Joachim Prinz , president of the American Jewish Congress , stated the following when he spoke from the podium at the Lincoln Memorial during the famous March on Washington on August 28 , 1963 : " As Jews we bring to this great demonstration , in which thousands of us proudly participate , a twofold experience — one of the spirit and one of our history . ... From our Jewish historic experience of three and a half thousand years we say : Our ancient history began with slavery and the yearning for freedom . During the Middle Ages my people lived for a thousand years in the ghettos of Europe . ... It is for these reasons that it is not merely sympathy and compassion for the black people of America that motivates us . It is , above all and beyond all such sympathies and emotions , a sense of complete identification and solidarity born of our own painful historic experience . " During the World War II period , the American Jewish community was bitterly and deeply divided and was unable to form a common front . Most Jews from Eastern Europe favored Zionism , which saw a return to their historical homeland as the only solution ; this had the effect of diverting attention from the persecution of Jews in Germany . German Jews were alarmed at the Nazis but were disdainful of Zionism . Proponents of a Jewish state and Jewish army agitated , but many leaders were so fearful of an antisemitic backlash inside the U.S. that they demanded that all Jews keep a low public profile . One important development was the sudden conversion of most ( but not all ) Jewish leaders to Zionism late in the war . The Holocaust was largely ignored by American media as it was happening . Reporters and editors largely did not believe the atrocity stories coming out of Europe
The Holocaust
The Holocaust
American Jews