Jews Without Power

“Jews Without Power” examines the role played by the American Jewish leadership during the Holocaust and WWII. It is commonly accepted that the United States did little to aid or rescue European Jewry during the Holocaust. The social and political environment in which Jews existed was so extraordinarily different from today’s milieu that it is difficult to understand the constraints under which the leadership operated.

Relying on vast archival information from the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library, the National Archives, the Lehman Library at Columbia University and archives of many Jewish organizations, Hurwitz methodically reviews the events and decisions of the war-time years, seeking to shed light on why the American Jewish leadership did not exert more pressure on President Roosevelt. For those who blame Roosevelt or the Jewish leadership for not doing enough, this book sheds new light on the issues and challenges they faced.