American Protestantism and a Jewish state

By Hertzel Fishman

What effect has American Protestantism had on the creation of a Jewish state in the Middle East? Since 1917, when the Balfour Declaration proclaimed Britain's support for a Jewish state in Palestine, American Protestant groups have often sided with the Arabs in the dispute over the fate of the Holy Land. This study traces the history of the important role played both by American Protestants and by Protestant theology in the formation of American policy toward Israel. After 1930, when the pressure for Jewish immigration to Palestine grew strong, American Protestantism showed remarkable ambivalence toward the plight of the Jews. Dr. Fishman reveals that to some American Protestants the threat to Christian Arabs of a massive Jewish immigration to Palestine was more dismal than the holocaust which raged in central Europe. The possibility of relieving Jewish suffering by promoting immigration to the United States drew even less support from American Protestant spokesmen. They believed that a larger Jewish minority would only increase anti-Semitism in the United States. The author's investigation of American Protestant journals, especially the Christian Century and Christianity and Crisis, documents the resistance of American Protestants to the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. He reconstructs the debate among American Protestants on this issue and demonstrates the importance of the debate from Israel's point of view. Dr. Fishman's account of the reaction to the Six-Day war brings the reader up to date on American Protestantism's role in the struggle for the creation and maintenance of Israel in the Middle East.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814314813
• ISBN13: 9780814314814
• Release Date: January 1973
• Publisher: Wayne State University Press
• Length: 249 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.0" x 9.0"