the United States Senate. It is charged with leading foreign-policy legislation and debate in the Senate. The Foreign Relations Committee is generally responsible for overseeing and funding foreign aid programs as...
, and, in response to the pressure, President Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
subsequently issued an administrative order for the establishment of a special national authority, the War Refugee Board
War Refugee Board
The War Refugee Board, established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1944, was a U.S. executive agency created to aid civilian victims of the Nazi and Axis powers...
(WRB) to deal with Jewish and non-Jewish war refugees. An official government emissary sent to Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
was of considerable assistance in the rescue of Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n Jewry. The WRB saved about 200,000 Jews. (Wyman 1984:285) Those rescued through the WRB were probably mostly in Hungary, in part through the Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish businessman, diplomat and humanitarian. He is widely celebrated for his successful efforts to rescue thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary from the Holocaust, during the later stages of World War II...
mission which was sponsored by the WRB.
Some of the members of the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe were:
Hillel Kook (Peter Bergson) and Alex Hadani Rafaeli, Alex Wilf, Arieh Ben-Eliezer,
Arthur Szyk
Arthur Szyk
Arthur Szyk was a graphic artist, book illustrator, stage designer and caricaturist. Arthur Szyk was born into a Jewish family in Łódź, in the part of Poland which was under Russian rule in the 19th century. He always regarded himself both as a Pole and a Jew...
, Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
, Rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
Ben Rabinowitz (Robbins), Ari Jabotinsky
Ari Jabotinsky
Eri Jabotinsky was a Revisionist Zionist activist, Israeli politician and academic. He was the son of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder of the opposition movement within Zionism at the time, and later served in the Knesset between 1949 and 1951, as a member of the opposition Herut party of Menachem...
,
Esther Untermeyer, Gabe Wechsler, Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Guy Gillette, Harry Selden, Johan Smertenko, Konrad Bercovici
Konrad Bercovici
Konrad Bercovici was a Jewish-American writer.-Biography:Born in Romania into a Jewish family in 1882, he went to university in Paris, where he met his wife. Together, they moved to the Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York City. He worked in sweatshops and gave piano lessons. He went on to write...
, M. Berchin, Samuel Merlin, Sigrid Undset
Sigrid Undset
Sigrid Undset was a Norwegian novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928.-Biography:Undset was born in Kalundborg, Denmark, but her family moved to Norway when she was two years old. In 1924, she converted to Catholicism and became a lay Dominican...
, Stella Adler
Stella Adler
Stella Adler was an American actress and an acclaimed acting teacher, who founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and the The Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles with long-time protege Joanne Linville, who continues to teach and furthers Adler's legacy...
, Congressman Will Rogers, Jr.
Will Rogers, Jr.
William Vann Rogers, generally known as Will Rogers, Jr. , was a son of legendary humorist Will Rogers and his wife, the former Betty Blake . He was a Democratic U. S. Representative from California from January 3, 1943 until May 23, 1944, when he resigned to return to the United States Army...
, Yitzchak Ben-Ami.
There were many others who actively supported the "Bergson Group", for example a number of the best known people on Broadway and Hollywood, probably due to Ben Hecht's contacts (such as Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
).
Opposition to Bergson
Hillel Kook had much opposition during the war which continues today. Noted Israeli Holocaust historian Professor Yehuda Bauer exclaimed "Hillel Kook didn't save anyone!" (Ref. Conversation with Prof. Yehuda Bauer at Yad Vashem circa 2005.)Kook and his followers were widely opposed by large sectors of the American public, particularly by many prominent American Zionist organizations. In December 1943, the American Jewish Conference
American Jewish Conference
American Jewish Conference was an ad hoc organization that first met in Pittsburg in January 1943, and had its first official conference in August that year. The initial meeting included delegates from thirty-two national Jewish organizations...
