American Minute with Bill Federer: Jewish Persecution in Russia & Europe, and U.S. leaders who supported the creation of the modern State of Israel

The Play, “Fiddler on the Roof,” recounts the story of Jewish persecution in Eastern Europe and Russia.

President Abraham Lincoln, shortly after he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, met with Canadian Christian Zionist, Henry Wentworth Monk regarding the oppression of the Jews in Russia and Turkey.

Lincoln showed sympathy for Henry Wentworth Monk’s plea of “restoring (Jews) to their national home in Palestine.”

Lincoln noted this was “a noble dream and one shared by many Americans.”

On May 22, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant wrote to Congress:

“In answer to a resolution of the House of Representatives … requesting me to join the Italian Government in a protest against the intolerant and cruel treatment of the Jews in Romania, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State relative to the subject.”

President Chester A. Arthur had stated, December 4, 1882:

“Our long-established friendliness with Russia … has prompted me to proffer the earnest counsels of this Government that measures be adopted for suppressing the proscription which the Hebrew race in that country has lately suffered.”

In 1883, Jewish poet Emma Lazarus wrote “The New Colossus” which was inscribed in 1886 on the pedestal of the The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World:

“Give me your tired, your poor

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

In 1891, pogroms incited by Czar Alexander III provoked an outcry by many prominent Americans, including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Melville Fuller and Speaker of the House Thomas Reed.

Rev. William E. Blackstone and Cardinal James Gibbons presented a petition on behalf of the persecuted Jews of Russia to President Benjamin Harrison and Secretary of State James Blaine.

The 1891 petition was signed by notable leaders, including:

The petition stated:

“Why shall not the powers which under the treaty of Berlin, in 1878, gave Bulgaria to the Bulgarians and Serbia to the Serbians now give Palestine back to the Jews? …

These provinces, as well as Romania, Montenegro, and Greece, were wrested from the Turks and given to their natural owners. Does not Israel as rightfully belong to the Jews?”

Rev. Blackstone’s petition, which he also sent to Queen Victoria and Czar Alexander III, continued:

“We believe this is an appropriate time for all nations and especially the Christian nations of Europe to show kindness to Israel.

A million of exiles, by their terrible suffering, are piteously appealing to our sympathy, justice, and humanity.

Let us now restore to them the land of which they were so cruelly despoiled by our Roman ancestors.”

Rev. William E. Blackstone, who later corresponded with Theodor Herzl, called for the first international conference:

“to consider the Israelite claim to Palestine as their ancient home, and to promote in any other just and proper way the alleviation of their suffering condition.”

President Benjamin Harrison wrote DECEMBER 9, 1891:

“This Government has found occasion to express … to the Government of the Czar its serious concern because of the harsh measures now being enforced against the Hebrews in Russia …

… By the revival of anti-semitic laws, long in abeyance, great numbers of those unfortunate people have been constrained to abandon their homes

and leave the Empire by reason of the impossibility of finding subsistence within the pale to which it is sought to confine them …”

He continued:

“The immigration of these people to the United States — many others countries being closed to them – is largely increasing …

It is estimated that over 1,000,000 will be forced from Russia within a few years …”

Harrison went on:

“The Hebrew is never a beggar; he has always kept the law– life by toil –often under severe and oppressive civil restrictions …

It is also true that no race, sect, or class has more fully cared for its own than the Hebrew race …”

President Harrison concluded:

“This consideration, as well as the suggestion of humanity, furnishes ample ground for the remonstrances which we have presented to Russia.”

On December 2, 1895, President Grover Cleveland wrote to Congress:

“Correspondence is on foot touching the practice of Russian consuls … to interrogate citizens as to their race and religious faith, and upon ascertainment thereof to deny to Jews authentication of passports of legal documents for use in Russia …

… Such a proceeding imposes a disability … and … is an obnoxious invasion … It has elicited fitting remonstrance.”

President Theodore Roosevelt addressed Congress, December 6, 1904:

“It is inevitable that such a nation should desire eagerly to give expression to its horror on an occasion like that of the massacre of the Jews in Kishenef.”

President Woodrow Wilson made a plea for aid to stricken Jewish people, January 11, 1916:

“Whereas in the various countries now engaged in war there are nine millions of Jews, the great majority of whom are destitute of food, shelter, and clothing …

… have been driven from their homes without warning, deprived of an opportunity to make provision for their most elementary wants, causing starvation, disease and untold suffering; and

… Whereas the people of the United States of America have learned with sorrow of this terrible plight of millions of human beings and have most generously responded to the cry for help …

… Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States … do appoint and proclaim January 27, 1916, as a day upon which

the people of the United States may make such contributions as they feel disposed for the aid of the stricken Jewish people.”

