Nations Divided: American Jews and the Struggle Over Apartheid

The anti-apartheid struggle remains one of the most fraught episodes in the history of modern Jewish identity. Just as many American Jews proudly fought for principles of justice and liberation in the Civil Rights Movement, so too did they give invaluable support to the movement for racial equality in South Africa. Today, however, the memory of apartheid bedevils the debate over Israel and Palestine, viewed by some as a cautionary tale for the Jewish state even as others decry the comparison as anti-Semitic. This pioneering history chronicles American Jewish involvement in the battle against racial injustice in South Africa, and more broadly the long historical encounter between American Jews and apartheid. In the years following World War II and the Holocaust, Jewish leaders across the world stressed the need for unity and shared purpose, and while many American Jews saw the fight against apartheid as a natural extension of their Civil Rights activism, others worried that such critiques would threaten Jewish solidarity and diminish Zionist loyalties. Even as the immorality of apartheid grew to be universally accepted, American Jews continued to struggle over persistent analogies between South African apartheid and Israel's Occupation. As author Marjorie N. Feld shows, the confrontation with apartheid tested American Jews' commitments to principles of global justice and reflected conflicting definitions of Jewishness itself.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Apartheid and American Jews Chapter One: Postwar Conflicts over Racial Justice Chapter Two: American Zionism and African Liberation Chapter Three: Jews or Radicals? Chapter Four: 'South Africa Needs Friends': Cold War Narratives and Counter-Narratives Chapter Five: Jewish Women, Zionism, and Apartheid Chapter Six: New Agendas: The Organizational Jewish Response to Apartheid Chapter Seven: 'Our South Africa Moment': American Jews' Struggles with Apartheid, Zionism, and Divestment Bibliography

About the Author :
Marjorie N. Feld, Ph. D., is Associate Professor of History and Faculty Director of the Center for Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership at Babson College in Massachusetts, US. She teaches courses on US labor, gender, and social history. Feld is the author of Lillian Wald: A Biography (2008), which won the Saul Viener Book Prize of the American Jewish Historical Society.