8.7K and The USA's support for the new State of Israel

This was my first run in a week - it felt great to get back out there.

Run details : http://bit.ly/39aPzb

Lecture Topic : Jewish Political Intrigue in the United States by Rabbi Berel Wein

An interesting talk tracing some of the notable Jewish influences from before the Civil War through the Lieberman running for VP. For me, the most interesting but was a story about how Truman came to support the new state of Israel, against the advice of all of his advisors.

Turns out that back in WWI, Truman and a buddy, who was Jewish, made $15K playing poker with the soldiers. After the war the two returned home and went into business together (they opened a haberdashery shop of all things). Well the two friends were better poker players than business men, and the store failed, and they declared bankruptcy. The friend personally guaranteed all the debts and over the next 12 years paid them all of - Truman wasn't on the hook for anything.

The two remained good friends, even after Truman became president, and any time the friend was in Washington, he'd stop by the White House and they'd have a bourbon together and talk about old time.

Well, now move forward to the time after the UN votes, but before the State of Israel is declared. Truman was undecided if he would support the new State of Israel, but his advisors, the State Department and just about everyone else in government were opposed to it. The Jewish lobby knew that Truman's support was crucial, but the only was to get it would be to arrange a meeting between Truman and Chaim Weizmann (who would become Israel's first President).

All attempts at arranging a meeting were blocked by the bureaucracy (which opposed US support for Israel) and in fact, Truman himself didn't want to meet for political reasons. So, the lobby tried a different tactic; they knew of Truman's Jewish poker buddy and asked the buddy to see Truman and arrange the meeting.

So the friend stooped by the White House, unannounced (as he often did). Truman greeted him with open arms, but the friend said he had a favour to ask. Truman said, "ask away", and the friend said "it's a really big, and important favour."

Truman saw his friend was serious and knew immediately what the favour was. He replied "Don't say it, I've never turned you down before and I don't want to start now." But the friend pressed on saying that Weizmann was the George Washington of the Jewish Nation and he had to meet, even for just 10 minutes.

Truman walked over to the window, stared out into the sky, then turned around, his face flush with anger, and said "You had no right to do this, but I'm going to see the old man." Weizmann did indeed convince Truman, and the USA officially supported the formation of Israel.

The end of the story is that a few years later, after Israel was established, and Weizmann was elected President, he came to Washington on a an official state visit and presented Truman with a Sefer Torah as a gift - this was the traditional gift the head of a Jewish community brought heads of state through the exile.  Truman, in his typical Missouri farmer way, looked at the thing and quipped "Gee, I always wanted one of those."

It turned out that it wasn't a well to do Jew in high public office who swayed the President to support Israel, it was a lowly Jew, who was friends with someone who happened to get elected president, just at the right time.

Another example of the hand of God being visible in history.