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Nahum Goldmann
Nahum Goldmann (Hebrew: נחום גולדמן; July 10, 1895 – August 29, 1982) was a leading Zionist. He was a founder of the World Jewish Congress and its president from 1951 to 1978 and was also president of the World Zionist Organization from 1956 to 1968.
Nahum Goldmann was born in Vishnevo, Russian Empire, a shtetl in the Pale of Settlement (now Vishnyeva, Belarus), the son of a teaching and writing Litvak family, whose father was an ardent Zionist. At the age of six, he moved with his parents to Frankfurt, Germany, where his father entertained leading Zionists and intellectuals, and where he attended the Musterschule. In 1911, while still in high school, he and his father attended the Tenth Zionist Congress. Goldmann went on to study law, history and philosophy in Marburg, Heidelberg and Berlin. He graduated in law and philosophy.
In 1913 he visited Palestine for four months, publishing his impressions the following year in his book Eretz Israel, Reisebriefe aus Palästina (Eretz Israel, Travel letters from Palestine), which was published in two editions. In 1916–18, Goldmann worked for the German "Nachrichtenstelle für den Orient", an intelligence and propaganda bureau linked to the German Foreign Office, which tried to exploit ethnic and religious nationalist currents within the Ottoman Empire such as Panturkism, Islamism and Zionism in German interests, to fight back increasing British and French influence in the region. In that period, the head of "Nachrichtenstelle" was Prof. Dr. Eugen Mittwoch, a leading German Arabist and Orientalist and at the same time a leading personality in Germany's Jewish community. During this period, he attempted to enlist Kaiser Wilhelm's support for the Zionist ideal. [citation needed] In 1922 he founded the Eschkol-Publikations-Gesellschaft (Eschkol Publication Society), and was involved in publishing a Zionist periodical. In 1929 he and Jakob Klatzkin started the project Encyclopaedia Judaica, which reflected the work of the leading Jewish scholars of the day. Eschkol published ten volumes of the Encyclopaedia Judaica in German and two volumes in Hebrew. Goldmann was falsely denounced by the Nazis as a secret communist agent shortly after the Beer Hall Putsch.
In 1934 he married Alice Gottschalk and they had two sons, Guido, born 1938 in Switzerland, who founded the German Marshall Fund in the United States in 1972, and Michael.
In November 1934, Goldmann petitioned Mussolini's support in relation to the Jews of the Saar, a region about to reunite with what was then Nazi Germany. In 1933, he managed to escape arrest by the Gestapo because he was in Palestine for his father's funeral.
In 1935 he was stripped of his German citizenship, and became a citizen of Honduras thanks to the intervention of the French Minister Louis Barthou. Later he moved to the United States, settling in New York City, where he represented the Jewish Agency for several years.
In 1936, Goldmann and Reform Rabbi Stephen S. Wise established the World Jewish Congress (WJC). He is credited with early prediction of the threat posed by Hitler and the Nazi Party. In the spring of 1942 he said, "[W]ho can foretell what the Nazi regime, once brought into the position of the surrounded killer, will do in the last moment before it goes down to shame?" Addressing the Zionist Organization of America in October 1942, having heard the reports of genocide, he lamented, "Our generation is in the tragic position that one-half of the generation is being slaughtered before our eyes, and the other half has to sit down and cannot prevent this catastrophe." Goldmann took up residence in the United States in June 1940, eventually became a U.S. citizen, and remained there until 1964.
Goldmann died in Bad Reichenhall, Germany of pulmonary collapse. He was buried in Jerusalem's Mount Herzl National Cemetery in the section reserved for leaders of the World Zionist Organization.His funeral was not attended by then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and no official statement of grief was issued by the Israeli government. Yasser Arafat sent condolences, stating that "The Palestinians mourn the death of Nahum Goldmann. He was a Jewish statesman of a unique personality. He fought for justice and legitimate rights for all peoples."
