Morgenthau Family

(19–20th century)

   Henry Morgenthau (Sr) (1856– 1946), US diplomat and humanitarian, was brought to the United States as a boy and became a prominent New York lawyer and real estate financier. He campaigned for President Woodrow WILSON, who, in 1913, appointed him ambassador to Turkey, a post he held until 1916. In the early war years he used his influence to relieve the privations of the Jewish community in Palestine. In the post-war years, Morgenthau was active in dealing with European refugee problems. In 1919, he headed an American Commission on the situation of the Jews in Poland, and in 1921 helped to arrange the population exchange between Greece and Turkey.

   Henry Morgenthau (Jr) (1891–1967), his son, was a successful farmer and agricultural expert. He was appointed by President Roosevelt as head of the Federal Farm Board at the beginning of the New Deal era, 1932. He became secretary of the Treasury in 1934, a position he held until Roosevelt’s death in 1945. In the pre-war period he carried out tax reforms and monetary policies that helped bring the country out of the depression. He had a major share in the wartime mobilization of American industrial and financial resources. Before the war ended, Morgenthau proposed a plan for the partition of Germany, turning it into an agrarian economy, that stirred much controversy. After his retirement from public office, Morgenthau threw himself into Jewish relief and welfare work and support for Israel. He was chairman or honorary chairman of the United Jewish Appeal (1947–53), of the Israel Bond Drive (1951–4), and of the board of governors of the Hebrew University (1950–1).