The Independent Orders of B’nai B’rith and True Sisters will interest all scholars of Jewish history, B’nai B’rith and True Sisters members, and readers interested in American history.

Recent historic breakthroughs have introduced a new hope for peace in the Middle East. Following the lead of the first two Arab League countries who entered into peace agreements with Israel - Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994 - the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco each did so in 2020. Time will tell if the dove of peace will touch down in the hearts and minds of the Arab people across the region and whether or not these winds of change will result in a further departure from the decades-old Arab League mandates of hatred against Israel. The fact remains that since the emergence of the modern Zionist movement in the nineteenth century, the idea of the reestablishment of the Jewish national home in its ancient land has been under assault. The Bloody Price of Freedom traces the battle the democratic State of Israel has faced for its existence since its legally sanctioned establishment in 1948. The book analyzes the insidious attacks; maligning worldwide propaganda; economic, academic, and other boycotts; as well as the misapplication of international law in the United Nations and elsewhere that have been leveraged against Israel. A special section on the International Court of Justice's 2004 nonbinding advisory opinion on the construction of Israel's terrorism-prevention security fence includes detailed illustrative maps. This meticulously documented volume is essential reading for anyone interested in standing against the demonization of Israel and antisemitic attacks upon the Jewish people

Recounts how Jewish organizations for fighting antisemitism became leaders against all prejudice.

Two prominent Israeli liberals argue that for the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to end with peace, Palestinians must come to terms with the fact that there will be no "right of return." In 1948, seven hundred thousand Palestinians were forced out of their homes by the first Arab-Israeli War. More than seventy years later, most of their houses are long gone, but millions of their descendants are still registered as refugees, with many living in refugee camps. This group—unlike countless others that were displaced in the aftermath of World War II and other conflicts—has remained unsettled, demanding to settle in the state of Israel. Their belief in a "right of return" is one of the largest obstacles to successful diplomacy and lasting peace in the region. In The War of Return, Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf—both liberal Israelis supportive of a two-state solution—reveal the origins of the idea of a right of return, and explain how UNRWA - the very agency charged with finding a solution for the refugees - gave in to Palestinian, Arab and international political pressure to create a permanent “refugee” problem. They argue that this Palestinian demand for a “right of return” has no legal or moral basis and make an impassioned plea for the US, the UN, and the EU to recognize this fact, for the good of Israelis and Palestinians alike. A runaway bestseller in Israel, the first English translation of The War of Return is certain to spark lively debate throughout America and abroad.

A powerful history of Jewish art collectors in France, and how an embrace of art and beauty was met with hatred and destruction In the dramatic years between 1870 and the end of World War II, a number of prominent French Jews—pillars of an embattled community—invested their fortunes in France’s cultural artifacts, sacrificed their sons to the country’s army, and were ultimately rewarded by seeing their collections plundered and their families deported to Nazi concentration camps. In this rich, evocative account, James McAuley explores the central role that art and material culture played in the assimilation and identity of French Jews in the fin-de-siècle. Weaving together narratives of various figures, some familiar from the works of Marcel Proust and the diaries of Jules and Edmond Goncourt—the Camondos, the Rothschilds, the Ephrussis, the Cahens d'Anvers—McAuley shows how Jewish art collectors contended with a powerful strain of anti-Semitism: they were often accused of “invading” France’s cultural patrimony. The collections these families left behind—many ultimately donated to the French state—were their response, tragic attempts to celebrate a nation that later betrayed them.