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Nahum Goldmann
Nahum Goldmann (Hebrew: נחום גולדמן; July 10, 1895 – August 29, 1982) was a leading Zionist. He was a founder of the World Jewish Congress and its president from 1951 to 1978 and was also president of the World Zionist Organization from 1956 to 1968.
Nahum Goldmann was born in Vishnevo, Russian Empire, a shtetl in the Pale of Settlement (now Vishnyeva, Belarus), the son of a teaching and writing Litvak family, whose father was an ardent Zionist. At the age of six, he moved with his parents to Frankfurt, Germany, where his father entertained leading Zionists and intellectuals, and where he attended the Musterschule. In 1911, while still in high school, he and his father attended the Tenth Zionist Congress. Goldmann went on to study law, history and philosophy in Marburg, Heidelberg and Berlin. He graduated in law and philosophy.
In 1913 he visited Palestine for four months, publishing his impressions the following year in his book Eretz Israel, Reisebriefe aus Palästina (Eretz Israel, Travel letters from Palestine), which was published in two editions. In 1916–18, Goldmann worked for the German "Nachrichtenstelle für den Orient", an intelligence and propaganda bureau linked to the German Foreign Office, which tried to exploit ethnic and religious nationalist currents within the Ottoman Empire such as Panturkism, Islamism and Zionism in German interests, to fight back increasing British and French influence in the region. In that period, the head of "Nachrichtenstelle" was Prof. Dr. Eugen Mittwoch, a leading German Arabist and Orientalist and at the same time a leading personality in Germany's Jewish community. During this period, he attempted to enlist Kaiser Wilhelm's support for the Zionist ideal. [citation needed] In 1922 he founded the Eschkol-Publikations-Gesellschaft (Eschkol Publication Society), and was involved in publishing a Zionist periodical. In 1929 he and Jakob Klatzkin started the project Encyclopaedia Judaica, which reflected the work of the leading Jewish scholars of the day. Eschkol published ten volumes of the Encyclopaedia Judaica in German and two volumes in Hebrew. Goldmann was falsely denounced by the Nazis as a secret communist agent shortly after the Beer Hall Putsch.
In 1934 he married Alice Gottschalk and they had two sons, Guido, born 1938 in Switzerland, who founded the German Marshall Fund in the United States in 1972, and Michael.
In November 1934, Goldmann petitioned Mussolini's support in relation to the Jews of the Saar, a region about to reunite with what was then Nazi Germany. In 1933, he managed to escape arrest by the Gestapo because he was in Palestine for his father's funeral.
In 1935 he was stripped of his German citizenship, and became a citizen of Honduras thanks to the intervention of the French Minister Louis Barthou. Later he moved to the United States, settling in New York City, where he represented the Jewish Agency for several years.
In 1936, Goldmann and Reform Rabbi Stephen S. Wise established the World Jewish Congress (WJC). He is credited with early prediction of the threat posed by Hitler and the Nazi Party. In the spring of 1942 he said, "[W]ho can foretell what the Nazi regime, once brought into the position of the surrounded killer, will do in the last moment before it goes down to shame?" Addressing the Zionist Organization of America in October 1942, having heard the reports of genocide, he lamented, "Our generation is in the tragic position that one-half of the generation is being slaughtered before our eyes, and the other half has to sit down and cannot prevent this catastrophe." Goldmann took up residence in the United States in June 1940, eventually became a U.S. citizen, and remained there until 1964.
Goldmann died in Bad Reichenhall, Germany of pulmonary collapse. He was buried in Jerusalem's Mount Herzl National Cemetery in the section reserved for leaders of the World Zionist Organization.His funeral was not attended by then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and no official statement of grief was issued by the Israeli government. Yasser Arafat sent condolences, stating that "The Palestinians mourn the death of Nahum Goldmann. He was a Jewish statesman of a unique personality. He fought for justice and legitimate rights for all peoples."
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