Henry Monsky was an American lawyer and Jewish communal leader.
Background
Henry Monsky was born on February 4, 1890, in Omaha, Nebraska. He was the oldest of the three sons and one daughter of Abraham Monsky and his second wife, Betsy (Perisnev) Monsky; there were also five children by the first marriage. Both parents were Orthodox Jews who had emigrated from Lithuania in the 1880's. The father was a cantor, and although the family was poor, Henry grew up with a respect for learning.
Education
Monsky attended public schools and went also to cheder--Hebrew religious school. After graduating from high school, he entered the law school of Creighton University, a Roman Catholic institution in Omaha, from which he received the LL. B. degree, cum laude, in 1912. He then began a practice in Omaha that he maintained for the rest of his life.
Career
Imbued with a sense of dedication to the welfare of the Jewish people, Monsky joined the B'nai B'rith lodge in Omaha in 1911 and became its youngest president two years later. He was attracted to this oldest of American Jewish service organizations because it adhered to no political or religious dogmas and included Jews of every variety of belief. Rather than identify himself with anyone Jewish religious faction, he became a member of Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox congregations. Monsky's prominence grew, and in 1923 he was elected president of B'nai B'rith's 6th district, comprising several Midwestern states. In 1933, he was elected to the organization's national executive committee, and five years later he became international president, a post he retained until his death.
In the late 1930's, the threat of Nazi-inspired anti-Semitism intensified Monsky's efforts to bring about Jewish unity. Yet it was not until 1943, after the Nazi plan to murder all European Jews became known in the United States, that he was able to establish the American Jewish Conference, of which he served as chairman until his death. This conference, made up of representatives of most American Jewish groups, was designed to aid the victims of Nazi Germany and to plan for the postwar needs of world Jewry. Monsky's dedication to Jewish unity was surpassed only by his ardent Zionism. He worked tirelessly to help create a Jewish national home in Palestine. Nevertheless, as president of B'nai B'rith, he respected that organization's historic neutrality in the ongoing Zionist controversy and prevented it from officially committing itself to either side. Besides his B'nai B'rith activities, Monsky served in many other civic roles. He was a member of the Omaha Welfare Board, the founder (1921) of the Omaha Community Chest, and president of the Nebraska Conference of Social Work, and during the 1930's he served on the national board of the Family Welfare Association of America. A close friend of Father Edward J. Flanagan, founder of Boys Town, Monsky volunteered his efforts to raise funds for that enterprise, served on its board of trustees, and handled its legal work. In 1946 he was chairman of the executive committee of the National Conference for Prevention and Control of Juvenile Delinquency. His interfaith interests brought him to the executive committee of the National Conference of Christians and Jews and to the Catholic Committee on American Citizenship. In 1941, President Roosevelt appointed Monsky to the National Voluntary Participation Committee of the Office of Civilian Defense, and four years later he was named as one of two Jewish consultants to the United States delegation to the San Francisco conference that established the United Nations.
Monsky died of a sudden coronary thrombosis in 1947 while attending a meeting of the interim committee of the American Jewish Conference in New York City. After ceremonies in both New York and Omaha, he was buried at Fisher Farm Cemetery, Omaha.
Monsky was continually dismayed at the factionalism among American Jews, growing out of differences over religious interpretation, Zionism, assimilation, and the like. The result, he felt, was the duplication of programs, competition for funds, and a growing chaos that he feared was leading to a dilution of Jewish values and loyalties. His own convictions were firm but never fanatical. Brilliant and energetic, he possessed the leadership ability to get ideological opponents to work together for a common cause.
Membership
a member of the Omaha Welfare Board
Connections
Monsky was married twice. As a young man he had fallen in love with Daisy Hirsh, a niece of Adolf Kraus, then international president of B'nai B'rith, and the offspring of a wealthy, "Americanized" family of the Reform tradition. The couple's plans to wed, however, were thwarted by the unyielding social and religious prejudices of both families. On May 2, 1915, Monsky married Sadie Lesser. They had three children: Joy, Hubert, and Barbara. This marriage ended in divorce in the early 1930's, and on November 3, 1937, Monsky married his first love, now the widow of Albert Rothschild.