New York City – Rabbi Stephen Wise, the most prominent US Jewish leader during World War II, failed miserably in his response to the Holocaust, according to the president of Reform Judaism’s Hebrew Union College in Manhattan.
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Rabbi David Ellenson was the latest of several prominent American Jewish leaders who have censured the Jewish leadership of the 1940s, but his remarks were especially significant in that they took aim at Wise, who founded the Jewish Institute of Religion to train rabbis in Reform Judaism. It was merged into the Hebrew Union College a year after his death in 1949.
“In the 1930s, it was Wise who led the rallies against Hitler, so why did he fail so horribly in the 1940s?” Ellenson asked at a Holocaust conference organized by the Washington-based David S. Wyman Institute at Fordham University Law School in Manhattan on Sunday.
He said part of the explanation lies in Wise’s “absolute and complete love” for president Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as his antipathy toward the Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky, and toward the Bergson Group, whose leaders were followers of Jabotinsky, something that “helped blind him” to the need for more activism.
Ellenson said concerns of provoking an anti-Semitic backlash should not have thwarted the American Jewish leadership from actively working to prevent the extermination of six million Jews.
“Jewish leaders have an obligation to be sufficiently flexible and imaginative to deal with unprecedented situations,” he said.
He said he hoped that today’s leaders would respond more effectively to contemporary dangers facing the Jewish people, such as the Iranian nuclear threat.
“Stephen Wise spent too much time trying to protect FDR from criticism, and not enough time focusing on how to convince Roosevelt to help rescue Jews from Europe,” said Wyman Institute director Dr. Rafael Medoff. “Rabbi David Ellenson is to be commended for acknowledging the mistakes of his predecessor and trying to ensure that the failures of the 1940s will not be repeated.”
New York Jewish Community Relations Council head Michael Miller and two-time Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations chairman Seymour Reich have strongly criticized the 1940s American Jewish leadership for undermining the work of the independent Bergson Group.
Zionism rears its ugly head, finally some emess is spoken by secular zionists. More proof Zionism is NOT Judaism… Zionism and Torah dont mix!!!
TIRED OF THE BLAME GAME,RABBI WISE ACTED NO DIFFRENTLY THEN THE MUKATCHER AND BELZER REBBE IN THE 40 TELLING PEOPLE NOT TO LEAVE.READ ANN POTRMANS AND EPHRAIM ZUROFFS BOOKS.WISE BEGGED THE RABBIS TO MARCH IN 1942.THEY CALLED HIM EVREYNAME IN THE BOOK.400 RABBIS RELUCTANTLY MARCHED IN 1944 WHEN IT WAS TOO LATE IN THE GAME.
mark has his facts screwed up. like most reform jews, wise was beholden to anyone with authority that wasnt jewish. he was roosevelts lap dog. he prevented the bergson group from meeting influential people whenever possible. he was a glory hound.
the 400 rabbis didnt march reluctantly…they marched with great sorrow knowing that every day cost thousands of lives. the rov of my shul z”tl was one of the 400.
RABBI BARUCH RABINOWITZ ACTUALLY RIPPED UPPED UP MY UNCLES TICKETS TO AMERICA WIFE FIVE KIDS WENT TO AUSHWITZ
Good morning, Dr. David Kranzler (author of Thy Brother’s Blood) ztl told me that around a decade ago and had all the paperwork to prove it.
Excuse me, HAGAON HARAV Baruch Rabinowitz ZICHRON TZADIK L’BRACHA was my grandmother’s brother and I am close to some of his children, my mother’s first cousins. My fete Boruch served as the chief rabbi of Holon in Israel and the reason why his son was given the rebbeship while my fete was still alive was mainly because of his political views.
You, Mark, best pray really hard to Hashem for forgiveness for talking such evil loshon hara about someone who was a tzaddik and did what he believed was right even when it wasn’t the best thing to do for his kavod.
My disgust knows no bounds. You may as well go around saying you saw Elvis Presley rise from the dead because the garbage level of what you’re spewing is one and the same.
METALISRAEL I APOLIGIZE DEEPLY TO YOU IN THESE HOLY DAYS. I LIKED AND RESPECTED THE MUNKATCHER DYNASTY AND VISIT THE REBBE OFTEN IN BORO PARK. HE IS AMAZING MAN WITH GREAT AHAVATH YISROEL.HOWEVER THE MINCHUS ELUZER WAS TOTALLY OBSSESD WITH ZIONISIM AND WAS WRONG.ZEB JABOTINSKY CAME TO MUNKATCH AND LECTURED TO THE JEWS TO FLEE AND SPOKE AT THE FIXLER HOUSE,BUT WAS RIDICULED AND MOCKED FOR HIS VIEWS.
FACTS ARE FACTS RABBI BORUCHEL FLED THE EUROPE PROMISING TO HELP RESCUE THE FLOCK WHILE ALL THE ZIONISTS YOU SEE IN THE MUKATH VIDEO LEFT TO ISREAL AND SUVIVED.RAB BORECHEL AND THE SATMER REBBE WERE REFUSED THE JOB OF CHIEF RABBIS OF ISREAL BECAUSE OF THEIR VIEW THEY BOTH LEFT ISREAL AND BECAME THEIR BIGGEST ENEMY.AGAIN.LOOK AT THE RESULTS MUNKATCH TODAY IS DEAD AND ISREAL HAS THE LARGEST YESHIVA COMMUNITIES IN HISTORY, AGAIN I APOLIGIZE ,RAV BORUCHE WAS A GREAT MAN AS WELL AS HIS FATHER THE HOLY MINCHUS ELUZER……..BUT LIKE THE MERAGLIM FAILED A IMPORTANT TEST OF JUDGEMENT IN THE SHOA.BTW MY GRANDFATHER A GREAT ZADDIK AND THE HEAD OF THE BAIS DIN MUNKATCH IS BURIED RIGHT NEXT TO THE HOLY MINCHUS ELUZER IN MUNKATCH. A SWEET YEAR TO ALL AM ECHAD
MARK Says:
The reason Roosevelt refused to meet with the Rabbis in 1944 was because Wise told him not to. As we approach the coming year and ask “who will live and who will die, who in his time, and who not in his time” who shall we blame for the deaths of people that we feel should have lived longer? The Rabbis? maybe we should blame the modern orthodox for the deaths of orthodox Jews in the world trade center? If they would have stayed in baid medresh on welfare they would have been alive. It’s only because they embraced the modern orthodox principal of working (not) that they were in the world trade center when the planes hit. To blame anyone is to forget about G-d. Forgetting about G-d is what modern orthodox is all about. Ksiva vichasimah toiva.