This volume offers insights into the major Jewish migration movements and rebuilding of European Jewish communities in the mid-twentieth century. Its chapters illustrate many facets of the Jews’ often traumatic post-war experiences. People had to find their way when returning to their countries of origin or starting from scratch in a new land. Their experiences and hardships from country to country and from one community of migrants to another are analyzed here. The mass exodus of Jews from Arab and Muslim countries is also addressed to provide a necessary and broader insight into how those challenges were met, as both migrations were a result of persecution, as well as discrimination.
Dr. Françoise S. Ouzan, a former Associate Professor at the University of Reims and currently a Senior Research Associate at the Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center of Tel Aviv University, has published several books on the aftermath of the Holocaust and on American Jewry.
Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, a former Chairman of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Journal for the Study of Anti-Semitism, has published twenty books on politics, Jewish public affairs and environmental issues.
Introduction - Diverging groups of Jewish Displaced Persons Manfred Gerstenfeld and Françoise S. Ouzan
PART ONE: THE PLIGHT OF THE UPROOTED: SOCIAL AND LEGAL RESPONSES
Reflections on the Multinational Geography of Jews after World War II Sergio DellaPergola
The Law of Return: A National Solution to an International Issue, 1945–1967 Jacques Amar
Healthcare Services for Holocaust Survivors in Post-war Austria, 1945–1953: A Pattern of Jewish Solidarity Ada Schein
PART TWO: POST-WAR JEWISH MIGRATION AND CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Dilemmas of Minority Politics: Jewish Migrants in Post-war Czechoslovakia and Poland Kateřina Čapková
The Post-war Czech-Jewish Leadership and the Issue of Jewish Emigration from Czechoslovakia (1945–1950) Ján Laniček
PART THREE: POST-WAR RECONSTITUTION OF JEWISH COMMUNAL LIFE AND DYNAMICS OF IDENTITIES
Life during the Camps and After: Displacement and Rehabilitation of the Young Survivors Izio Rosenman
American Jewish Chaplains and the Survivors’ Return to Jewish Communal Life (1945–1952) Françoise S. Ouzan
A Forgotten Post-war Jewish Migration: East European Jewish Refugees and Immigrants in France, 1946–1947 David Weinberg
The Post-war Renewal of Jewish Communities in the Netherlands Manfred Gerstenfeld
PART FOUR: EMIGRATING TO ISRAEL FROM EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Reasons for Emigration of the Jews from Poland in 1956–1959 Ewa Węgrzyn
Memories of a Forgotten People: A Conflict of Expectations Shmuel Trigano
The Reasons for the Departure of the Jews from Morocco 1956–1957: The Historiographical Problems Yigal Bin-Nun
Not Just a Language Barrier: Israel’s Media and Communication with New Immigrants in the 1950s Rafi Mann
With the increasing interest of post-Holocaust developments, this book will appeal to Holocaust scholars, other academics, libraries and students and others specialists, but also to educated laymen.