Pounding Truman's desk
The story is told - most recently by
writer Michael Beschloss, of Abba Hillel Silver pounding his
fist in anger on Harry Truman's desk and Truman telling his
staff that Silver was not to be allowed in his office again.
Rafael Medoff Ph.D., historian and Director of
The
David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, recently
asked me if I had heard of this tale. I noted this page. Medoff,
a respected scholar, has been searching for corroboration and
has been unable to confirm that this desk-pounding incident
occurred. At his request I carefully read Abba Hillel Silver's
unpublished autobiography, at the WRHS and found no mention of
the event, and conveyed that to Medoff.
It is always hard to put an unfounded story to rest, but in
December 2011 we received further refutation in an email from
former Clevelander, writer Benjamin Silverman, who has been
intensely studying Silver's life. He wrote:
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"The
story reported on your
Zionism page dates the story of Abba Hillel
Silver pounding on Harry Truman's desk to January
1948. However Rabbi Marc Lee Raphael's biography of
Silver, on page 168, says that Silver was visiting
Palestine from December 30, 1947 until February
1948. If that's true, Silver could not have been in
Washington in January, pounding on Truman's desk." |
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