The Lesson of the 'Holocaust and Resurection' in the Thought of Abba Hillel Silver / לקח 'השואה והתקומה' בהשקפתו של אבא הלל סילבר

A heightened sense of existential danger to Israel during the early post-statehood period of the 1950s had far-reaching implications for the Diaspora Jewish-Zionist agenda. This was especially true for the hyphenated American-Zionist advocacy of Abba Hillel Silver who was one of the more prominent (although controversial) leaders of the American Zionist movement during that period. In the years shortly following the founding of the state, Silver and many of his American Zionist colleagues believed that a new era had arrived, in which the exclusive Jewish focus on the existential struggle would finally end, and Zionist efforts would be directed towards universal goals of world peace and social justice. Even more importantly, Silver as a typical representative of a long-held American Zionist doctrine, believed that the foundation of Israel ought to generate a transformation in the mentality of Diaspora Jews. Rather than calling attention to the insecurity inherent in a state of homelessness, American Jews must now see the main lesson of the Holocaust as a call to emphasize the enormous importance of cultivating Jewish life within their American surroundings. According to this view, the establishment of a Jewish state was indeed important, even critical, but merely as a first stage in a larger objective – as a vehicle to remove an insular and insecure Jewish mentality rife with distrust that had developed over centuries of persecution in Exile. In accordance with this American Zionist view, the Holocaust threatened to reinforce this historical negative Jewish mentality – a dangerous process to which the foundation of the Jewish state was intended to serve as a counterforce. A counter interpretation of Israel's founding could arise from the need for total mobilization in defense of the State of Israel, so that it would not remain exposed to the mounting military threats by Arab states without the umbrella of the United States. Since the start of their movement, American Zionists had been opposed to making the existential struggle the focus of Jewish identification, and viewed Diaspora Zionist solidarity as a way of breaking free of this 'negative' pattern of identification. A gap arose, therefore, between the rising need for unconditional mobilization for Israel and the Diaspora Zionist ideology, and this gap would only widen as the security threats against Israel increased. An even greater challenge could be found in the predominant Israeli understanding of t