Nomination Archive


Nomination for Nobel Peace Prize
Year:1946
Number:1 - 10
 
Nominee:
Name:Emily Greene Balch
Gender:F
Year, Birth:1867
Year, Death:1961
Profession:Professor of Economy and Sociology. Co-founder and leader of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
City:Boston
State:MA
Country:UNITED STATES (US)
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1946
 
Motivation:Balch had actively worked for peace since 1915, and she had been one of the leaders of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom since 1919. She promoted disarmament, and she opposed US isolationism and neutrality, claiming that neutrality was selfish. Balch strongly advocated the need to resist fascism and aggression through non-violent methods and international co-operation. She also established summer schools to promote peace. During the 1930s she aided Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany. Initially she opposed WWII because she opposed all war in general, but she supported US entry into the war in 1941. Balch saw Nazism as the personification of evil and a threat to humanity that had to be stopped.
 
Nominator:
Name:Judah Leon Magnes
Gender:M
Profession:Rabbi. Founder and president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
University:Hebrew University of Jerusalem
City:Jerusalem
Country:ISRAEL (IL)
 
Comments: John Randall, professor of philosophy at Columbia University, and his wife Mercedes Randall, one of the leaders of the US section the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and a friend of Emily Greene Balch, initiated a campaign to nominate Balch for the peace prize. The campaign was supported by five US organizations that established a committee called the "Committee to sponsor Emily Greene Balch for the Nobel Peace Prize". The organizations were the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the National Federation of Settlements, the Women's Trade Union League of America, the National Council of Women of the U.S.A. and the National Association for Advancement of Colored People. It was not clear if Magnes was entitled to nominate.