Deliverance Will Come

Born in Budapest, the son and grandson of rabbis, Stephen S. Wise was brought as an infant to New York City. He attended Columbia University and studied for the rabbinate privately. He served congregations in New York City and then Portland, Oregon. An outspoken progressive activist and Zionist, in 1907 he founded the Free Synagogue in Manhattan to ensure a pulpit free from the control of the congregation’s board. Wise was prominent in national progressive politics and was among the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909 and the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920. In 1922, he established the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City to train rabbis from all branches of Judaism. During the Nazi years, he led the effort to boycott German goods and to rally American opposition to German aggression.