Communications

Judaism, Fall, 2000

DEAR EDITOR:

As a long-time member of the American Jewish Congress, and one who knew Rabbi Stephen Wise quite well (my wife and I were both delegates of the World Jewish Congress Meeting in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1948, at which time I was President of the Michigan Council of the American Jewish Congress), I note the flagrant error in the article by Sidney M. Bolkosky on page 310 of the current issue of Judaism ("Detroit's Reaction to the Holocaust and the New Immigrants," Summer 2000). Mr. Bolkosky should have or easily could have found out that Rabbi Stephen Wise was a long-time President of the American Jewish Congress and rather than opposing attempts to organize mass protest meetings was in the forefront of those attempting to have such meetings held.

I believe an apology to the American Jewish Congress and to the family of Rabbi Stephen Wise would be in order.

ALBERT J. SILBER

Southfield, Michigan

Sidney M. Bolkosky replies:

Mr. Silber and I agree on Rabbi Stephen Wise's attitude regarding American jewish protests on behalf of German Jews in the 1930s. I mentioned Rabbi Wise, then president of the American Jewish Congress, the strongest advocate of public opposition to silence, briefly to indicate the depth of ambivalence about this issue. The American Jewish Committee, conservative rabbis led by Cyrus Adler, and others seem to have won the day: from the boycott of Germany in March, 1933 (see William Orbach, "Shattering the Shackles of Powerlessness: The Debate Surrounding the Anti-Nazi Boycott of 1933-41," Modern Judaism 2.2 [May 1932]: 149-170) Rabbi Wise exhibited an ambivalence that reflected the dilemma of American Jews. This is clear in his correspondence with Philip Slomowitz, then editor of the Detroit Jewish Chronicle. As leader of the American Jewish Congress, Wise in 1933 advocated that Jews "speak up like men." Yet he acceded to the wishes of both Washington and the American Jewish Committee. Henry Feingold has point ed out that the advocates of aggressive rescue stood opposed to those of "quiet diplomacy" (Henry Feingold, "Who Shall Bear the Guilt for the Holocaust: The Human Dilemma," American Jewish History 68 [March 1979]: 261-282). The latter feared American antisemitism, heeded the apparent wishes of German Jews who called for more pacific responses, responded to government pressure and voiced the concerns of Jewish agencies around the country that worried about the potential financial strain that protests might produce. Torn between such considerations, with antisemitism in America intensifying, I think Wise reluctantly bowed to other authorities. So Philip Slomowitz indicated in an interview in 1987, and his correspondence with Rabbi Wise confirms this bitter pill.

It was not my intention to demean the important role Rabbi Wise played in bringing information to the American public. It is common knowledge, however, that in August 1942, as head of the World Jewish Congress, he collaborated in withholding the Riegner telegram that revealed explicitly the German "Final Solution" with details from Auschwitz, just as he had done with the earlier Bund report (Yehudah Bauer, American Jewry and the Holocaust [Wayne State University Press, 1981], pp. 123, 191). His reasons may have been soundly logical and the consequences may have been the same had he spoken out immediately, but he nevertheless once again bowed to other voices and forces. The sentence you found offensive may seem misleading to you, but it does state that the American Jewish Congress led the movement for public protest.

I have no reason to doubt the well-known integrity and dignity of Rabbi Wise. Alas, I did not know him, but only read his letters and what some other scholars have written about him. I trust Mr. Silber will allow what he calls "the flagrant error" to rest on this note.

SIDNEY M. BOLKOSKY

Dearborn, Michigan