Franklin D. Roosevelt and Zionism— The Wartime Record *

As the european phase of world war ii neared its end, the American Zionists split sharply over credence in Franklin Roosevelt's pledges on Palestine. The majority, following the lead of the lantern-jawed Stephen S. Wise, proclaimed its faith in the Presidents recent campaign promise to implement the creation of a Jewish Commonwealth. A minority, whose spokesman was the Lincolnesque Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, acknowledged the President's benevolent intentions. The Cleveland Rabbi insisted, however, that Roosevelt had purposely dragged his heels on the issue, papering over with high-sounding rhetoric the grim fact that hundreds of thousands of the doomed had been allowed to perish while the British, with American contrivance, kept the door to the Holy Land all but shut. ¹ It is the purpose of this essay to evaluate these antithetical assessments of FDR's Palestine policy in the light of the archival evidence.