ALL BEGINNINGS ARE DIFFICULT, the talmudic adage has it, but so it would appear are endings. I originally conceived this project in the late 1990s. Fresh from the publication of my book on the development of secular Jewish thought in Russia at the start of the twentieth century, I was eager to begin what I was convinced would be a pioneering study of continental European Jewry after the war. Over the course of two decades, I have gradually and painstakingly honed it down to its present more modest and manageable form. It was not merely deciding on the scope of the work that proved challenging and time-consuming. Though I did manage to present my findings at conferences and in published articles, writing competed with and often lost out to my numerous commitments as a professor of history and director of the Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies at Wayne State University. Basic research also consumed much of my free time, taking me on several extended trips around the world—from New York to Washington DC and from Cincinnati to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, London, Southampton and Jerusalem— in search of elusive and widely scattered documents. Now that the project is finally completed, however, I can honestly say that it has been a labour of frustration, commitment, and love.

I am indebted to the archivists and librarians at the Central Zionist Archives and the Joint Distribution Committee Archives in Jerusalem; the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine and the Consistoire Central Israélite de France in Paris; the Musée Juif de Belgique in Brussels; the Hartley Library at the University of Southampton; the British Museum; the Wiener Library in London; the Joint Distribution Committee, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the New York Public Library in New York; the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC; and the American Jewish Archives at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. Too numerous to mention individually by name, they shared in my enthusiasm for the topic and provided me with constant encouragement and sage advice. I only hope that the research and analysis contained in the book prove worthy of their efforts to assist me.

In the course of my research, I have also greatly benefited from generous funding from Wayne State University, the University of Southampton, and the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati.