Many of the American Jews who have defected from the “New Left” movement have done so as a result of the Six-Day War, according to an author and research analyst for the American Jewish Committee. Mrs. Lucy Dawidowicz, lecturing at Yeshiva University’s school of religious education, pointed out that many anti-war, pro-civil rights American Jews had become disenchanted with the New Left and militant Negro organizations either because of their silence or, as in the case of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), outright hostility toward Israel, during and after the war.
She compared Jewish reaction to the “New Left” to the split in the Second Socialist International at the outbreak of World War I, during which time many dissidents abandoned the organization because of their views toward the war and involvement of the United States in it, “Similarly,” she said, “the beginning of the Six-Day War brought forth a wave of support from Jewish New Left people who oppose the Vietnam war, uniting them behind Israel. When other elements of the New Left sided with the Arabs, the movement lost many of its Jewish members.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
