The Last Million: Europe's Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War by David Nasaw (review)

Abstract

the Cleveland Jewish community’s involvement in the Soviet Jewry movement, noting Cleveland’s early leadership in the campaign. Ira Robinson traces the evolution of Orthodoxy in Cleveland up to 1940 and finds the movement, as elsewhere, beset with problems, from a lack of interest on the part of the younger generation to internal strife to battles over kashrut certification. His essay ends before the arrival of the Telshe Yeshiva, whose leaders fled Lithuania and reestablished in Cleveland in 1941; it would have been interesting to learn how the renowned institution affected the existing Orthodox community. Engaging with current historiographical trends, Mary McCune examines the impact of feminism on the Cleveland branch of the National Council of Jewish Women and finds evidence to support recent scholarship challenging the “first wave” and “second wave” narrative in favor of a “more complex and multidimensional” story (123). She reminds us that it is necessary to look beyond the coasts to get a true picture of how American Jewish women acted to advance women’s rights through the decades. Finally, two essays focus on singular—and singularly different—personalities. Samantha Baskind’s piece on much-admired comic book writer Harvey Pekar describes how he expressed his firm commitment to both his Jewishness and “Clevelandness” in his work and compares the irascible Pekar to the more famous Cleveland Jewish comic book writers Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, creators of Superman (90). She also explores what Pekar’s local (posthumous) popularity says about his hometown. Zohar Segev takes on the life and career of notable Cleveland rabbi and Zionist Abba Hillel Silver, integrating Silver’s roles as both a Cleveland Jewish leader and an influential actor on the world stage. He concludes that Silver’s local political work was “essential to his success in establishing and wielding the ‘Jewish vote’ in America” (116).