The Immortal Chaplains Foundation & The Immortal Chaplains Prize for Humanity: Perpetuating the legacy of the four 'Immortal Chaplains' whose example of love for others, without regard to race, religion or creed, acknowledges the potential for human compassion. Celebrating the Interfaith Action of Rabbi Goode, Rev. Fox, Father Washington and Rev. Poling who on February 3, 1943 during World War II gave their life jackets to others on the sinking troopship 'Dorchester' and joined arms in common prayer. "If we can die together, can't we live together?" http://www.immortalchaplains.org/
World Religions
Christianity: 2 billion people Islam: 1.3 billion people Hinduism: 900 million people Buddhism: 360 million people Judaism: 14 million people
Source: Adherents. COM
Jewish Population By Country
1948
2000
Algeria
140,000
less than 100
Egypt
75,000
200
Iraq
150,000
100
Iran
100,000
12,000 - 40,000
Israel
160,000
1,215,000
Lebanon
20,000
100
Libya
38,000
0
Morocco
265,000
5,800
Syria
30,000
200
Tunisia
105,000
1,500
Yemen
55,000
Imagine if we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like this:
There would be:
57 Asians 21 Europeans 14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south 8 Africans
52 would be female 48 would be male
70 would be non-white 30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian 30 would be Christian
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States
1 would be near death 1 would be near birth 1 would have a college education 1 would own a computer
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness --- you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation --- you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.
If you can attend a synagogue or church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death --- you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.
If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace --- you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
If your parents are still alive and still married --- you are very rare --- even in the United States and Canada.
Sent to me by a friend.
Worldwide Jewish
Population
If you click on
a country name, it gives you
a history of Judaism in
that country, with links
to other stories.
If you start with a kid born in the year 2000 here is the geometric progression ....
This kid will have 1,099,511,627,776 direct ancestors if he/she traces his/her roots to the year 1000 for a total of 41 generations.
The further you go back in time, the more duplicate ancestors you find -- due to distant cousins marrying, most likely not realizing that they are cousins. Over a large number of generations (41 is a large number) it becomes meaningless to talk of being descended from any one specific person. The proportion of genes you share in common with any one person of 41 generations back, is somewhere in the range of 1/2 to the negative power of 41 -- i.e. negligible, especially since geneticists generally claim that the human genome consists of only a few hundred thousand genes in total. And the difference between your kinship with that one person, and with any other contemporary person of 41 generations ago is meaningless.
Statistics
On October 8, 2002, officials of the UJC, the umbrella organization of local Jewish federations, released an outline of the Jewish population.
There are 1.5 million non-Jews living in the 2.9 million Jewish households that the study identified.
The Jewish population stands at 5.2 million, down 5.45% from 5.5 million in 1990.
At the start
of 2007, the estimated global Jewish population was 13,155,000, a rise
of 0.5% from the previous year. Forty-one percent live in
Israel. While Germany's Jewish population continued to
increase, there were declines in other European countries including the
United Kingdom and France, mostly due to emigration, death
and assimilation.
Jews represent 2 percent of the general
U.S. population, which stands at 288 million - an increase of 33 million from 1990.The Jewish population resides in 2.9 million Jewish households, with a total of 6.7 million people in all those households. This means that 1.5 million of those people (one out of every five people living in a Jewish household on average - are not Jewish.)
The median age of
U.S. Jews is 41 in contrast to the median age of 35 in the general U.S. population. 19% are female, 49% are male.
54% of U.S. Jews aged 18 and older are married, compared with 57% in the general U.S. population while 26% aged 18 and older are single and never married.
30% of Jewish men are single compared with 22% of Jewish women. 9% of Jewish adults are divorced, 4% are separated and 7% are widowed. 59% of Jewish adults have married once, 13% twice and 2% three times or more.
Births
Jewish women approaching the end of their child bearing years, aged 40-44, have an average of 1.8 children, which is below the replacement level of 2.1. 52% of Jewish women aged 30-34 have no children, compared with 42% in 1990 and 27% among the general population in 2000.
National Origin
85% of the Jewish adults were born in the U.S. Of the 15% of foreign born Jews, 44% come from the former Soviet Union (20% from Ukraine), 13% from Russia, the rest from other parts of the former USSR and 10% each from Israel and Germany.