launched a public attack against the Bergsonites in an attempt to derail support for the resolution. (Wyman 1984:202)
The British embassy and several American Zionist groups, including the American Jewish Committee
American Jewish Committee
The American Jewish Committee was "founded in 1906 with the aim of rallying all sections of American Jewry to defend the rights of Jews all over the world...
and other political opponents sought to have Kook deported or drafted. (Wyman 184:346) They encouraged the IRS
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
to investigate the Bergson groups finances in an attempt to discredit them, hoping to find misappropriation, or at least careless bookkeeping, of the large amount of funds the groups handled. The IRS found no financial irregularities. (Wyman 1984:346) Among those trying to stop the Bergson Group's rescue activities were Steven Wise, Nahum Goldmann
Nahum Goldmann
Nahum Goldmann was a leading Zionist and the founder and longtime president of the World Jewish Congress.-Biography:...
and Congressman Blum . A State Department protocol shows Nahum Goldmann telling the State Department that Hillel Kook doesn't represent organized Jewry, and suggested either deporting him or drafting him for the war effort.(See the Wyman-Medoff book in References, with appendix)
Neither the U.S. Holocaust Museum nor Yad Vashem present the Bergson Group's activism, the intensity of opposition and its consequences and surrounding controversies.
article re speech by Eli Wiesel.
The Day the Rabbis Marched
One of the Committee's more memorable activities was a protest Kook organized known as the Rabbis' marchRabbis' march
The Rabbis' March was a protest for American and allied action to stop the destruction of European Jewry. It took place in Washington, D.C. on October 6, 1943, three days before Yom Kippur...
. The protest took place in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
on October 6, 1943, three days before Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur , also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue...
. While the Bergson Group was largely secular, Kook successfully used his family's rabbinic heritage to convince between 400 and 500 Orthodox
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
s to attend. Among the participants were Rabbi Moshe Feinstein
Moshe Feinstein
Moshe Feinstein was a Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi, scholar and posek , who was world-renowned for his expertise in Halakha and was regarded by many as the de facto supreme halakhic authority for Orthodox Jewry of North America during his lifetime...
, Rabbi Eliezer Silver
Eliezer Silver
Rabbi Eliezer Silver was the President of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the U.S. and Canada and among American Jewry's foremost religious leaders...
, president of the Va'ad Ha-Hatzala
Aid and Rescue Committee
The Aid and Rescue Committee, or Va'adat Ha-Ezrah ve-ha-Hatzalah be-Budapesht was a small committee of Zionists based in Budapest in 1944-5, who were dedicated to helping Jews escape the Holocaust during the German occupation of Hungary.The main personalities of the Vaada were Dr...
and co-president of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo Friedman
Mordechai Shlomo Friedman
Mordechai Shlomo Friedman , sometimes called Solomon Mordecai Friedman, was the Boyaner Rebbe of New York for over 40 years...
(sometimes recorded as Solomon Mordechai Friedman), the Boyaner
Boyan (Hasidic dynasty)
Boyan is a Hasidic dynasty named after the town of Boiany in the Ukraine. The Hasidut is presently headquartered in Jerusalem, Israel, with communities in Beitar Ilit, Bnei Brak, London, Antwerp, Brooklyn, and Monsey, New York.-First Boyaner Rebbe:...
Rebbe
Rebbe
Rebbe , which means master, teacher, or mentor, is a Yiddish word derived from the Hebrew word Rabbi. It often refers to the leader of a Hasidic Jewish movement...
of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and president of the Union of Grand Rabbis of the United States, Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz, rabbinical dean of the Mir Yeshiva
Mir yeshiva
Mir Yeshiva or Mirrer Yeshiva may refer to:* Mir yeshiva * Mir yeshiva * Mir yeshiva...
, Rabbi Naftali Carlebach, father of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach
Shlomo Carlebach
Shlomo Carlebach , known as Reb Shlomo to his followers, was a Jewish rabbi, religious teacher, composer, and singer who was known as "The Singing Rabbi" during his lifetime...
, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Rabbi Charles Kahane, father of Rabbi Meir Kahane
Meir Kahane
Martin David Kahane , also known as Meir Kahane , was an American-Israeli rabbi and ultra-nationalist writer and political figure. He was an ordained Orthodox rabbi and later served as a member of the Israeli Knesset...
, and Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg
Arthur Hertzberg
Arthur Hertzberg was a Conservative rabbi and prominent Jewish-American scholar and activist.-Biography:...
and his father, Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Hertzberg. No representatives from Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
, or Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
were present.
Joined by Bergson Group activists, the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America
Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America
The Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America is an American Jewish veterans' organization, and the oldest veterans group in the United States. It has an estimated 37,000 members.-History and purpose:The Jewish War Veterans were established in 1896...
, and a number of prominent members of Congress including William Warren Barbour
William Warren Barbour
William Warren Barbour was an American Republican Party politician who represented New Jersey in the United States Senate from 1931 to 1937 and again from 1938 until his death in office in 1943...
, the protesters marched on the United States Capitol
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
, Lincoln Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
The Lincoln Memorial is an American memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue was Daniel Chester French, and the painter of the interior...
, and White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
, pleading for U.S. intervention on behalf of the Jews in Europe. Though the delegation was reluctantly received by Vice President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Henry Wallace
Henry A. Wallace
Henry Agard Wallace was the 33rd Vice President of the United States , the Secretary of Agriculture , and the Secretary of Commerce . In the 1948 presidential election, Wallace was the nominee of the Progressive Party.-Early life:Henry A...
, Franklin Roosevelt avoided them entirely, both out of concerns regarding diplomatic neutrality, but also influenced by the advice of some of his Jewish aides and several prominent American Jewish spokespeople (including Dr. Stephen Wise), who thought the protest would stir up anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
and claimed that the marchers, many whom were both Orthodox as well as recent immigrants (or first-generation Americans) were not representative of American Jewry. Shortly before the protest reached the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
, FDR left the building through a rear exit to attend an Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
ceremony, and then left for a weekend in the country. Disappointed and angered by the President's failure to meet with them, the rabbis stood in front of the White House where they were met by Barbour and others, and refused to read their petition aloud, instead handing it off to the Presidential secretary, Marvin H. McIntyre
Marvin H. McIntyre
Marvin Hunter McIntyre was an American journalist and Presidential Secretary to President Franklin D. Roosevelt .-Biography:...
. The march garnered much media attention, much of it focused on what was seen as the cold and insulting dismissal of many important community leaders, as well as the people in Europe they were fighting for. One Jewish newspaper commented, "Would a similar delegation of 500 Catholic priests have been thus treated?" http://www.wymaninstitute.org/special/rabbimarch/pg03.php Years later, Rabbi Soloveitchik, in recorded lectures, would bemoan the betrayal of the Rabbis' mission by Stephen Wise, who dismissed them as a group of Orthodox rabbis who didn't represent anyone.
Growing divisions
Without waiting for the end of World War II, the Irgun declared an open revolt against British rule in Palestine. To assist in recruiting and propaganda efforts, Kook established the Hebrew Committee for National Liberation and the American League for a Free Palestine, both of which were involved in lobbying U.S. and other diplomats and in trying to attract the American public to support the Irgun's rebellion. Kook remained strongly affiliated with the Revisionist camp after the war and the creation of the state of Israel. While he was unquestionably loyal to his cause, his position as the Irgun's leading American activist was not free from conflict. In 1946 Kook received a letter from Menachem BeginMenachem Begin
' was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944,...
