Nahum Goldmann - Education, Pre-Nazi Germany, After World War II, Works by Goldmann

Zionist politician, born in Lithuania. He became head of the Zionistische Vereinigung in Deutschland (1926–33) but was forced to leave Germany in 1933 and emigrated first to Honduras and then to New York. He became representative of the Jewish Agency with the League of Nations (1935–40), promoted the foundation of the State of Israel, and was active in the restitution settlement (Wiedergutmachung) between Germany and Austria and the Jewish people. He also served as president of the Jewish World Congress (1949–78) and as president of the World Zionist Organization (1956–68).

Nahum Goldmann (Hebrew: נחום גולדמן) (July 10, 1895–August 29, 1982) was a Polish-born Israeli Zionist and founder and longtime president of the World Jewish Congress.

Education

Nahum Goldmann was born in Wischnewo (now Wisziewiec), Poland, the son of a teaching and writing family, and moved with his parents in 1900 to Frankfurt, Germany. Goldmann studied law, history, and philosophy in Marburg, Heidelberg, and Berlin.

Pre-Nazi Germany

Goldmann was involved in the Zionist movement from an early age.

During the period of the British Mandate in Palestine, Goldmann was involved in a range of Zionist causes, including negotiations with the British, and when the Nazis seized power in Germany, Goldmann was in Palestine visiting his uncle.

Goldmann reported in his 1978 book Das jüdische Paradox (The Jewish Paradox): "The car stopped in front of the porch and at the sight of us, Roosevelt said: 'Just look, [Sam] Rosenman, [Rabbi] Stephen Wise, and Goldmann are having a discussion. The President of the United States is getting his advice from the Three Wise Men of Zion.'"

After World War II

Goldmann had long supported the creation of two states in Palestine, one Arab and one Jewish; After the war he worked actively with David Ben Gurion towards the creation of Israel. He was concerned—as it turns out, appropriately—that an Arab-Israeli war would break out after the British left their Mandate and the State of Israel was proclaimed.

From 1951 he was the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Jewish Agency.

Goldmann served from 1948 to 1977 as president of the World Jewish Congress, the co-ordinating body for many Jewish societies outside Israel. From 1956 to 1968, Goldmann served as the President of the World Zionist Organization. He never took up permanent residence in Israel, dividing his time between Israel and Switzerland.

Though a strong supporter of Israel, Goldmann was also a strong supporter of the idea of a healthy Diaspora. He was concerned about Jewish assimilation, and fought to strengthen Jewish education, culture, and institutions outside of Israel.

Goldmann tried to negotiate between Israel and the neighboring Arab states, and was critical of Israel for what he saw as an over-reliance on military might, and for not making more concessions after the 1967 Six-Day War, advocating a position that the only chance of long-term survival for Israel was to accept the rights of the Palestinians as a people. Goldmann thought this behavior to be foolish. Goldmann's vision was to make Israel the spiritual and moral centre for all Jews, but a neutral state, somewhat on the model of Switzerland, with international guarantees of its security, existence and borders, and perhaps even a permanent symbolic international presence.

Goldmann died in Bad Reichenhall, Germany.

Works by Goldmann

Nahum Goldmann, Staatsmann ohne Staat (Statesman Without a State, autobiography), 1970, Köln: Kiepenheuer-Witsch. ISBN 3-462-00780-7 Nahum Goldmann (1969). The Autobiography of Nahum Goldmann;: Sixty Years of Jewish Life. Nahum Goldmann (1978). Nahum Goldmann, Mein Leben als deutscher Jude (My Life as a German Jew), 1982, München: Langen-Müller. Nahum Goldmann (1970).