On Modern Jewish Politics

This engagingly written study provides a very useful analysis of modern Jewish politics in the interwar European and American diaspora. Mendelsohn, a distinguished historian of modern Jewry, discusses the opposing visions of the Jewish future as formulated by various political parties and organizations in an effort to solve the `Jewish question.'

The book begins by attempting a typology of these Jewish groups, dividing them into a number of schools or `camps,' thereby suggesting a `geography' of Jewish politics by locating the `core areas' of the various Jewish political camps. This is followed by an analysis of the competition among the various Jewish political camps for hegemony in the Jewish world. The discussion focuses on the situation in the United States and in Poland, the two largest diasporas, in the 1920s and 1930s.

The final chapters of the book ask the following questions: what were the sources of appeal of the various Jewish political camps (such as the Jewish left and Jewish nationalism)? Secondly, to what extent did the various Jewish political factions succeed in their efforts to implement their plans for the Jewish future? And finally, in what ways was Jewish politics similar to, or different from, the politics of other minority groups in Europe and America? A brief conclusion discusses the great changes that have occurred in the world of Jewish politics since World War II.