Chutzpah

pp. 296-97

“While Jewish leaders in Poland and throughout Europe were committing suicide in a futile attempt to convey the depth of the Jewish tragedy, no American Jew in government–and there were many in high places–even resigned in protest over the American refusal to lift immigration barriers, to bomb the rail lines to Auschwitz, or to take other steps that might have saved Jewish lives. Jewish leaders insisted upon maintaining their dignified silence, their caution, and their loyalty to a morally reprehensible American policy, for fear that to act otherwise would make a bad impression on their ‘hosts.’ They did not want to spend their reserve of capital–or goodwill–they had built up through generations of model citizenship. They should have used it and borrowed on it.”