Wise, Stephen Samuel 1874-1949

WISE, STEPHEN SAMUEL 1874-1949

Rabbi

Productive Career

Stephen S. Wise came to the United States as a child when his father, also a rabbi, accepted a congregation in New York City. He graduated from the City College of New York and took a Ph.D. at Columbia University. He served a series of congregations, including one in Portland, Oregon. He returned to New York and in 1907 founded the Free Synagogue of New York, where he spent the rest of his career as a leading rabbi in Reform Judaism and a leading reformer in New York politics, He founded the Jewish Institute of Religion, now a part of the Hebrew Union College.

Zionism

Wise was one of the first Reform rabbis to champion the cause of Zionism, the return of Jews to Palestine. He helped found the Federation of American Zionists in 1897 and served as its first secretary. He also helped organize its successor, the Zionist Organization of America,

Against Nazism

When Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, Wise attempted to encourage and organize opposition to the Nazis' anti-Semitic actions. In March 1933 he organized a mass meeting in Madison Square Garden that attracted an estimated twenty-two thousand people inside the building and another thirty thousand outside. The meeting was addressed by Wise and former governor of New York Al Smith, Sen. Robert Wagner, and Bishops William Manning of the Episcopal Church and Francis McConnell of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Wise helped organize a boycott of German products and worked in vain to stop American participation in the Olympic Games, which were held in Berlin in 1936.

Jewish Immigration

As Nazi persecution of German Jews intensified, Rabbi Wise attempted to ease immigration to the United States over vigorous opposition. This opposition came in part from concern about bringing new workers into the country when unemployment remained high, but many opponents simply did not want to allow the immigration of Jews. Jewish emigration from Germany increased during the decade, rising from 1,372 in 1933 to 5,800 in 1937.

Seeking a Jewish Refuge

As it became clear that the Western democracies would not offer a refuge for the victims of Nazi persecution, Rabbi Wise intensified his Zionist efforts. In response to Jews who feared that Zionism stoked domestic anti-Semitism by suggesting that Jews were divided in their national loyalties, Rabbi Wise responded, "I have been an American all my life, but I have been a Jew for four thousand years."

Sources:

Carl H. Voss, Rabbi and Minister: The Friendship of Stephen S. Wise and John Haynes Holmes (New York: Prometheus, 1980);

Stephen S. Wise, The Challenging Years (New York: Putnam, 1949).