Jewish Internationalism and Human Rights after the Holocaust

Nathan A. Kurz examines the separation between Western Jewish advocacy organizations and international human rights after the creation of Israel.

Nathan A. Kurz (Author)

9781108834926, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 November 2020

310 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2 cm, 0.56 kg

'… anyone who wants to understand how Jewish human rights work has developed under the difficult conditions of the Cold War and decolonization will in future have to resort to this excellent book first.' Annette Weinke, H-Soz-Kult

Nathan A. Kurz charts the fraught relationship between Jewish internationalism and international rights protection in the second half of the twentieth century. For nearly a century, Jewish lawyers and advocacy groups in Western Europe and the United States had pioneered forms of international rights protection, tying the defense of Jews to norms and rules that aspired to curb the worst behavior of rapacious nation-states. In the wake of the Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel, however, Jewish activists discovered they could no longer promote the same norms, laws and innovations without fear they could soon apply to the Jewish state. Using previously unexamined sources, Nathan Kurz examines the transformation of Jewish internationalism from an effort to constrain the power of nation-states to one focused on cementing Israel's legitimacy and its status as a haven for refugees from across the Jewish diaspora.

Dramatis Personae
Introduction
1. “Individual rights were not enough for true freedom”
2. Who Will Tame the Will to Defy Humanity?
3. The Consequences of 1948
4. Exit from North Africa
5. From Antisemitism to “Zionism is Racism”
6. The Inadequacy of Madison Avenue Methods
7.“Good words have become the servants of evil masters”
Conclusion
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: International human rights law [LBBR], Human rights [JPVH], International relations [JPS], Judaism [HRJ], Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3]