Most Pro-Jewish President? It’s Woodrow Wilson, New Book Says
President Barack Obama concluded his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday by saying, “I know what side of history I want the United States of America to be on.”
Obama’s address included more than faint echoes of another principled Democrat intent on transforming American society and the world beyond it: Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, and the man who led his country into the First World War.
Now, 100 years after his inauguration, Wilson is the subject of a new biography that portrays him as one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, an idealist who uttered such gems as, “Tell me what is right and I will fight for it.” Wilson has been described as a hopeless romantic and a stubborn fool who was outmaneuvered by France and Great Britain at the negotiating table following WWI.
However, in A. Scott Berg’s biography, “Wilson” (Putnam Press), the book’s namesake emerges as a formidable statesman, one who has influenced the decision-making of every American president since his tenure.
Berg, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Charles Lindbergh and Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn, also says Wilson is what he calls the most pro-Jewish president in American history.
For more, go to Haaretz
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30