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Stephen Samuel Wise
Stephen SamuelWise(March 17, 1874 – April 19, 1949) was an early theProgressive Era. Born in Budapest, he was aninfant when his family immigrated to New York. He followed his father andgrandfather in becoming a rabbi, serving in New York and in Portland, Oregon.Wise was also a founding member of theNAACP.
Early life
Wise was bornon March 17, 1874, inBudapestin theAustro-HungarianEmpire, the son and grandson ofrabbisand theirwives. His grandfather,Joseph Hirsch Weiss, was rabbi of a small townnear Budapest. His father,Aaron Wise,earned a PhD and ordination in Europe. Wise's maternal grandfather,Móric Fischer de Farkasházy, createdtheHerend Porcelain Company.When Wise's father sought to unionize the company, Moric gave the familyone-way tickets to New York. Wise was an infant when they immigrated, and hisfather Aaron Wise became rabbi ofCongregation Baith Israel Anshei EmesinBrooklyn,New York.
His fatherbecame rabbi ofRodeph Sholom, aManhattanConservativecongregation of wealthyGerman Jews.
Education
Wise attendedlocal public schools. He received his higher education at theCollege of the City of New York,Columbia College(B.A.1892,Cum laude), andColumbia University(PhD 1902). Later hepursued rabbinical studies under rabbisRichard J. H. Gottheil,AlexanderKohut, Gersoni, Joffe, and Margolis. He was ordained as rabbi byRabbiAdolph Jellinekof Vienna in 1893. In1933, Wise received an honoraryL.H.D.fromBates College.
Career
In 1893, Wisewas appointed assistant rabbi of CongregationB'nai Jeshurun, Manhattan;its senior rabbi was Henry S. Jacobs. Later in the same year, Wise became thesenior rabbi of the same congregation.
In 1900, he wascalled as rabbi toCongregation Beth IsraelinPortland,Oregon. Typical of the activists of theProgressiveEra, he attacked "many of the social and political ills ofcontemporary America." In 1906, concerning another rabbinical appointment,Wise made a major break from the establishedReformmovementover the "question whether the pulpit shall be free or whether the pulpitshall not be free, and, by reason of its loss of freedom, reft of its power forgood"in 1907 he established hisFree Synagogue, starting the "freeSynagogue" movement.
Wise was anearly supporter of Zionism. His support for, and commitment toPoliticalZionismwas atypical ofReformJudaism, which had been historically non-Zionist since it adoptedthePittsburgh Platformin 1885. He was afounder of the New York Federation of Zionist Societies in 1897, which led inthe formation of the nationalFederation of American Zionists(FAZ),a forerunner of theZionist Organization of America.At theSecond Zionist Congress(Basel, 1898), Wise was adelegate and secretary for the English language. Wise served as honorarysecretary of FAZ, in close cooperation withTheodor Herzl,until the latter's death in 1904.
In 1915, Wisewas one of the founding members of theAmerican Committee on ArmenianAtrocities, which later became Near East Relief. HistorianClaireMouradianstates that his activities over thirty years (fromtheHamidian massacresto the creation of theRepublic of Turkey) "reveal a constant concern for raising awareness infavor of the Armenians, whose fate seemed to be a premonition of what might beawaiting Jews in Europe".
Joining U.S.Supreme Court JusticeLouisBrandeis,FelixFrankfurter, and others, Wise laid the groundwork for ademocratically elected, nationwide organization of 'ardently Zionist' Jews, 'torepresent Jews as a group and not as individuals'.In 1917 he participatedin the effort to convince PresidentWoodrowWilsonto approve theBalfour declarationin support of Jewishsettlement in Mandate Palestine.In 1918, following national elections,this Jewish community convened the firstAmerican Jewish Hall.
In December1925, Wise delivered a sermon about Jesus the Jew, causing an uproarculminating in an edict of condemnation against him by theAgudathHarabonim(Union of Orthodox Rabbis).
In 1938, aspresident of the American Jewish Congress, Wise said that adoption of theAlaska proposal in theSlatteryReportwould deliver "a wrong and hurtful impression ...that Jews are taking over some part of the country for settlement."
Friendship withEinstein
AlbertEinsteinfound Wise's mixture of enlightened views andcommitted Zionism most agreeable, and they became friends when Einstein movedto the US. In a tribute to Wise on his 60th birthday, Einstein said,"Above all, what I admire in him is his bold activity toward building theself-respect of the Jewish people, combined with profound tolerance andpenetrating understanding of everything human."
Views on JeromeDavis
During thetrial of the sociologistJerome Davis, Wise stated, based on morethan 30 years of acquaintance, that Davis had "never, never" beensympathetic to communism.
Public andcharitable offices
In 1902 Wiseofficiated as first vice-president of theOregon StateConference of Charities and Correction. In 1903 he was appointedCommissioner of Child Labor for the State of Oregon, and founded thePeoples' Forum of Oregon.These activities initiated a lifelong commitment to social justice, stemmingfrom his embrace of a Jewish equivalent of theSocial Gospelmovementin Christianity.
InAHistory of Jews in AmericahistorianHoward Sacharwrote,"In 1914, Professor EmeritusJoel Spingarnof Columbia Universitybecame chairman of the NAACP and recruited for its board such Jewish leaders asJacob Schiff,Jacob Billikopf, and Rabbi Stephen Wise."
