I continue to be impressed by Jack Ross’s biography of the anti-Zionist rabbi Elmer Berger, chiefly because Ross has recovered a noble period of Jewish thought in the United States, including a rich library of prophetic statements: that Partition would alienate the Arab world, that Jewish nationalism was devouring American Jewish life and crowding out all dissent, that the Israel lobby was now encamped, forever, in Washington. These statements were made in the ’40s and ’50s, but they have a sharp fresh edge today because the issues are more pressing than ever. Here is Jack Ross, bearded and Birkenstock’d, talking about his book on youtube, with Harold Channer.