On August 21, 1922, President Warren G. Harding gave a Rosh Hashannah greeting to Jews in their year Tishri 5683 A.M. (Anno Mundi — Year Since Creation)

Rosh Hashannah is the beginning of the Jewish New Year, commemorating the creation of Adams and Eve, and is celebrated by the blowing of the shofar horns.

President Harding wrote (The Jewish Forum: The Leading Jewish Monthly in English, Sept. 1922):

“The commemoration of this year of Rosh Hashannah, the New Year day of the Jewish people, will mark the end of a year peculiarly notable in Jewish annals.

It has seemed the definite assurances to the Jewish people that their long aspiration for re-establishment of Jewish nationality in the homeland of this great people is to be definitely realized.

This is an event of notable significance not only to the Jewish people but to their friends and well-wishers everywhere, among whom the American nation has always been proud and numbered.

(signed) Warren G. Harding.”

Will and Ariel Durant wrote in The Lessons of History (1968):

“Jews gave the Bible and Christianity to Europe, and much of the Koran to Mohammed.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote to Rabbi Stephen Wise of United Palestine Appeal, February 6, 1937:

“The American people … have watched with sympathetic interest the effort of the Jews to renew in Palestine the ties of their ancient homeland and to reestablish Jewish culture in the place where for centuries it flourished …

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the keystone of contemporary reconstruction activities in the Jewish homeland.

Those two decades have witnessed a remarkable exemplification of the vitality and vision of the Jewish pioneers in Palestine.

It should be a source of pride to Jewish citizens of the United States that they, too, have had a share in this great work of revival and restoration.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt, who coined the name “United Nations,” explained the purpose included protecting Jews, March 24, 1944:

“The United Nations are fighting to make a world in which tyranny and aggression cannot exist …

In one of the blackest crimes of all history — begun by the Nazis … the wholesale systematic murder of the Jews of Europe goes on unabated … Hundreds of thousands of Jews … are now threatened with annihilation as Hitler’s forces descend …

The United Nations have made it clear that they will pursue the guilty … All who knowingly take part in the deportation of Jews to their death … are equally guilty with the executioner.”

President Harry S Truman stated May 26, 1952:

“I had faith in Israel before it was established, I have faith in it now.

I believe it has a glorious future before it — not just another sovereign nation, but as an embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization.”

President Truman answered questions at a News Conference of August 16, 1945:

“Q. What was the American view on Palestine?

PRESIDENT. The American view … is, we want to let as many of the Jews into Palestine as it is possible.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower stated:

“Our forces saved the remnants of the Jewish people of Europe for a new life and a new hope in the reborn land of Israel. Along with all men of good will, I salute the young state and wish it well.”

President Eisenhower stated February 20, 1957:

“There can, of course, be no equating of a nation like Israel with that of the Soviet Union. The people of Israel, like those of the United States, are imbued with a religious faith and a sense of moral values … which unhappily we cannot expect from a nation controlled by atheistic despots.”

Eisenhower remarked on the Jewish High Holy Days, September 14, 1958:

“The teaching of their ancient belief is filled with truth for the present day … The health of our society depends upon a deep and abiding respect for the basic commandments of the God of Israel.”

President John F. Kennedy met with Israel’s Foreign Minister Golda Meir. He addressed the Zionists of America Convention, August 26, 1960:

“When the first Zionist conference met in 1897, Palestine was a neglected wasteland. A few scattered Jewish colonies had resettled there … Most of the governments of the world were indifferent.

But now all is changed. Israel became a triumphant and enduring reality exactly 50 years after Theodore Herzl, the prophet of Zionism, had proclaimed the ideal of nationhood … Herzl was then only 37 years of age … Jewish people – ever since David slew Goliath – have never considered youth as a barrier to leadership …”

He continued:

“I first saw Palestine in 1939. There the neglect and ruin left by centuries of Ottoman misrule were slowly being transformed by miracles of labor and sacrifice … I returned in 1951 to see the grandeur of Israel.

In 3 years this new state had opened its doors to 600,000 immigrants and refugees. Even while fighting for its own survival, Israel had given new hope to the persecuted and new dignity to the pattern of Jewish life.

I left with the conviction that the United Nations may have conferred on Israel the credentials of nationhood; but its own idealism and courage, its own sacrifice and generosity, had earned the credentials of immortality …”

Kennedy added:

“Israel is here to stay. For Israel was not created in order to disappear – Israel will endure and flourish.

