Recovering Atlantis

This chapter talks about Territorialism's ‘second wave’ of the 1930s onwards as part of the larger non-Zionist Jewish political reality of the period. It puts forward the argument that a fuller understanding of Jewish politics, both before and after the Second World War, requires an account of Territorialism not as an isolated story but as part of the history of this wider constellation of parties and organizations that were active on the Jewish political scene, both in Europe and the United States. The chapter also pays attention to an exploration of the lives and works of the most important Territorialist protagonists: Ben-Adir, Joseph Leftwich, and, especially, Isaac Steinberg. It discusses the movement's ideas about the value of the Jewish diaspora and Jewish religious practices, the Freelanders' vision for the future of (American) Judaism, their dealings with antisemitism and the Holocaust, and their growing engagement with Yiddish and Yiddishism. Moreover, the chapter explores different Territorialist settlement options, most importantly Madagascar, Australia, and Suriname. The chapter offers novel perspectives on the problem of Jewish displaced persons during the late 1940s with which the Suriname project was intimately connected. It then turns to the Freelanders' slow transition away from Jewish politics that continued until the early 1960s.