The
Foundations of American Judaism—the first century- rascals and exemplars
Part 3 of American Jewish Heritage
For the recording of this discussion go to:
The founding fathers were excited about
opening the doors to all religions—yet, as much as they accepted Jews, they did
not know how to digest them:
on the Jewish
people as follows: II. Jews. . Their system was Deism; that is, the belief in
one only God. But their ideas of him and of his attributes were degrading and
injurious. Their Ethics were not only
imperfect, but often irreconcilable with the sound dictates of reason and
morality, as they respect intercourse with those around us; and repulsive and
anti-social, as respecting other nations. They needed reformation, therefore,
in an eminent degree. Elsewhere,
Jefferson attacked Jewish theology .. which supposes the God of infinite
justice to punish the sins of the fathers upon their children, unto the third
and fourth generation,"
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-06-02-0431
To compare the morals of the old, with those of the
new testament, …(he goes on to quote a scholar)
… Enfield, his epitomiser, concludes in these words. “‘Ethics
were so little studied among the Jews, that, in their whole compilation called
the Talmud, there is only one treatise on moral subjects.. … what a wretched
depravity of sentiment & manners must have prevailed before such corrupt
maxims could have obtained credit! it is impossible to collect from these writings
a consistent series of moral Doctrine.’”
On the other hand:
https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/jews-and-judaism/
1820 September 1. (Jefferson to Jacob De La Motta). "[De La
Motta's Discourse Delivered at the Consecration of the Synagogue of the
Hebrew Congregation, Mikva Israel: In the City of Savannah, Georgia ...]
…he is happy in the restoration, of the Jews particularly, to their social
rights, & hopes they will be seen taking their seats on the benches of
science, as preparatory to their doing the same at the board of
government."[4]
President John Adams
would come to be one of the earliest supporters of Zionism, before Zionism:
President John Adams Embraces A Jewish Homeland (1819) (jewishvirtuallibrary.org)
I believe [that] . . . once restored to an independent government
& no longer persecuted they [the Jews] would soon wear away some of the
asperities and peculiarities of their character & possibly in time
become liberal Unitarian christians for your Jehovah is our
Jehovah & your God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob is our God.
Americans still kept with them old world
assumptions about Jews. Thus during the Civil War,
When General
Grant tried to cut off supplies and funding to the rebel Confederacy, he tried
to ban all peddlers from his area of control.
In reference to Jewish traders Grant said: "they
come in with their carpet sacks in spite of all that can be done
to prevent it. The Jews seem to be a privileged class that can travel anywhere.
They will land at any wood yard or landing on the river and make their way
through the country. If not permitted to buy cotton themselves they will act as
agents for someone else who will be at a military post with a Treasury permit
to receive cotton and pay for it in Treasury notes, which the Jew will buy up
at an agreed rate, paying gold
So he declared:
Head Quarters 13th Army Corps,
Department of the Tennessee,
Oxford, Miss. Dec. 17, 1862.
I.. The Jews, as a class, violating every regulation
of trade established by the Treasury Department, and also Department orders,
are hereby expelled from the Department.
II.. Within twenty-four hours from the receipt of
this order by Post Commanders, they will see that all of this class of people be
furnished passes and required to leave, and any one returning after such
notification will be arrested and held in confinement until an opportunity
occurs of sending them out as prisoners, unless furnished with permit from Head
Quarters.
General
Order No. 11 (1862) - Wikipedia
It may well be
that he was upset because his own father was in partnership with two Jews in
the cotton business!
These early years saw many unusual Jews,
adventurers, such as
The notorious pirate ( Privateer) Jean
Lafitte.
His Journal de Jean Lafitte, Lafitte claims to have been
born in Bordeaux, France, in 1780, the child of Sephardic Jewish parents whose
converso grandmother and mother fled from Spain to France in 1765 after his
maternal grandfather was executed by the Inquisition for “Judaizing”.
He was a French pirate and privateer who operated primarily in the
Gulf of Mexico…
…Later, in return for a legal pardon, Lafitte and his fleet helped
Andrew Jackson (later, president of the United States) defend New Orleans from
the British. After Jackson secured victory, he paid tribute to the Lafitte
brothers’ efforts and those of their fellow privateers.
The only Jewish Emperor in history! The only
Emperor of the United States of America:
Emperor Joshua Abraham Norton I
Not one to be too upset by the setback, On
September 17, 1859, he published the following notice in the San Francisco
Bulletin: “At the peremptory request of a large majority of the citizens of
these United States, I, Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good
Hope, and now for the last nine years and ten months past of San Francisco,
California, declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these United States, and
Protector of Mexico.” Applaud Emperor Norton I!
He soon issued his own coinage:
From internal affairs Norton proceeded
to monetary issues of the States, printed banknotes with his portrait, and even
collected taxed. The amazing thing was that the residents of San Francisco
loved him dearly, and were willing to pay. When he toured the streets, in a
fancy military jacket, with a shiny sword and peacock feathers hat, they used
to salute him.
