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HARRY TRUMAN’S YOM KIPPUR SURPRISE
by Rafael Medoff
(Dr. Rafael Medoff is director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust
Studies, and coauthor, with Prof. Sonja Schoepf Wentling, of the new book
‘Herbert Hoover and the Jews: The Origins of the “Jewish Vote” and Bipartisan
Support for Israel.’)
When presidents send greetings to the American Jewish community on the eve
of Yom Kippur, they don’t expect their words to make headlines. President
Obama’s pre-holiday message to U.S. Jews this year, for example, offers
boilerplate rhetoric about Yom Kippur as “a time of prayer and self-reflection”
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As part of a new
collaborative relationship,
Wyman Institute director
Rafael Medoff was
recently invited to take
part in an event at the
Smithsonian Institution
commemorating the 75th
anniversary of President
and an opportunity “to continue the work of repairing the world.” That won’t
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s
add much to the average rabbi’s sermon.
order authorizing the
mass internment of
But President Harry Truman’s message to American Jewry on the eve of Yom
Japanese-Americans.
Kippur in 1946 made front page news, was read aloud in synagogues from
Dr. Medoff also spoke as
coast to coast, and had an important impact on the struggle to establish the
part of a Smithsonian
State of Israel.
panel at the annual
The future of British Mandatory Palestine was one of the first major
international conflicts facing Truman after he became president, following the
death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in April 1945. Truman was reluctant to
become embroiled in the conflict but faced strong pressure from both sides.
The British, backed by the U.S. State Department, sought to continue ruling the
country and prevent the Jews from becoming a majority. But American Jews
were pressing Truman to support Jewish statehood, and his political advisers
were warning that Jewish voters would turn against the Democrats if he didn’t.
In mid-1946, a joint British-American committee recommended what came to
be known as the Morrison-Grady Plan, to divide Palestine into autonomous
Arab and Jewish districts under British rule. Truman thought the proposal was
“really fair,” but had second thoughts when New York State Democratic
chairman Paul Fitzpatrick told him, “If this plan goes into effect it would be
useless for the Democrats to nominate a state ticket this fall,” because Jews in
New York would overwhelmingly back Republican candidates as a protest vote.
conference of the
American Alliance of
Museums, held at the
America’s Center
convention complex, in St.
Louis. The panel was
called “TransformiveEd:
Exploring Difficult Subjects
through Comics”; Dr.
Medoff discussed the
Wyman Institute’s use of
comics, cartoons and
animation to teach about
the Holocaust.
At a July 30 cabinet meeting, Truman exploded over the barrage of telegrams
and letters he had received from American Jews about Palestine (he waved “a
sheaf of telegrams about four inches thick,” according to Agriculture Secretary
Henry Wallace). “Jesus Christ couldn’t please them when he was here on earth,
so how could anyone expect that I would have any luck?,” the president
declared.
But the midterm Congressional elections, less than four months away, would
determine whether Truman would have to deal with a friendly Democratcontrolled Congress, or a hostile Republican majority on Capitol Hill. And New
York’s congressional seats could tip the balance.
A visit to the White House in September from U.S. Senator James Mead, the
Democratic nominee for governor of New York, further angered the president.
Mead “shot off his mouth” about the danger of losing Jewish votes because of
The panel also
included Evan Keeling of
the Smithsonian, artists Liz
Laribee and Jason
Rodriguez, and Jenny
Robb, director of the Billy
Ireland Comic Library and
Museum at Ohio State
University, which is the
largest comic library in the
world.
Palestine, an irritated Truman wrote in a note to the First Lady. “The Jews and
the crackpots” seemed ready to desert the Democrats.
Just days before Yom Kippur, White House adviser David Niles caught wind of
WYMAN COMIC WINS
SILVER MEDAL
plans by New York’s Republican governor –and likely presidential nominee–
The Wyman Institute's
Thomas Dewey to make a pro-Zionist speech at a large Jewish gathering right
comic book, Karski’s
after the holiday. Niles pressed Truman to strike first, since “the Jewish vote in
Mission: To Stop the
New York” was “crucial.”
