P.34: Collection of Rabbi Stephen Wise, American Zionist leader

P.34: Collection of Rabbi Stephen Wise, American Zionist leader
 
 Stephen Samuel Wise (1874-1949), the son and grandson of rabbis, was born in Budapest in 1874. When Wise was an infant, his parents emigrated to the United States with their family. From a very young age, Wise aspired to be a rabbi, like his father Rabbi Aharon Wise. Wise completed his studies at Columbia University with Outstanding Honors at the age of 18, and was ordained as a rabbi in 1893. He served as the rabbi in several significant communities in New York and Oregon, and he was a trail-blazer in the area of inter-denominational cooperation in the United States. In 1902 he earned his Ph.D. degree from Columbia University.
 
 Wise began his Zionist activities among the Jews of the United States in the late 19th century. Although he was a Reform Rabbi, he was among the founders of the New York Federation of Zionist Societies, and afterwards the National Federation of American Zionists, which later became the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), serving as Vice President of the National Federation of American Zionists from 1918-1920, and as President from 1936-1938. He was also a founder of the American Jewish Congress (AJC) in 1918, and the World Jewish Congress (WJC) in 1936, serving as Founding President from 1936 until his death in 1949.
 
 During World War I, Wise served as liaison on behalf of United States President Woodrow Wilson. Wise was instrumental in obtaining support for the Balfour Declaration. 
 
 Wise was among the first Jewish public figures to warn of the danger inherent in Nazism. In 1933, within the context of the American Jewish Congress, he led efforts for a boycott of Germany by the Jewish community. Nevertheless, due to his close contacts with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom he greatly admired and whose policies he did not aggressively oppose, his activities during the Holocaust period are regarded as controversial. In 1941, Wise ordered the WJC to cease the sending of parcels to Europe, lest the WJC be accused of "Providing Support to the Enemy". In August 1942, even though Wise was aware of the Riegner Telegram (which displayed knowledge of the Final Solution), he delayed publication of its contents, waiting until November 1942 when Sumner Welles, the American Under Secretary of State, confirmed the details of the telegram. Only then did Wise call a press conference regarding the contents of the telegram. His disclosure, however, did not even appear in the front pages of the newspapers. He also failed to take a firm stand in favor of the cancellation of the emigration quotas for Jews during the late 1930s, lest antisemitism in the United States be further inflamed. Wise's cautious and ineffective attempts to influence United States policy and to encourage the US to act in order to rescue the Jews of Europe were unsuccessful, and Wise's friendship with President Roosevelt was regarded as subservience.
 
 Wise's personal archive is located today in the American Jewish Archives. The Yad Vashem Archive received microfilm copies of documentation from the American Jewish Archives in 2001. The archive was not copied in its entirety. The parts that were copied relate to the Holocaust period, extending over 12 microfilm reels. The Record Group contains personal documentation and correspondence of Stephen Wise on various subjects, and they throw light on his many-faceted activities during the Holocaust period.
 
 The following link provides search aids for the American Jewish Archives: http://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=365016