2025-11-09 11:05:PM <br/> Tags: #people #AmericanJewry #WorldJewry ![[image-172.png]] # Henry Morgenthau Sr. (1856-1946) - Henry Morgenthau Sr. was an American-Jewish politician and diplomat in the early 1900s. - Morgenthau was most notably the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during WWI. - Henry Morgenthau Sr. is the father of [[Henry Morgenthau Jr.]]. - Morgenthau Jr. was the Treasury Secretary under President Franklin Roosevelt. - Like his father, Morgenthau Jr. was highly involved in organized Jewry. #### Early Life - Rosenwald was born in Germany, and immigrated to the United States in 1866 at the age of 10. - *The first major wave of Jewish Immigration to the United States was that of German Jews during the mid 1800s (1820-1880).* - *These German Jews formed the basis of American organized Jewry.* - Morgenthau attended Colombia Law School, and became a lawyer. - Morgenthau was raised in Reform Judaism, though he lived a largely secular life. - Morgenthau was a member of Temple Emanu-El, New York's most prominent Reform synagogue. #### U.S Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire - In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Morgenthau as U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. *Morgenthau had been a major Wilson donor.* - Wilson explicitly sought a Jew for the role. *The Ottoman Empire controlled Palestine at the time, making its U.S. Ambassador crucially important to the Zionist project.* - Morgenthau, hesitant to take the position given Wilson's inference of Jewish loyalty to Palestine, eventually acquiesced at the urging of his associate, rabbi [[Stephen S. Wise]]. - Stephen Wise was among the most influential American Zionists of the first half of the 20th century. - Once Morgenthau arrived in Palestine in 1914 and perceived the conditions to be beyond poor, he used his Jewish connections for help. - Morgenthau sent an urgent letter requesting money to [[Louis Marshall]] and [[Jacob Schiff]], both very wealthy American Jews. - Marshall and Schiff immediately provided $50,000 in the form of physical gold. - The money was delivered to [[Arthur Ruppin]], the [[World Zionist Organization]] representative in Palestine, by Morgenthau's son-in-law [[Maurice Wertheim]]. - Morgenthau's 1914 fundraising for the [[Yishuv]] led to the founding of the [[American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)]] that same year. - After Morgenthau stepped down as Ottoman Ambassador in 1916, he went on a secret mission to the Ottoman Empire on behalf of the U.S. State Department, attempting to persuade the Ottomans to break away from the Central Powers. - On this mission, Morgenthau was accompanied by well connected Jewish operative, Zionist, and future Supreme Court Justice, [[Felix Frankfurter]]. #### Organized Jewry - Morgenthau was a close friend of rabbi [[Stephen S. Wise]]. - Morgenthau served as president of Wise's New York Free Synagogue, a Reform Judaism synagogue. - Morgenthau [was on the board](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/63538/pg63538-images.html#:~:text=of%20my%20work%20on%20the%20Board%20of%20Directors%20of%20the%20Mt.%20Sinai%20Hospital%2C%20the%20institution%20which%20my%20father%20helped%20so%20many%20years%20before) of New York's Mt. Sinai Hospital, a Jewish hospital. - Morgenthau ran in the same circles as the leaders of the [[American Jewish Committee (AJC)]], since its founding in 1906. - In 1938, he was elected by the AJC executive committee as an honorary "member at large." - Morgenthau went on fundraising tours for the [[American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)]], after his time as Ambassador, when he aided the founding of the JDC. - Morgenthau was completely opposed to Zionism, favoring Jewish assimilation instead of the inherent nationalist separatism of Zionism. - Morgenthau feared a Jewish state would encourage doubts of Jewish loyalty to the United States. - Morgenthau dedicated chapter 19 of his 1922 book *All In A Life-Time*, to his anti-Zionist positions. - Here is [Chapter 19 - Zionism A Surrender, Not A Solution](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/63538/pg63538-images.html#CHAPTER_XIX:~:text=CHAPTER%20XIX%0A%0AZIONISM%20A%20SURRENDER%2C%20NOT%20A%20SOLUTION%5B). - Later in the 1920s, Morgenthau began to back "soft" Zionism, philanthropic and humanitarian initiatives on behalf of the Jews in Palestine. #### References - “Henry Morgenthau Sr.” _Wikipedia_. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Morgenthau_Sr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Morgenthau_Sr). - “Private U.S. Aid Arrives for Jews in Palestine in WWI.” _CIE – Centre for Israel Education_, [https://israeled.org/henry-morgenthau/](https://israeled.org/henry-morgenthau/). - Morgenthau, Henry. _All in a Life-Time._ Project Gutenberg eBook., page [162](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/63538/pg63538-images.html#:~:text=My%20friend%2C%20Dr.%20Stephen%20S.%20Wise%20(of%20the%20Free%20Synagogue%20of%20New%20York%2C%20of%20which%20I%20was%20president)%2C), [105](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/63538/pg63538-images.html#:~:text=of%20my%20work%20on%20the%20Board%20of%20Directors%20of%20the%20Mt.%20Sinai%20Hospital%2C%20the%20institution%20which%20my%20father%20helped%20so%20many%20years%20before). - Skinner Jr., Harold Allen. “Morgenthau, Henry, Sr.” _1914-1918 Online – International Encyclopedia of the First World War_. October 7, 2020. [https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/morgenthau-henry-sr/](https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/morgenthau-henry-sr/). - _American Jewish Committee. Thirty-First Annual Report, 1938–1939._ New York: American Jewish Committee, 1939, 613. [https://www.bjpa.org/content/upload/bjpa/1938/1938_1939%20AJCAnnualReport.pdf](https://www.bjpa.org/content/upload/bjpa/1938/1938_1939%20AJCAnnualReport.pdf) *Covers Morgenthau's 1938 AJC membership*