Shake Heaven and Earth : Peter Bergson and the Struggle to Rescue the Jews of Europe

Hillel Kook (aka Peter Bergson) arrived in New York in 1940 with the initial intention of organizing support for the creation of a Jewish army in Palestine. However, when news emerged in 1942 of the systematic murder of European Jews, Bergson, and the so-called Bergson Group, changed gears and concentrated their efforts on rescuing Jews from Hitler's Europe. The young, charismatic Palestinian Irgun leader Hillel Kook used the alias Peter Bergson to keep his political activities from reflecting on his prominent rabbinical family. Mobilizing Congress and prominent Americans, Peter Bergson lobbied for the urgent rescue of European Jews who were in imminent danger and launched campaigns to raise peoples' awareness. Long ignored by history, Bergson created the climate for Roosevelt's implementation of the War Refugee Board in 1944. Sadly, American Jewish and Zionist leaders harbored a deep-seated animosity towards Bergson and opposed the methods and priorities of the Bergonsites. Shake Heaven and Earth looks at the controversy surrounding both the man and the period in American Jewish history. Rapoport concludes by analyzing Kook's provocative views of Zionism and Jewish identity after the establishment of the State of Israel.