The Response of Orthodox Jewry in The United States to the Holocaust: The Activities of the Vaad ha-Hatzala Rescue Committee, 1939-1945 (review)

From 1951-1956, my husband's teacher for Bible and Talmud in the Maimonides School of Boston was Rabbi Isaac Simon (of blessed memory). Rabbi Simon had spent several years in Shanghai with the Mir Yeshiva during World War II, where he was supported and eventually brought to the U.S. by the Vaad ha- Hatzala. An exceedingly sweet, bright, and learned man, he managed to build effective bridges with his American students, becoming a beloved rebbe.

Having known Rabbi Simon, it was with particular interest that I read Ephraim Zuroff's meticulously researched volume about the activities, conflicts, politics, and accomplishments of the Vaad Ha-Hatzala Rescue Committee between 1939-1945. While the book is organized chronologically, beginning with the relief efforts of American Jewry in the wake of World War I, its conceptual matrix is the particularism of the Vaad Ha-Hatzala in the wake of the work of the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) created in November 1914. When the JDC was formed, the mostly Orthodox Central Relief Committee became part of its efforts. But Orthodox fundraising for overseas relief also found expression in Ezrat Torah, a special fund to assist needy yeshiva students and rabbis in Palestine and Europe. Agudat ha-Rabbanim, the organization of Orthodox rabbis in the United States founded in 1902, had established both the Central Relief Committee and Ezrat Torah as means to sustain and aid Torah Jewry. Especially in the 1920s and 1930s, the ties of European yeshivot to the Agudat ha-Rabbanim in the U.S. were strong. Rabbis such as Elchanan Wasserman, Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, and Meir Shapiro visited the U.S. not only to raise funds for their yeshivot, but also to speak, teach, and participate in the deliberations of the Agudat ha-Rabbanim. With the groundwork thus laid between Torah Jewry in Europe and its newly transplanted offshoots in the U.S., the continuation of this connection during the desperate rescue efforts of 1939-1945 is understandable. Nonetheless, the question remains: would the rescue efforts have been more effective had the American Jewish community been able to work as a unified force rather than in divisive groups competing for resources and influence? We shall, of course, never know.

It is clear from Zuroff's analysis that the relationship between the JDC and the Vaad Ha-Hatzala was nuanced and complex, dependent both upon personalities and circumstances. By January 1939, in the wake of Kristallnacht, the major agencies involved in overseas and domestic relief joined together to form the United Jewish Appeal. This unified fundraising mechanism, with its division of tasks, streamlined the relief efforts of American Jewry, increasing effectiveness and avoiding bureaucratic duplication. However, Agudat ha-Rabbanim, while noting the significance of the United Jewish Appeal, decided nonetheless to undertake its own, separate campaign. Thus was launched the Vaad ha-Hatzala.

Throughout the volume, Zuroff carefully examines the intentions and thinking of the Agudat ha-Rabbanim at different points in the ensuing tragedy as "they opted for their own particularistic rescue operation designed to save the yeshivot" (p. 36). Theoretically, the yeshivot were regarded as the kiyum, or essence of the Jewish people. Practically, rabbis and yeshiva students would feel most comfortable dealing with an organization designed to suit their needs. Thus we see how the belief in separatism became self-perpetuating. At different times federations would turn to the JDC to inquire about the status of the Vaad and how to regard its request for funds. The tension between the two organizations continued unabated until the summer of 1942, when the JDC acknowledged "that the rabbinic rescue organization was engaged in worthwhile relief activities and was supplying aid that the JDC was unable...