Population By Region
43% of Jews live in the Northeast, compared with 19% of the total population.
43% of Jews live in the West, compared with 23% of non-Jews.
22% of Jews live in the South, compared with 35% of non-Jews.
13% of Jews live in the Midwest, compared with 23% of non-Jews
38% of Jews live in a different region of the country then from where they were born ... including me.
Households
The average number of people per Jewish household is 2.3 as compared to 2.6% in non-Jewish homes.
30% of Jewish households have one person compared with 26% of non-Jewish households.
38% have two people, 13% have three, 12% have four and 8% have five or more.
Education
24% of adult Jews have a graduate degree, and 55% have earned at least a bachelor's degree, as compared with 5% and 28% respectively, in the general U.S. population.
Income
$50,000 is the median income among Jews, compared with $42,000 among non-Jews. 19% of U.S. Jews are defined as low income earning $25,000 annually or less, compared with 29% of non-Jews
Interesting?
Comparing the beginning of the last century, as opposed to what it is today, these are the statistics ...
The average life expectancy in the US was 47
Only 14% of the homes in the US had a bathtub
Only 8% of the homes had a telephone. A three minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars
There were only 8,000 cars in the US and 144 miles of paved roads
Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California
With a mere 1.4 million residents, California was only the twenty-first most populous State in the Union
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower
The average wage in the US was twenty-two cents an hour
The average US worker made between $200 and $400 per year
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2500 per year, a veterinarian between $1500 and $4000 per year and a mechanical engineer about $5000 per year
More than 95% of all births in the US took place at home
Ninety percent of all US physicians had no college education. Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as 'substandard'
Sugar cost four cents a pound. Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen. Coffee was fifteen cents a pound
Most women washed their hair only once a month using borax or egg yolks for shampoo
Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from enter the Country for any reason, either as travelers or immigrants
Scotch tape, crossword puzzles, canned beer and iced tea hadn't been invented yet
Cohanim are the 'sons of Aaron' and there is a web site dedicated to gather together and to discuss important family/tribal matters. You must join first in order to contribute to the discussionshttp://communities.msn.com/cohanim/
The terms "halevi" and "hacohen" refer to the person's descent from the tribe of Levi who became assistants to the priestly class of Cohen. These positions are defined in the Bible and are, in Orthodox congregations, still observed as positions of great honor. Therefore, to indicate the prestige associated with the fact that these people had great family honor (yichus), these adjectives are added to their names.
In present day Orthodox congregations this honor is preserved in 2 ways. One way is when people are called to read from the Torah on Saturday morning services, the first called is a Cohen and the second called is a Levi. The second way is when the priestly blessing is chanted; the Levis in the congregation have the honor of assisting the Cohens who chant the blessing with their heads covered by their prayer shawls.
Another vestige of this position of honor and responsibility is when the first born male is ransomed from being required to serve the priestly class in the ceremony called "Pidyan ha Ben", which takes place 30 days after birth. The previous information was contributed by Gene Sucov on 5/25/2000 in a posting to JewishGen.
Cousin Marriages
Cousin marriages were very common during the 19th century and earlier in
Eastern European Jewish communities. One major reason was that when people lived in small communities, the available matches were small. Sometimes only a cousin was available. Also, there weren't prohibitions or knowledge of the possible negative genetic effects. There were also advantages of keeping whatever wealth a family had "within the family".
and type inFamilyat the top right corner to search. You'll be amazed and astounded, I am sure, (as I was) with what can be found here.
George Washington and a Jewish
Soldier
The following is a translation from the Hebrew text taken from the book,
Pardes Chanukah.
From the personal journal of a Jewish Soldier who fought side by side with
General George Washington at Valley Forge during the period of Chanukah.
It is Chanukah in the year of 1776. The winter is hard and the cold is
fearsome. We are sitting in Valley Forge and waiting. Waiting for what? I do
not know. Possibly, for days better than those at hand. I am to my knowledge
the only Jew here. Possibly, there are others, however, I do not recognize
any as such.