In 1922 Wisefounded theJewish Institute of Religion, aneducational center in New York City to train rabbis inReformJudaism. It was merged into theHebrew Union Collegea year after hisdeath.In 1922 Wise was one of the founding trustees of the PalestineEndowment Funds, Inc., along withJulian Mack.
When theFederation of American Zionists(FAZ)was originally established, Wise was appointed the position secretary. Afterthe organization transformed into theZionist Organization of America,Rabbi Wise fulfilled positions as both president and vice president during hislifetime.
Wise was aclose friend of PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt, who turned to Wisefor advice on issues concerning the Jewish community in the United States. Inaddition, Wise had also acted a liaison to previous President Wilson.
At the1924 Democratic National Convention,he was a delegate from New York; at the opening of the sixth session on June28, 1924, he offered theinvocation. During the 1928 campaign, Wise was a prominentsupporter ofDemocratAl Smith.[18]
In 1925 Wisebecame chairman ofKeren Hayesod, while continuing efforts tobring the Reform movement around to a pro-Zionist stance. With the rise topower ofAdolf Hitler's regime, Wise took the positionthat public opinion in the United States and elsewhere should be ralliedagainst the Nazis. He used his influence with President Roosevelt both in thisarea as well as on the Zionist question.
In 1933 whileacting as honorary president of the American Jewish Congress, Wise led effortsfor aJewish Boycott of Germany. He stated"The time for prudence and caution is past. We must speak up like men. Howcan we ask our Christian friends to lift their voices in protest against thewrongs suffered by Jews if we keep silent? What is happening in Germany todaymay happen tomorrow in any other land on earth unless it is challenged andrebuked. It is not the German Jews who are being attacked. It is theJews". Urged by Wise to protest to the German government, U.S. Secretaryof StateCordell Hullissued a mild statement tothe American ambassador to Berlin complaining that "unfortunate incidentshave indeed occurred and the whole world joins in regretting them."
Wise, alongwithLeo MotzkinandNahumGoldmann, encouraged the creation in August 1936 of theWorld Jewish Congressin order tocreate a broader representative body to fight Nazism. Wise served as foundingpresident of the World Jewish Congress president until his death in 1949. Hewas succeeded by his friend Nahum Goldmann.
On November 24,1942, after being informed by U.S. Under-secretary of StateSumner Welles,Wise held a press conference in Washington, D.C. and announced that the Nazishad a plan for the extermination of all European Jews, and had already killed 2million; it didn't make front-page news. The information was based on theRiegnerTelegram, a message sent to Wise in August 1942 byGerhart MRiegner, then representative of theWorld Jewish Congressin Geneva,informing the Allies about the plans of the so-called "FinalSolutionof theJewishquestion" for the first time. Together with Nahum Goldmann,Wise spread the information about the ongoing genocide to Sweden and othercountries by telegram.
Wise was anardent opponent of plans to create a Jewish community inSuriname.In a letter toKeren Hayesodemissary Ida Silverman hewrote, "I personally believe, that Steinberg needs to be lynched or hangedand quartered, if that would make his lamented demise more certain."Isaac Nachman Steinbergbeing theco-founder of the Freeland League, a territorialist organization that wasleading negotiations with the Surinamese government.
During the waryears, Wise was elected co-chair of theAmericanZionist Emergency Council, a forerunner of theAmerican Israel Public AffairsCommittee.
Works
Criticism
HistorianSaul Friedländersaid that Wise preventedthe shipment of food packages from American Jews toGerman-occupied Polandfor fear thatthe Allies would be interpreted the aid as being sent to the enemy, who writes:"In the spring of 1941 Rabbi Wise had decided to impose a complete embargoon all aid sent to Jews in occupied countries, in compliance with the U.S.government's economic boycott of the Axis powers (whereby every food packagewas seen as direct or indirect assistance to the enemy)... Strict orders weregiven to World Jewish Congress representatives in Europe to halt forthwith anyshipment of packages to the ghettos, despite the fact that these packages didusually reach their destination, the Jewish Self-Help Association in Warsaw.'All these operations with and through Poland must cease at once,' Wise cabledto Congress delegates in London and Geneva, 'and at once in English means ATONCE, not in the future.'"
In the 2002bookA Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust,David WymanandRafael Medoffarguethat Wise displayed a lack of leadership which hindered the Holocaust rescueattempts of theBergson Groupand others.
Wise was alsopartially successful in preventing some performances, but not the nationalbroadcast, of the all-star pageantWe Will NeverDie, which sought to bring attention to the plight of Jews inEurope.
Personal life
WisemarriedLouise Waterman. The couple had twochildren: writer James Wise (born 1901); and JudgeJustine WisePolier(1903-1987).
Wise died onApril 19, 1949, in New York City, aged 75. He is interred in an unmarkedmausoleuminWestchester Hills CemeterylocatedinHastings-on-Hudson, New York.
TheStephen Wise Free Synagogue, which hefounded in 1907 and served as Rabbi until his death, is named after him,[29]asisStephen S. Wise Templein LosAngeles, which was founded by Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin in 1964. A street is namedafter him inJerusalemnext to theIsrael Museum,and others inHaifa,Rishon LeZionandPetah Tikvah.
