When General Grant expelled the Jews...

Ulysses S Grant & theJews

by Jeff Jacoby

In the American experience, anti-Semitic decrees have been virtually unthinkable. 

Religious liberty is enshrined in the Constitution, and early in his presidency George Washington went out of his way to assure the young nation's Jews that "the Government of the United States … gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance." 

During the long centuries of Jewish exile, powerful officials had often promulgated sweeping edicts depriving Jews of their rights or driving them from their homes. 

In America, that could never happen.

But 150 years ago this month, it did.

"The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department and also department orders, are hereby expelled from this department within 24 hours from the receipt of this order."

.................

Grant became the first American president to openly speak out against the persecution of Jews abroad. In response to anti-Jewish pogroms in Romania, he took the unprecedented step of sending a Jewish consul-general to Bucharest to "work for the benefit of the people who are laboring under severe oppression." All in all, the eight years of Grant's presidency proved to be a "golden age" in US Jewish history. When he died in 1885, he was mourned in synagogues nationwide.

It was a remarkable saga of atonement. From scourge of the Jews to their great friend in Washington; from the general who trampled Jewish liberty to the president who made protection of their rights a priority. Only in America.

Read more: www.aish.com