Presbyterians Don't Get Reinhold Niebuhr

In February 1942, the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr appealed for the United States and Great Britain, as a binding goal in the war against Hitler's Germany, to commit to creating "a genuine homeland" for Jews "under their own sovereignty, within the framework of the British Empire." "The Jews were the first, as they have been the chief, victim of Nazi fury," Niebuhr wrote in The Nation. "Their rehabilitation, like the rehabilitation of every Nazi victim, requires something more than the restoration of the status quo."

Jews, as a "nationality scattered among the nations," deserved a "homeland" in which they would not be a minority, ever vulnerable to persecution, he said. Yes, Jews had a right to assimilation in any society, but they faced mortal threats in "impoverished ... spiritually corrupted" and war-torn Europe. Many thousands had already immigrated to Palestine, governed after 1922 as a British Mandate; it made sense as a homeland site. With the caution and nuance with which he approached all ambitious endeavors, Niebuhr warned that such a project would not be easily accomplished. Specifically addressing the importance of having Jews make moral and political peace with the Arabs in Palestine, he regretted that Zionist leaders were "unrealistic in insisting that their demands entail no 'injustice' to the Arab population." They needed to think more and better about developing "a policy which offers a just solution to an intricate problem faced by a whole civilization." Americans needed to care about this, too, because the very nature of American life would be affected by how the matter was resolved, he thought.