Rabbi Stephen Wise speaks at Madison Square Garden.
—National Archives (Photo #11301)
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise delivers an address at a mass meeting to protest the Nazi persecution of German Jews that took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City on March 27, 1933.
An estimated 20,000 people attended the meeting and heard addresses by a group of Jewish and Christian leaders, including former New York Governor Alfred E. Smith, Senator Robert F. Wagner, Bishop William T. Manning, Bishop Francis T. McConnell, and Mayor John P. O’Brien, in addition to Rabbi Wise. Another 35,000 people joined in the protest by gathering at overflow meetings outside the arena and in Columbus Circle. Hundreds of similar meetings were also held in other cities across the country. The meetings concluded a day of prayer and fasting declared by American rabbinical authorities.
