"Shore has collected Jewish and non-Jewish book manuscripts that have rarely, if ever, been explored by scholars."—Yaakov Ariel, author of An Unusual Relationship: Evangelical Christians and Jews
"An impressive and needed book: compellingly written, deeply engaging, and grounded in original research. Its primary contribution is to explain the story of Jewish-Christian rapprochement mostly associated with post-Holocaust developments as having its origins in the 1930s. This argument is provocative and worth further scholarly investigation."—Daniel G. Hummel, author of Covenant Brothers: Evangelicals, Jews, and U.S.-Israeli Relations
"Shore’s careful research and cogent analysis bring the rallies to life and effectively draws links to broader developments, such as the growth of Christian Zionism. It’s a thought-provoking examination of the complex bonds between these two faiths."—Publishers Weekly
Description
On March 27, 1933, representatives from across the American religious spectrum came to Madison Square Garden, united in a shared purpose to speak out against the rise of fascism in Germany and Adolph Hitler’s seizure of power. This rally—the first of several held at the Garden before, during, and after World War II—represents an unexplored moment of Jewish and Christian relations, challenging assumptions about Christian leaders’ indifference to the Jewish plight and their guilt as the realities of the Holocaust came to light. In Uncommon Allies, Alan Shore uses an impressive range of primary and secondary sources, including English and Yiddish newspapers of the time and neglected histories of various religious organizations, to shine a light on these pivotal rallies.
From the groundbreaking 1933 rally to a series of events in 1943 as the reality of Hitler’s “Final Solution” came to light, and ending in a postwar rally in 1945, as religious groups struggled with finding a way to help displaced and struggling Jews, Shore unearths the united religious front in the face of the horror of Nazism. Each rally is vividly presented and analyzed in terms of its background, planning, execution, content, and press coverage. Tracing the impact of these rallies through the years, Shore draws a clear line to the partnership between Christian and Jewish Zionists and the rhetorical use of “Judeo-Christian values.”
Table of Contents
Introductions: Reframing Twentieth-Century American Jewish-Christian Discourse
1. Setting the Stage: Cooperative Efforts among Jews and Christians at the Start of the Nazi Era
2. Boradening the Jewish -Christian Alliance against Nazi Germany
3. Differing Jewish Responses to the Final Solution in 1943 and Their Effects
4. Jewish and Christian Zionists: Uncommon Allis in a Common Cause
Conclusion: Madison Square Garden and the Staging of Judeo-Christian Values
Notes
Bibliography
About the Author
A native New Yorker, Alan Shore holds a doctorate in Modern Jewish History and Culture from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. He contributed an entry on the work of Sholem Asch to the Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture and wrote the foreword to A Hebraic Inkling: C. S. Lewis on Judaism and the Jews by P. H. Brazier.
6 x 9, 267 pages, 20 black and white illustrations
August 2024