Jerusalem Post
nov 28 2009
Metro Views: Honoring the Morgenthaus
By MARILYN HENRY
‘I find that so long as you render service – no matter where and how –
all men speak the same tongue, and hearts beat the same." So said
Henry Morgenthau Sr. in 1916, his third year as US ambassador to the
Ottoman Empire.
In a brief time as President Woodrow Wilson’s envoy, he had indeed
rendered service, providing succor and sounding alarms that firmly
established his place in Jewish history and made him a hero to
Armenians.
Deeply affected by the dire poverty of the Jews in Palestine,
Morgenthau in 1914 cabled his friend Jacob Schiff in New York:
"Palestinian Jews facing terrible crisis belligerent countries
stopping their assistance serious destruction threatens thriving
colonies fifty thousand dollars needed."
It was no small amount in those days, but Schiff quickly raised the
funds for a relief project that evolved into the Joint Distribution
Committee.
The next year, fearful of the fate of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire,
he cabled Washington, reporting that "from harrowing reports of eye
witnesses it appears that a campaign of race extermination is in
progress." To this day, Henry Morgenthau Sr. is revered by Armenians
for alerting the world to the Armenian genocide.
These cables are among the documents, memorabilia, photographs and
films in a new exhibit "The Morgenthaus: A Legacy of Service" at the
Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. The exhibit, which opened this
month in lower Manhattan and runs through 2010, covers the public and
communal service of three generations of Morgenthaus: Henry Sr., Henry
Jr. and Robert.
Henry Jr. was president Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Treasury secretary
during the Depression, and helped prepare the economy for World War
II.
He still held that post in January 1944 – the Jew on the president’s
cabinet at the most frightening moment in modern Jewish history – when
his office took a remarkable step. It challenged the US State
Department for failing to rescue European Jews. His staff wrote a
report "on the acquiescence of this government in the murder of Jews."
Morgenthau edited the title, calling it a "personal report to the
president," but he did not mince words with Roosevelt, whom he had
first met as a neighbor in upstate New York.
"One of the greatest crimes in history, the slaughter of the Jewish
people in Europe, is continuing unabated," he wrote. He assailed the
"utter failure of certain officials in our State Department ¦ to take
any effective action to prevent the extermination of the Jews in
German-controlled Europe."
Only days after receiving the report, Roosevelt signed Executive Order
9417, creating the War Refugee Board. Many argue that the board, which
saved some 200,000 European Jews, did too little too late. But
Roosevelt’s tarnished record during the Holocaust and that of his
administration only enhance, rather than diminish, the significance of
the actions taken by Morgenthau, who later was an energetic
fund-raiser for Jewish and Israeli causes. (The moshav Tal Shahar was
founded in 1948 and named after him; "Morgenthau" translates from the
German to "morning dew.")
"What I want is intelligence and courage – courage first and
intelligence second," Henry Jr. once said. He had them. His son Robert
has been the Manhattan district attorney for more than a generation.
(The fictional Adam Schiff, the original district attorney on the
television program Law & Order, was reportedly modeled on Morgenthau.)
His office has been famous not only for its cases, but for the
attorneys and judges who cut their lawyerly teeth there. Most
recently, that attention focused on the newest Supreme Court justice,
Sonia Sotomayor, who joined Morgenthau’s staff in 1979, when she was
25.
A handwritten note from Sotomayor is on exhibit: "Bob – Few can say
they have a friend and mentor like you. I was blessed the day we met.
Thank you for all your support. Sonia" Now 90, the district attorney
is retiring after some 35 years as the city’s prosecutor. With his
retirement, this "Morgenthau century" of prominent public service [by
the family] will end.
HENRY SR. WAS born in 1856 in Mannheim, Germany; his family came to
New York a decade later. He had a career in law and real estate before
he was tapped by Wilson. "I had to wait until I was 55 to earn enough
money to afford to go into public service," Henry Sr. told his
grandson. "You don’t have that excuse." Robert got the message. In
addition to his very public role as district attorney, Robert has been
actively involved in charitable and civic institutions, such as the
Police Athletic League, whose activities include day care, summer
camp, employment and sports programs for New York City’s children and
youth.
He also is chairman of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, whose
exhibitions are notable, in part, for the wide-ranging and
thought-provoking public and educational programming that accompanies
them.
Morgenthau’s relationship to the museum seems coincidental to the
exhibit; the family’s century of public service merits it. And despite
an exhibit that features its chairman’s family, the museum does not
blindly glorify or whitewash the Morgenthaus’ history. For instance,
in its summary of Henry Sr.’s 1919 official "commission to Poland" to
investigate reports of atrocities against Jews, the exhibit
acknowledges that Morgenthau "minimized blame" due the Polish
government for the mistreatment of Jews, for which he was strongly
criticized. Yet he was profoundly moved by what he witnessed in
Poland. "This was the first time I ever completely realized what the
collective grief of a persecuted people was like," he said.
"The Morgenthaus: A Legacy of Service" is intended not only as a look
back at one family’s three generations of public service, but to
promote it as well.
The exhibit (which has material online at )
urges people to become involved with such causes such as food banks,
genocide intervention and Jewish service corps. As he walked through
the exhibition with reporters earlier this month, pausing at artifacts
and photos, Robert Morgenthau said: "I hope it will encourage people
to be involved with public service."
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