Senator Ben Wade, Ohio:
Judah Benjamin is an “Israelite in Egyptian clothing.”
Senator Bejamin's Response:
“It is true that I am a Jew, and when my ancestors were receiving their Ten Commandments from the immediate Deity, amidst the thundering and lightnings of Mt. Sinai, the ancestors of my opponent were herding swine in the forests of Great Britain.”
Stephen Vincent Benet, John Brown's Body
Judah P. Benjamin, the dapper Jew,
Seal-sleek, black-eyed, lawyer and epicure,
Able, well-hated, face alive with life,
Looked round the council-chamber with the slight
Perpetual smile he held before himself
continually like a silk-ribbed fan. . . .
[His] quick, shrewd fluid mind
Weighed Gentiles in an old balance . . .
The eyes stared, searching.
"I am a Jew. What am I doing here?"
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Prayer for the Confederacy |
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This prayer was composed by Rev. Max Michelbacher of Congregation Beth Ahabah, Richmond, Virginia, and distributed to Jewish Confederate soldiers. Shema Yisroel, Ad-nay El-hainoo, Ad-noy Achod! Oh G-d of the Universe! Although unworthy through my manifestold transgressions, I approach the seat of thy mercy, to crave thy favor, and to seek thy protection. I supplicate thy forgiveness, O most merciful Father, for the many transgressions and the oft repeated disobedience, which cause Thee to command destruction over me. Behold me now, O my Father, supplicating Thy protection! Thou who art near when all other aid faileth! O spare me, guard me from the evil that is impending! This once happy country is inflamed by the fury of war; a menacing enemy is arrayed against the rights, liberties and freedom of this, our Confederacy; the ambition of this enemy has dissolved fraternal love, and the hand of fraternity has been broken asunder by the hands of those, who sit now in council and meditate our chastisement, with the chastisement of scorpions. Our firesides are threatened; the foe is before us, with the declared intention to desecrate our soil, to murder our people, and to deprive us of the glorious inheritance which was left to us by the immortal fathers of this once great Republic. Here I stand now with many thousands of the sons of the sunny South, to face the foe, to drive him back, and to defend our natural rights. O Lord, G-d of Israel, be with me in the hot season of the contending strife; protect and bless me with health and courage to bear cheerfully the hardships of war. O L-rd, Ruler of Nations, destroy the power of our enemies! "Grant not the longings of the wicked; suffer not his wicked device to succeed, lest the exalt themselves. Selah. as for the heads of those that encompass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them. Let burning coals be cast upon them; let them be thrown into the fire, into deep pits, that they rise not up again." (Psalm 140). Be unto the Army of this confederacy, as thou were of old, unto us, thy chosen people— Inspire them with patriotism! Give them when marching to meet, or, overtake the enemy, the wings of the eagle— in the camp be Thou their watch and ward— and in the battle, strike for them, O Almighty G-d of Israel, as thou didst strike for thy people on the plains of Canaan—guide them O L-rd of Battles, into the paths of victory, guard them from the shaft and missile of the enemy. Grant that they may ever advance to wage battle, and battle in thy name to win! Grant that not a standard be ever lowered among them! O L-rd, G-d, Father, be thou with us! Give unto the officers of the Army and of the Navy of the Confederate States, enterprise, fortitude and undaunted courage; teach them the ways of war and the winning of victory. Guard and preserve, O L-rd, the President of the Confederate States and all officers, who have the welfare of the country truly at heart. Bless all my fellow-citizens, and guard them against sickness and famine! May they prosper and increase! Hear me further, O L-rd, when I pray to Thee for those on earth, dearest to my heart. O bless my father, mother, brothers and sisters. (if married: my wife and children.) O bless them all with earthly and heavenly good! May they always look up to Thee, and may they find in Thee their trust and strength. O L-rd, be with me always. Show me the way I have to go, to be prepared to meet Thee here and hereafter. My hope, my faith, my strength are in Thee, O L-rd, my G-d, forever— in Thee is my trust. "For thy salvation do I hope, O L-rd! I hope for Thy salvation, O L-rd! O L-rd, for Thy salvation do I hope!" Amen! Amen! Shema Yisroel, Ad-noy El-hainoo, Ad-noy Achod! |
Hd. Qrs: Valley Mt:
29 Aug 1861
Rabbi M.J. Michelbacher,
Preacher Hebrew Congregation,
"House of Love" Richmond, Va:
Revd Sir
I have just received your letter of the 23d inst: requesting that a furlough from the 2nd to the 15th Sept. be granted to the soldiers of the Jewish persuasion in the C.S. Army, that they may participate in the approaching holy services of the Synagogue.
