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West Bloomfield, MI 48323
Phone: 248.683.1010

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Game room
Library
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Transportation
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call 248.683.1010

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25-15 Orchard Lake Road
Sylraa Lake, /WI 48520
248-685-0450
258- 685- 0498 fax

7/2 ° 11
1999

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2Es Detroit iewiWNews

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GUIdE

Morgenthau Jr. as secretary of the trea-
sury and Felix Frankfurter as Supreme
Court justice. Samuel Rosenman was
his speechwriter and longtime counsel;
Benjamin V. Cohen, along with
Frankfurter, was one of many archi-
tects of the New Deal. Robert K.
Straus — yet another member of the
patriotic Straus clan — was part of

Roosevelt's "Brain Trust."
Sidney Hillman, a longtime labor

leader, had enormous clout at the
White House. Roosevelt, consulting
with Democratic leaders about his
choice for vice president in 1944,
reportedly said "clear it with
Sidney" The quote was leaked to
the press, and it became a rallying
cry for FDR's most bitter oppo-
nents, including some who empha-
sized Hillman's Jewishness.
Several of FDR's Jewish appointees
argued for a stronger U.S. effort to
rescue Jews who were starting to feel
the irrational wrath of the Nazis.
Cohen worked tirelessly for a Jewish
state, but Berlin says few lobbied the
president on Jewish causes.
President Harry Truman was close
to several Jews, including Chicago
political boss Jake Avery, and Eddie
Jacobson — Truman's old business
partner who was sent to the White
House to lobby for diplomatic recogni-
tion of the new State of Israel. Truman,
fed up with assertive Jews, refused to
see Jewish and Israeli leaders, but
couldn't turn away his old friend.
Eventually, he extended U.S. recogni-
tion; Jacobson's intervention, historians
say, may have been one factor.
Detroit's Max Fisher entered the
political scene in the 1950s and was
close to several Republican presidents
whose Jewish contacts were not
extensive, starting with Dwight D.
Eisenhower. Fisher's influence reached
a peak with the administration of
Gerald Ford in the mid-'70s, and
Fisher remains a force in GOP poli-
tics to this day
John F. Kennedy had Arthur
Schlesinger Jr. and Walt W. Rostov
both Jews, giving him advice;
Kennedy particularly respected
Arthur J. Goldberg, the first Jewish
secretary of labor, later a Supreme
Court justice. Abraham Ribicoff
served as JFK's secretary of health,
education and welfare.
"It was a reflection of the opening
up of the Ivy League colleges," said Ira
Forman, executive director of the
National Jewish Democratic Council
and an amateur historian. "That's
where Kennedy went for his brain
trust, and these schools were now

open to Jews. And it was the maturing
of the Jewish community."
Lyndon Johnson got in trouble
with his close Jewish friend and associ-
ate — Abe Fortas. Appointed to the
Supreme Court in 1965, he ran afoul
of Congress when LBJ appointed him
chief justice at the end of his term.
Included among Fortas' sins: consult-
ing regularly with the White House, a
no-no for Supreme Court justices, and.
improperly receiving payments from
groups that could have business before
the court. Fortas became an ex-justice.

Clout And Kissinger

Richard Nixon, of course, appointed
the first Jewish national security advis-
er and first Jewish secretary of state —
the same man, Henry Kissinger, who
was with Nixon to the bitter end in
1974. Nixon also had his own person-
al rabbi — Rabbi Baruch Korff, who
had a flash of notoriety when he pro-
vided personal solace to Nixon and
tried to rally public support. Korff
failed, Nixon resigned and the rabbi
became a Jewish historical footnote.
Jimmy Carter employed a bunch
of Jews, including his domestic policy
adviser — a smart young man named
Stuart Eizenstat, now a prominent
official in the Clinton administration.
Michael Blumenthal was his treasury
secretary, Neil Goldsmith was secre-
tary of transportation, and Harold
Brown ran the Pentagon. One of
Carter's chief mentors was Adm.
Hyman Rickover — also a Jew.
The Reagan and Bush administra-
tions both had relations with Jewish
Republican leaders who could mar-
shal big campaign money — includ-
ing Max Fisher and Mel Sembler, a
Florida businessman who now serves
as finance chair of the Republican
National Committee.
The administration of President Bill
<
Clinton has set a new standard for
Jewish involvement in the executive
branch, with more Cabinet members
and more top Jewish staffers than ever
before. It was a measure of the revolu-
tion in Jewish political life that few
pundits commented on Justice Steven
Breyer's Jewishness when he was
appointed to the Supreme Court in
1994 — breaking the unspoken, long-
standing Jewish quota of one.
No, the Jews didn't become
Unitarians, as John Adams predicted.
Instead, concerned and active Jews
took their rightful place as full partic-
ipants in American democracy. It was
a long time coming — and it is a
political success story unmatched
anvwhere in the world. r_7_