The Jewish American Experience

1. The Jewish American Experience Part 2: The Cry for Social Justice

2. Antecedents • Tikkun Olam – Meaning “the repair of the world.” The original meaning was tied to the removal of idolatry, but this meaning has changed over time. • Mitzvot – Refers to those acts and principles we are commanded to perform. • Tzedakah – Charitable giving which is seen as a moral obligation. In Maimonides Ladder of Tzedakah the highest form of charity is that which lifts up the receiver permanently as with a loan or partnership that does not shame anyone.

3. Origins of Social Justice • Although the term was first used around 1840 by Catholic theologian Luigi Taparelli, a Jesuit priest, social justice has been a concept in Judaism dating back to ancient times. • There are numerous injunctions in the Torah, "'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you.” (Leviticus 23:22) • Further we are enjoined to “speak up, judge righteously, champion the poor and the needy.” (Proverbs 31:9) • “You too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:19)

4. Our American Tale – Revolution to the Civil War • America was the safe place for Jews fleeing the Inquisition. By the time of the Revolution there were about 1,500 Jews living in the Colonies. About 100 are believed to have fought, mostly on the side of the Patriots. Haym Saloman gave everything that he had to the cause and died a pauper. • Francis Salvador, the first Jew to win elected office was also the first Jew to die in the Revolution. • Ironically, Isaac Tuoro, for whom the synagogue is named, was a Loyalist and sailed with his family for British Jamaica. Jews on both sides. • After the Revolution, the Jews of Charleston, South Carolina, had no objections to their slave-owning neighbors and owned slaves themselves.

5. The Debate Over Slavery • Judah P. Benjamin’s great skill as an orator won him a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1852. His temper led him to challenge Jefferson Davis to a duel, Davis apologized, and they became friends. • Accused of being an "Israelite in Egyptian clothing," he replied that, "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.“ • He became a voice for slavery and the Confederacy. Benjamin would hold several cabinet positions in the Confederacy, including Secretary of War.

6. War Between The States • It is generally agreed that 10,000 Jews fought in the Civil War, with the majority (between 7000 to 8000)fighting for the Union. • Four generals are known to have been Jewish: Frederick C. Salomon (pictured), Leopold Blumenberg, Frederick Knefler, and Edward S. Salomon. This last general commanded the 82nd Illinois which included 100 Jewish soldiers. • After the war, Franklin J. Moses Jr. was the “scalawag” governor of South Carolina, a known thief who made common cause with the freed slaves.

7. Louis Brandeis • Born in 1856 in Louisville, Kentucky, Brandeis would attend Harvard Law graduating at age 20 with the highest GPA in school history. • He would help develop the “right to privacy” concept; fought against the banks and railroads; defended labor unions. • He devoted his time to social justice cases working without pay and was dubbed “The People’s Lawyer.” • He became the first Jew to serve on the Supreme Court after a contentious confirmation process.

8. Lillian Wald and the Visiting Nurse Service • Born into a German-Jewish family in Cincinnati, OH, in 1867, Lillian graduated from the NY Hospital School of Nursing in 1891. • She first worked at an orphanage, then she began to teach a class on health for poor immigrant families on the Lower East Side. • Soon after that she began to care for immigrant families as a visiting nurse and, along with fellow nurse Mary Brewster, moved to be closer to her patients.

9. Henry Street Settlement House Founded by Lillian Wald in 1893 and funded by Jacob Schiff, the Henry Street Settlement was based on the principle that everyone should have access to healthcare. Henry Street provided preventative care and health education, home care that reduced hospital time, care for children during a parent’s hospitalization, and social programs.

10. The Founding of the NAACP • On May 30, 1909, the Niagara Movement conference was held at the Henry Street Settlement. The National Negro committee was formed. African-American members included W.E.B. Du Bois, a graduate of the University of Berlin and Harvard, and Ida B. Wells, a noted journalist and activist. Jewish members included Lillian Wald and Henry Moskowitz, a civil rights activist. • On May 10th, 1910, the organization changed its name to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

11. The Spingarn Brothers • Born 1875 in NYC, Joel Elias Spingarn was a writer, a professor at Columbia University, a Republican political candidate, a major in the US Army during WWI. He co-founded publisher Harcourt, Brace and Co. • Joined the NAACP and served as Chairman of the Board (1913-1919), Treasurer (1919-1930), President (1930-1939.) • Arthur B. Spingarn, the younger brother, was a Vice President of the NAACP from 1911, helped found the Legal Defense and Educational Fund of the NAACP and would become President after his brother’s death (1940-1965.) He also served in WWI and helped break the color barrier in the military.