We
are starving for bread. We have no clothes to warm our bodies and no shoes
for our feet. Most of the soldiers curse General Washington who went to
fight the English. There are also those among us who seek and hope for his
downfall; however, I believe justice is with him. We need to remove Britain
from the colonies. Britain seeks to extend her hand upon all she sees.
I
believe with all my heart in General Washington though we suffer here so
greatly. I observe the General as he is passing at night in the camp among
the sleeping troops. He looks upon them with compassion as they struggle
with the cold. There are those among them that he approaches to cover as a
father would his son. There are those who suffer with the famine and cold
bringing them to the brink of death. However, I do not curse General
Washington who fights to bring independence to America .
At these moments, I am reminded of my father in
Poland . I recall how much he suffered at the hands of the cruel Baron. I
remember I was but a youngster and saw my father dance before the Baron. How
terrible was the sight. My father was made to dress up in the skin of a
white bear and he danced for the sport of the Baron and his guests. How
great is my pain and shame. Father dances as a bear and the Baron jests and
revels. I affirm in my heart that I will never be so humiliated myself. At
my first opportunity, I set sail to America .
Behold;
I am at Valley Forge and trembling from the cold. There are rumors in the
camp that General Washington is about to fall. However, I firmly believe he
will surely succeed. I sleep at nights and pray for his welfare..
It
is now the first night of Chanukah. This very night, two years ago, I fled
from my father's home in Poland . My father gave me a Chanukah menorah and
said, "When you will light, my son, these candles for Chanukah, they will
illuminate the path for you." From that day on, my menorah was as an amulet.
Wherever I go, I take it with me. I do not know what to do here and now; to
light the menorah among the gentiles or not. I resolve to wait until all are
asleep.
When
all are sleeping, I take out my father's menorah. I light the first candle
and say the blessings. I gaze upon the flame and I see the home of my
parents. I see once again my father dancing as a bear before the Baron with
tears welling up in the eyes of my mother. My heart is filled with pain and
I burst forth in tears like a young child. I resolve that for the sake of my
parents and siblings left in Poland , I will assist the General with all my
might, to make America free and a land of refuge for my entire family who
suffer so harshly.
Suddenly,
I feel a soft, tender hand upon my head. I lift my eyes, and behold it is
him, in all his majesty, standing upon me. He asks me, "Why soldier do you
cry? Is it then so very cold?" Pain and compassion are in his voice. I could
not bear his pain, and I jumped up from my place. I forgot at that moment
that I am a soldier in the presence of my superior, and spoke before him as
a child to a parent. "My master the General," I said. "I cry and pray for
your victory. I am certain with the help of G-d, we shall prevail. Today,
the enemy is strong; tomorrow they will surely fall, for justice is with us.
We seek to be free in this land; we desire to build a country for all who
flee from oppression and suffer abroad. The Barons will not rule here. The
enemy will falter and you will succeed."
The
General shook my hand. "Thank you, soldier," he said, and sat at my side
next to the menorah. "What is this?" asked the General. I told him I brought
it from my parent's home. Jews the world over light this menorah to
celebrate the great miracle of Chanukah and the miraculous salvation of the
Jews. The light of the Chanukah menorah danced in the eyes of General
Washington as he called forth in joy, "You are a Jew from the children of
prophets and you declared that we shall prevail." "Yes my master," I
answered with confidence. We will be victorious as the Maccabees of old, for
our own sake and the sake of all who follow us to build a new land and a new
life.
The
General got up; his face was ablaze. He shook my hand and disappeared into
the darkness. My faith was rewarded, victory was achieved, and peace reigned
in the land. My General became the leader of our new country, and I became
one of its citizens.
I
quickly forgot those frightful days and nights at Valley Forge . However,
that first night of Chanukah, with General Washington, I carried in my heart
always as a precious dream. I never told anyone of my encounter, for I
reasoned, who would believe me. Certain I was that General Washington
himself had long forgotten the matter. However, this was not to be. He
indeed had not forgotten that night at all.
The
first night of Chanukah the following year of 1777, I was sitting in my
house in New York on Broome Street , with the Chanukah light in my window.
