Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, 1893-1963

Silver, a child immigrant to New York from Lithuania, was a leading American advocate and fundraiser for Zionism and headed the U.S. Zionist establishment in the late 1940s. He rallied support for a Jewish state among fellow Reform Jews, Jews in general and Americans as a whole, including President Harry Truman. He made a powerful speech to the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine in May 1947.

Photo: Courtesy Cleveland Memory, Cleveland State University Library Special Collections