12. Triangle Shirtwaist Fire • In 1911, a fire broke out in a garment factory owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris. • 146 people died, mostly young Jewish and Italian immigrant women. The doors to the factory were locked to prevent workers taking breaks or stealing. • Led to the formation of the ILGWU, Jewish unions and organizations and the Forward as a voice of protest.

13. Samuel Gompers and the AFL • Born in London in 1850, he started making cigars along with his father at age 10. • Came to the US in 1863 and lived in a tenement on Houston St. • He joined Local 144 of the Cigar Makers' Int’l Union at age 14, was elected union president at 25. • In 1886 he became president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and led a strike for an 8-hour work day. Except for one year, he would remain president until his death in 1924.

14. Emma Goldman and Jewish Radicalism • Jewish radicalism often came from the labor movement – Goldman was radicalized after the Haymarket Square (1886) bombing. • Born in 1869 in Kovno, Russia, Goldman came to the US in 1885. Goldman and her lover, Alexander Berkman, conspired to kill Henry Clay Frick. Sentenced to 22 years in prison. • She would spend time in and out of prison for: inciting to riot, opposing the draft (WWI) and distributing birth control.

15. Women’s Suffrage Movement • Ernestine Rose was born in Poland in 1810, came to the US in 1836. • Joined the Suffrage movement in the 1840s, as influential as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony or Sojourner Truth. • Elected president of the National Women's Rights Convention in October, 1854. • Lobbied for legislation in NY that allowed married women to keep property and have rights over their children.

16. Rabbi Joshua Heschel • Born in Poland in 1907, descended on both sides from famous European Rabbis. • Arrested by the Gestapo in 1938 and deported back to Poland, fled to England before the Nazi invasion, then to America. • Taught at Hebrew Union College and the Jewish Theological Seminary. • Marched with Dr. Martin Luther King from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. “I felt my feet were praying.”

17. Mississippi Burning • On June 21st, 1964, three young civil rights workers - Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman – were arrested in Neshoba County, Mississippi, for speeding. • Released that evening, they were followed by the KKK and murdered. Their bodies were found August 4th. A dozen suspects, including Sherriff Rainey and Deputy Price were arrested. • In 1967, seven defendants were convicted.

18. Barry Goldwater • Widely regarded as sparking the resurgence of American conservatism. • While Barry Goldwater was born in Phoenix, in the Arizona territory. His grandfather was Michael Goldwasser, from Poland. Married to Sarah Nathan, from an English Jewish family. • In 1964, Goldwater was the Republican candidate for President. Opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

19. When Abbie Met Jerry • Abbie Hoffman came to the 1960s radicalism from the Civil Rights movement. Jerry Rubin became a social activist at Berkeley, but then worked on a kibbutz, before stopping off in Havana. • Both were active in the Anti-war movement and both would be arrested as part of the Chicago Seven. • When Abbie was convicted he yelled at Judge Hoffman “A shanda fur die goyim!”

20. America’s Whistleblower • Before The Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg could arguably have been considered America’s greatest citizen soldier. • Both his parents were Ashkenazi Jews who converted to Christian Science. Ellsberg grew up near Detroit in the Jewish suburb of Bloomfield Hills. • Ph.D. from Harvard, worked for Rand Corp, he volunteered for Vietnam. • In 1971, he leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press.

21. Betty Friedan and the Women’s Strike • Betty Friedan was born Bettye Naomi Goldstein, on February 4, 1921, in Peoria, Illinois. • Active in both Marxist and Jewish groups in her teens she wrote her “passion against injustice...originated from my feelings of the injustice of anti-Semitism." • Her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique started the second wave of equal rights. 1st President of NOW. • On August 26, 1970, marches were held around the world as part of the Women’s Strike for Equality.

22. Notorious RGB • Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born on March 15, 1933 in Brooklyn, NY. Her father came from Odessa, Ukraine, while her mother’s family was from Austria. • In 1960, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter rejected her from a clerk position because of gender. • In 1972, RGB founded the Women’s Rights Project of the ACLU. • She has argued and won a number of gender rights cases. • Confirmed to the Supreme Court in 1993.

23. Conclusions • For a number of reasons (religious, cultural, and personal) support for social justice remains an important component of Jewish American identity. • Jews have often been on both sides of important issues: the American Revolution, the Civil War, and civil rights. • What does a commitment to social justice mean to you?