Rafael Medoff on Franklin Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen Wise, and the Holocaust

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2020

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Franklin Delano Roosevelt has long been one of the most admired presidents among American Jews. He led the nation out of the depression and ultimately brought a previously isolationist America into World War II. Together with Churchill and Stalin, he defeated the greatest Jewish enemy of the 20th century—Hitler and the Third Reich that elected him.

And yet questions have always lingered about the president’s conduct. Why would this friend of the Jews close the gates of the country to those fleeing certain death? Why didn’t the Americans bomb the tracks to the concentration camps and disable or destroy the death factories that the Nazis were operating there day and night? Moreover, why was the American Jewish community, so silent in the face of this neglect? Why did they fail to advocate for the Jews of Europe when so much was at stake?

These are the tough questions that historian Rafael Medoff has been thinking and writing about his whole career. In his new book, The Jews Should Keep Quiet: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and the Holocaust, he examines the decisions of President Roosevelt and leading American rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and comes to see the American president as an anti-Semite and Rabbi Wise as a tragic sycophant. (You can read Mosaic's review of the book here.) On today’s podcast, he is interviewed by special guest host and Tikvah alumnus Daniel Kane.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble as well as “Ulterior” by Swan Production.

Transcript

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0:00.0	No figure was more significant to the United States in the middle of the 20th century than Franklin
0:13.1	Delano Roosevelt. The president elected four times over from 1933 until his death in 1945.
0:21.2	President Roosevelt was revered by many American Jews.
0:24.6	He appointed Jewish figures to his cabinet and at senior levels in his administration.
0:29.6	He brought isolationist America into the war effort, and together with Stalin and Churchill,
0:35.4	Roosevelt defeated the greatest Jewish enemy of the 20th century,
0:39.3	Hitler and the Third Reich that elected him. Admires of President Roosevelt are grateful
0:44.3	that he did bring America into the war and ultimately defeated the Nazis. But questions about
0:50.4	him have always lingered. Why wouldn't this friend of the Jews allow the persecuted Jews of Europe
0:55.3	to immigrate when the noose was tightening around their neck? Why, indeed, could the military
1:00.4	ships sent across the seas with American military supplies and weaponry, not convey those immigrants
1:05.9	back to the shores of the United States? Why didn't the Americans bomb the tracks to the concentration camps
1:11.7	and disable or destroy the death factories that the Nazis were operating there day and night
1:17.1	with such exquisite and grotesque efficiency? Why did this great friend of the Jews allow so much
1:23.2	Jewish blood to be spilt when saving the Jews would have cost so little. And that's not all,
1:29.3	but students of the showout ask how the American Jewish community could have been so indifferent
1:33.7	about European Jewry's suffering and slaughter. Where were they? Where was the American Jewish leadership?
1:39.6	Why did they fail to advocate for the Jews of Europe when so much was at stake?
1:45.6	Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. These are the big questions that historian Raphael
1:51.3	Madoff has been thinking about and writing about his whole career. His new book is The Jews
1:56.2	should keep quiet. And in it, he examines President Roosevelt and the most significant Jewish leader in those
2:02.0	years, Rabbi Stephen Weiss, and he comes to see the president as an anti-Semite, and Rabbi Weiss
	...

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