When President Roosevelt Sneaked Out of the White House

Transcript

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel Archives.

Today is [Erev] Chof Sivan. In Jewish history, the month of Sivan, and especially Chof Sivan, many tragedies happened, and many people have a custom to fast. [Rabbeinu Tam?] declared a Taanis [fast], and on the harsh Chof Sivan the decree of Tach v'Tat began — this was in the year 1648. Also, [a city] was captured in Sivan, and thousands of Jews were deported to Auschwitz starting in the month of Sivan. And it says that... the blood of the Jews was spilled like water [unclear exact quote].

Also we know that the sin of the Meraglim (the Spies) [is connected to Sivan], because they traveled for 40 days; they left on the 29th of Sivan. The Frierdiker Rebbe was taken to prison — I think it was the fifteenth [of the month] — I think that was also in Sivan.

So anyway, a lot of people fast. Also the Crusades in Germany and France, and the riots — and therefore every Shabbos Mevarchim we say Av HaRachamim, blessing the month. Usually we don't say it at Mincha, in the afternoon, but in the month of Sivan we do say it, as a remembrance of the tragedies that happened in Sivan.

So, in connection with this — with the more recent tragedy, the Holocaust — I want to share with you the well-known March of the Rabbis, which I found in my father-in-law's archives, that he wrote, and also I found some written documents there about the March of 500, which we'll explain soon, and also his pictures that he took.

Now, I don't know who wrote it, but I can tell you what it says there. First of all, in 1943 a march of 500 rabbis went to Washington on behalf of the Jews in Europe.

The Frierdiker Rebbe called over four people — I don't know if it's known — he called over [a rabbi, name unclear]. Some people have letters that he signed "b'shem HaRebbe" [in the name of the Rebbe]. This is a program by itself about this event — how he came to be involved, and in connection with the Rebbe we'll have to use another program [for that] — but he is one of the people that they represented.

Then — as that — I'm sorry — the Frierdiker Rebbe sent, in '43, a delegate to go to Washington. Also Rabbi [?] — they represented; also Rabbi [?] Levin, who was there, the son of the Rav of [?]; and also Rabbi Nissan Mindel. These four people represented [the Rebbe] on the political level, and [Rabbi Mindel] got to go to Washington, and Rabbi Mindel took pictures then of that.

Now I want to read to you the report — what I found. The gathering of 500 rabbis took place — Orthodox rabbis — in Washington, D.C., in front of the Capitol, in October 1943. This protest alerted Americans to the awareness of the Holocaust, [and the need for] helping the Jews in Europe. They marched from Union Station to the Lincoln Memorial. While marching, people were crying — this was in the middle of the Holocaust.

The march was led by Rabbi Eliezer Silver, one of the great Rabbanim. I think he was the posek hador [the leading halachic authority], and he lived in Cincinnati. By the way, there are a lot of letters between him and the Frierdiker Rebbe — very important letters. So he was the head of this — one of the heads of this march.

Also Rabbi Yisroel Rosenberg — he was head of Agudas HaRabbonim, alav hashalom. And the other rabbis — we know the connection between them and the Frierdiker Rebbe — his name was Mordechai Shlomo Friedman, and Bernard Leventhal; this was [among] the older generation, alav hashalom. And then, from the younger generation, was Rabbi [?] — he was [one of] the young [leaders] — and the rest were participants.

The march took place three days before Yom Kippur. They marched to the White House, and were met — not by the President — by the Vice President, Henry Wallace, and the Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, and other members of Congress. And Rabbi Eliezer Silver read the group's petition to the press, to President Roosevelt. This is what Rabbi Silver said:

"Children, infants, and elderly men and women are crying to us: help, help! Millions have already fallen dead, sentenced to fire and sword, and tens of thousands have died of starvation. And how can we stand up to pray on the holy day, Yom Kippur, knowing that we haven't fulfilled our responsibility? So we have come brokenhearted, on Erev Yom Kippur, the eve of the holiest day, to ask you, our honorable President Franklin Roosevelt, to form a special agency to rescue the remainder of the Jewish nation in Europe."

To continue: the protesters walked to the Lincoln Memorial, prayed for the welfare of the President and American soldiers abroad, and also the Jews in Hitler's Europe. There was also the [Modzitzer Rebbe?] — I think [his name was] — he was also there; he's the one who said [a Hebrew phrase — unclear].

Now this is the shocking thing that happened: when the 500 rabbis came to the White House, they were stunned to be told that the President was not available to meet them, to meet the delegates. What the rabbis did not know, and [the world] did not know, was that the President's top Jewish advisers — his speechwriter, and prominent American Jewish Committee members, Samuel Rosenman and also Stephen Wise — had told the President to avoid the rabbis by leaving the White House through a rear exit, so that they shouldn't be able to see the way the President leaves. They told him to leave, embarrassed by the protesters, and fearing that the march might provoke antisemitism — they did not want the President giving the rabbis any attention.

The rabbis were very disappointed by the fact that there were Jewish advisers telling the President not to meet with them. Wise — one of the people who told the President [not to meet them] — he was a Reform Jew, was very close to the President, and he made it seem to the President as if the demonstration was not important, so the President did not have to pay attention. That was the tragedy of that day.

So Rabbi Silver said the President failed our cause. He failed also to let refugees come to the United States, and didn't do anything to protect the Jewish people. Years later — I'm sorry, months later — I know [this] came out later, this was [commemorated] in Sivan, I don't know — but Rabbi Silver wrote that even though the President didn't help, this protest saved many Jews. Through the protest, about 200,000 Jews, as was told later, in years, and he told the [Jewish?] news. So this is what he wrote: even though I don't know how, but they [helped save] 200,000 through the process — I don't know how. And this is the article that I found in the archives.

Now, it's very painful, but it's not surprising, because many times these are called "self-hating Jews" — that happened with the Frierdiker Rebbe also; [these advisers] would use other Jews [against their own people]. Now, Rabbi Silver wrote to the Frierdiker Rebbe everything that happened, so the Frierdiker Rebbe said — and this is [what] we [should remember] — we should never, never forget what happened in the Holocaust. And therefore today, Chof Sivan, I am doing this article, because the Frierdiker Rebbe said that this thing should always be remembered.

Baruch Hashem, today we live in a time — thank G-d, a big miracle — that we have a president like Trump, who is a big [supporter], strong, and we should never, never forget what happened in the Holocaust. [Instead of] the tragedies, we should have only all the normal [blessings], and although we've gone through all the viruses, it should be [the last of it], and everybody should have a refuah sheleimah. And since we're getting closer to the month of Tammuz — the Frierd