Professor of Judaic Studies and Theology, University of Luzern
January 30, 2017
4:15pm - 6:00pm
Hoffmann Room, Adolphus Busch Hall
In this talk Professor Erlanger will discuss the 1946 22nd Zionist Congress in Basel, the first after the holocaust and the last
such gathering before the establishment of the state of Israel.
About
In his memoirs "Trial and Error" Chaim Weitzmann describes the eery scene, when the
delegates of the Zionist movement met for the first time since 1939:
"It was a dreadful experience to stand before that assembly and to run one’s eye
along row after row of delegates, finding among them hardly one of the friendly
faces which had adorned past Congresses. Polish Jewry was missing; Central and
Southeast European Jewry was missing; German Jewry was missing. The two
main groups represented were the Palestinians and the Americans; between them
sat the representatives of the fragments of European Jewry, together with some
small delegations from England, the Dominions, and South America. The American
group, led by Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, was from the outset the strongest, not so much
because of enlarged numbers, or by virtue of the inherent strength of the
delegates, but because of the weakness of the rest."