Response of Orthodox Jewry in the United States: The Activities of the Vaad Ha-Hatzala Rescue Committee, 1939-1945

when hundreds of Polish rabbis andyeshiva students were forced to fleeto Lithuania in the wake of the outbreakof World War II and the Soviet invasion ofPoland, Orthodox rabbis in the UnitedStates responded by establishing a specialrescue committee on their behalf calledthe Emergency Committee for War-TornYeshivoth. This committee, which laterbecame known (by its Hebrew name) asthe Vaad haHatzala Rescue Committeeemerged as the official rescue and reliefagency of American Orthodox Jewry during the Holocaust.This book records the history of theVaad haHatzala, which initially focusedexclusively on the rescue of rabbis andyeshiva students, but later expanded itsefforts to include all Iews threatened bythe Nazis regardless of their religiosity oraffiliation. During World War II, the Vaadwas able to help rescue hundreds ofrefugee Torah scholars, most of whomescaped to safety via the Far East, as wellas thousands of Iews in Nazi-occupiedEurope. The help provided by the Vaadalso enabled hundreds of refugee rabbisand yeshiva students to continue intensive Torah studies and maintain theirunique lifestyle.The establishment of The Vaad-ha-Hatzala in November 1939 aroused considerable controversy in the AmericanJewish community, because it violated theorganizational unity for fundraising pur-poses which had been achieved for thefirst time ever ten months previously. TheVaad's initial insistence on rescuing onlyrabbis and yeshiva students was also asource of conflict within American Iewry.These problems were clearly reflected inthe problematic relations between theVaad ha Hatzala and the Joint Distribu-tion Committee and local federationsthroughout the United States. The difficult dilemmas faced by the leaders ofAmerican Jewry and the bitter controversies regarding the rescue efforts are majorfocus of this study.

Publisher:

Ktav Pub & Distributors Inc

Pages:

316

Date Published:

2000-05-02