Suddenly, I heard a knock on the door. I opened the door, and incredibly, my
General, George Washington is standing in the doorway. "Behold, the wondrous
flame, the flame of hope of all Jewry," he called forth in joy as he gazed
upon its light.
The
General placed his hand upon my shoulder and said, "This light and your
beautiful words lit a flame in my heart that night. Surely, you and your
comrades will receive due recognition for all of your valor at Valley Forge
. But this night, accept from me, this medallion." He hung the medallion of
gold upon my chest and shook my hand. Tears came to my eyes; I couldn't say
a word. The General shook my hand once again and left the house.
I
stirred as if coming from a beautiful dream. I then looked upon my medallion
and saw a beautiful engraving of a Chanukah menorah with the first candle
lit. Below was written, "As an expression of gratitude for the candle of
your menorah."
This medallion is part of the permanent collection in the Jewish Museum in
New York .
From This
land is Our Land through to the Civil War,
We Jews served with distinction.
by
Marnie Winston-Macauley
In my article"
The Yiddish Are Coming”
we looked at Jews in the American Revolution and came to this conclusion:
Without We Jews, we’d be “queuing” for our fish ’n chips from the local “chippy.”
But of course the American Revolution was just the start of our mighty
contributions. From Bernard Baruch, Ernestine Rose, Benjamin Cardoza, Maud
Nathan, to David “Mickey” Marcus, brilliant, sacrificial, and yes, sometimes
funny, We Jews changed the U.S. landscape. Here are a few of my lesser
known faves.
We Jews changed the U.S. landscape. Here are a few of my lesser known
faves.
Smelts & Smelting
The first known Jew on Southern soil was Joachim Gans, from Prague, who
accompanied Sir Walter Raleigh on his 1585 voyage to the New World. A
fisherman he wasn’t. But Gans established the first smelting furnace
in what is now North Carolina. Later Jewish arrivals brought the “traveling
dry goods store” to “the sticks,” the cotton gin to Alabama, and the peach
to Georgia. Even while “wandering,” at least we had the courtesy to bring a
little something when we “landed.”
Jew’s Creek
Spanish Jew, Luis Moses Gomez, a successful fur trader, built a flintstone
blockhouse, just north of Newburgh, New York, as part of a trading station.
Erected around 1720, it’s the first known free-standing Jewish home in the
U.S. Residents of Ulster County gave him the dubious honor of calling him
“Gomez the Jew,” and the adjoining area, Jew’s Creek. Personally, I would’ve
preferred, “Ai! Ai! Ai! Look at Gomez ............... a house right on the
water.”
Community Rocks
On State Road 45 in Pennsylvania a marker reads: “Aaronsburg, named for
Aaron Levy, founded 1786"— the first town planned by and named for an
American Jew! The savvy, humanist, came to America from Holland as a teen
and established Aaronsburg, hoping to make it a center of government and
commerce. In 1789, he gave the Salem Lutheran Church two lots to demonstrate
interfaith brotherhood. One hundred and fifty years later, the Church
offered a kiddush cup to New York’s Shearith Israel, symbolizing the return
of the gift. OK, yes. Today, with fewer than 400 dwellers, it isn’t the
center of anything, like a Wall Street or a Capitol Hill, but Aaronsburg
still stands for brotherhood.
Uriah P. Levy & Jefferson
It wasn’t easy rising from cabin boy to Commodore. Especially if you were a
Jew in the early 1800s. And most especially, if you opened your pisk
about beatings in the Navy. Yet that’s exactly what Levy did, who had become
the highest ranking officer in the Navy, having distinguished himself in the
War of 1812. For his opposition to corporal punishment, he was court
marshaled, which was overturned by President Tyler. As if this weren’t
enough, the generous and patriotic Levy, did what no other citizen had done
before him: Gave the country a gift. A big one. The statue of Thomas
Jefferson in the Capitol rotunda! A huge admirer, Levy also bought
Jefferson’s estate, Monticello, and willed the historic home to the American
people. In 1959, the Navy's oldest Jewish Chapel in Norfolk, Virginia, was
renamed the Commodore Levy Chapel, and in 2005, the U.S. Naval Academy
opened a Jewish Chapel also named for Levy. At the dedication, The Navy Glee
Club, sang the Navy Hymn, and “Adon Olam" in perfect Hebrew!
