Creator Bio

Stephen S. Wise

1874–1949

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.

Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator

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Five Mournful Years for Jewry

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Five years have passed since that mournful 5th of March, which witnessed the so-called election of Hitler as Chancellor of the German Reich. It might long have been foreseen and perhaps even averted…

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Deliverance Will Come

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Over and above all else we gather here tonight to dedicate ourselves to the loftiest hopes of our country, to renew unshakeable faith in the victory, early or late, of America and all the United…