Collection of Rabbi Stephen Wise, American Zionist leader

Stephen Samuel Wise (1874-1949), the grandson and son of rabbis, was born in Budapest in 1874. When Wise was an infant, his parents emigrated to the United States. From a very young age, Wise aspired to be a rabbi, like his father. Wise completed his studies at Columbia University with excellence at the age of 18, and was ordained as a rabbi in 1893. He served as the rabbi in a number of communities in New York and in Oregon, and was a trail-blazer in the area of interdenominational cooperation in the United States. In 1902 he earned his doctoral degree from Columbia University.

Wise began his Zionist activities in the late 19th century among the Jews of the United States. Although he was a Reform Rabbi, he was among the founders of the New York Federation of Zionist Societies, and afterwards the National Federation of American Zionists, which later became the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), serving as Vice President of the National Federation of American Zionists from 1918-1920, and as President from 1936-1938. He was also a founder of the American Jewish Congress (AJC) in 1918, and the World Jewish Congress (WJC) in 1936, serving as Founding President from 1936 until his death in 1949.

During World War I Wise served as liaison on behalf of Woodrow Wilson, the President of the United States, and he was instrumental in obtaining support for the Balfour Declaration.

Wise was among the first Jewish public figures who warned of the danger inherent in Nazism. In 1933, within the framework of the American Jewish Congress, he led efforts for a Jewish boycott of Germany. Nevertheless, due to his close contacts with Franklin Roosevelt, whom he greatly admired and whose policies he did not aggressively oppose, his activities during the Holocaust period are regarded as controversial. In 1941 he ordered that the WJC cease the sending of parcels to Europe lest the WJC be accused of "sending aid to the enemy". In August 1942, even though Wise was aware of the Riegner Telegram (which presented knowledge of the Final Solution), he delayed publication of its contents, waiting until November 1942 when Sumner Welles, the American Undersecretary of State, confirmed the details of the telegram. Only then did Wise call a press conference regarding its contents. However, his disclosure did not even make the front pages of the newspapers. He also failed to take a firm stand in favor of reducing emigration quotas for Jews during the late 1930s, lest antisemitism in the United States be further inflamed. Wise's cautious and ineffective attempts to influence United States policy and encourage her to act in order to save the Jews of Europe were unsuccessful, and Wise's friendship with Roosevelt was regarded as subservience.