A Model Jew
Rebecca Gratz the first U.S. Jewish woman college student (now Franklin &
Marshall) was born in 1781, into the prestigious Philadelphia Gratz family.
Along with her ground-breaking work for orphans, she founded the Jewish
Sunday School system in 1838! Her friend, Washington Irving, told Sir Walter
Scott of her inner and outer beauty, who then immortalized her as the model
for Rebecca in Ivanhoe.
The Lonely Watchmaker
In 1817, watchmaker Joseph Jonas shlepped from New York to Ohio – no easy
feat– becoming the first permanent Jewish settler in “the wilds.” Not a lot
to do or pals to talk to. Worse, how many watches could they use in the
boonies? But more, there weren’t enough Jews for a minyan within hundreds of
miles. Two years it took him to persuade his brothers and two other Jews to
join him. Minyan short, nevertheless, in 1819, prayers rang out in the
“outback” when this tiny group celebrated Rosh Hashanah! Things picked up.
In 1824, Jonas established the first Jewish congregation in Ohio, Kahal
haKodesh Bene Israel, (now, the Rockdale Avenue Temple). Jonas became a
leading macher, and “made time” to serve in the Ohio legislature during the
1860s.
Talk about Multi-tasking!
America’s first official photographer on a scientific expedition was
Sephardic Jew, Solomon Nunes Carvalho, who accompanied John C. Fremont when,
in 1853, he sought to map the route for the transcontinental railway.
Carvalho, born in 1815 in South Carolina, was chosen because of his
expertise in daguerreotype photography. This historical contribution was
enough, but Carvalho had more – much more to offer. He was also a portrait
painter (who captured Lincoln on canvass), an inventor, and religious
philosopher who was later active in Jewish affairs in Baltimore, and New
York.
First Jewish Supreme Court Nominee Says ........ Nah!
When most of us think of the early Supreme Court, Louis D. Brandeis jumps to
mind as the first Jewish nominee. Wrong. In 1853, Southerner Judah Philip
Benjamin declined the nomination by President Fillmore. The ardent
Southerner preferred to remain a Senator from Louisiana – and deliver
Louisiana’s secession speech! (There were Jews on both sides of the
conflict.) He was such a macher in the Confederacy as Attorney General, and
Secretary of State, and War in Jefferson Davis’s Cabinet, that he became the
face on the Confederate two-dollar bill. After the War, when his own bill
couldn’t buy him a good boiled chicken, Benjamin fled to England, where he
was finally admitted to the British bar at age 55. His rep in Britain grew
and he lived out his life as a VIPPY attorney, proving once again, MOTs just
don’t quit!
The “First” Jewish Chaplain
In 1861, only Christians could be chaplains. This didn’t bode well with the
mostly Jewish 65th Regiment of the Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry (Cameron’s
Dragoons). The 1,200 men did things their way by electing 30-year-old
Michael Mitchell Allen, a Philadelphia cantor, chaplain! Complaints
flew from the Calvary. With his usual common sense, President Lincoln pushed
legislation allowing non-Christians the role, which was passed in 1862,
thanks in part, to the courage and conviction of the “first” Jewish
chaplain, and his “Jewish” regiment.
When Lincoln became president in 1861, he received an American flag (or
painting of a replica) with Hebrew verses that came from the Book of Joshua.
The gift was from Abraham Kohn , later a city clerk in Chicago. In 1860, a
meeting between the men inspired Kohn to think of Lincoln as an American
Moses. After the assassination on April 14, 1865, Kohn was one of the
citizens appointed to escort the train bearing Lincoln’s body to Chicago.
A Jew & The Declaration of Independence
President Lincoln was a frequent visitor to read and send field dispatches.
It was young Edward Rosewater, with the Telegraphers Corps of the
Union Army, who transmitted The President’s Gettysburg Address in 1863.
After the war, Rosewater who had a way with words – even if they weren’t his
own – founded the Omaha Daily Bee!
At the Foot of the Prez Lincoln: “My chiropodist, Isachar Zacharie , has so many
times ‘put me upon my feet' that I would have no objection to giving his
countrymen ‘a leg up.'"
