April 19, 1949
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, 75, dies in a New York hospital 12 days after undergoing surgery for stomach cancer.
Born in Hungary in 1874, Wise moved to the United States with his family as a toddler. His father, Aaron, was a rabbi, and Stephen set his mind to follow in his footsteps. Wise graduated from Columbia University at 18 and was ordained as a rabbi in Vienna, Austria, by Rabbi Adolf Jellinek, considered one of the most prolific and gifted orators of modern Judaism.
Wise was a founder of the New York Federation of Zionist Societies in 1897 and helped create the Federation of Zionist Societies in 1898. His early work on behalf of Zionism connected him to Theodor Herzl, whom he met at the Second Zionist Congress in Basel. Wise agreed to serve as the secretary of the American chapter of the World Zionist Movement, a position he held through 1906. He was its vice president from 1918 to 1920 and president from 1936 to 1938. He founded the American Jewish Congress in 1920.
Wise championed social issues from his pulpit and in his communities. In 1900 he began a six-year term as rabbi of Temple Beth Israel in Portland, Oregon, where he was involved in interfaith work, social services and civic leadership.
When Wise was being considered for the pulpit at Temple Emanu–El in New York, he learned that the temple’s board of trusteed requires that his sermons be reviewed in advance. He immediately withdrew his candidacy. Instead, in October 1907 he and over 100 followers established a synagogue and religious school in New York, the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue.
Through his many leadership positions in the American Jewish and Zionist communities, Wise gained the ears of influential leaders. On matters of Palestine, he advised President Woodrow Wilson and the presidential foreign affairs adviser Col. Edward House, helping to persuade Wilson to endorse the Balfour Declaration in 1919.
Desiring to create a post-graduate Jewish institute that would welcome a more diverse student body than the existing rabbinic seminaries, Wise was the primary founder of the Jewish Institute for Religion (JIR) in 1922. The school accepted Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews, as well as Zionists and non-Zionists. In addition to study Bible and Talmud, JIR required classes in contemporary education, practical rabbinics, social justice and Modern Hebrew.
During World War II, Wise worked tirelessly to try to persuade the Roosevelt administration to do more for the Jews of Europe. After sending numerous letters to the president, he received only a vague reply: “This government has moved and continues to move, so far as the burden of the war permits, to help the victims of the Nazi doctrines of racial, religious and political oppression.”
In addition to his efforts on behalf of American Jewry and Zionism, Wise was an ardent supporter of many social causes. He was among the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909 and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 1920.
