Pillar of Fire: A Biography of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise by A. James Rudin

Abstract

Reviewed by: Pillar of Fire: A Biography of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise by A. James Rudin Richard Breitman (bio) Pillar of Fire: A Biography of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise. By A. James Rudin. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech University Press, 2015. 416pp. In an era of widespread anti-Semitism, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise pushed Jewish involvement in U.S. politics, campaigns for social justice and civil rights, and the American Zionist movement. Controversies followed virtually every step of his career. His ambition and ego only magnified them. The Holocaust has passed the stamp of controversy on to us. In this full biography, A. James Rudin portrays Wise’s early career well. Wise battled for and won a “free pulpit” (rabbinical independence and eventually financial freedom) at congregations in Portland and New York City, ending up at his longtime home, New York’s Free Synagogue. Wise opened the way for recent non-Orthodox Eastern European immigrants to enter and appreciate Jewish life in New York City. He also [End Page 112] built ties between Jews and men and women of other faiths, making his vision seem relevant to our day. Rudin notes Wise’s early achievements inside and outside his congregations without overlooking his personal flaws, philandering and intense infighting among them. Wise often challenged older Jewish organizations more elitist in composition or low-key in methods. The challenges of the times suited a more democratic and activist organization, and as head of the American Jewish Congress Wise eventually became by far the most famous rabbi in the country. Wise benefitted from supporting Woodrow Wilson for the presidency in 1912, and at age 40 (two years later), he was “at the peak of his powers” (134). But American Zionists were then at best a substantial minority of the Jewish community. Moreover, the 1920s were a lost decade for the progressive causes dear to Wise. Nor was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s election in 1932 a triumph for Wise, who had clashed with him, especially over FDR’s unwillingness to break with Tammany Hall until he had secured the presidential nomination. Wise actually voted for socialist candidate Norman Thomas in 1932, and partly as a result he had no personal access to the president until 1936. These events complicate Rudin’s narrative of Wise gradually becoming too comfortable with the powers that be. The last third or so of this biography focuses mainly on Wise’s efforts during the era of Nazi Germany, World War II and the Holocaust. Rudin declares that any overall judgment of Wise ultimately rests on his personal relationship with FDR. Rudin’s view in brief: Wise got too close to a charismatic figure and got little in return. The author molds his material accordingly but runs into problems. In a chapter entitled “Confronting Nazism in the 1930s,” there is a tangent about anti-Semitic Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long, who attained that position in 1940. Rudin then makes a sweeping judgment about barriers to immigration for the entire period 1933–1945, although they changed repeatedly. The author mistakenly places Congressman Sol Bloom as the State Department representative at the 1938 Evian Refugee Conference, apparently confusing Evian with the 1943 Bermuda Conference on Refugees, which Bloom did attend. A little later, Long resurfaces to lead the State Department in preventing the ship the St Louis from docking in Florida in June 1939, though Long was not yet in the State Department. Here and elsewhere late in the book, Rudin appears to have lost control of his material. Partly because of disorganization and departures from chronology, readers get only a limited sense of how Wise adapted to changing conditions and conflicting goals. Rudin lists this reviewer and my co-author Allan J. Lichtman among historians who have defended FDR against all Holocaust-related criticism. [End Page 113] But our book FDR and the Jews (2013) states clearly that the U.S. could have and should have done more to mitigate the Holocaust. In his conclusion, Rudin charges Wise with sitting on the now famous telegram sent by World Jewish Congress representative Gerhart Riegner (he misspells the first name as Gerhard) with information about Hitler’s plan to destroy the Jews...