Wise, Stephen S.

(1884–1949)

   Wise was a Reform rabbi and one of the founders of the World Jewish Congress in 1936. Following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Rabbi Wise took a leadership role in organizing the boycott of German goods. Rabbi Wise was a friend of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and as a consequence of this relationship, he sought to avoid criticism of the president in regard to the president’s response to the refugee crisis of the 1930s and to the murder of European Jewry during the early 1940s. By 1943, Wise’s leadership was seriously compromised when he adhered to the request of the State Department that he withhold information he had received in regard to the Nazi extermination policy against the Jews. His belief that the contents of the Riegner cable (August 1942) be verified before the information was made public was based on Wise’s fear that if the information concerning the Final Solution proved unfounded, Jews would be accused of atrocity-mongering. Wise’s eventual disillusionment with the president followed Wise’s presentation of a booklet entitled “Blue Print for Extermination” (8 December 1942) that detailed the Nazi extermination campaign.

   The president subsequently issued a statement that condemned Nazi atrocities but refused to support Wise’s request for a rescue plan that would include opening the doors to Palestine for Jews who could be liberated from the Nazis.