, who had become chief of the Irgun in 1943. Begin admonished Kook for various positions of his that strayed from the official Irgun party-line. These included Kook focusing on the transportation of illegal immigrants to Palestine instead of his "primary" assignment, arms shipments to Irgun fighters, as well as his (rather common) usage of the term "Palestine". At the time Kook was in the habit of saying "Palestine Free State", which Begin thought left too much potential for bi-nationalism. Begin demanded that Kook instead publicly refer to the future Jewish state as the "Free State of Eretz Israel". He also criticized Kook for keeping too high a profile, angrily reminding him that the Irgun was an underground organization and that he was supposed to be using his resources to help the revolt in Palestine, not organize parades and marches.
Begin's letter illustrated the deep tensions that existed between the formal Irgun leadership and its independent and influential activists in the United States. It also revealed the increasing ideological schism that emerged between the camps of Begin, who inherited the political and military infrastructure of Jabotsinky, and Kook and his followers, who saw themselves as Jabotinsky's true ideological and political heirs. This tension would later come to a head when Kook and many of the Bergson Group members returned to Israel after its establishment in 1948.
Kook returns to Israel
In 1947, the Bergson Group had purchased a ship originally intended to carry new immigrants to Palestine, but, perhaps partially due to Begin's influence, was eventually used to ship arms. The ship was named Altalena, and was the focus of a violent confrontation between the newly formed Israel Defense ForcesIsrael Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
and the Irgun
Irgun
The Irgun , or Irgun Zevai Leumi to give it its full title , was a Zionist paramilitary group that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization haHaganah...
on the beaches of Kfar Vitkin
Kfar Vitkin
Kfar Vitkin is a moshav in central Israel. Located near Netanya, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hefer Valley Regional Council and was the first Jewish settlement in the valley. In 2007 it had a population of 1,700....
and Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
. Following the Altalena Affair
Altalena Affair
The Altalena Affair was a violent confrontation that took place in June 1948 between the newly formed Israel Defense Forces and the Irgun, a right-wing Jewish paramilitary group...
, Kook was arrested with four other senior Irgun commanders and held for over two months. Of the five, only Kook was a member of the Bergson Group. The five were eventually released after about two months.
Kook served in the first Knesset
Israeli legislative election, 1949
Elections for the Constituent Assembly were held in newly independent Israel on 25 January 1949. Voter turnout was 86.9%. Two days after its first meeting on 14 February 1949, legislators voted to change the name of the body to the Knesset...
as part of the Herut
Herut
Herut was the major right-wing political party in Israel from the 1940s until its formal merger into Likud in 1988, and an adherent of Revisionist Zionism.-History:...
party list, but quit the party with his close friend and fellow Herut Member of the Knesset Ari Jabotinsky
Ari Jabotinsky
Eri Jabotinsky was a Revisionist Zionist activist, Israeli politician and academic. He was the son of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder of the opposition movement within Zionism at the time, and later served in the Knesset between 1949 and 1951, as a member of the opposition Herut party of Menachem...
. This followed two years of ongoing disagreements with their colleagues, particularly Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin
' was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944,...
, over the party's leadership and direction. Kook, who had returned to Israel after a ten-year absence, was now confronted with the reality that the country and movement he had fought for bore little resemblance to his ideals. Kook and Jabotinsky served as independent or "single" MKs for the remaining months of their terms, the first ever to do so. Profoundly disillusioned with the Israeli political process and future of the Revisionist movement, Kook left Israel in 1951 with his wife and daughter. In 1968, four years after his wife's death, he returned to Israel with his two daughters. He remarried in 1975 and lived near Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
until his death in 2001.
Philosophy
While Kook never re-entered politics, he continued to give interviews for many years, in which he continued to articulate his independent perspectives on Zionism, Jewish identity, and Israeli politics. His more controversial ideas included declaring that Jabotinsky's primary goal in creating a Jewish state was in making a country to which all Jews would want to belong, and that once Israel had been created, any Jews who refused to make aliyahAliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...
had made a conscious choice to become "integrated" citizens of their naturalized countries. This distinction between Jews and Hebrews was another major sticking point between Kook and the larger Irgun leadership as early as the mid-1940s. Kook's views in this area can be seen as a more moderate version of the "Canaanist
Canaanism
Canaanism was a cultural and ideological movement founded in 1939 that reached its peak in the 1940s among the Jews of Palestine. It has significantly impacted the course of Israeli art, literature, and spiritual and political thought. Its adherents were called Canaanites...
