The Koch Papers: My Fight Against Anti-Semitism

This is more than a book about Koch's successful and unsuccessful battles against anti-Semitism. This is a book that shows (by example) what it means to be a good citizen. And what it means to be a bad one. And Koch provides us with plenty of examples of both (sometimes in the same person). Here is David Dinkins denouncing Farrakhan. And here is Mayor Dinkins not acting promptly enough to stop the Crown Heights pogrom. Here is President Reagan insisting that Gorbachev let Jews leave the Soviet Union. And here is Reagan visiting the graves of the SS. Here is the legendary Mayor La Guardia blocking the deal that would have Hitler's Germany sell steel to New York on the grounds of "public safety". (Hate is not safe.) And here is Roosevelt who led this nation through a terrible war, sending out a coast guard cutter so that none of the 930 Jewish refugees from Hitler's Germany could swim to Florida. A Florida whose lights they could see from their ship. Almost every single man, woman, and child who was on that ship was murdered by the Nazis. Here is Powell and Koch going before the OSCE to put America's weight behind the fight against anti-Semitism. And here is Nancy Pelosi, refusing to speak out when James Morran, blames the Jewish community for the Iraq War. Here, in short, is a chronicle of how the United States has dealt with race relations in the twentieth century--who were the heroes in the fight for acceptance, tolerance, and perhaps even life; and who chose to stand by and do nothing. It is a book that should be read by anyone who wants a better grasp of what is going on in the United States (and the world) today.