Famed Truman Biographer Got It All Wrong On Zionism  

It should be noted that President Truman spoke just as harshly about broad swaths of the American Jewish community, not just Silver. For example, in the midst of a July 30, 1946 cabinet discussion about American Jewish dissatisfaction over his Palestine policy, Truman exploded, “Jesus Christ couldn’t please them when he was here on earth, so how could anyone expect that I would have any luck?” McCullough himself characterized Truman as “short-tempered.”

Nonetheless, according to McCullough’s biography of Truman (pp.598-599), it was Silver’s intemperate demeanor that helped provoke the president’s anger at the American Zionist movement: “Particularly offensive to Truman was the attitude of Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver…At one point during a meeting in Truman’s office, Silver had hammered on Truman’s desk and shouted at him.”

This anecdote shows up in many books and articles about the period. It is often cited as evidence that the obnoxious, belligerent Silver–as the face of obnoxious, belligerent American Jews in general–endangered the entire Zionist enterprise through his outrageous attempt to intimidate the president of the United States. The story is presented as an indictment not only of Silver the man, but of the very idea of forthright Jewish political behavior. 

The claim that Silver pounded on the president’s desk and yelled at him always struck me as implausible. Rabbi Silver was a passionate man, but he knew how to comport himself in meetings with the president of the United States and other government officials. 

Sure enough, my investigation of the source for the alleged incident quickly raised more questions than it answered. McCullough’s sole source was the aforementioned “terror and Silver” memo, which does not mention any fist-pounding or yelling. 

So I checked Truman’s daily calendar to see when the alleged incident might have taken place.