" ideology espoused by Yonatan Ratosh
Yonatan Ratosh
Uriel Shelach , better known by his pen name Yonatan Ratosh , was an Israeli poet and the founder of the Canaanite movement.-Biography :...
. Like Ratosh, Kook was influenced by Adolf Gurevich, a Betar activist with connections to Bergson Group members Shmuel Merlin
Shmuel Merlin
Shmuel Merlin was a Revisionist Zionist activist, Irgun member and Israeli politician.-Biography:Merlin was born in Kishinev in the Russian Empire , where he attended high school and joined the Betar movement. From 1933 to 1938 he was Chief Secretary of the Executive of the World Union of...
and Ari Jabotinsky
Ari Jabotinsky
Eri Jabotinsky was a Revisionist Zionist activist, Israeli politician and academic. He was the son of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder of the opposition movement within Zionism at the time, and later served in the Knesset between 1949 and 1951, as a member of the opposition Herut party of Menachem...
.
Kook had a specific body of critiques concerning what he saw as the distortion of Zionist philosophy and idealism by Israeli politics. He maintained that he had always conceived of Israel being a "Jewish state" by having a majority of Jewish citizens, not through specific associations to Jewish nationalism. Paradoxically, Kook's "theocratic
Theocracy
Theocracy is a form of organization in which the official policy is to be governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided, or simply pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religious sect or religion....
" vision of Israel gave him a great deal of ideological flexibility in regards to some of Israel's more intractable problems. He supported according all non-Jewish citizens of Israel with full rights and privileges, and once, in an interview with an Israeli Druze
Druze
The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...
, commented that, like Jabotinsky, he saw "no reason" why the State of Israel could not have a non-Jewish president. He was in favor of amending the Law of Return
Law of Return
The Law of Return is Israeli legislation, passed on 5 July 1950, that gives Jews the right of return and settlement in Israel and gain citizenship...
to consider prospective immigrants on an individual, and not national or religious basis, except for cases of immediate danger.
Kook was also a strong supporter of Israel's constitution, which had been stalled during its writing in 1948 and never completed. Kook claimed that a formal constitution could have solved many ongoing issues in Israeli society, such as discrimination against Israeli Arabs, by providing all of Israel's citizens with a clearly defined, and egalitarian, role in Israeli nationalism. He once remarked that the lack of a constitution was "Israel's greatest tragedy", that Ben-Gurion's decision to change the Israeli governing body from a Constituent Assembly
Constituent assembly
A constituent assembly is a body composed for the purpose of drafting or adopting a constitution...
to a Parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
had been a putsch, and that he regretted not having resigned from the Knesset immediately after the decision had been made. Kook also favored the creation of a Palestinian state, albeit one established in modern-day Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
. He was one of the first Israelis to call for a Palestinian state shortly after the Six-Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
. For the remainder of his life, Kook adamantly claimed that his positions would have been shared by his ideological father, Jabotinsky.
Kook repeatedly referred to himself as a post-Zionist
Post-Zionism
Post-Zionism refers to the opinions of some Israelis, diaspora Jews and others, particularly in academia, that Zionism has fulfilled its ideological mission with the creation of the modern State of Israel in 1948, and that Zionist ideology should therefore be considered at an end...
, and was one of the first in Israeli society to voluntarily (and positively) adopt the term.
