Second of two parts.
Re: “Finally, Blame Is Falling on Roosevelt”
Dateline Jerusalem — One of the saddest, most shameful aspects during World War II was the role played by liberal American Jews in preventing the rescue of European Jews from genocide. Reform Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, probably the most prominent Jewish leader at the time, and many other Jewish leaders were upset with Peter Bergson for bringing pressure on the FDR administration and publicizing the need for rescue. Mr. Bergson, whose uncle was the chief rabbi in Israel, came to the U.S. with four other Israelis with information about what was going on in Europe. They took out a full page ad in The New York Times, got 400 Orthodox rabbis to march on the White House to get FDR to save the Jews, and even had rallies in Madison Square Gardens. But on the advice of Rabbi Wise, FDR refused to meet with the rabbis, Rabbi Wise and his cohorts in the Jewish community claimed they were afraid it would cause more anti-Semitism. But it is said that 200,000 Jews were eventually saved by the efforts of the Bergson Group. Unfortunately, FDR and the American Jewish community’s refusal and failure to act early caused the senseless murders of millions of European Jews.
Not only did Stephen Wise ask that Mr. Bergson be deported, he prevented shipments and food packages from American Jews to Poland. He requested that there be a complete embargo on all aid sent to Jews in occupied countries and that World Jewish Congress representatives in Europe were to immediately halt shipments of food to the ghettos. He thought it would be interpreted as giving aid to the enemy. He wanted to comply with the U.S. government’s economic embargo. Rabbi Wise allegedly threatened other rabbis about pressuring the government to save European Jews.
On one occasion Rabbi Wise told the son of Rabbi David Kestenbaum, who actively saved Jews from the Holocaust, “Tell your father that he has to be an American and not to fight hard for Jews in Europe. You have to be an American first.” Rabbi Wise and other representatives believed that the way to be an American was to blindly follow FDR. Rabbi Wise chose to protect his relationship with FDR rather than criticize him when FDR and his State Dept. did everything to prevent saving European Jews from extermination. In fact, a Treasury Dept. lawyer Josiah E. DuBois, Jr. uncovered written evidence in a policy memo from Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long that the State Dept. blocked Jewish refugees and Mr. DuBois threatened to publicly expose this scandal. It was only after that threat that FDR established the War Refugee Board to aid civilian victims of the Nazis.
Deja vu? Today the White House is making similar inferences that to go against the White House on the Iran deal is unAmerican and disloyal. Yet it is not a choice between Israel and America. It is in the best interest of America to support and protect the State of Israel, its only true ally in the Middle East. It is in the best interest of America not to appease Iran when it calls for “Death to America.” Like the Roosevelt administration, the Obama administration contacts influential American Jews to downplay the seriousness of the Iranian threats to Israel, Jews, and the U.S., and has instituted a campaign to discredit those against the Iran deal.
Jews Love Democrats
Today several prominent American Jewish leaders see a relationship to what occurred during the Holocaust and the current Iranian threat of exterminating Israel. Rabbi David Ellenson, president of Reform Judaism’s Hebrew Union College, stated that although Rabbi Wise led rallies against Hitler in the 1930s, he failed in the 1940s because of his “absolute and complete love” for FDR and his antipathy for the Bergson Group whose leaders were followers of Zionist Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Rabbi Ellenson said that concerns of an anti-Semitic backlash should not have thwarted efforts of American Jews from actively preventing the extermination of six million Jews. Rabbi Ellenson recently said that he hoped Jewish leaders in the U.S. will respond more effectively to dangers facing the Jewish people. He cited the Iranian nuclear threat.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said at a meeting with President Obama and other Jewish leaders, “Mr. President, in a few weeks, you and others will be going to Germany to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps. What meaning does this have when, while negotiating over the nuclear treaty with Iran, none of the six powers said a word when the ayatollah Tweeted about annihilating the State of Israel…” Rabbi Hier also said, “Hitler said he was going to murder all the Jews in a letter from 1919. He wound up doing it. If you hear the ayatollah saying that, every world leader should repudiate it immediately.” Yet although many challenged Mr. Obama about taking the threats of dictators seriously, the President did not address the issue.
FDR did not help the Jews until a scandal threatened his administration. He only aligned himself with assimilated Jews and those who blindly followed his policies. Following in his footsteps, Mr. Obama rewards Iran for its anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, anti-America rhetoric. Once again, liberal politically progressive Jews are blindly following Mr. Obama because he is a Democrat. Since FDR’s New Deal policies, the majority of Jews are Democrats. I often think some Jews of today would vote for Hitler if he were a Democrat. That is not a new phenomenon. In Germany, The Assn. of German National Jews supported the Third Reich and Hitler. There always will be self-loathing Jews who claim their Jewishness while supporting policies detrimental to Jews. It has been part of Jewish history. When Titus destroyed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, he was aided by an apostate Jew, Tiberias Alexander. With a choice between Judaism and liberalism, many contemporary Jews have chosen liberalism as their new religion.
The future of Israel and Jewry is in your hands. Just as during the Holocaust, half of the world’s Jews were exterminated. If Iran acts on its claim to annihilate Israel, half of the world’s Jews will again be exterminated. G-d forbid. I ask my readers, Jew and non-Jew, to contact your congressional representatives and senators. Urge them to vote against the Iran deal before there is another genocide.
L’hitraot. Shachar