Jews and the Confederacy?

[Benjamin_D]

Just last month I found out a lot about Jewish envolvement in the Confederacy. What do you guys think about it?

The Confederate States of America had a huge Jewish influence. The prayer that started the whole Confederacy was a Jewish prayer, prayed by a Rabbi Max Michelbacher, who was also General Lees spiritual adviser​. Also the second most powerful man in the Confederacy was Judah P. Benjamin. Mr. Benjamin was 3rd Confederate States Secretary of State, 2nd Confederate States Secretary of War and 1st Confederate States Attorney General. Mr. Benjamin was a Jew. There were more Jews in the Confederate cabinet also. A large population of the Majors in the Confederacy were also Jewish. For example, Major Rafael Jacob Moses. The Confederate States of America was largely based on Judaism. Many Jews went to the South just to fight for them. The Union had no Jewish cabinet members, high authority or anything. Just some soldiers.

I just want to know what you guys think about it, thanks.

 

[Elessar]

There were Jews on both sides of the conflict, just as there were people on both sides of the conflict from other same faiths, same ethnicity, and even the same family. Jews were, admittedly, more prominent in the Confederacy than in the Union, though there were definitely more Jews, by numbers, in the Union Army than in the Confederate Army (by virtue of the fact that the northern Jewish population is larger than the southern one).

Also, as a note, southern Jews tended strongly to be Reform, while northern Jews tended to be Orthodox. This would definitely indicate more integration on the part of southern Jews as opposed to northern Jews, and thus, more influential roles in the Confederacy than in the Union.

Of course, remember, families WERE split by the War - I have ancestors from the same part of my family on both sides of the conflict.

 

[Benjamin_D]

Yeah true, it was more common in the South obviously for some reason though, the Reform/Othodox thing makes sense. What do you think about the anti-semitism in the North? You think the Union used Jews as scapegoats since they have been for so many years? Do you know why the North was so anti-semetic? For example Ulysses S. Grant?

 

[Caladan]

*Off topic question* Thats very interesting Elessar, when did your family originally arrive to America?

 

[IF_u_knew]

Yeah true, it was more common in the South obviously for some reason though, the Reform/Othodox thing makes sense. What do you think about the anti-semitism in the North? You think the Union used Jews as scapegoats since they have been for so many years? Do you know why the North was so anti-semetic? For example Ulysses S. Grant?

I am not sure about Ulysses S. Grant, but I do know that some of the Presidents had aught with certain of national bankers because they could see an agenda. Andrew Jackson being one who called them "“You are a den of thieves vipers, and I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God, I will rout you out.”

Abe Lincoln, though using them to help fund the war, looked for alternative methods of standard for our monetary system.

These same families are still running many of the banks in the world today. They are said to be of Jewish origin and so this may be the reason some in the North had issues?? I doubt it would have been with the Jewish people as a whole; just the ones said to have an agenda. Now, whether they have an agenda or not is neither here nor there with me and my daily life.. just sharing a possibility.

Why don't you share more of what *you* have found. It sounds like you know something, so...

 

[Elessar]

*Off topic question* Thats very interesting Elessar, when did
your family originally arrive to America?

Depends on which part of the family. That specific part dates back to the 17th century, where they were among the original settlers of Maryland. As a result, Maryland being a border-state, my ancestors fought for competing Maryland state governments (the legitimate government supported the Union) during the war. I'm actually planning to post my family origins, as much as I know them, in the near future, when I actually ask this question of everyone. But, this is off-topic, back on the topic...

Northern antisemitism, I believe, probably came from the fact that, firstly, northern Jews tended to be poorer, and more of a supposed drain on society. They tended to be traditional and resisted modernization, more, than southern Jews. And, also, the fact that northern Orthodox Jews tended to have more interests in banking and in not integrating into society, even the wealthy ones, while southern Jews were more integrated, owning plantations and farms with the rest of the South, and, along with the contemporary Reform movement, having moved the sabbath to Sunday, celebrating Christmas, rejecting the kosher laws, and other contemporary Reform social mores.

In addition, northern Jews tended to be Ashkenazi, and southern Jews tended to be Sephardi; Sephardim were far more integrated, and were the wealthier, more cultured Jews, in general, at the time, as opposed to the modern day, where Ashkenazim tend to be.

Of course, its not as though antisemitism was unknown in the south - even these well-integrated and modernized Jews were denounced, and attacked by the Klan in the years after the war, and had been, at times, repressed by the Christian majority, even among the wealthy. It's just that the Civil War happened to be during an upswing in Jewish toleration in the South, and a downswing in the North (in the various parts of the United States, as in most of the world, people go through phases of tolerance of different people, including Jews).

 

[Benjamin_D]

Thanks for the info . The Klan drives me nuts, using the Confederate and American flag.... Which is like if Hitler had a star of David tattooed on him. Proves how ignorant they are . They should just stick to there Swastika, leave the other flags out of it.

 

[Benjamin_D]

IF_u_knew, here's a little bit of what I know.

Quotes of people with power in the North....

General William Tecumseh Sherman - "(Jews are) without pity, soul, heart, or bowels of compassion…"

"The country will swarm with dishonest Jews"

Ulysses S. Grant - "The Israelites especially should be kept out… no Jews are to be permitted to travel on the railroad southward from any point. They may go north and be encouraged in it; but they are such an intolerable nuisance, that the department must be purged of them".

Union Politictian Benjamin Butler - "suck the blood of every Jew, and …will detain every Jew as long as he can."

Associated Press reporter of the North - "The Jews in New Orleans and all the South ought to be exterminated. ..They run the blockade, and are always to be found at the bottom of every new villainy."

And as you know, there's what happened in the South, what I showed you when I first posted this. I'll post more about that and I'll tell you more later. I'm going to start reading a book I bought 'The Jewish Confederates' by Robert N. Rosen. I appreciate your thoughts Elessar too