When the greatest chiropodist in America meets the biggest, most important
feet in America, what do you get? A perfect fit! Which was the case between
President Lincoln and Isachar Zacharie, a Jew who worked his way up,
toe-by-toe, through Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Secretary of War,
Stanton. When Zacharie soothed Lincoln’s tootsies, the two became buds, and
Zacharie took on another role: peacemaker between North and South. His
“plan” supposedly involved conquering Mexico. OK, he “tripped” up. But, his
was an important “step” in establishing close ties between American leaders
and Jews.
Wolf Grants Grant L’Chaim
Simon Wolf, whose friends included both Grant and Sherman, published the
names of 7,000 Jewish Civil War veterans, in 1895. And while on the
subject, Ulysses S. Grant met with Wolf at the White House in 1869 regarding
the harsh treatment of Russian Jews, resulting in Grant sending a letter to
the czar. Wolf honored him by inviting the President to be godfather at his
son’s circumcision and naming the infant Adolph Grant Wolf. Grant’s earlier
feelings toward Jews came under fire based on an exclusionary General Order
in 1862 (expelling Jews from areas in Tennessee. Mississippi, Kentucky).
Prominent Jews (no doubt Wolf) considered this more a judgment lapse than
anti-Semitism. Hmmmm. The Emmes? Who knows?
How are we related -
A chart showing relationships click here >related.txt
Jewish Women in the Middle Ages
An article "Medieval Feminism" by Rochelle Furstenberg and published in the June/July 2002 issue of Hadassah Magazine discusses Jewish women in the Middle ages and disputes many of the perceived images about them. You'll find more information at their web site in the Archives link http://hadassah.org
Jews - who are we?
"Imagine
belonging to a people that come in so many flavors. We should all be
very proud to be part of a people that are so diverse. Jews come in every
shade of color; white, black, yellow, red, etc. Jews speak almost
every language and are found in almost every part of this world. A true
microcosm of this world. So varied in cultures, ideologies, beliefs, and
other circumstances. Yet we are all descended from the same ancestors
and history. Jews can truly be called a people of the world." From
a posting by Saul Klarer
Judaism
There are many forms:
Cardiac Judaism - in my heart I am a
Jew Gastronomic Judaism - we eat Jewish foods Pocketbook Judaism - I give to Jewish
causes Drop-off Judaism - drop the kids off at
school and then go
out to breakfast Two times a Year Judaism - attend service on
Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur
Lincoln, Abraham
(His assistance in getting Chaplains appointed to
the Union Army)
Lincoln's fight for Jewish chaplains By
Michael Feldberg
For Jews who wish to
observe the rituals of their faith, wartime may pose seemingly
insurmountable challenges. The exigencies of war can make the observance
of the Sabbath, holy days and the kosher laws very difficult. Jewish
soldiers must, on occasion, subordinate religious observance to combat.
Despite the frequent priority of war over religion, there are times,
such as the funeral of a fallen Jewish soldier or at the bedside of a
wounded Jew, when religion can shape war policy.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Jews could not serve as chaplains in
the U.S. armed forces. When the war commenced in 1861, Jews enlisted in
both the Union and Confederate armies. The Northern Congress adopted a
bill in July of 1861 that permitted each regiment's commander, on a vote
of his field officers, to appoint a regimental chaplain so long as he was "a
regularly ordained minister of some Christian denomination."
Only Representative Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio, a non-Jew,
protested that this clause discriminated against soldiers of the Jewish
faith. Vallandigham argued that the Jewish population of the United
States, "whose adherents are ... good citizens and as true patriots as
any in this country," deserved to have rabbis minister to Jewish
soldiers. Vallandigham thought the law, which endorsed Christianity as
the official religion of the United States, was blatantly
unconstitutional. However, there was no organized national Jewish
protest to support Vallandigham and the bill sailed through Congress.
Three months later, a YMCA worker visiting the field camp of a
Pennsylvania regiment known as "Cameron's Dragoons" discovered to his
horror that the officers had elected a Jew, Michael Allen, as regimental
chaplain. While not an ordained rabbi, Allen was fluent in the
Portuguese minhagim
(ritual) and taught at the Philadelphia Hebrew Education Society. As
Allen was neither a Christian nor an ordained minister, the YMCA
representative filed a formal complaint with the Army. Obeying the
recently enacted law, the Army forced Allen to resign his post.
