The Trap Is Set

To research the sources that are available today, it is not enough to acquaint oneself with, collect, and consolidate sources that may be accessed in various countries or those recently declassified and opened for research. One must also use the related languages – especially German – and be acquainted with the political culture and history of the relevant nations and the diverse segments of Jewry. All these elicit a very complicated picture of the state of Judaism and Zionism from 1919 onward. At the simplistic level, the Zionists of the Labor Movement – including Ben-Gurion, Mapai members, and the Yishuv leadership in general – seem to have concentrated in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s on their small experimental projects in Palestine and on governing the Yishuv. Essentially, according to this view, they neglected Diaspora Jewry and did not do enough to save Jews in 1939–1945 due to this ironic notion of “Palestinocentrism.” Further, they are seen as having developed a posture of condescension and contempt toward the Diaspora, taken a hypocritical interest in the tragedy that befell Diaspora Jewry, and used the survivors to further their own narrow nationalistic and sectarian goals.

Among those who so argue are the offspring of German-born parents, whose progenitors often experienced this patronizing, belittling attitude by the Eastern European-born Zionist Socialist elite.