The Meeting with Roosevelt

During the Second World War, Rav Herzog travelled to the United States and back, at great personal risk. He succeeded in arranging a meeting with President Roosevelt, and he pleaded with him to promise help for the Jews of Europe.

Roosevelt smiled and gave no reply. His biographer records that several people noticed that the Rav's hair had turned white when he left the meeting, which he regarded as a failure.

He returned home at once. In doing so he missed the ride on a ship that was later sunk by a U-boat, and he took what was said to be the last civilian ship to cross the Atlantic during the war.