It would give me great pleasure to comply with a request to earnestly urged by you, & which I know would be so highly appreciated by that class of our soldiers. But the necessities of war admit of no relaxation of the efforts requisite for its success, nor can it be known on what day the presence of every man may be required. I feel assured that neither you or any member of the Jewish congregation would wish to jeopardize a cause you have so much at heart by the withdrawal even for a season of a portion of its defenders. I cannot therefore grant the general furlough you desire, but must leave to individuals to make their own applications to their Several Commanders, in the hope that many will be able to enjoy the privilege you seek for them. Should any be deprived of the opportunity of offering up their prayers according to the rites of their Church that their penitence may nevertheless be accepted by the Most High, & their petitions answered.
That your prayers for the success & welfare of our Cause may be granted by the Great Ruler of the universe is my ardent wish.
I have the honor to be, with high esteem,
Your obt' Servt.
R.E. LEE,
Gen'l Commd.
PREFATORY REMARKS, Rabbi Morris Raphall, re: Sermon of 1/15/1861
When the discourse which is now placed before the public in pamphlet form, was first delivered, I little anticipated that it would attract and occupy public attention in the manner and to the extent which it has done. The subject had not been chosen by myself; I was called upon to expose a pernicious fallacy. Under a strong sense of duty I did it; not by any reasoning of my own, but by a statement of facts, supported by the authority of Scripture. That such a sober statement, and the inferences to be deduced therefrom, should prove very unpalatable to men of extreme opinions, and that they should do their utmost to refute my discourse, was naturally to be expected.
Accordingly they have tried their best, from newspaper paragraphs of a few lines up to elaborate articles of many columns. With what success, it is for public opinion to decide. It seems, however, that the public, like myself, thinks that "facts are facts.: So long as the one great fact is not produced—THE TEXT OF SCRIPTURE WHICH DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY DENOUNCES SLAVEHOLDING AS A SIN—so long as this has not been done, my statements remain incontrovertible. As that text has not been quoted, which it never can be, SINCE IT DOES NOT EXIST, all the fiery attacks and declamations against me are but "leather and prunella."
It is true that the attempt has been made to find such a text; and that Matt. vii. 12: "All things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them," has been quoted. I might answer that this great precept, the practical explication of the command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor like thyself," was not only known to the ancient Hebrews and even to heathen Greeks, full four hundred years before the sermon on the Mount, but likewise to all Christian nations upwards of 1800 years after that sermon; but that by ancients and moderns it never was brought to bear on slaveholding till within the last (comparatively) few years. But I prefer to take my answer from the New Testament. The writer of the "Epistle to Philemon" had, before his conversion, been the disciple of Gamaliel, a descendant of that Hebrew sage [Hillel], who, in the Talmud (tr Sabbath fo. 31), declares that the rule "whatsoever is hateful to thee do not unto others" [Levit. xix. 18] is the sum and substance of the Law. After his conversion he became one of the principal teachers of Christianity. But though he must have entered into the spirit of the sermon on the Mount far more fully and truly than the writers in the "Tribune" can do—and perhaps for that very reason, he sent back the fugitive slave, Onesimus, to his owner. Proof sufficient on the authority of Paul of Tarsus, that the text, Matt. vii. 12, has no special application to slaveholding.
The long tirade in the "Tribune" of this day must go for what it is worth. It is before the public; so is my discourse. Each of the two must stand or fall on its own merits. But I am convinced my discourse will not fall, for it embodies "the word of our G-d, which standeth good for ever."
M. J. R.
Howard B. Rock, Tablet Magazine, 9/19/2012
NEW YORK’S PRO-SLAVERY RABBI
In his opinion on Lincoln and the issue of slavery, Raphall was not alone among Jewish leaders. Diplomat, playwright, and journalist Mordecai M. Noah, the “most important Jew in America” during the 1830s and 1840s, according to his biographer Jonathan Sarna wrote that blacks were “anatomically and mentally inferior to the white” and could find contentment only in servile labor. Noah dreaded the thought of a slave revolt and viciously condemned abolitionists. Emmanuel Hart, the first Jewish congressman from New York in the 1850s, was a leader of the conservative “hunker” Democrats, a faction that opposed any agitation against slavery and worked to uphold the interests of the slaveholding states. Editor Robert Lyon of the Asmonean, a self-described progressive who hired Reform Judaism’s leading proponent, Isaac Mayer Wise, as his literary editor, endorsed James Buchanan in 1856 as a “progressionist,” defended the Fugitive Slave Act, and called abolitionists “the foul Fiend which stalks among us.” Lyon included among the abolitionists both “Frederick Douglass the nigger,” and a “heterogeneous stew of fanatics and imposters.” The notion of black suffrage was, he said, “preposterous.”
