Kristallnacht

November 10, 2009

THE DAY THE RABBIS MARCHED TO THE WHITE HOUSE:

How 400 Rabbis Helped Change U.S. Policy Towards the Holocaust

This year’s Kristallnacht Commemoration was presented in conjunction with Congregation B’Nai Torah’s Annual Izenstein Lecture. The guest speaker was Dr. Rafael Medoff, founding executive director of the David Wyman Institute in Washington, D.C.

At a time when many American Jews were reluctant to take issue with the Roosevelt administration, and when the idea of a Jewish rally in the nation's capitol was almost unheard of, more than 400 rabbis came from around the country to Washington, D.C. just before Yom Kippur in 1943, to plead for U.S. government action to save Jews from Hitler. The speaker explained how these unlikely protesters helped change U.S. policy toward European Jewry during the Holocaust. The presentation included a screening of rare original newsreel footage of the march, and an update on the "race against the clock" by historians to locate rabbis who took part in the march--and the surprising discoveries that have been made along the way.