2025-06-23 21:18 <br/> Tags: #AmericanJewry #people #Intel # Rudolf Sonneborn(1898-1986) - Sonneborn was an early Zionist American Jew known for operating an underground Jewish weapons smuggling network in the US in the 40s. - Sonneborn was a close ally of [[Louis Brandeis]]. - At Brandeis' request Sonneborn attended the 1919 Versailles peace conference with a Zionist delegation - [[Reuven Shiloah]] and [[David Ben-Gurion]] had concocted a plan for an arms smuggling network in 1945. - In a July 1945 meeting at Sonneborn's apartment, [[David Ben-Gurion]] instructed a group of American Jews to fund and arm the [[Haganah]] in Israel. - The product of the meeting is the [[Sonneborn Institute]] which illegally but successfully armed the [[Yishuv]] forces in Israel. - The Sonneborn Institute's arms smuggling was a major factor in the [[1948 Arab Israeli War]] - Sonneborn was a president of [[Israel Bonds]], the NYC-based program selling Israeli government bonds. - The sale of bonds was a large scale fundraiser promoted to the Jewish diaspora to fund the state of Israel. - Sonneborn was chairman of [[United Israel Appeal]] from 1951-54. - Sonneborn was married to New York Post owner [[Dorothy Schiff]] from 1953-60. <br/> ![[THE MATRIX/images 3/image-2.png|469x263]] *Sonneborn and Ben-Gurion at the 1951 MSG Israel Bonds ceremony* ## Recommended Reading Against Our Better Judgement - Alison Weir #### References - **“Rudolf Sonneborn.”** _Wikipedia_. Last modified **22 July 2025**, 15:38 UTC. Accessed **24 June 2025**. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Sonneborn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Sonneborn). - **“Israel Bonds: The FBI File,”** _Israel Lobby Archive_, accessed June 23, 2025, [https://www.israellobby.org/israel_bonds/default.asp](https://www.israellobby.org/israel_bonds/default.asp). - Weir, Alison. _Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel_. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014. - **“Dorothy Schiff.”** _Wikipedia_. Last modified **25 July 2025**, 12:55 UTC. Accessed 23 June 2025. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Schiff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Schiff).