HILLEL
KOOK / PETER BERGSON (Shmuel
Katz’s memoirs) The
Committee for a Jewish Army was the first of three incarnations of the
phenomenal political drive of Hillel Kook who had worked at N.Z.O. Headquarters
in London in 1939-40 as Irgun representative. In
the summer of1940 he had gone to the United States. Thus
he adopted the name of Peter Bergson. Despairing
of his efforts after the death of Jabotinsky to achieve authority in the New
Zionist Organization, Bergson had gathered around him a group of former
Revisionists and Irgunists in New York. They
established the Committee for a Jewish Army, and went on to score the most
striking political successes ever achieved by any Jewish organization in the
United States. They
aroused considerable opposition, much of the fruit of their labour was later
plucked by the official Zionists, much of it was wasted by their own later
digressions from realism. The
fact is that in the course of their three phases of activity they were a prime
factor in revolutionizing the status of the Zionist idea in the Untied
States. The
official Zionist organization in America was throughout the war a dismal and
unmitigated failure.
In
all those bitter years of terrible challenge there is not a single bright
interval in the monotonous history of its inaction and
pettiness. It
may have been the very moribundity of the Zionist Organization of America that
helped Bergson and his group to achieve a clear break-through in a large segment
of American public life and of Jewish opinion. They
gradually built up a powerful body of support among Congressmen, Senators and
other public figures. Most
of these maintained the associations through all the phases of the work of the
group, many of them gave liberally of their time and their energy to press the
Jewish cause upon the Government and upon American public
opinion. The
Bergson Group
made a no less significant entry into an area of Jewish life where probably no
Zionist foot had previously penetrated: the Americanized Jewish
intellectuals. Ben
Hecht, Louis Bromfield, Konrad Bercovici, Frances Gunther,
Stella Adler, and many others less well-known but equally remote from
Zionism, became active exponents of the cause of Jewish
nationalism. *First
for the Jewish Army idea, then under the banner of the Emergency Committee to
Save the Jewish People of Europe (see references to finances sent to Europe
during WWII in JEWISH RESISTENCE theme) and finally, after the Irgun revolt
was launched in Palestine, as the Hebrew Committee of National Liberation –
the Bergson Group succeeded in maintaining an almost permanent state of
ferment in the United States. Their
voice was sometimes raucous, their manner sometimes loud, but their message was
lucid, dignified and bold. After
the death of Jabotinsky it was they above all who brought to the American people
a degree of understanding of the anomaly of Jewish facelessness in the war
with Nazi Germany. ***It
was they who first directed a sharp and penetrating light ton the agony of the
Jews o f Europe. *It
was certainly due mainly to their efforts, through the influential Congressional
help they mobilized and in spite of direct attempts at obstruction by the
official Zionist leaders, that Roosevelt was persuaded in 1944 to set up the
War Refugee Board which, limited as its scope and authority was, did succeed in
saving some lives and in easing the lot of others. *The
Bergson Group made a large contribution in the guiding of vague American
sympathies towards the constructive, incisive channels of political expression
which later became a factor of restraint on British policy in
Palestine. When
Truman came to the White House in 1945 his first map of Palestine and the Jewish
problem included not only the mercenary calculations of the oilmen, inside and
outside the State Department, and the propaganda of the anti-Semites (to whom he
refers in his memoirs).
*It
took in also the exigent humanitarian feeling of a forceful body of American
political figures and an alert, unusually informed, public opinion without which
his own broad humanity might have
faltered from the beginning. The
Bergson Group had sent to Britain Jeremiah Halpern, the veteran Betar
leader and a pioneer of Jewish seamanship, to establish a branch of the
Committee for a Jewish Army. (see
Jeremiah Halpern bio-sketch) Nor
did I conceal my admiration for their magnificent achievement in America, in
putting the Jewish question on the map, in rousing public opinion, in building
up a dynamic and vibrant organization which, sleepless and forthright, fought
the good fight. I
believed – and still believe – that their achievement in America between 1943
and 1945 won them an inexpugnable place in Jewish history. They
played a vital role in achieving the striking metamorphosis in the public
climate of America from Roosevelt’s thinly-concealed backing both of the British
and of the Arabs against Jews, to the bold, unwavering pressure on Great Britain
in favour of the Jewish survivors which dominated the era of Harry
Truman. They
were, in the end, not alone. The
growing military of Zionist pressure – against the metamorphosis from the
conformist Rabbi Wise to the dynamic Rabbi Silver – was due in no small part to
the vigorous and unrelenting stirring up to which Peter Bergson and his group
subjected the moribund Jewish leadership and the sense of direction they gave to
a groping Jewish community.
by
Maayana Miskin ‘Human
Beings at $50 a Piece”
The
Bergson group was founded by Peter Bergson, who was born Hillel Kook, nephew of
Israel’s first Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi, Avraham Yitzhak Kook.
After
immigrating to British Mandatory Palestine from Lithuania in 1924, Hillel Kook
helped found the Irgun, which, unlike its counterpart the Haganah, favored the
use of force to retaliate to Arab attacks and drive the drive the British out of
the country. He
came to the United States in 1940, changing his name to Bergson and serving
secretly as the Irgun’s leader in the U.S. While
his original mission was to establish a Jewish fighting force, Bergson turned
his efforts to saving European Jewry after seeing an article describing the
massacre of Jews in Europe. He
began his campaign in 1942 in response to Romania’s offer to send its Jews to
safety if the Allied forces would cover the costs.
Bergson
placed a large ad reading “For Sale to Humanity 70,000 Jews, Guaranteed Human
Beings at $50 a Piece.” Ads
went on to play a large role in Bergson’s campaign, and the Bergson group placed
over 200 ads over the following two years. The
Bergson Group included several Irgun activists as well as well-known American
figures, such as playwright Ben Hecht. The
group’s efforts included a play, “We Will Never Die,” seen by hundreds of
thousands of Americans, and a national lobbying group that called on President
Roosevelt to establish an emergency rescue committee. In
1944 Roosevelt established the War Refugee Board, which went on to save 200,000
lives. Political analysts have said that the Bergson group, which grew to
include over 125,000 activists, deserves much of the credit for the board’s
creation. Coming
to Grips with the Past
The
Bergson group’s attention-grabbing tactics were often criticized by mainstream
American Jewish leaders, some of whom asked U.S. officials to “draft or deport”
Bergson. “Sixty
five years ago, most mainstream Jewish leaders vehemently opposed the Bergson
Group,”
says Wyman Institute Director Dr. Rafael Medoff. “Today,
numerous mainstream Jewish leaders joined the appeal to the U.S. Holocaust
Museum to recognize Bergson’s achievements. This indicates that the
American Jewish community is finally coming to grips with the mistakes that the
Jewish leadership made in the 1940s.” “The
Bergson Group’s rescue campaign is a model of grassroots activism for all
generations,” Medoff continues. “Ordinary citizens acting through the
democratic process mobilized public opinion, pressured government officials, and
changed U.S. foreign policy in the midst of a world war--all through the power
of persuasion.” The
issue of including Bergon's activities in the Holocaust Museum has united
leaders from across the religious and political spectrum, he adds, which shows
that the desire to commemorate the Bergson group’s activities “is a simple issue
of recognizing the historical record.” |
