Post­ed by Nao­mi Firestone-Teeter

The New York Times post­ed an arti­cle yes­ter­day on an upcom­ing title from Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty Press called Refugees and Res­cue: The Diaries and Papers of James G. McDon­ald, 1935 – 1945 (edit­ed by Richard Bre­it­man, Bar­bara McDon­ald Stew­art, and Sev­erin Hochberg). The arti­cle, ​“Roo­sevelt and the Jews: A Debate Rekin­dled,” can be found here.

And, as I read the arti­cle, I con­ve­nient­ly received anoth­er book which dis­cuss­es an Amer­i­can pres­i­dent and his rela­tion­ship to the Jew­ish peo­ple. This title, A Safe Haven: Har­ry S. Tru­man and the Found­ing of Israel (Allis Radosh and Ronald Radosh), is being pub­lished this month by Harp­er and exam­ines why Har­ry S. Tru­man decid­ed to rec­og­nize the state of Israel. The authors trace the pros and cons Tru­man faced while deter­min­ing whether or not to make the deci­sion to rec­og­nize Israel, draw­ing from archival mate­ri­als through­out the U.S., Israel, and Great Britain, and bring­ing to light details that con­tributed to his ulti­mate deci­sion. To read more about the title, please vis­it here.