Hoping to create a test case based strictly on a chaplain's religion and
not his lack of ordination, Colonel Max Friedman and the officers of the
Cameron's Dragoons then elected an ordained rabbi, the Reverend Arnold
Fischel of New York's Congregation Shearith Israel, to serve as
regimental chaplain-designate. When Fischel, a Dutch immigrant, applied
for certification as chaplain, the Secretary of War, none other than
Simon Cameron, for whom the Dragoons were named, complied with the law
and rejected Fischel's application.
Fischel's rejection stimulated American Jewry to action. The American
Jewish press let its readership know that Congress had limited the
chaplaincy to those who were Christians and argued for equal treatment
for Judaism before the law. This initiative by the Jewish press
irritated a handful of Christian organizations, including the YMCA,
which resolved to lobby Congress against the appointment of Jewish
chaplains. To counter their efforts, the Board of Delegates of American
Israelites, one of the earliest Jewish communal defense agencies,
recruited Reverend Fischel to live in Washington, minister to wounded
Jewish soldiers in that city's military hospitals and lobby President
Abraham Lincoln to reverse the chaplaincy law. Although today several
national Jewish organizations employ representatives to make their
voices heard in Washington; Fischel's mission was the first such
undertaking of this type.
Armed with letters of introduction from Jewish and non-Jewish political
leaders, Fischel met on December 11, 1861 with President Lincoln to
press the case for Jewish chaplains. Fischel explained to Lincoln that,
unlike many others who were waiting to see the president that day, he
came not to seek political office, but to "contend for the principle of
religious liberty, for the constitutional rights of the Jewish
community, and for the welfare of the Jewish volunteers."
According
to Fischel, Lincoln asked questions about the chaplaincy issues, "fully
admitted the justice of my remarks ... and agreed that something ought
to be done to meet this case." Lincoln promised Fischel that he would
submit a new law to Congress "broad enough to cover what is desired by
you in behalf of the Israelites."
Lincoln kept his word, and seven months later, on July 17, 1862,
Congress finally adopted Lincoln's proposed amendments to the chaplaincy
law to allow "the appointment of brigade chaplains of the Catholic,
Protestant and Jewish religions." In historian Bertram Korn's opinion,
Fischel's "patience and persistence, his unselfishness and consecration
... won for American Jewry the first major victory of a specifically
Jewish nature ... on a matter touching the Federal government."
Korn concluded, "Because there were Jews in the land who cherished the
equality granted them in the Constitution, the practice of that equality
was assured, not only for Jews, but for all minority religious groups.
Nobel Prize Winners
Israel vs. Arab/Islamic Winners of the Nobel Prize
There are 1.2 billion Muslims representing 19.6% of the World's population and there are 8 Nobel Prize holders.
There are 14.1 million Jews representing 0.2% of the World's population and there are 127 Nobel Prize winners.
I Can't Believe We Made It!
If you lived as a child in the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's or 70's, Congratulations! Looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have...
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat. Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention hitchhiking to town as a young kid!)
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle...Horrors! We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times we learned to solve the problem.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones. Unthinkable. We played dodge ball and sometimes the ball would really hurt. We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth, and there were no law suits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame, but us. Remember accidents?
We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.
We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda but we were never overweight...we were always outside playing. We shared one grape soda with four friends, from one bottle and no one died from this.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, video games at all, 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, Personal Computers, Internet chat rooms ..... we had friends. We went outside and found them. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rung the bell or just walked in and talked to them.
Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out there in the cold cruel world! Without a guardian. How did we do it?
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law, imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years has seen an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. And you're one of them. (IF NOT....
SO SORRY!!) Congratulations!
I want to know what you think
of my site! Your valuable feedback helps me design more useful pages. You can reach me via e-mail or use the feedback page or the
" Feedback Us" link
above. Just click on the
orange Feedback above.
Please let me know if there is a favorite link of yours that is not included in my site and I will be happy to add it toJewishWeb Index
