Henry Morgenthau, Sr., U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1914 – 1916, initially turned down the appointment because he had hoped to serve in President Wilson’s cabinet. Once he arrived in Constantinople, Morgenthau quickly established himself as an advocate for the 2.5 million Armenians living under oppressive Ottoman rule.

When he received word of the deportations of Armenians from the Turkish interior, Morgenthau exhausted diplomatic channels to avoid further casualties. He met with Ottoman officials, but made no progress. On Sept. 3, 1915, Morgenthau sent a telegram to the U.S. State Department requesting that the Secretary of State ask several prominent American men to form a committee to raise funds for Armenian refugees. This telegram launched the committee that would become Near East Relief.

While still in Constantinople, Ambassador Morgenthau was responsible for distributing the funds raised by Near East Relief. Morgenthau returned to the United States in 1916. He continued to speak openly about the plight of minorities in Ottoman Turkey.

Cleveland Hoadley Dodge was an official of the Phelps Dodge Corporation, an American copper mining company. Dodge was connected with the Near East by way of academics: he served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Robert College in Constantinople. Dodge’s son Bayard was active in the American University of Beirut, later serving as its President.

Cleveland H. Dodge and President Woodrow Wilson had been friends since their days at Princeton University. It was natural that the President would contact Dodge with Morgenthau’s request. Dodge called the first meeting of the group that would become Near East Relief in his office in Lower Manhattan on September 16, 1915. Dodge was chosen as Treasurer. He informed Secretary Samuel T. Dutton that Dodge would cover all Committee operating expenses. Every dollar raised would go to direct relief.

Dr. James L. Barton was a missionary and educator with firsthand knowledge of the Near East. Barton had spent eight years supervising missionary-run schools in Harput, Turkey. He also brought years of experience at the Boston office of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, where he worked as Foreign Secretary.

The original Committee also included Rabbi Stephen Wise, a progressive voice in the Reform Judaism movement and founder of the Free Synagogue. Dr. Samuel T. Dutton was a former school superintendent and Columbia University professor. He offered his office at 70 Fifth Avenue as headquarters. Charles R. Crane would later investigate the disposition of non-Turkish Ottoman lands as part of President Wilson’s 1919 King-Crane Commission to Turkey.