Justine Wise Polier came from a family with a tradition of
staunch, unyielding principles. Both her parents
had committed their lives to "battles for social
justice," and always encouraged Justine and her
older brother to "speak out and speak up."
Justine's father, the prominent Rabbi Stephen Wise,
established the Free Synagogue to ensure he could
speak with absolute freedom in the pulpit. He was
one of the founders of the American Jewish Congress,
a leading advocate of an Israeli state, a supporter
of the NAACP from its inception, and a pro-labor
activist.
Her mother, Louise Waterman Wise, painter and
ardent Zionist, founded a Jewish foster care and
adoption agency. Later renamed Louise Wise
Services in her honor, it also provided assistance
for unwed mothers. Polier assumed the agency's
leadership in 1944 and soon reorganized it to be
interracial and non-sectarian.
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The Wise home was "a place where people came from
everywhere without any feeling of looking up or
looking down." As Polier remembered, "I was one
of the most fortunate of children because my
parents shared so much- in their ideals, their
work...And perhaps most important they...never gave
us the feeling they were too busy or engaged in
anything more important than their life with us."
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