Stephen Samuel Wise was an early 20th-century American, Progressive Era, Reform rabbi, and Zionist leader. Wise was born on March 17, 1874, in Budapest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the son and grandson of rabbis. His grandfather, Joseph Hirsch Weiss, was Chief Rabbi of a small town near Budapest. His father, Aaron Wise, earned a PhD and ordination in Europe, and emigrated to the United States to serve as rabbi of Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes in Brooklyn, New York. Wise's maternal grandfather, Móric Fischer de Farkasházy, created the Herend Porcelain Company. When Wise's father sought to unionize the company, Moric gave the family one-way tickets to New York.
