Elinor Lehman Morgenthau (née Fatman; February 19, 1892 – September 21, 1949) was an American Democratic party activist, member of the

Lehman family The Lehman family is a prominent family of Jewish German-Americans who founded the financial firm Lehman Brothers. Some were also involved in American politics. Members have married into the prominent Morgenthau, Loeb, and Bronfman families. The ...

, and spouse of Henry Morgenthau, Jr.

Biography

Born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, the daughter of Lisette "Settie" (née Lehman) and Morris Fatman, a clothing manufacturer.Jewish Women's Archives: "Elinor Morgenthau (1891–1949) by Edna S. Friedberg
retrieved October 14, 2015 Her grandfather was

Mayer Lehman Mayer Lehman (January 9, 1830 – June 21, 1897) was a German-born American businessman, banker, and philanthropist. He was one of the three founding brothers of the investment bank Lehman Brothers. Early life Mayer Lehman was born in 1830 to ...

, a co-founder of

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Gol ...

. She had one older sister, Margaret. She attended the Jacobi School for girls and then graduated from

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

with a degree in theater in 1913. After school, she taught acting at the

Henry Street Settlement The Henry Street Settlement is a not-for-profit social service agency in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City that provides social services, arts programs and health care services to New Yorkers of all ages. It was founde ...

where she met her future husband Henry Morgenthau, Jr., the son of ambassador

Henry Morgenthau, Sr. Henry Morgenthau (; April 26, 1856 – November 25, 1946) was a German-born American lawyer and businessman, best known for his role as the ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Morgenthau was one of the most prominent Americans w ...

They married in 1915 and settled in

Dutchess County, New York Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later orga ...

where her husband became involved in local politics and operated a farm which they named

Fishkill Farms Fishkill Farms is a farm located in East Fishkill in Dutchess County, New York. It is of historic significance primarily because its founder Henry Morgenthau, Jr. and his wife, Elinor Morgenthau were close and enduring family friends of Frankli ...

. Morgenthau also became active in politics and served as the speaker for the state Democratic Committee Women’s Division. In 1916, she and her husband became close friends with Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt; like the Morgenthaus, the Roosevelts were active Democrats in predominantly Republican Dutchess County. The Morgenthaus actively campaigned for FDR thereafter and after Roosevelt was elected president, her husband was appointed as

Secretary of Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

in 1934. The Morgenthaus were the only Jewish family with whom the Roosevelts were intimate, and Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the

Colony Club The Colony Club is a women-only private social club in New York City. Founded in 1903 by Florence Jaffray Harriman, wife of J. Borden Harriman, as the first social club established in New York City by and for women, it was modeled on similar ...

of New York in protest of its refusal to admit her friend. In 1941, Elinor Morgenthau became Eleanor Roosevelt's assistant in the Office of Civilian Defense. As a close personal friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, Morgenthau was influential in convincing the president to take a more active role in supporting World War II refugees through the creation of the

War Refugee Board The War Refugee Board, established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1944, was a U.S. executive agency to aid civilian victims of the Axis powers. The Board was, in the words of historian Rebecca Erbelding, "the only time in American h ...

Personal life

Although Jewish by descent, the Morgenthaus were not religious. They celebrated both Christmas and Easter and they avoided purely Jewish social networks. The couple had three children: television producer Henry Morgenthau III; New York District attorney

Robert Morgenthau Robert Morris Morgenthau ( ; July 31, 1919July 21, 2019) was an American lawyer. From 1975 until his retirement in 2009, he was the District Attorney for New York County (the borough of Manhattan), having previously served as United States Attorn ...

, and physician Joan Morgenthau Hirschhorn.New York Times: "Joan Morgenthau Hirschhorn"
October 7, 2012 They had homes in

and at their farm in

. Morgenthau died of a stroke in New York on September 21, 1949.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgenthau, Elinor 1892 births 1949 deaths Vassar College alumni Lehman family American people of German-Jewish descent New York (state) Democrats Elinor Women in New York (state) politics