It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom …

Israel is a cause that stands beyond the ordinary changes and chances of American public life …

He spoke further:

“There is a special obligation on the Democratic Party. It was President Woodrow Wilson who forecast with prophetic wisdom the creation of a Jewish homeland. It was President Franklin Roosevelt who kept alive the hopes of Jewish redemption during the Nazi terror.

It was President Harry Truman who first recognized the new State of Israel and gave it status in world affairs. And may I add that it would be my hope and my pledge to continue this Democratic tradition – and to be worthy of it …”

Kennedy concluded:

“When I talked with Prime Minister Ben-Gurion on his most recent visit to this country, he told me of dangerous signs of unrest beneath the deceptive quiet that has fallen over the Middle East …

Arab … destructive vendetta can come nothing but misery and poverty and the risk of war.

The Middle East needs water, not war; tractors, not tanks; bread, not bombs … Ancient rivers would give their power to new industries. The desert would yield to civilization.

Disease would be eradicated, especially the disease that strikes down helpless children. The blight of poverty would be replaced by the blessings of abundance.

‘Seek peace, and pursue it’ commands the psalmist.”

Kennedy stated May 8, 1963:

“This nation from the time of President Woodrow Wilson, has established and continued a tradition of friendship with Israel because we are committed to all free societies that seek a path to peace and honor individual rights.”

President Lyndon Johnson remarked at the 125th Anniversary Meeting of B’nai B’rith (Children of the Covenant), September 10, 1968:

“The United States and Israel share many common objectives … chief of which is the building of a better world in which every nation can develop its resources and develop them in freedom and peace.

… Our society is illuminated by the spiritual insights of the Hebrew prophets.

America and Israel have a common love of human freedom and they have a common faith in a democratic way of life …

Most if not all of you have very deep ties with the land and with the people of Israel, as I do, for my Christian faith sprang from yours …

The Bible stories are woven into my childhood memories as the gallant struggle of modern Jews to be free of persecution is also woven into our souls.”

President Richard Nixon stated:

“The United States stands by its friends. Israel is one of its friends.”

Nixon remarked on Presidential Trip to Israel, June 16, 1974:

“Their courage, their tenacity, their firmness in the face of very great odds, is one that makes us proud to stand with Israel, as we have in the past in times of trouble, and now to work with Israel in a better time, a time that we trust will be a time of peace.”

President Nixon honored the President and Prime Minister Golda Meir of Israel, September 25, 1969:

“Madam Prime Minister and our very distinguished guests this evening … This is the first time that in this administration we have had the honor to receive the head of government of another state who also is a woman …

We know that very capable women and strong women have played a remarkable and important part in that history.

In Biblical terms, we remember Deborah, 3,000 years ago. The Bible tells us very little about Deborah, except that she loved her people and served them well … that there was peace in the land for 40 years …”

Nixon added:

“When we think back on your people, a war every 10 years; when we think back on your people going back through the century, how they have suffered, we know how much the word ‘peace’ means …

We feel it because the people of Israel deserve peace. They have earned peace …

We simply want to say that we are very honored to have the Prime Minister … here in this room tonight. We are honored to pay tribute to a very brave and courageous people … I would like to ask you, in affirming that sentiment, to rise and raise your glasses with me to the Prime Minister.”

President Gerald Ford welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, September 10, 1974):

“The United States … has been proud of its association with the State of Israel.

We shall continue to stand with Israel. We are committed to Israel’s survival and security. The United States for a quarter of a century has had an excellent relationship with the State of Israel.”

In his autobiography, An American Life (Simon & Schuster, 1990, p. 410), Ronald Reagan wrote:

“I’ve believed many things in my life, but no conviction I’ve ever held has been stronger than my belief that the United States must ensure the survival of Israel.

The Holocaust, I believe, left America with a moral responsibility to ensure that what happened to the Jews under Hitler never happens again.

We must not let if happen again. The civilized world owes a debt to the people who were the greatest victims of Hitler’s madness.”

President Donald Trump stated December 6, 2017:

“In 1995, Congress adopted the Jerusalem Embassy Act urging the federal government to relocate the American Embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize that that city, and so importantly, is Israel’s capital …

Therefore, I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver.

Today, I am delivering … Israel is a sovereign nation with the right, like every other sovereign nation, to determine its own capital. Acknowledging this is a fact is a necessary condition for achieving peace.

It was 70 years ago that the United States under President Truman recognized the state of Israel. Ever since then, Israel has made its capital in the city of Jerusalem, the capital the Jewish people established in ancient times …

But today we finally acknowledge the obvious. That Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.”

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