Expelling the Jews: Wartime Plans to Expel Jews from Eastern Europe after the Second World War

Expelling the Jews: Wartime Plans to Expel Jews from Eastern Europe after the Second World War

This talk will examine the vigorous and conflicting responses of Jewish leaders to these plans to exclude Jews. Many Jewish leaders campaigned against these plans, advocating for renewed group protections for Jews and other minorities after the war. Zionist leaders, however, argued that Jews would not be able to reintegrate into their prewar homes, and for the first time publicly endorsed a program for a majority Jewish ethnic nation-state in Palestine.

Connecting the histories of Eastern Europe and the Middle East, the talk will demonstrate how debates over the future of minorities in postwar Eastern Europe reshaped the terms of the Arab-Jewish conflict in Palestine.

*Co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University; Jews in Modern Europe Study Group, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University

Gil Rubin, Israel Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University; Co-Chair, Jews in Modern Europe Study Group, CES, Harvard University

*This event is free and open to the public.

**For more information, contact Phyllis Cohen Albert phyllisalbert@gmail.com