February 28, 2026

Parshas Tzavah – Parshas Zachor

Setsuzo Kutsuji

Lucy S. Dawidowicz – Nancy Sinkoff

We are still in Florida.

This Shabbos finished the book published by Koren, Kotzuji’s Gift: The Daring Rescue of Japan’s Jewish Refugees.  The book has a foreword by Rabbi Meir Yaakov Soloveichik. It contains two smaller books.  1) The autobiography of Setsuzo Kutsuji, written in English in 1964, and 2) an English translation of Jundai Yamada’s Japanese book, which is a biography of Setsuzo Kutsuji’s life.  His book is titled “Sanctuary Secured: The Man Who Extended the Visas For Life.”  His book is excellent.  One of his sources is Rabbi Marvin Tokayer.  

See my blog post https://kotzk.com/2025/05/18/november-23-2024-updated-may-18-2025/ 

I also read two essays in Lucy S. Dawidowicz’s book, The Golden Thread.  She has selections from two secular jews who were in the revolutionary movements of socialism and communism, Pavel Borisovich Axelrod 1850 – 1928 and Chaim Zhitlowsky 1865 – 1943.  Both had turned their backs on their Jewish heritage and assimilated in Russian culture.  They worked for the Russian people until they came to the realization that their alleged compatriots were anti-semitic.  They themselves believed in the worst of the Jews, that all Jews were exploiters of the working man and found fault even with impoverished Jews.  They both saw the pogroms, and it did change their feelings.  At least Chaim Zhitlowsky did somewhat come back to identifying with the Jewish people.  

This was the tragedy of the Jewish people from the early 19th century all the way to WW II.  The Jews faced constant discrimination, even after the ghetto walls fell, and they tried to assimilate but were unsuccessful. Read Moses Hess’s “Rome and Jerusalem.”  The Jews had to hide and not acknowledge their Judaism to fit into the larger society. They had to look down on their religion and Jews.  Hundreds of thousands of Jews gave their lives for communism, socialism, and other non-Jewish ideals.  It got them nowhere.  They gave up their lives for ideals that hated Jews.  It ended with a Stalin who wanted to call all Jews and a Hitler who almost did.

Read what Professor Nancy Sinkoff wrote in her book, From Left to Right.  It is the story of Lucy S. Dawidowicz, about her starting as a leftist and ending up as a conservative.

My February 11, 2026 email to Nancy Sinkoff:

Professor:

I am thoroughly enjoying your book.  Lucy Davidowitz’s disagreement with Hannah Arendt and Raul Hilberg was excellent reading.  On page 207 you write, “For her part Lucy Dawidowicz was acutely aware of the influence of the Jews’ long history in the European diaspora on the contemporary reality of American Jews.  She rejected the enshrinement of liberalism as an essential characteristic of being Jewish much earlier than the New York intellectuals did.”  Later on you continue, “Historically, European Jewish leaders .  .  . ”  Excellent.  

This rings true even more today, where a Jew has to submerge and even deny their positive feelings towards Israel to be accepted in progressive and perhaps even liberal circles.  

And her response to me:

She was prescient. A Cassandra.

Dr. Nancy Sinkoff

Academic Director

The Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life

Professor of Jewish Studies and History

Rutgers University

nsinkoff@rutgers.edu

http://jewishstudies.rutgers.edu/people/core-faculty/nancy-sinkoff