On Dec. 17, 1862, with the South in ruins and speculators commanding high prices for cotton and other goods, Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant issued what one historian called "the most sweeping anti-Jewish legislation in all American history."
General Order No. 11, as the proclamation was called, blamed Jews "as a class" for skyrocketing prices and ordered their expulsion from an area that included Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi. Hundreds of Jews left their homes and businesses, and those who were cotton merchants saw their cotton taken over by Union officers and soldiers and sold to Northern textile mills at inflated prices.
An exhibit at the Library of Congress reflects the institution's "extraordinarily rich collection of Judaica Americana," said Pamela S. Nadell, an American University professor.
(Photos Michael Williamson -- The Washington Post)
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Grant never formally apologized for the war order, which President Abraham Lincoln rescinded three weeks after it was issued. But 24 years later, as president, Grant attended the dedication of Adas Israel, the first Jewish house of worship built in Washington, and donated $10 to the building fund.
This act might have been some "politically redemptive practice," said Eli N. Evans, who contributed the essay "The War Between Jewish Brothers in America" in the companion volume. Whatever the reason, Grant's appearance at the synagogue dedication -- combined with Lincoln's extraordinary step of overruling one of his top generals during a war -- underscored the historic stance of America's presidents toward freedom of religion, Evans said in an interview.
The exhibit also demonstrates the diversity of American Judaism, with such distinctive denominations as Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism along with other expressions, such as humanistic Judaism. "Pluralism carried over and created an American Judaism with a multiplicity of groups," Grunberger told a tour group of 40 people this week.
He pointed to a menu for the 1883 banquet honoring the first graduating class of Cincinnati's Hebrew Union College, affiliated with the nascent Reform movement. The menu included such non-kosher fare as clams, crab and shrimp and a dairy dessert after the beef entree -- another violation of kashrut, the laws of kosher. Traditional Jews were horrified and walked out of an event commonly referred to as "Trefa [the unkosher] Banquet."
The strength of American Judaism, as with the entire religious experience in the United States, has been the ability to find unity among differences and respect and tolerance for the beliefs of others, Grunberger said in an interview.
"In an open and free society, the challenge is maintaining group identity, and pluralism provides multiple ways to identify," he said. "Just as pluralism strengthened American life, it strengthened Jewish life."
