September 23, 2014 4:31 pm
Betrayal: FDR and the Jews
Like everyone else I knew in the Forest Hills of my boyhood, my parents were the American-born children of immigrants from Eastern Europe. But my grandparents, who left Russia and Romania in their desperate quest for freedom, opportunity and children who would become genuine Americans, always remained foreigners. They spoke Yiddish, brewed tea in samovars schlepped from Odessa, and shrieked hysterically – doubtlessly reminded of the Czar’s army – when my beloved uncle was drafted during World War II.
Their allegiance to the United States was pledged every four years when, like the overwhelming majority of American Jews of their generation, they voted for Franklin D. Roosevelt. During my childhood I believed that Roosevelt’s first name was “Presidentâ€Â; he was the closest thing to a Savior that our brand of Americanized Judaism permitted. We listened to his “fireside chatsâ€Â and during the 1944 presidential campaign my mother dragged me to Queens Boulevard in pouring rain to cheer his passing motorcade. I vividly remember glimpsing his delightful dog Fala, but not the President. At my father’s suggestion, I even wrote to the White House to ask him to buy a war bond to support our school’s patriotic campaign.
https://www.algemeiner.com/2014/09/23/betrayal-fdr-and-the-jews/
