The Internal-External Observer: Robert Weltsch’s Wartime Perspective on WWII

At the outbreak of WWII, the Jewish Agency publicly declared its support of Britain’s struggle against Hitler. Apparent in the announcement was, however, the ambivalence toward Britain, which imposed unprecedented restrictions to the Zionist enterprise in the White Paper of 1939. During the war, the Yishuv demonstrated a growing resentment toward the British and focused on forcing the establishment of a Jewish state. In so doing, most Zionist leaders directed their gaze at the internal struggle and considered WWII only when it appeared to influence their political goals or threatened the Yishuv’s existence.

But some voices in the Yishuv demanded unconditioned loyalty to the British Empire and placed the war itself at the center of attention. Most pronounced among them was Robert Weltsch, who until 1938 edited the Berlin-based newspaper Jüdische Rundschau and spent the war years in Palestine. The paper will discuss Weltsch’s wartime writing, which has so far gained no scholarly attention.

Weltsch argued for the existence of a particular German-Jewish perspective on the war, which he described as epistemologically superior to the predominant view of the Yishuv. In numerous newspapers articles he rejected the isolationist perspective on the war, which he claimed has failed to realize the altered circumstances of international politics and the unique character of Hitler’s war. Only by subscribing to a broader perspective, he argued, would the Jews of Palestine realize that their rescue depends on the British, thus making any confrontation with the Empire into a self-destructive endeavor.