Trailblazing Jewish Democrat #9: Henry Morgenthau

Jason Attermann — May 12, 2011 – 3:57 pm | Jewish American Heritage Month 2011 Comments (0) Add a comment

Henry Morgenthau was one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s closest allies. He was the 2^nd Jewish cabinet member, the longest-serving Jewish cabinet member, and the longest-serving Treasury Secretary in American history.

Henry Morgenthau, Jr. was born on May 11, 1891 in New York City. His father, Henry Morgenthau, Sr., served as a U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire under President Woodrow Wilson. He studied architecture and agriculture at Cornell University. In 1913, he bought a large farm in Dutchess County, New York. While living there, Morgenthau befriended locals from Hyde Park, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

During World War I, he assisted Herbert Hoover and the U.S. Farm Administration in creating a plan to send tractors to France to aid the war efforts. As Governor of New York, Roosevelt appointed Morgenthau as Chair of the New York State Agricultural Advisory Committee. He served on the Committee from 1928 until 1930. He sat on the state Conservation Commission from 1930 until 1932. After Roosevelt’s election to the presidency, he appointed Morgenthau as Chairman of the Federal Farm Board in 1933. Later that year, Roosevelt selected Morgenthau to serve as acting Treasury Secretary. Morgenthau was eventually made permanent Secretary beginning January 1934, and served in the role for 11 years.

As Treasury Secretary, Morgenthau raised over $200 billion through the sale of bonds and raised $450 billion for government programs and the war effort. He successfully prepared the U.S. Treasury to withstand the high financial costs of fighting World War II. Through certain tactics in the foreign currency exchange markets, he positioned the U.S. dollar to be the world’s strongest currency by the end of the war. At the historic Bretton Woods conference in 1944, Morgenthau played a large role in setting post-war economic and currency stabilization policies.

In 1942, the State Department learned of Adolf Hitler’s plan to exterminate Europe’s Jewish population. As one of the few Jewish advisors surrounding Roosevelt, Morgenthau pushed for protection and action against these atrocities. Multiple times, he proposed plans to rescue Jews escaping persecution. Unfortunately, these plans were often blocked or postponed by the State Department. By 1944, after much urging by Morgenthau, Roosevelt established the War Refugee Board as an independent rescue agency to deal with the refugee crisis. Morgenthau recalled this period as “those terrible eighteen months,” when “officials dodged their grim responsibility, procrastinated when concrete rescue schemes were placed before them, and even suppressed information about atrocities.”

Morgenthau resigned as Treasury Secretary shortly after Roosevelt’s death in 1945. He served as Chairman of the United Jewish Appeal from 1947 until 1950 and raised $465 million. From 1951 to 1954, he was the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the American Financial and Development Corporation for Israel. In this role, he helped execute a $500 million bond for Israel.

For seven days from June 27 to July 3, 1945, Morgenthau was the first person in the presidential line of succession. Prior to the passage of the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, the Vice President, then Secretary of State and then the Treasury Secretary would succeed a vacated presidency. President Truman succeeded President Roosevelt upon his death. Following the resignation of Secretary of State Edward Stettinius and prior to Senate confirmation of James Byrnes, the Treasury Secretary would take over the presidency in case of death or removal of office.

Morgenthau married Elinor Fatman in 1916. They had three children. Following Fatman’s death, he married Marcelle Puthon Hirsch. Morgenthau died on February 6, 1967 in Poughkeepsie, New York.

 

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