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From New Zion to Old Zion: American Jewish Immigration and Settlement in Palestine, 1917-1939 (review)

The history of American Zionism teaches that immigration to Eretz Israel was not one of its ideological principles. This is evident in the relatively small number of Americans who settled in Palestine before 1948 and in Israel after the establishment of the state.1 Joseph Glass’s book does not disregard this fact but instead focuses positively on the important contributions made by the American immigrants who did settle in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration (1917) opened an outstanding window of opportunity in Palestine for the Jewish people in general and for Zionism in particular. It increased American Jewry’s interest in what was going on in Palestine regarding both immigration and land purchases. The importance of American Jews’ involvement sprang from their large numbers, their economic strength, their relative power given the economic crisis in Europe following World War I, and the beginning of a process which cut off Soviet Jewry from world Zionism. Joseph Glass’s history opens in 1917 and offers a comprehensive picture of American activity in Palestine until 1939. To date, the historical circumstances presented by Glass have not been examined elsewhere. Perhaps this is so not just because of the relatively small number of American immigrants to Palestine during these years, but rather because most of the Zionist leaders did not see American Jews as potential immigrants. Instead they considered American Jewry only as a source of funds for the Zionist enterprise and preferred to utilize the limited resources at their disposal to absorb Eastern Europeans. In his first chapter Glass stresses that this was certainly Weizmann’s view, but it also appears in David Ben-Gurion’s documents during the 1930s and 1940s.2 The view that American Jews were only peripheral to the rebuilding of Palestine has contributed to the very limited treatment of this issue. What is special about Glass’s book is that it brings to light the practical involvement of American Jews in the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Palestine) and does not deal with them merely as providers of economic and political support.