Stephen Samuel Wise (March 17, 1874 – April 19, 1949) was an early 20th-century American
Reform rabbi and
Zionist leader in the
Progressive Era.
Born in Budapest, he was an infant when his family immigrated to New York. He followed his father and grandfather in becoming a rabbi, serving in New York and in Portland, Oregon. Wise was also a founding member of the
NAACP.
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Typical of the activists of the
Progressive Era, he attacked "many of the social and political ills of contemporary America." In 1906, concerning another rabbinical appointment,
Wise made a major break from the established Reform movement over the "question whether the pulpit shall be free or whether the pulpit shall not be free, and, by reason of its loss of freedom, reft of its power for good";
in 1907 he established his Free Synagogue, starting the "free Synagogue" movement.
Wise was an early supporter of Zionism. His support for, and commitment to Political Zionism was atypical of Reform Judaism, which had been historically non-Zionist since it adopted the
Pittsburgh Platform in 1885. He was a founder of the New York Federation of Zionist Societies in 1897, which led in the formation of the national
Federation of American Zionists (FAZ), a forerunner of the
Zionist Organization of America. At the
Second Zionist Congress (
Basel, 1898), Wise was a delegate and secretary for the English language. Wise served as honorary secretary of FAZ, in close cooperation with
Theodor Herzl, until the latter's death in 1904.
Joining U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Louis Brandeis,
Felix Frankfurter, and others,
Wise laid the groundwork for a democratically elected, nationwide organization of 'ardently Zionist' Jews, 'to represent Jews as a group and not as individuals'. In 1917 he participated in the effort to convince President Woodrow Wilson to approve the Balfour Declaration in support of Jewish settlement in Mandate Palestine. In 1918, following national elections, this Jewish community convened the first
American Jewish Congress in
Philadelphia's historic
Independence Hall.
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Wise was a close friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who turned to Wise for advice on issues concerning the Jewish community in the United States. In addition, Wise had also acted a liaison to previous President Wilson.
In 1925 Wise became chairman of Keren Hayesod [one of Israel's three "National Institutions", it's an official fundraising organization for Israel with branches in 45 countries], while continuing efforts to bring the Reform movement around to a pro-Zionist stance. With the rise to power of
Adolf Hitler's regime, Wise took the position that public opinion in the United States and elsewhere should be rallied against the Nazis. He used his influence with President Roosevelt both in this area as well as on the Zionist question.
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In 1933 while acting as honorary president of the American Jewish Congress, Wise led efforts for a
Jewish Boycott of Germany. He stated "The time for prudence and caution is past. We must speak up like men.
How can we ask our Christian friends to lift their voices in protest against the wrongs suffered by Jews if we keep silent? What is happening in Germany today may happen tomorrow in any other land on earth unless it is challenged and rebuked. It is not the German Jews who are being attacked. It is the Jews".
Wise, along with
Leo Motzkin and
Nahum Goldmann, encouraged the creation in August 1936 of the
World Jewish Congress in order to create a broader representative body to fight Nazism.
Wise served as founding president of the World Jewish Congress president until his death in 1949. He was succeeded by his friend Nahum Goldmann.
