On February 12, 1809, a young, poor, woman from Virginia,
Nancy Hanks Lincoln, gave birth to a son in a log cabin built along the banks
of Nolin Creek (now Hodgenville, Kentucky.) Her son, Abraham, become one of
America’s most admired Presidents.
Lincoln was
also beloved in his time (by the North), and was held in high regard by Jewish
Americans for his moral and spiritual convic-tions. As he never identified with
a specific faith there has been much speculation about his “Jewish roots,”
especially given the mutual admiration between Lincoln and his Jewish friends
and advisors, along with his pro-Jewish policies. Let’s look first at how the
16th President stood up for the Jews and was a true “mensch.”
Let’s look at how the 16th President stood up
for the Jews and was a true “mensch.”
Lincoln’s Jewish Involvement
*Lincoln was the first President to make it possible for
rabbis to serve as military chap-lains by signing the 1862 Act of Congress
which changed the law that had barred all but Christian clergymen from the
role. It all started on September 8, 1861, when a 30-year-old Philadelphia
cantor, Michael Mitchell Allen, returned to his encampment with the 65th
Regiment of the Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry, known as Cameron’s Dragoons. The
regiment of 1,200 men, mostly Jews, elected him their chaplain. Complaints flew
up the military ladder. Lincoln, then signed the Act, and Jewish chaplains have
been serving in the American Armed Forces ever since.
He was also the
first, and happily, the only President who was called upon to revoke an
official act of anti-Semitism by the U.S. government. He canceled General
Ulysses S Grant's “Order No. 11” expelling all Jews from Tennessee from the
district controlled by his armies during the Civil War. (Grant denied personal
responsibility for this act attributing it to his subordinate.)
Shortly after
delivering the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln met Canadian Christian
Zionist, Henry Wentworth Monk, who expressed hope that Jews who were being
op-pressed in Russia and Turkey be emancipated "by restoring them to their
national home in Palestine." Lincoln replied this was "a noble dream
and one shared by many Americans."
Factoid: Edward
Rosewater, a young Jewish member of the Telegraphers Corps of the Union Army,
transmitted President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in 1863. President
Lincoln was a frequent visitor to read the field dispatches. After the war,
Rosewater founded the Omaha Daily Bee, and was elected and appointed to public
offices.
Lincoln and Jewish lawyer Abraham Jonas (1801-1864) were
intimate confidantes. In one correspondence between them Lincoln wrote:
"You are one of my most valued friends." The friendship began soon
after Jonas settled in Quincy, Illinois in 1838. When Lincoln visited Quincy in
1854, he spent most of his time with Jonas, who came from Kentucky where he
served in the State Legislature for four terms. From 1849 to 1851, he was
postmaster and Lincoln re-appointed him in 1861. More, Jonas was one of the
first to suggest Lincoln for the presidency when Horace Greeley, the editor of
the New York Daily Tribune, went to Quincy in December 1858 to meet with
leading Republicans to discuss the election of 1860.
Lincoln and
Jewish doctor Isachar Zacharie, an English-born chiropodist, met in September
1862 professionally. The President gave him the following testimonial:
"Dr. Zacharie has operated on my feet with great success, and considerable
addition to my comfort." Zacharie became both friend and emissary for
Lincoln. The New York World wrote that the chiropodist "enjoyed Mr.
Lincoln's confidence perhaps more than any other private individual."
Zacharie also actively solicited the Jewish vote for Lincoln.
Lincoln was
exceptionally generous to prominent rabbi Dr. Morris J. Raphall of Con-gregation
B'nai Jeshurun. The Rabbi had met Lincoln only once, but asked a favor of the
president regarding his son. Raphall told his congregants, Lincoln had
"granted it lovingly, because he knew the speaker to be a Jew-because he
knew him to be a true servant of the Lord." Lincoln did more for Raphall's
son-in-law, Captain C. M. Levy. Levy had been distributing special food and
clothing to Jewish soldiers in Washington's hospitals. When he was dismissed
from service, Lincoln came to his rescue.
Was “Honest Abe” Really a
Member of the Tribe?
In his study of American Jewry and the Civil War
(Philadelphia, 1951), Bertram W. Korn writes that in the eulogy Rabbi Isaac M.
Wise delivered after Lincoln’s assassination, he said: "The lamented
Abraham Lincoln believed himself to be bone from our bone and flesh from our
flesh. He supposed himself to be a descendant of Hebrew parentage. He said so
in my presence."
Ever since,
speculation has been rife. Google “Abraham Lincoln Jewish” and a plethora of
articles appear.
The “Case for Jewish Lincoln”:
1. His close
friendships with prominent Jews, along with his pro-Jewish policies.
2. While Lincoln
never professed belonging to a specific faith, he would often refer to his
beliefs citing the 20th chapter of the Book of Exodus – the Ten
Commandments.
3. His name was
Abraham. His great-grandfather was named Mordechai.
4. His ancestors came
from the town of Lincoln in eastern England, established in 1159, it has an
interesting Jewish history. During Crusader riots, the Sheriff of Lin-coln and
the Bishop of London saved the Jews by giving them official protection and
taught love of Jews to parishioners. It’s been postulated that when the Jews
were ordered out of England, Abraham Lincoln’s ancestors may have been
Conversos.
5. When Lincoln was
assassinated, Jewish communities sat Shiva. Rabbis around the country eulogized
the fallen President.
6. Lincoln was
described as having Sephardic features.
The answer? At present the above “proof” is purely
speculation and “evidence” by associ-ation. Lincoln's son Robert Todd Lincoln
denied the admission of Hebrew ancestry and dis-missed the exchange between
Lincoln and the rabbi as a "pleasantry."
There isn’t a
shred of credible evidence to substantiate Rabbi Wise's assertion that Lincoln
identified as having a Jewish heritage, nor was Lincoln known to have shared
similar comments to his close Jewish friends, something he surely would done as
“Honest Abe” wrote them of many other intimate and political details.
Yet, no doubt
Abraham Lincoln could not have been more supportive, sympathetic, or friendlier
to the Jews, if he had indeed been one of us.
Ironically, the
Lincoln head penny was de-signed by Russian-Jewish immigrant, Victor David
Brenner, in 1909 to celebrate Lincoln’s 100th birthday. Happy birthday, Mr.
President.
(Abraham Lincoln's birthday is February
12th.)