Joseph Schechtman (, ; September 6, 1891 – March 1, 1970) was a Russian-born

Revisionist Zionist Revisionist Zionism is a form of Zionism characterized by territorial maximalism. Revisionist Zionism promoted expansionism and the establishment of a Jewish majority on both sides of the Jordan River. Developed by Ze'ev Jabotinsky in the 1920s ...

activist, historian, and author. He played a significant role in the establishment of the World Union of Revisionist Zionists and the New Zionist Organization alongside Ze'ev Jabotinsky. Schechtman authored numerous works on Jewish history,

Zionism Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

, and population migrations, including ''The Arab Refugee Problem'' and ''European Population Transfers, 1939–1945''. His studies on population transfers, described as "pioneering" in defining guidelines for such movements, have been both influential and controversial.Reitan, Ruth. ''Population Transfer, Cleansing, and Partition,'' '' Journal of Refugee Studies'' vol 14 no 4, 200

/ref> He emigrated to the United States during World War II, continuing his advocacy and scholarship while working with organizations such as the

Jewish Agency for Israel The Jewish Agency for Israel (), formerly known as the Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. It was established in 1929 as the operative branch of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). As an ...

and the

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the first intelligence agency of the United States, formed during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines ...

(OSS).

Biography

Early life and education

Joseph Boris (Ber) Schechtman was born in

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

, part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(now

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

). During his involvement in the

Zionist youth movement A Zionist youth movement () is an organization formed for Jewish children and adolescents for educational, social, and ideology, ideological development, including a belief in Zionism, Jewish nationalism as represented in the State of Israel. Yout ...

, he met

Ze'ev Jabotinsky Ze'ev Jabotinsky (born Vladimir Yevgenyevich Zhabotinsky; 17 October 1880 – 3 August 1940) was a Russian-born author, poet, orator, soldier, and founder of the Revisionist Zionist movement and the Jewish Self-Defense Organization in O ...

. Schechtman studied at Novorossia Imperial University in

. 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'').

Zionist activism

In May 1917, Schechtman was 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 to the Jewish National Council of Ukraine. In 1918–1919 he worked in its executive agency, Jewish National Secretariat. In 1920 Schechtman left Bolshevik Russia. He entered

Berlin University The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humboldt ...

, and actively participated in the Federation of Russian-Ukrainian Zionists. 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 Revisionist Zionism (Paris, 1925). In 1929–1931 he was the editor of

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

weekly "Der Noyer Veg" (The New Way) in Paris. From 1931 to 1935 Schechtman was a member of the executive committee of the

Zionist Organization The World Zionist Organization (; ''HaHistadrut HaTzionit Ha'Olamit''), or WZO, is a non-governmental organization that promotes Zionism. It was founded as the Zionist Organization (ZO; 1897–1960) at the initiative of Theodor Herzl at the F ...

(WZO), when both he and Jabotinsky left the ZO to co-found the New Zionist Organization.

Emigration to the U.S.

Schechtman emigrated to the United States in the summer of 1941, and soon became part of the 'inner circle' of the New Zionist Organization of America (NZOA). In 1941–1943 he worked at

YIVO YIVO (, , short for ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. Estab ...

. 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

(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

Literary career

Schechtman became a close associate and secretary to

, and would later write the two-volume biography of his life. Schectman wrote numerous books and articles dedicated to Jewish and world history, human migrations,

population transfer Population transfer or resettlement is a type of mass migration that is often imposed by a state policy or international authority. Such mass migrations are most frequently spurred on the basis of ethnicity or religion, but they also occur d ...

and refugee issues. In later years he also wrote a biography of the late Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj

Amin el-Husseini Mohammed Amin al-Husseini (; 4 July 1974) was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in Mandatory Palestine. was the scion of the family of Jerusalemite Arab nobles, who trace their origins to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Husseini ...

. In his 1961 book ''Star in Eclipse: Russian Jewry Revisited'', he provided an account of the

Babi Yar Babi Yar () or Babyn Yar () is a ravine in the Ukraine, Ukrainian capital Kyiv and a site of massacres carried out by Nazi Germany's forces during Eastern Front (World War II), its campaign against the Soviet Union in World War II. The first and ...

tragedy. Schechtman early established his reputation as a pioneer and authority on changing population movements in the world and population transfers.Reitan, Ruth. ''Population Transfer, Cleansing, and Partition,'' '' Journal of Refugee Studies'' vol 14 no 4 200

Schechtman was the "first to establish basic guidelines for successful transfers and to argue persuasively that transfers should be treated as preventative measures not punitive."

Palestinian "evacuation order"

His work on the Palestinian refugee problemSchechtman, Joseph (1952), ''The Arab Refugee Problem'', New York: Philosophical Library was heavily criticised by Erskine Childers (UN), Erskine Childers and Steven Glazer for misquoting, carefully selecting words, and taking statements out of context to fit his narrative.

Walid Khalidi Walid Khalidi (; born in Jerusalem on July 16, 1925) is a Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He is a co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies, established in Beirut in December 1963 as an inde ...

attributes to Schechtman the position, which Khalidi regards as groundless, that the Palestinian people fled their towns and villages in 1948 in response to Arab broadcasts advising them to do so. Schechtman was the anonymous author of two smaller works published in 1949, which he credits in the introduction to his 1952 book, ''The Arab Refugee Problem'' and where, according to Khalidi, the reference to the evacuation order first appeared. The work referenced by Khalidi is

Published works

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