| by Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback
“Vision looks inwards and becomes duty. Vision looks outwards and becomes aspiration. Vision looks upwards and becomes faith.”  Rabbi Stephen Wise, president of the American Jewish Congress, addresses an anti-Nazi meeting at Madison Square Garden. New York, United States, March 15, 1937. Stephen Samuel Wise was born in Budapest in 1874. Tomorrow, March 17, marks 144 years since the date of his birth. His family moved to America when he was a boy so that his father, Aaron Wise, could become Senior Rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan. Stephen attended Columbia University, where he later also earned a Ph.D. After ordination, Rabbi Wise became one of the most influential religious leaders in America, co-founding the NAACP and the Jewish Institute of Religion (which later merged with the Hebrew Union College). He helped create the Zionist Organization of America and was a lifelong champion of a Jewish State in the Land of Israel. He was a leader in the anti-Nazi movement in America and worked tirelessly to bring the attention of the world to the unfolding genocide of the Shoah. His leadership inspired generations of Jews including our own Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin who, at age 13, witnessed Rabbi Wise speak at Madison Square Garden at an anti-fascist rally. Rabbi Zeldin admired him as an orator, an institution builder, and as a champion of human dignity and tikkun olam. The Mishnah teaches (Pirkei Avot 1:6): As a community, we are fortunate to be inheritors of the legacy of these two giants. Rabbis Wise and Zeldin were leaders of extraordinary skill, men who worked tirelessly to do their duty to strengthen our People and spread the highest values of our Torah throughout our community, our nation, and our world. They believed deeply, passionately in a Homeland for the Jewish People in Zion. They thought expansively and courageously and were it not for their leadership, their wisdom, and their toil, we would not have our beloved Stephen Wise Temple, Wise School, Milken Community High School, or the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. May their memories be for a blessing and may we, inspired by their example, do our part to ensure that our community, our People, our nation, and our Homeland go מחיל אל חיל – from strength to strength. L’Shalom, Yoshi |