Rabbi David Einhorn, Baltimore
The question simply is: Is Slavery a moral evil or not? And it took Dr. Raphall, a Jewish preacher, to concoct the deplorable farce in the name of divine authority, to proclaim the justification, the moral blamelessness of servitude, and to lay down the law to Christian preachers of opposite convictions. The Jew, a descendant of the race that offers daily praises to God for deliverance out of the house of bondage in Egypt, and even today suffers under the yoke of slavery in most places of the old world, crying out to God, undertook to designate slavery as a perfectly sinless institution, sanctioned by God. And the impudent persons who will not believe this, are met with fanatical zeal, with a sort of moral indignation (!!!). It is difficult to picture a phenomenon more worthy of admiration! In this lecture, he was himself astonished at his glorious endeavor, and in the mildness of his heart, exclaimed: "I grieve to find myself saying a good word for slavery, but God and the truth must prevail!" How the crown of martyrdom would have glittered on his head if the black cap (cowl) had not already been placed there!
Passover in the Confederacy, NY Times
By Sue Eisenfeld April 17, 2014 9:27 PM
But just as Robert E. Lee, an Army officer for 32 years, sided with his home state of Virginia against the federal government, many Jews found a homeland in Dixie over the centuries and decided they could not take up arms against it. To them, after all they’d suffered and fled throughout the ages, the South was their new motherland, the land of milk and honey (and cotton), and it was worth fighting for. “This land has been good to all of us,” one Jewish-German Southerner wrote. “I shall fight to my last breath.”
General Order #11 - Ulysses S. Grant, December 17, 1862
1. 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 [of the Tennessee] within twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order.
2. Post commanders will see to it 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 headquarters.
3. No passes will be given these people to visit headquarters for the purpose of making personal application of trade permits.
Grant's Explanation of the Edict, Letter to Christopher Wolcott, US Assistant Secretary of War
Sir,
I have long since believed that in spite of all the vigilance that can be infused into Post Commanders, that the Specie regulationsof the Treasury Dept. have been violated, and that mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders. So well satisfied of this have I been at this that I instructed the Commdg Officer at Columbus [Kentucky] to refuse all permits to Jews to come south, and frequently have had them expelled from the Dept. [of the Tennessee]. But they come in with their carpet sacksin spite of all that can be done to prevent it. The Jews seem to be a privileged class that can travel any where. 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.
There is but one way that I know of to reach this case. That is for Government to buy all the Cotton at a fixed rate and send it to Cairo, St Louis, or some other point to be sold. Then all traders, they are a curse to the Army, might be expelled.
Letter of Paducah's Jews to President Lincoln
Paducah, Ky., Dec. 29, 1862. Eon. Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. General Order No. 11 issued by General Grant at Oxford, Miss., December the 17th, commands all post commanders to expel all Jews without distinction within twenty-four hours from his entire Department. The undersigned good and loyal citizens of the United States and residents of this town, for many years engaged in legitimate business as merchants, feel greatly insulted and outraged by this inhuman order; the carrying out of which would be the grossest violation of the Constitution and our rights as good citizens under it, and would place us, besides a large number of other Jewish families of this town, as outlaws before the world. We respectfully ask your immediate attention to this enormous outrage on all law and humanity and pray for your effectual and immediate interposition. We would especially refer you to the post commander and post adjutant as to our loyalty, and to all respectable citizens of this community as to our stand- ing as citizens and merchants. We respectfully ask for immediate instructions to be sent to the Commander of this Post. D. Wolff & Bros. C. J. Kaskel. J. W. Kaskel.
Legend Concerning Caesar Kaskel and President Lincoln
It was determined to send a representative of the Jewish community to Washington to communicate with the President in person, and for that purpose Ceasar J. Kaskel, one of the signers of the appeal, a vice-president of the Paducah Union League Club and one of the most respected merchants of the town, was selected. Ceasar Kaskel was a native of Prussia. When Grant's General Order No. 11 was issued he was in his thirtieth year. J. W. Kaskel, another signer of the appeal, was his brother. A record of the Paducah proceedings was preserved by the latter, now living at Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, N. Y., from which we learn that Ceasar Kaskel at once left Paducah by steamer for Cairo. While en route he prepared a full account of the affair which on reaching Cairo was furnished to the agent of the Associated Press, this being the first newspaper report given to the country. Kaskel, says the Israelite, took with him letters from Eabbi Max Lilienthal, and Daniel Wolf, a prominent Cincinnati merchant, to influential parties in Washington and arrived at the National Capital on the evening of January 3, 1863.
Accompanied by Representative Gurley of Ohio the two at once sought an audience with the President, reaching the White House at about dusk. Announcing their presence, with an apology for calling at such an hour, the President sent word that he was "always glad to see his friends," and shortly made his appearance.
On learning the object of their visit he remarked: And so the children of Israel were driven from the happy land of Canaan?
Kaskel replied: Yes, and that is why we have come unto Father Abraham's bosom, asking protection.
Lincoln responded: And this protection they shall have at once.