Legacy
Kook had been largely forgotten in the years leading up to his death, which was likely both the result of his decision to abandon his public activist persona, as well as his clashes with Begin and his loyalists, for whom it was convenient to downplay Kook's accomplishments and involvements in the Irgun and Herut Party's histories. Similarly, Kook's role in America has been given fairly minimal scholarly attention. Again, this must be seen as at least partially the result of Kook's iconoclastic personality, which made him few friends among the American Jewish establishment or its successors.Since the late 1990s, some historians have attempted to restore Kook to a position of semi-prominence by re-examining and evaluating the significance and importance of his American activities during World War Two, and, in a secondary capacity, his role as a political opponent of Begin. One allegation Kook historians and supporters have made is that Kook's adversaries, both in Israel and America, have historically downplayed some of his accomplishments, as well as attempted to minimize their own role in curtailing his activities. David Wyman
David Wyman
David S. Wyman is the author of several books on the responses of the United States to Nazi Germany's persecution of and programs to exterminate Jews....
and Rafael Medoff
Rafael Medoff
Rafael Medoff is founding director of The David Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, which is based in Washington, D.C. and focuses on issues related to America's response to the Holocaust.-Academic career:...
, co-authors of a 2002 Kook biography, suggested that, had it not been for the interference of the American Jewish establishment, Kook might have become as successful (and noteworthy) a rescuer as Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler was an ethnic German industrialist born in Moravia. He is credited with saving over 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories, which were located in what is now Poland and the Czech Republic respectively.He is the subject of the...
or Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish businessman, diplomat and humanitarian. He is widely celebrated for his successful efforts to rescue thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary from the Holocaust, during the later stages of World War II...
. Some have also suggested that Kook's story remains politically troubling for authority figures in Israel and America, as it illustrates that their main priorities were not in promoting awareness of the Holocaust, in trying to stop it, or in helping the survivors flee Europe.
A play, The Accomplices
The Accomplices
The Accomplices is a 2007 play by New York Times reporter Bernard Weintraub. It premiered at The New Group in New York City in 2007 and played thereafter in regional theatres.The play is based on Hillel Kook's wartime experiences in the United States...
, written by Bernard Weintraub and based on Kook's wartime efforts in the United States premiered at The New Group
The New Group
The New Group, an Off-Broadway theater company located at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street, is an artist-driven company with a commitment to developing and producing powerful, contemporary theater. Founded by Artistic Director Scott Elliott, The New Group produced its first play, Mike Leigh's...
in 2007 and played thereafter in regional theatres. It played also in Jerusalem in April 2009.
The role of Hillel Kook (aka "Peter Bergson") was played twice onstage by actor Steven Schub (lead singer of The Fenwicks), in 2008 at The Fountain Theatre and in 2009 at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles. Rafi Poch played Hillel Kook in Jerusalem.
Controversy
Not all historians agree that Hillel Kook and his rescue group had impact on rescue. Notably, Prof. Yehuda BauerYehuda Bauer
Yehuda Bauer is a historian and scholar of the Holocaust. He is a Professor of Holocaust Studies at the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.-Biography:...
stated "Hillel Kook didn't save anyone.".
Yad Vashem's modern, new museum's chamber on rescue excludes Hillel Kook and the rescue group he led, but does present some other Jews as rescuers, including Dr. Rudolf Kastner
Rudolf Kastner
Rudolf Israel Kastner was a Jewish-Hungarian journalist and lawyer who became known for facilitating the departure of Jews out of Nazi-occupied Hungary during the Holocaust...
, whom many in Israel consider to be at best highly controversial in the Holocaust context, and at worst to have been a traitor. Since Yad Vashem is the Israeli government's Holocaust center this is one of the many indications that the State of Israel declines recognizing Hillel Kook's rescue efforts. Apparently Hillel Kook is presented in an obscure corner of the Washington Holocaust museum situated in such a manner that about 2% of the visitors see it
Quotes
We, the Hebrews, descendants of the ancient Hebrew nation, who remained alive on God's earth despite that great calamity that our people have experienced, have come together in the Hebrew Committee of National Liberation. The Jews today who live in the European hell together with the Jews in the Land of Israel constitute the Hebrew nation—there isn't another nation to which they owe their allegiance but the Hebrew nation. We must state it clearly: the Jews in the United States do not belong to the Hebrew nation. These Jews are Americans of Hebrew descent.- From A Manifesto of the Hebrew Nation, 1944.
