The Holocaust in American Life

by Peter Novick

Novick shows, I think quite convincingly, that efforts to use the Holocaust as a common thread linking Jews together and, in particular, cementing a connection between American Jews and Israel were consciously constructed, or consciously manipulated by American Jewish organisations. In other words, the growing emphasis on the Holocaust and the increased focus on Israel was not something that happened by accident: this was the result of some deliberate choices of things to emphasise.