Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
הרב יוסף גבריאל בקהופר
Monday, November 23, 2015
When religion was an American value...
The message sent by President James Buchanan on the completion of the first Transatlantic telegraph cable. Can you imagine the uproar if a president were to send a similar message in our day and age?
Counter point: Back in that America Jews were second class citizens excluded from most universities, hospitals, country clubs and restaurants. Blacks were slaves without any rights. I'm not sure America as a religious country was better than today.
I'd rather have neither, but I'd rather have the advantages of earlier generations. Slavery was abolished a few years later, yet the religious character of society lingered on for many years.
Counter point: Back in that America Jews were second class citizens excluded from most universities, hospitals, country clubs and restaurants. Blacks were slaves without any rights. I'm not sure America as a religious country was better than today.
ReplyDeleteBack in that America there were barely any Jews. In any event, for every advantage of later generations, many disadvantages can be cited.
DeleteWhile we don't shave statistics on the amount of Jews in America in the 1800's we have stats from 1900 which say 1,500,000. Hardly negligible.
DeleteThey started comming en masse in the 1880s. During the Buchanan administration their numbers were minuscule.
DeleteI'd rather have the disadvantages the later generations than the ones that thought slavery was a great idea.
ReplyDeleteI'd rather have neither, but I'd rather have the advantages of earlier generations. Slavery was abolished a few years later, yet the religious character of society lingered on for many years.
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