A historiographic discussion on the place of American women Zionists and Jewish women in general in the scholarly literature dealing with the American Jewish community`s response to the Holocaust will open the lecture.
My primary discussion will focus on the almost total absence of discussion of European Jews` plight by the American women Zionist organizations (Hadassah and Mizrachi Women Organization of America), during the period when the "final solution" became known to the American Jewish community, in late 1942.
Since Hitler`s rise to power in Germany, both organizations (Mizrachi Women from 1933 and Hadassah from 1935), so the organizations` documents indicate, invested enormous efforts in rescuing, rehabilitating, and educating refugee children in Palestine mostly by Youth Aliya. They saw themselves as responsible primarily for children and youth. The discussion will address why this activity suited American Jewish women`s needs and their organizations` leaders who were dependent on the membership to keep the organizations functioning.
The organizations` leaders realized their organizations` inability to do more than the above for European Jews. In wartime when the women members were preoccupied with concern for their sons and husbands fighting in Europe, and at a time when many members were interested only in American issues, the organizations’ leaders considered it improper to deal with European Jews, whom they could not help anyway. This was the reason why as pragmatic women`s organizations focusing on deeds, they did not discuss the matter either in their inner circles or in their bulletins aimed at the members.
The conclusion: Youth Aliya was both women`s` organizations` response to the Holocaust.