“By dint of our heritage, our faith, the
intuitive and all but instinctive reaction of the
Jew against injustice or the violation of human
dignity, we are committed to the battle for human
freedom- whether it is or is not good for the
survival of the Jewish people.”
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Polier's concern for Jewish
rights meant that, like her parents, she was a
committed Zionist. She also served as
vice-president of the American Jewish Congress,
and president of its women's division. During
W.W.II Polier attempted, with help from Eleanor
Roosevelt, to convince the American state
department to let in 10,000 German Jewish
children. Mourning her failure and the lives
lost, she remembered, "how fearful Jews were
here, afraid of stirring up trouble that might
affect their position."
For Polier, being
a Jew meant she was morally obligated to speak
out against injustice, even if it endangered her
own life or the life of her people. Time after
time she criticized American Jews for losing
themselves in materialism and abandoning their
responsibility to justice for "all human
beings."
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