for allegedly failing to recognize the Holocaust prior to American entry into World War II, dismissing early reports of the Final Solution as propaganda, and obstructing rescue efforts. Historian Saul Friedländer said that Wise prevented the shipment of food packages from American Jews to German-occupied Poland for fear that the Allies would be interpreted the aid as being sent to the enemy, who writes: "In the spring of 1941 Rabbi Wise had decided to impose a complete embargo on all aid sent to Jews in occupied countries, in compliance with the U.S. government's economic boycott of the Axis powers (whereby every food package was seen as direct or indirect assistance to the enemy)... Strict orders were given to World Jewish Congress representatives in Europe to halt forthwith any shipment of packages to the ghettos, despite the fact that these packages did usually reach their destination, the Jewish Self-Help Association in Warsaw. 'All these operations with and through Poland must cease at once,' Wise cabled to Congress delegates in London and Geneva, 'and at once in English means AT ONCE, not in the future.'" In the 2002 book A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust, David Wyman and Rafael Medoff argue that Wise displayed a lack of leadership which hindered the Holocaust rescue attempts of the Bergson Group and others. Wise was also partially successful in preventing some performances, but not the national broadcast, of the all-star pageant We Will Never Die, which sought to bring attention to the plight of Jews in Europe. Personal life Wise married Louise Waterman. The couple had two children: writer James Wise (born 1901); and Judge Justine Wise Polier (1903-1987). Wise died on April 19, 1949, in New York City, aged 75. He is interred in an unmarked mausoleum in Westchester Hills Cemetery located in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. The Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, which he founded in 1907 and served as Rabbi until his death, is named after him, as is Stephen S. Wise Temple in Los Angeles, which was founded by Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin in 1964. A street is named after him in Jerusalem next to the Israel Museum, and others in Haifa, Rishon LeZion and Petah Tikvah. See also American Jewish Congress Free Synagogue Jerome Davis (sociologist) Pittsburgh Platform Political Zionism Slattery Report References Further reading External links worldjewishcongress.org Jewish Encyclopedia article on S.S.Wise Stephen S. Wise (Jewish Virtual Library)