American Jewish History

Eleanor Roosevelt is without a doubt one of the foremost humanitarians the world has ever seen. Much has been written about her activism for the poor, for civil rights, the United Nations and peace building. And while her concern for those persecuted by the Nazis and her attempts to persuade the US administration and the American public to allow in more refugees, especially children, has been mentioned in some biographies, a more detailed analysis of the role she played has been lacking. John F. Sears' book not only successfully fills that gap, but also covers ER's active support in the founding of Israel. It explores the development of ER's attitudes about Jews from expressing culturally predominant negative views of the time, through a softly, softly approach to Hitler's brutality as she followed the State Department's line of non-interference, on to active involvement in rescue efforts and finally becoming one of Israel's most prominent advocates.

Sears' book includes the names of many of those who influenced ER's thinking about the refugees from Germany and her response to US intolerance. One such was Clarence Pickett, executive director of the American Friends Services Committee with whom she cooperated on Arthurdale, the subsistence homestead for out-of-work miners in West Virginia. Pickett tried to involve ER in publicly supporting the American Christian Committee for German Refugees, but she was extremely cautious to not make any statement that would affect German-American relations, which stemmed, Sears argues, "from her own idealistic hope that a nonconfrontational approach to Germany would help keep Europe and the United States out of war" (28); "in retrospect, her vision seems hopelessly naïve" (29).

It was not until 1939 that ER actively addressed the refugee crisis created by Nazi policies and then she worked tirelessly with others to get the US to offer a safe haven, particularly to children. Chapters 5–11 deal with various efforts, sometimes successful (e.g. admission of the refugees on board the SS Quanza in Fall 1940), but more often not, such as the failure of the Wagner-Rogers Bill, which would have given refuge to 20,000 children. Reading about the continuous obstacles thrown in the way of those desperate to flee, by the likes of Breckinridge Long in the State Department, is heart-rending. US immigration laws were extraordinarily restrictive; not only were quotas tight, the screening of applications could take years. Congress and much of the American public worried about refugees taking their jobs, but ultimately they were clearly [End Page 323] xenophobic and antisemitic. The arguments heard then that immigrants would be detrimental to the country, whether for economic or national security reasons, seem all too familiar to readers today when similar fears are expressed to keep people out.

ER used her My Day column to press the case for rescue efforts, often lobbied her friend the Undersecretary of State, Sumner Wells, to look into cases of those whose visas were subject to lengthy delays, and urged her husband to take a moral stance and direct the State Department to end its obstructive visa practices. Sumner Wells, while personally sympathetic to the plight of the European Jews and other victims of Nazi persecution, too often defended the visa process. Sears rightly lambasts the cynical Breckinridge Long, somewhat excuses Wells for his weakness in standing up for what was right, but essentially seems to give FDR a free pass. The focus of this book is ER and not FDR, but it seems odd that FDR's lack of any real interest in the issue and his willingness to go along with Breckenridge Long, ignoring the pleas of his wife and many friends and advisors like James McDonald, is not criticized more fervently.

The second half of the book deals with the establishment of the state of Israel and ER's deepening commitment to it...