Four
Founders - Emma Lazarus [Judaic Treasures] (jewishvirtuallibrary.org)
At the time of your appointment, as Consul to Tunis, it was not
known that the religion which you profess would form an obstacle to the
exercise of your Consular functions.
He did not take it lying down, but argued back: . This may
hereafter produce the most injurious effects establishing a principle, which
will go to annihilate the most sacred rights of the citizen.
He
and Monroe would eventually be reconciled.
His
most memorable act was to call for a Jewish homeland. He saw the opportunity to
bring new immigrants to the young America, while also creating a Jewish safe-haven.:
He
purchased land on Grand Island ( just below the Niagra Falls), where he would
establish a Jewish colony: Ararat ( the mountain in which the original Noah’s
ark landed safely).
Here
is the inauguration of Ararat
On September 15th,
1825, Ararat’s inauguration was held at a church in the nearby city of Buffalo;
there were not enough boats to transport the crowds of people to the island for
the ceremony. Noah led a jubilant procession, resplendent with prayers in
Hebrew, loud music, singing, military troops, officers, clergymen, and fellow
citizens. According to a New York City newspaper reporting on the event, Noah was
“in black, wearing the judicial robes of crimson silk, trimmed with ermine and
a richly embossed gold medal suspended from the neck” which historian Jonathan
D. Sarna explains was lent by the local Park Theater.
Hundreds of people
gathered to listen, including the Seneca Chief Red Jacket who arrived by boat
(Noah believed that the Native Americans were one of the Lost Tribes).
In his speech, Noah
proclaimed himself as the “Judge of Israel,” established Ararat as a City of
Refuge, and claimed that every Jew in the world must be taxed “three shekels of
silver” in order to sustain Ararat. He also decreed that every four years the
Paris Jewish consistory was to elect a Judge of Israel (after Noah served his
term, of course). Mordecai
Manuel Noah and the Jewish Colony Near Niagara Falls - Aish.com
The cornerstone for Ararat,
now in the Buffalo History Museum Artifact
Spotlight: The Ararat Stone - The Buffalo History Museum
His plan failed to catch fire
with Jews in America, and in Europe, as in the Austro Hungarian empire, his
announcement was kept hidden from publication. He soon turned to supporting
colonies in the land of the Ottoman Empire that Europeans called Palestine.
Later,[specify] Levy commanded the Mediterranean Squadron. As a
squadron commander he was given the title of commodore, then the highest position in the U.S. Navy.
Levy was instrumental in abolishing flogging in the U.S.
Navy, although his position was considered controversial at the time. He also
helped gain the support of the U.S Congress in passing an anti-flogging bill in 1850.[6]
( Wikipedia)
Instead of flogging as a means of punishment, Levy used public
humiliation to control unruly crewmen. The Navy favored the use of corporal
punishment as a means of discipline and was determined to punish Levy for his
failure to adhere to standard procedures.
In 1842, the naval court unanimously ruled that Levy be
dismissed for his “cruel and scandalous” methods of punishment. However, when
the verdict was forwarded to President John Tyler for review, the President
lessened the sentence to one year’s suspension and personally criticized the
court for the “extent of punishment” towards Levy. Uriah P. Levy - Friends of the
Jewish Chapel (fojcusna.org)
He restored Monticello as a national site.
.jpeg)
Wikipedia
https://www.hmdb.org/PhotoFullSize.asp?PhotoID=447242
Judah P Benjamin- the first Jew elected to be a Senator without
renouncing Judaism-a great honor==
A noted barrister who defended escaped slaves on their right against
lawsuit by the ship owner that had brought them to the Americas—
and-on the other-the only Jew to hold cabinet rank- but on the
wrong side of the Union—the Confederacy—Attorney General, Secretary of
Treasury, Secretary of State.
PS- It has been well researched that the use of the slave “ Mammy”
in raising the children of the plantation heads directly led to the inability
of these same elites to run a country. JP
Benjamin had, it seems, no competition for the job!
These early Jews were for the most part, what author Stephen
Birmingham titled: The Grandees: America’s Sephardic Elite. That paved the way
for the German “ Yekes” who would shape America’s retail and financial system,
and then Emma Lazarus “ wretched refuse”, the East European Jews, who would
come to dominate America’s literature, media, and communications, and play
power politics far above their weight in numbers.
On
the Jews
"If
the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one quarter of one percent of
the human race. It suggests a nebulous puff of star dust lost in the
blaze of the Milky Way. Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of,
but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the
planet as any other people, and his importance is extravagantly out of
proportion to the smallness of his bulk.
His
contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art,
music, finance, medicine and abstruse learning are also very out of proportion
to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this
world in all ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be
vain of himself and be excused for it. The Egyptians, the Babylonians and
the Persians rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to
dream-stuff and passed away; the Greeks and Romans followed and made a vast
noise, and they were gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch
high for a time but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, and have
vanished.
The
Jew saw them all, survived them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting
no decadence, no infirmaties, of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of
his energies, no dulling of his alert but aggressive mind. All things are
mortal but the Jews; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the
secret of his immortality? "
-
September 1897 (Quoted inThe National Jewish Post & Observer, June 6, 1984)
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