Joseph Schechtman

Joseph Boris (Ber) Schechtman ( _ru. Иосиф Шехтман; 1891-1970) was a historian, political activist and writer, best known for his two-volume biography of Vladimir Jabotinsky.

Schechtman was born in Odessa in the Russian Empire (today in Ukraine). While participating in the Zionist youth movement, he met Jabotinsky.

Schechtman studied in Novorossiysk University. There he established contacts with members of the Ukrainian national movement. In 1910 he published an article in the journal "Еврейский мир" (Jewish World) in St. Petersburg, calling for Ukrainian-Jewish dialogue. In 1917, back in Odessa, he published pamphlets «Евреи и украинцы» ("Jews and Ukrainians") and «Национальные движения в свободной России» ("National Movements in the Free Russia").

In May 1917, Schechtman was elected a delegate to the Seventh All-Russian Conference of Zionists that took place in Petrograd and to the All-Russian Jewish Congress that took place in Moscow during June-July 1918. In 1918 he was elected a member of the Jewish National Council of Ukraine. In 1918-1919 he worked in its executive agency, Jewish National Secretariat.

In 1920 Schechtman emigrated from Bolshevik Russia. He entered Berlin University, and actively participated in the Federation of Russian-Ukrainian Zionists (in emigration). From September 1922 he co-edited weekly Russian-language "Рассвет" (The Dawn) with Jabotinsky.

Schechtman was one of the founders of the World Union of Zionists-revisionists (Paris, 1925). In 1929-1931 he was the editor of Yiddish weekly "Der Noyer Veg" (The New Way) in Paris. In 1931-1935 Schechtman was a member of the executive committee of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). In 1935 he left the WZO to co-found the New Zionist Organization.

Since 1941 Schechtman lived in the United States. In 1941-1943 he worked at YIVO. In 1943-1944 he was the director of Bureau for Study of Population Migration which he co-founded earlier. In 1944-1945 he worked as a consultant on questions of the migration of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Schechtman was the chairman of the Association of American Zionists-Revisionists. In 1946, New Zionist Organization self-liquidated to rejoin the WZO. Schechtman served as a member of the executive committee of the WZO until 1970. In 1963-1965 and 1966-1968 he was a member of the executive committee of the Jewish Agency for Israel.

Joseph B. Schechtman authored a number of books dedicated to Jewish and world history, migrations, refugee issues, and was a biographer of Jabotinsky.

His work on the Palestinian refugee problem [Schechtman, Joseph (1952), "The Arab Refugee Problem", New York: Philosophical Library] , however, has been heavily criticised by Childers [Childers "The Wordless Wish", pp. 197-198] [Erskine Childers, "The Other Exodus", in Laqueur, op.cit. pp.182-3] and later Glazer [Glazer, Steven. (Summer 1980) " [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0377-919X(198022)9%3A4%3C96%3ATPEI1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q The Palestinian Exodus in 1948.] " Published by Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 9, No. 4.] for misquoting, carefully selecting words and taking statements out of context to fit his narrative.

References

*ru icon [http://eleven.co.il/?mode=article&id=14814&query=%D8%C5%D5%D2%CC%C0%CD ШЕХТМАН Иосеф] (КЕЭ, том 10, кол. 1890–190) Joseph Schechtman article in Short Jewish Encyclopedia

Publications

*"Jews in German-Occupied Soviet Territory", 1944
*"The Elimination of German Minorities in Southeastern Europe", 1946
*"Population transfers in Asia", 1949
*"Like a Tree Which Bears No Fruit: A Report on Oriental Jewry", 1951
*"The Arab Refugee Problem", 1952
*"Minorities in the Arab world", 1953
*"The Life and Times of Vladimar Jabotinsky: Rebel and Statesman: The Early Years", 1956
*"On Wings of Eagles: the Plight, Exodus, and Homecoming of Oriental Jewry", 1961
*"Fighter and Prophet: the Vladimir Jabotinsky Story: the Last Years", 1961
*"Star in Eclipse: Russian Jewry Revisited", 1961
*"Postwar population transfers in Europe 1945-1955", 1963
*"Fact Sheet on Arab Refugees", 1964
*"The Refugee in the World: Displacement and Integration", 1964
*"The Mufti and the Fuehrer; the Rise and Fall of Haj Amin el-Husseini", 1965
*"The United States and the Jewish State Movement; the Crucial Decade, 1939-1949", 1966
*"Zionism and Zionists in Soviet Russia: Greatness and Drama ", 1966
*"Jordan: A State that Never Was", 1968
*"Arab Terror: Blueprint for Political Murder", 1969
*"Israel Explores Deir Yassin Blood Libel", 1969
*"History of the Revisionist Movement", 1970
*"European Population Transfers, 1939-1945", 1971