rabbi stephen s. wise" "the disenfranchisement of women a great moral wrong"

[niyad]

. . . .

A seasoned veteran of suffrage campaigns in New York and three other States in 1915, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise is still as dedicated as he is eloquent. Speaking in Carnegie Hall to the Free Synagogue today, he addressed and demolished every anti-suffrage argument one by one, and said that now is the time “to right a great moral wrong.” He also expressed no sympathy for male anti-suffragists:

If we continue to disenfranchise the women, it will be because of the meanness and want of elementary generosity of the men. The men who vote against suffrage are cowards. They are guilty of cowardice, because they know that whether the women get the vote or not, these women will continue to do their duty by their families and by their country. So far as the men are concerned, they lose nothing by depriving the women of the vote. But democracy loses, and will continue to lose, as long as men continue to perpetuate this injustice…

The argument that equal suffrage will weaken the strength of our Government is an argument against democracy, and an argument for just that kind of Prussianism which we are now fighting against. Before we can make the world safe for democracy we must de-Prussianize our own country by admitting the women to the franchise to which they are entitled.

. . . .

http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2014/11/04/today-in-herstory-new-york-rabbi-calls-womens-disenfranchisement-a-great-moral-wrong/

[freshwest]

1. Great read. Meanwhile, women's bodies and lives are on the ballot and losing badly.

[niyad]

2. I am just imagining what the good rabbi would be saying today.