Courtesy of the US Department of the Treasury

Henry Morgenthau Jr. 1891-1967

Henry Morgenthau Jr. served as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury during President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. He was involved in setting up FDR's Public Works of Art Project and Works Progress Administration, and in structuring how Social Security would be funded. Morgenthau was instrumental in establishing the U.S. War Refugee Board, which opened America's doors to some 200,000 European Jews fleeing the Holocaust. He chaired the 1944 conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire that established the International Monetary Fund and what is now known as the World Bank. Morgenthau resigned his post in 1945 and later became a leader of Jewish organizations and financial adviser to the State of Israel.