Jews Are Taught From An Early Age That Slavery Is Evil, But Southern Jews Owned Slaves Anyway

Another GOP intellectually impaired member of Congress, Warren Davidson, who represents a blood red suburban/rural, district in western Ohio-- (R+19) where Biden got less than a third of the vote-- was comparing vaccine mandates to the Holocaust. Overall, Ohio is 56% fully vaccinated, but not among the morons who vote for Davidson. These are the vaccination rates in the 6 counties that make up the 8th district-- along with their Trump numbers

• Butler- 54% fully vaccinated (61.3% Trump)

• Clark- 50% fully vaccinated (60.6% Trump)

• Miami- 46% fully vaccinated (71.2% Trump)

• Darke- 38% fully vaccinated (81.0% Trump)

• Preble- 41% fully vaccinated (77.9% Trump)

• Mercer- 37% fully vaccinated (81.8% Trump)

Imagine what it would be like living among these people. No, don't. I know it's time to go to sleep and I don't want you to have a nightmare because of me. How about something more removed from our daily lives... while staying with the Jewish theme? You probably heard about the Washington Post releasing a list of all the members of Congress who ever owned slaves. Today, The Forward's Rudy Malcom took a looked at all 9 Jewish members of Congress before abolition was passed.

Only 2 owned slaves, both treasonous senators, David Levy Yulee (FL), who eventually converted to Episcopalianism, and Judah Benjamin (LA), who was the Confederate Secretary of State. Yulee severed 9 months in prison before being pardoned by Andrew Johnson and Benjamin

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Yulee and Benjamin’s history isn’t a surprise, said Michael Hoberman, an English studies professor at Fitchburg State University who is currently writing a book about how early American Jewish history is remembered today. But, he said, it’s a reminder that “many Southern Jews owned slaves, just like any other wealthy Southern family did.”

The majority of Southern Jews owned enslaved people, mostly in their homes. A few, like Benjamin, who served as a senator from Louisiana between 1853 and 1861, ran plantations that exploited the labor of enslaved people. Benjamin, who operated a 300-acre sugarcane plantation, owned at one point as many as 140 enslaved people.

Yulee, who was the first Jewish senator, represented Florida from 1845 to 1851 and 1855 to 1861, and over the course of his life enslaved more than 1000 people. He was known as the “Florida Fire-Eater”-- the latter term referring to pro-slavery Democrats who supported secession before the Civil War.

Yet it is only recently, historically, that the public has begun to contend with the fact that the two Jewish lawmakers were enslavers.

For instance, it was only in June of 2020 that a plaque in Charlotte, N.C. dedicated to Benjamin and paid for by two synagogues was removed. Hoberman mentioned that Benjamin, who held multiple significant posts in the Confederate government, was for a long time romanticized both by Southern Jews and in popular literature. One example: famed writer Viña Delmar’s 1956 novel Beloved, which celebrated Benjamin’s tireless devotion, including to Louisiana’s political interests, the Confederacy’s success and, most of all, his marriage to his wife-- while failing to account for his dedicated advocacy for slavery and his ownership of enslaved people.

And while the plaque honoring Benjamin was removed during the nationwide movement to remove statues of Confederate figures that surged during the racial justice protests of 2020, a statue of Yulee, who also became a leader in the Confederacy, remains standing in the small northern Florida town of Fernandina Beach.

Hoberman said removing such monuments is a valuable step, but far from the only one needed to reckon with the effects of the actions and beliefs of Yulee, Benjamin and their contemporaries.

That reckoning, he said, requires examining the racial wealth gap, the mass incarceration of Black people and the many other disparities and injustices that are the legacies of slavery.

And while Benjamin once declared that “slavery is against the law of nature,” Hoberman noted that there was no evidence that he-- or Yulee-- treated the people they enslaved more humanely than other enslavers did.

“These were people that enthusiastically participated in slavery,” he said.

But, he said, we also shouldn’t single them out for criticism among the ranks of enslavers, noting that Benjamin Wade, a Republican senator from Ohio and Benjamin’s contemporary, publicly referred to Benjamin as an “Israelite with Egyptian principles.”

“The guy had a point-- here’s a Jew who inherited the legacy of Exodus, and yet he is an enslaver and advocate for slavery,” Hoberman said. “But why should Benjamin be held to a higher standard than anyone else?”

That kind of pointed criticism, Hoberman said, “means that when Jews do something unpopular or problematic, they did it because they were Jewish. It invites the rest of the world to condemn us every time we fall short or cross some line. It’s deeply problematic and dangerous.”

And, according to Hoberman, holding Jews like Benjamin and Yulee to a higher standard than everyone else also does a “disservice” to the Jewish people.

“We can’t morally improve them-- they’re dead, and it’s a mistake to try to redeem them,” he said. “But what we can do is try and understand how these figures from the past shaped the world in which we live today.”

Although socially backward Hasids voted overwhelmingly for Trump-- ultra orthodox neighborhoods going as much as 90% pro-fascist-- normal Jews were anti-Trump voters-- just the way most Jews in Germany were anti-Hitler. Right after the election a J Street poll found that 77% of Jews voted for Biden and 21% voted voted for Trump.