Immigration, Politics and Democracy: The World Jewish Congress in Europe, 1936–1939

During the 1930s, the leadership of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) tried to turn the question of European Jews into an international political issue that transcended traditional philanthropic assistance to Jews in need. This article presents examples of the broad political activities that demonstrate the desire of the WJC's founders to deviate from the patterns of conventional philanthropic activity traditionally adopted by American Jewish organizations in the latter half of the 1930s, and to work on behalf of Europe's Jews and Jewish refugees in Europe by political means that involved blending the Jewish issue into Europe's international political and economic texture and promoting the Jewish cause in ways that transcended mere provision of economic assistance.