The Holocaust in American Life

"The basic argument that Peter Novick, a historian at the University of Chicago, makes, is that the prominence of the Holocaust as a central feature in American Jewish identity increased significantly in the late 1960s and afterwards. It’s partly connected to the Six Day War, but it’s also connected to concerns about secularism and assimilation and the declining role of religious devotion as a source of Jewish identity. And he 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. It’s a fascinating account of how American Jewish identity shifts over time and becomes much more focused on Israel than had been true even in the 1950s. Those activities are not the main focus in the book: it is focused much more on how the tragic experience of the Holocaust begins to be used for essentially political purposes, and becomes a more powerful element of American Jewish identity after 1970 than it was in the 1950s."