Today is the birthday of our beloved community’s namesake—Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise. He was born on March 17, 1874, in Budapest. He was a man of great faith, filled with hope in the future even during the darkest days of the Shoah. He wrote the following shortly before his death in 1949:
“My unwavering faith that the Jewish State would be established was the legacy I had received forty years earlier from Herzl himself. I have often told of my last conversation with him in April, 1904 at the meeting of the Zionist Actions Committee, a few months before his death at the age of 44 on July 3. Herzl placed his arm around me and said, ‘I shall not live to see the Jewish State. But you, Wise, are a young man. You will live to see the Jewish State.’ I thank God that it was given to me to live till that glorious day of May 14, 1948, when out of the centuries of Jewish suffering and persecution, of prayer and hope and labor, the prophecy of Theodor Herzl was at last fulfilled.”
Here’s what gives me hope: Theodor Herzl knew he wouldn’t see the birth of the Jewish State. His unwavering belief that his friend Stephen Wise would see it is gave him hope. Every day we have the opportunity to plant seeds for the future.
What will you plant today?
— Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback
Wise celebrates Founders’ Day on March 17 each year in honor of Rabbi Stephen Wise’s birthday. Follow us today on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as we share some info about Rabbi Wise’s life, selections from the Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin online archive, and stories from the history of Wise.