Jack Ross – författare

This work departs from other important sociological studies of voluntary associations in its use of occupation, rather than status and social class, as the clue to the nature of work conditions that directly affect participation in community voluntary associations.

Dramatic changes have taken place in the last decade with respect to the views of the American Jewish community toward Israel and Zionism. Since the beginning of the Second Intifada in 2000, the involvement of the Israel lobby in precipitating the Iraq War and promoting war on Iran, and Israel's widely condemned wars in Lebanon and Gaza, large swaths of the American Jewish community have been disenchanted with Israel and Zionism as at no other time since the founding of the State of Israel.However, anti-Zionism in America has a long history. Elmer Berger was undoubtedly the best-known Jewish anti-Zionist during most of his lifetime, particularly from World War II through the 1967 Six-Day War and its aftermath. A Reform rabbi, Berger served throughout that period as the executive director of the American Council for Judaism, an anti-Zionist organization founded by leading Reform rabbis.Author Jack Ross places liberal Jewish anti-Zionism (as opposed to that of Orthodox or revolutionary socialist Jews) in historical perspective. That brand of anti-Zionism was virtually embodied by Rabbi Berger and his predecessors in the Reform rabbinate. He advocated forcefully for his position, much to the chagrin of his Zionist detractors. The growing renaissance of liberal Jewish anti-Zionism, combined with the forgotten work of Rabbi Berger and the American Council for Judaism, makes a compelling case for revisiting his work in this full-length, definitive biography.

At a time when the word "socialist" is but one of numerous political epithets that are generally divorced from the historical context of America's political history, The Socialist Party of America presents a new, mature understanding of America's most important minor political party of the twentieth century. From the party's origins in the labor and populist movements at the end of the nineteenth century, to its heyday with the charismatic Eugene V. Debs, and to its persistence through the Depression and the Second World War under the steady leadership of "America's conscience," Norman Thomas, The Socialist Party of America guides readers through the party's twilight, ultimate demise, and the successor groups that arose following its collapse.Based on archival research, Jack Ross's study challenges the orthodoxies of both sides of the historiographical debate as well as assumptions about the Socialist Party in historical memory. Ross similarly covers the related emergence of neoconservatism and other facets of contemporary American politics and assesses some of the more sensational charges from the right about contemporary liberalism and the "radicalism" of Barack Obama.

At a time when the word "socialist" is but one of numerous political epithets that are generally divorced from the historical context of America's political history, The Socialist Party of America presents a new, mature understanding of America's most important minor political party of the twentieth century. From the party's origins in the labor and populist movements at the end of the nineteenth century, to its heyday with the charismatic Eugene V. Debs, and to its persistence through the Depression and the Second World War under the steady leadership of "America's conscience," Norman Thomas, The Socialist Party of America guides readers through the party's twilight, ultimate demise, and the successor groups that arose following its collapse.Based on archival research, Jack Ross's study challenges the orthodoxies of both sides of the historiographical debate as well as assumptions about the Socialist Party in historical memory. Ross similarly covers the related emergence of neoconservatism and other facets of contemporary American politics and assesses some of the more sensational charges from the right about contemporary liberalism and the "radicalism" of Barack Obama.

At a time when the word "socialist" is but one of numerous political epithets that are generally divorced from the historical context of America's political history, The Socialist Party of America presents a new, mature understanding of America's most important minor political party of the twentieth century. From the party's origins in the labor and populist movements at the end of the nineteenth century, to its heyday with the charismatic Eugene V. Debs, and to its persistence through the Depression and the Second World War under the steady leadership of "America's conscience," Norman Thomas, The Socialist Party of America guides readers through the party's twilight, ultimate demise, and the successor groups that arose following its collapse.Based on archival research, Jack Ross's study challenges the orthodoxies of both sides of the historiographical debate as well as assumptions about the Socialist Party in historical memory. Ross similarly covers the related emergence of neoconservatism and other facets of contemporary American politics and assesses some of the more sensational charges from the right about contemporary liberalism and the "radicalism" of Barack Obama.

To the extent Jewish historians have recalled the American Council for Judaism at all, the picture they have left has been a badly distorted one. Far from a marginal voice among midcentury American Jews, its membership was impressive by the standards of American Jewish life in the era that followed. Far from a sect of reactionary cranks, it was closely allied with many champions of the prewar liberal tradition and a sturdy remnant of the historic Jewish labor movement. The Council owed at least as much to the binationalist movement and its religious and cultural sources as to a stubborn allegiance to the Radical Reform tradition and its “high church” aesthetic.In this reader, the Council, its forerunners, and its allies are presented in their own words. In face of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and as visions for non-Orthodox American Jewish life grow fewer and farther between, the Council’s witness to its origins is as relevant as ever. With an appended bibliographical essay, this volume is indispensible for all researchers in American Jewish history and its connections to Israel and Palestine.

To the extent Jewish historians have recalled the American Council for Judaism at all, the picture they have left has been a badly distorted one. Far from a marginal voice among midcentury American Jews, its membership was impressive by the standards of American Jewish life in the era that followed. Far from a sect of reactionary cranks, it was closely allied with many champions of the prewar liberal tradition and a sturdy remnant of the historic Jewish labor movement. The Council owed at least as much to the binationalist movement and its religious and cultural sources as to a stubborn allegiance to the Radical Reform tradition and its "e;high church"e; aesthetic.In this reader, the Council, its forerunners, and its allies are presented in their own words. In face of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and as visions for non-Orthodox American Jewish life grow fewer and farther between, the Council's witness to its origins is as relevant as ever. With an appended bibliographical essay, this volume is indispensible for all researchers in American Jewish history and its connections to Israel and Palestine.