Jews Who Loved (and Loathed) Lincoln
Nearing the end of his long and rhetorically uninspiring journey to Washington for his inauguration, Abraham Lincoln stood before the New Jersey State Senate on February 21, 1861, and groped for words that might inspire its Democratic majority to endorse his commitment to preserve the Union. Recalling the American Revolution and the “great promise” it ignited among “all the people of the world” for “all time to come,” Lincoln summoned a phrase he never employed before or after: “I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object of that great struggle.”
Lincoln knew full well what the phrase “chosen people” meant—it was a reference not just to American exceptionalism, but also to the Jews of the Old Testament. And the remark was surely informed by more than familiarity with the Bible. Lincoln had known prominent Jews for years, most of them fellow anti-slavery Republicans. Just before the inaugural journey commenced, one supporter, merchant Abraham Kohn, sent Lincoln a flag emblazoned with Hebrew writing from Deuteronomy: “Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” No doubt the president-elect had this very phrase in mind not only in Trenton, but when, departing from his hometown, he urged his neighbors to trust “in Him, who can go with me, and remain with you and be everywhere for good.”
Harold Holzer, chairman of the Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation, is the author or editor of 37 books on the Civil War era, most recently as co-editor of The New York Times Complete Civil War 1861-1865 and editor of the forthcoming Lincoln on War: Our Greatest Commander-in-Chief Speaks to America.
To read the full review, subscribe here
|
