Hay, John Milton°

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HAY, JOHN MILTON°

HAY, JOHN MILTON ° (1838–1905), U.S. statesman who supported Romanian and Russian Jewish rights. Hay was a secretary of state under presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt from 1898 to 1905. He was involved in U.S. diplomatic representations during this period on behalf of Romanian and Russian Jews. In 1902, at the urging of American Jewish leaders including Oscar S. Straus and Jacob H. Schiff, Hay addressed a note to the signatories of the Berlin Treaty of 1878 protesting Romania's violation of that treaty by its restrictions on Jews. Following the *Kishinev pogrom of 1903, again after Jewish pressure and with an eye to domestic political considerations, Hay publicized a protest petition drawn up by B'nai B'rith.

bibliography:

T. Denett, John Hay: From Poetry to Politics (1933), 395–400; N.W. Cohen, Dual Heritage (1969), 83–131.

[Morton Rosenstock]