Today, Representative Bill Pascrell, Jr. (NJ-09) wrote a letter to Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo highlighting that a prominent auditorium within the State Department headquarters is named for a prominent enemy of the state of Israel at its birth, Loy Henderson. In 1947 and 1948, Henderson led opposition a Jewish state and repeatedly urged the Truman administration not to recognize it.

“Given Mr. Henderson’s staunch opposition to the existence of the state of Israel, I write to register my dismay with this honor,” Rep. Pascrell writes. “After the end of the war, Mr. Henderson weighed in heavily against the United States recognition of Israel and worked assiduously to prevent the United States from supporting the new nation as it edged towards birth, calling U.S. recognition of the Jewish state a ‘tragic mistake.’ One writer on Mr. Henderson, sympathetic to the former diplomat, conceded that Henderson was the ‘flagbearer of the anti-Zionist view’ in the State Department.”

Loy Henderson occupied a host of mid- and high-ranking diplomatic positions during a long career in the State Department. Many in the Truman White House believed that the antagonism of Henderson and others to Israel in the State Department had dark motivations. Harry Truman himself wrote in his memoirs that he believed that many leaders at the State Department had views of Israeli recognition shaped by latent anti-Semitism. About Henderson, Truman was even more abrupt: he “lied to me” about Israel’s viability, Truman would say.

“Given that history, it is striking to me that the headquarters for the State Department would be named for our great 33rd President, but that a room within it would be dedicated to a man who fought ferociously to deny Truman one of his – and the world’s – most heroic achievements. I write you to register my disapproval with the name of the Henderson Auditorium and request that in your capacity you investigate the matter and consider a new moniker for the hall,” the letter concludes.

A copy of the letter is available here.