Pauline Peretz - Böcker

American Jews' mobilization on behalf of Soviet Jews is typically portrayed as compensation for the community's inability to assist European Jews during World War II. Yet, as Pauline Peretz shows, the role Israel played in setting the agenda for a segment of the American Jewish community was central. Her careful examination of relations between the Jewish state and the Jewish diaspora offers insight into Israel's influence over the American Jewish community and how this influence can be conceptualized.To explain how Jewish emigration moved from a solely Jewish issue to a humanitarian question that required the intervention of the US government during the Cold War, Peretz traces the activities of Israel in securing the immigration of Soviet Jews and promoting awareness in Western countries.Peretz uses mobilization studies to explain a succession of objectives on the part of Israel and the stages in which it mobilized American Jews. Peretz attempts to reintroduce Israel as the missing, yet absolutely decisive actor in the history of the American movement to help Soviet Jews emigrate in difficult circumstances.

From 1941 to 1945, 30,000 African-American infantrymen were stationed at Fort Huachuca near the Mexican border. It was the only 'black post' in the country. Separated from white troops and civilian communities, these infantrymen were forced to accept the rules and discipline that the US Army, convinced of their racial inferiority, wanted to impose on them. Mistrustful of black soldiers, the Army feared mutiny and organized a harsh segregation that included strict confinement, control of the infantrymen during training and leisure, and the physical separation of white and black officers to diffuse any suggestion that equality of rank translated into social equality. In this book, available for the first time in English, Pauline Peretz uncovers America's tortuous relationship with its black soldiers against the backdrop of a war fought in the name of democracy.