Author takes deep, detailed dive into the Morganthau family, ‘an American dynasty’

ROBERT A. COHN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EMERITUS

Andrew Meier’s hefty history of the Morgenthau family’s amazing success in business, politics and diplomacy proves that for some Jews, the streets of America were indeed “paved with gold.”

Meier, a former Time magazine writer who written extensively on Russia and the Soviet Union, has published a dazzling, sprawling history of the American Jewish powerhouse Morgenthau family who moved from Germany to America in the middle of the 19th century.

The author starts with the flamboyant Lazarus, who wasted his shrewdness in business on ill-fated get-rich-quick schemes. Eventually Lazarus became mentally deranged and penniless, dying in the asylum to which his family had him committed.

Fortunately, other Morgenthau descendants were extremely successful members of the silk-stocking German Jewish families of 19th century New York, making a fortune by acquiring prime real estate in strategic locations in Manhattan.

Two of the most influential Morgenthaus over many decades were Henry Jr. (1891-1967), who served as Treasury Secretary in the Cabinet of his close friend Franklin D. Roosevelt—and his son Robert, who was Manhattan District Attorney for an unequaled 35 years. Longevity is a major hallmark of this remarkable family.

Henry Morgenthau was FDR’s best friend who proudly wore the silver cufflinks the president had gifted him.

Morgenthau realized that his friendship with Roosevelt had limits and as the highest-ranking Jew in the Cabinet he could only go so far in his efforts to rescue his fellow Jews from the Holocaust.

While many scholars have criticized

FDR and Morgenthau for not doing enough, Meier notes their role in creating the War Refugees Board, which rescued 200,000 Jews from the Shoah when much of America was isolationist and antisemitic.

After Roosevelt’s death in 1945, Morgenthau played a major role in the efforts to create the International Monetary Fund and other entities to rebuild postwar Europe and to assure Germany would not revive its Nazi past.

Meier notes that when Harry S. Truman became president, he was not impressed with Morgenthau. Truman judged Morgenthau too harshly. On bal- ance, he served as a constructive figure during a crucial period in American world history.

Meier’s book is comprehensive — perhaps to a fault. It seems to “weigh a ton,” and might be more reader-friendly if it focused on Henry in one volume and Robert in a separate companion volume.