Joseph Schechtman (Russian: Иосиф Шехтман, romanized: Iosif Shekhtman, Russian pronunciation:[ˈiːɐsʲɪfˈʂextmən]; September 6, 1891 – March 1, 1970) was a Russian-born Revisionist Zionist activist, historian, and author.[1] He played a significant role in the establishment of the World Union of Revisionist Zionists and the New Zionist Organization alongside Ze'ev Jabotinsky. Schechtman authored numerous works on Jewish history, Zionism, and population migrations, including The Arab Refugee Problem and European Population Transfers, 1939–1945. His studies on population transfers, described as "pioneering" in defining guidelines for such movements, have been both influential and controversial.[2][3] He emigrated to the United States during World War II, continuing his advocacy and scholarship while working with organizations such as the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).[4][5]
Schechtman studied at Novorossia Imperial University in Odessa. There he established contacts with members of the Ukrainian national movement. In 1910 he published an article in the journal "Еврейский мир" (Jewish World) in St. Petersburg, calling for Ukrainian-Jewish dialogue. In 1917, back in Odessa, he published pamphlets «Евреи и украинцы» (Jews and Ukrainians) and «Национальные движения в свободной России» (National Movements in the Free Russia).
Zionist activism
In May 1917, Schechtman was a delegate to the Seventh All-Russian Conference of Zionists that took place in Petrograd and to the All-Russian Jewish Congress that took place in Moscow during June–July 1918. In 1918 he was elected to the Jewish National Council of Ukraine. In 1918–1919 he worked in its executive agency, Jewish National Secretariat.
In 1920 Schechtman left Bolshevik Russia. He entered Berlin University, and actively participated in the Federation of Russian-Ukrainian Zionists. From September 1922 he co-edited weekly Russian-language "Рассвет" (The Dawn) with Jabotinsky.
Schechtman was one of the founders of the World Union of Revisionist Zionism (Paris, 1925). In 1929–1931 he was the editor of Yiddish weekly "Der Noyer Veg" (The New Way) in Paris. From 1931 to 1935 Schechtman was a member of the executive committee of the Zionist Organization (WZO), when both he and Jabotinsky left the ZO to co-found the New Zionist Organization.
Emigration to the U.S.
Schechtman emigrated to the United States in the summer of 1941, and soon became part of the 'inner circle' of the New Zionist Organization of America (NZOA).[6] In 1941–1943 he worked at YIVO. In 1943–1944 he was the director of Bureau for Study of Population Migration which he co-founded earlier. In 1944–1945 he worked as a consultant on questions of the migration of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
Schechtman was the chairman of the Association of American Zionists-Revisionists. In 1946, New Zionist Organization self-liquidated to rejoin the WZO. Schechtman served as a member of the executive committee of the WZO until 1970. In 1963–1965 and 1966–1968 he was a member of the executive committee of the Jewish Agency for Israel.
Literary career
Schechtman became a close associate[7] and secretary [8][9] to Ze'ev Jabotinsky, and would later write the two-volume biography of his life.
Schectman wrote numerous books and articles dedicated to Jewish and world history, human migrations, population transfer and refugee issues.
In later years he also wrote a biography of the late Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini.
In his 1961 book Star in Eclipse: Russian Jewry Revisited, he provided an account of the Babi Yar tragedy.
Schechtman early established his reputation as a pioneer and authority on changing population movements in the world and population transfers.[10][11]
Schechtman was the "first to establish basic guidelines for successful transfers and to argue persuasively that transfers should be treated as preventative measures not punitive."[10]
Palestinian "evacuation order"
His work on the Palestinian refugee problem[12] was heavily criticised by Erskine Childers[13][14] and Steven Glazer[15] for misquoting, carefully selecting words, and taking statements out of context to fit his narrative.
Walid Khalidi attributes to Schechtman the position, which Khalidi regards as groundless, that the Palestinian people fled their towns and villages in 1948 in response to Arab broadcasts advising them to do so. Schechtman was the anonymous author of two smaller works published in 1949, which he credits in the introduction to his 1952 book, The Arab Refugee Problem[12] and where, according to Khalidi, the reference to the evacuation order first appeared.[16]
Published works
Jews in German-occupied Soviet Territory. New York: Union of Russian Jews. 1944.
^Khalidi, Walid (2005). "Why Did the Palestinians Leave, Revisited"(PDF). Journal of Palestine Studies. 34 (2): 42–54. doi:10.1525/jps.2005.34.2.042. Archived from the original(PDF) on March 19, 2009. If I were to place my finger on a single person who is responsible for systematizing the story (if a single person was responsible for doing so), I would probably place it on a certain American Zionist by the name of Dr. Joseph Schechtman, a leading member of the Zionist revisionist wing, [who] is almost certainly responsible for the drafting of two mimeographed pamphlets which appeared in 1949 under the auspices of the Israel Information Center, New York, in which the evacuation order first makes an elaborate appearance. It was Schechtman's version which was incorporated in a memorandum submitted by the nineteen prominent Americans, including the poet Macleish and Niebuhr the theologian, to the United Nations. The work referenced by Khalidi is Anderson, H. Dewey (1951). The Arab Refugee Problem: How it Can Be Solved; Proposals Submitted to the General Assembly of the United Nations. and others. No publisher. OCLC651940914.
Further reading
(in Russian)ШЕХТМАН Иосеф (КЕЭ, том 10, кол. 1890–190) Joseph Schechtman article in Short Jewish Encyclopedia
