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CIIECk OUT tra RaRcy's Miens TILE PAINTERS r ANd WALLPAPER HANCIERS IN OUR 4.4 MARkETplACE 25-15 Orchard Lake Road Sylraa Lake, /WI 48520 248-685-0450 258- 685- 0498 fax 7/2 ° 11 1999 ) r.§ 2Es Detroit iewiWNews HOME ANd SERVICE 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_