Why did we respond the way we did? The question should be, why didn't the others? We responded as a human and as a Jew should.
- On his Holocaust activism, 1973.
I, who was the liaison officer of the Irgun central command with Jabotinsky, and who accompanied him almost daily for four years—remained loyal to his teachings. I also believe that the Land of Israel, on both banks of the Jordan River, is our historic homeland. But I am also certain that had Jabotinsky lived today, he would have argued that now, after we've achieved our independence, our mission is to attain peace in order to establish the Israeli people as the political heir of the Jewish people.- Interview in 1977.
There is no exile. The exile ended on May 14, 1948.
- Interview in 1982.
Sources
- Wyman Conference 2007 Videos
- The Day the Rabbis Marched on Washington, from the American Jewish Historical Society
- The Day the Rabbis Marched On-line Exhibit, from the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.
- Irgun in Exile
- Bergson Bio, from USHMM
- The "Bergson Boys", from America and the Holocaust, PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
. - Hillel Kook Knesset Bio
- The Bergson Group, America, and the Holocaust: A Previously Unpublished Interview with Hillel Kook, by David S. Wyman, from American Jewish History 89:1 (2001)
- A Rebel with a Cause: Hillel Kook, Begin and Jabotinsky's Ideological Legacy, by Eran Kaplan, from Israel Studies 10.3 (2005)
- Jewish World Review op-ed
Books
- Agassi, Joseph, Liberal Nationalism for Israel, Gefen Publishing House, Ltd., 1999.
- Baumel, Judith Tydor. Trans. Dena Ordan. The "Bergson Boys" And the Origins of Contemporary Zionist Militancy. Syracuse University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8156-3063-8
- Ben Hecht, Perfidy
- Medoff, Rafael. Militant Zionism in America: The Rise and Impact of the Jabotinsky Movement in the United States,. University of Alabama Press, 2002. ISBN 0-8173-1071-1
- Rapaport, Louis. Shake Heaven & Earth: Peter Bergson and the Struggle to Rescue the Jews of Europe. Gefen Publishing House, Ltd., 1999. ISBN 965-229-182-X
- Wyman, David S., Medoff, Rafael. A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust. New Press, 2004. ISBN 1-56584-856-X
Videos
- ALTALENA (VHS video produced in Israel)
- Laurence Jarvik, Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die (dist. on DVD by KINO International at:http://www.kino.com/video/news.php?news_id=51)
- Not Idly By: Peter Bergson, America and the Holocaust (2009 documentary short) by Pierre Sauvage, Varian Fry Institute
- Richard M Trank, Against the Tide, about Hillel Kook and the rescue group he led, as well as about obstruction by the American Jewish establishment leadership (Moriah Films, USA 2008)
Web Sites/Pages
- David Wyman Institute http://www.wymaninstitute.org
- eProceeding Web page http://eproceeding.awardspace.info/hillelkookmemoriallecture20030827/
- Jerusalem Working Group Web Site: http://jwg.awardspace.info
- Dr. Stephen Wise - Wikipedia article Stephen Samuel WiseStephen Samuel WiseStephen Samuel Wise was an Austro-Hungarian-born American Reform rabbi and Zionist leader.-Early life:...
- Varian Fry Institute http://www.varianfry.org/not_idly_by1_en.htm
- Jewish Journal interview with actor Steven Schub on playing Hillel Kook http://www.jewishjournal.com/bloggish/item/tv_terrorist_plays_jewish_hero_on_stage_20080812
- Hollywood Reporter review of the Los Angeles production of "The Accomplices" http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/theater/reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=11450