Holocaust, has been
awarded a Silver Medal in
One of Truman’s top Jewish donors, Abe Feinberg, urged the president to issue
the 21st annual
a Zionist statement of his own on the eve of Yom Kippur, since then “every
Independent Publisher
single Rabbi in every single synagogue will broadcast what you say. Forget the
Awards.
newspapers, forget any other media. You will have word directly to the Jewish
people.”
Truman agreed to do it. Samuel Rosenman, a longtime speechwriter for both
FDR and Truman, together with Eliahu Epstein of the Jewish Agency (later the
first Israeli ambassador to Washington) drafted a statement favoring creation
of a Jewish state in part of Palestine. The State Department watered it down by
adding a sentence that the U.S. favored a solution in between statehood and
Karski's Mission, which
was authored by Wyman
Institute director Rafael
Medoff and illustrated by
renowned comic book
artist Dean Motter, was
awarded the Silver Medal
the Morrison-Gray autonomy plan.
in the category of "Graphic
But in politics, perception is sometimes more important than reality. The news
Drama/Documentary
media chose to emphasize a phrase in which Truman noted that the Jewish
category."
Agency sought “a viable Jewish state,” and he believed that a solution “along
these lines” would “command the support of public opinion in the United
Novel/Drawn Book –
Karski's Mission is based
States.”
on the true story of Jan
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s report, which appeared in Jewish newspapers
Polish Catholic and
throughout the country, was headlined, “TRUMAN URGES ESTABLISHMENT OF
member of the Polish
‘VIABLE JEWISH STATE’ WITHIN PALESTINE.”
Underground during
Karski (1914-2000), a
World War II, who risked
his life to bring Allied
“Not a single newspaper pointed up [the State Department’s] part of the
leaders his eyewitness
statement,” Eliahu Epstein reported to his colleagues. “All the headlines carried
account of the ongoing
by the papers read ‘Truman’s support of a Jewish state.'”
slaughter of the Jews in
Nazi-occupied Poland.
In later years, Truman and his aides went to great lengths to deny they were
motivated by political considerations–or even by the calendar. At the time,
Karski's Mission, which
Acting Secretary of State Dean Acheson told the British ambassador in
was co-published by the
Washington, Lord Inverchapel, that Truman made the Yom Kippur statement in
Wyman Institute and the
order to pre-empt Governor Dewey’s planned pro-Zionist speech; but in his
Jan Karski Educational
postwar memoir, Acheson claimed Truman “never took or refused a step in our
Foundation, received
foreign relations to benefit his or his party’s fortunes.”
additional support from
Fundacja Edukacyjna Jana
Truman himself, in his autobiography, wrote that the day the statement was
Karskiego, the Association
made just “happened to be the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur,” and “Presidents
of Friends of the Polish
have often made statements on this holiday, so the timing was nothing
History Museum, Sigmund
unusual, and what I said was simply a restatement of my position.”
A. Rolat (chairman of the
But in fact, by presenting a statement he knew would be understood and
reported as a major new policy position, Truman was not merely “restating” his
old views. He was, in effect, going on record for the first time in favor of Jewish
statehood.
And even though Truman would later sometimes waver in his support of Jewish
statehood, his Yom Kippur statement in 1946 strengthened the Jewish position
Wyman Institute's board
of directors), Carole Bilina,
and John McLees. With
assistance from the Polish
Ministry of Culture and
National Heritage, a
Polish-language edition of
Karski's Mission is now
in the international political struggle over Palestine, reinforced the emerging
being used widely in
consensus among Americans in support of Jewish statehood, and, most
schools in Poland.
important, accelerated the process by which the British became convinced that
See the full list of 2017
they would have to leave Palestine.
medalists
(Israel National News – Sept. 25, 2012)
September 2012
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