A scion of
the Protestant elite, Theodore Roosevelt was an unlikely ally of the waves of
impoverished Jewish newcomers who crowded the docks at Ellis Island. Yet from
his earliest years he forged ties with Jews never before witnessed in a
president. American Maccabee traces Roosevelt’s deep
connection with the Jewish people at every step of his dazzling ascent. But it
also reveals a man of contradictions whose checkered approach to Jewish issues
was no less conflicted than the nation he led.
As a rising political figure in
New York, Roosevelt barnstormed the Lower East Side, giving speeches to packed
halls of Jewish immigrants. He rallied for reform of the sweatshops where
Jewish laborers toiled for pitiful wages in perilous conditions. And Roosevelt
repeatedly venerated the heroism of the Maccabee warriors, upholding those
storied rebels as a model for the American Jewish community. Yet little could
have prepared him for the blood-soaked persecution of Eastern European Jews
that brought a deluge of refugees to American shores during his presidency.
Andrew Porwancher uncovers the vexing challenges for Roosevelt as he confronted
Jewish suffering abroad and antisemitic xenophobia at home.
Drawing on new archival
research to paint a richly nuanced portrait of an iconic figure, American
Maccabee chronicles the complicated relationship between the leader of
a youthful nation and the people of an ancient faith.
Andrew
Porwancher is
professor of history at Arizona State University. His books include The
Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton (Princeton) and The Devil
Himself: A Tale of Honor, Insanity, and the Birth of Modern America.