פוליטיקה ארצית, אידיאולוגיה שמימית: אגודת ישראל בפולין לנוכח עליית הנאצים לשלטון בגרמניה

Based on a lecture delivered at Yad Vashem, November 1997. Surveys responses of Agudath Israel in Poland to the rise of Nazism in the 1930s, differentiating between responses of politicians and those of rabbis. Agudah politicians and the party newspaper, "Dos Yiddishe Tagblatt", expressed solidarity with the persecuted German Jews and supported an international boycott of German goods. The politicians saw the developments in Germany as "normal" historical events. However, the rabbis (both hasidic and others) and some writers (e.g. Alexander Zushe Friedman) saw the events as ahistoric, a visitation of God's wrath due to the sins of the Jews. They felt that a boycott was useless and the only thing that would help was repentance. Many Agudah rabbis saw Jewish suffering as a prelude to the Messiah's coming and urged the Jews to maintain their faith; some used the events to attack opponents, such as Zionists and secular groups.