For many in the Jewish community, the news of President Carter’s death brought back some unpleasant memories.
Our Sages demand we be graceful in response to another’s demise, especially a leader, and even one with whom we had severe, and costly, disagreement. This is doubly true in a country where we are granted freedoms unlike any other station in our long exile.
In that vein, let us discuss two American presidents and their seeking of forgiveness from their Jewish constituents. We will open with Jimmy Carter and end with Ulysses S. Grant.
Georgia has a rich Jewish history which, in more modern times, includes the Taub family. Two of my older siblings were born in Savannah, where, in the 1970s, my father, Rav Baruch Taub, along with Rav Ahron Levine, were spreading yiddishkeit across “the Peach State.” Georgia’s governor at that time was none other than James Earl Carter, Jr., who would soon and – according to many – inexplicably, go on to become our 39th President.
Some thirty years later, in 2009, Jason Carter, Jimmy Carter’s grandson, wished to run for a state senate seat in that same state. However, the wounds of his grandfather’s political career – specifically his antagonizing words and deeds toward Israel and the Jewish community – still felt fresh to many.
Even after leaving office, Jimmy Carter had continued to provoke, having recently libeled Israel as an “apartheid state” in his books and speeches. This was now impacting young Jason’s chance at victory.
This should have come at little surprise.
I still recall the 1978 Miami Boys Choir album titled Toronto Meets Miami, and its protest song, titled, “Mr. Carter.” Here are some of that song’s lyrics:
We all thought that you would be a great president,
That’s what our votes in November meant
We had so many hopes that you would see our plight,
Was it the oil that spoiled your sight?
[Chorus:]
Mr. Carter,
Waddya you want, from me?
You’re a farmer, you have your land,
That’s what we want, can’t you see?
Every time we get together, West Bank is a factor,
Vus veist a goy az schlepped a tractor?
It wouldn’t be the same if it’s your son Chip,
Helping soldiers watch the Gaza Strip.
Better find another house for you and your First Lady,
You’re moving out in 1980…
So as to improve his grandson’s chances, Jimmy Carter took pen to paper and wrote the following astounding letter which somehow has stayed below the radar:
An open letter to the Jewish community from former President Jimmy Carter:
We must recognize Israel’s achievements under difficult circumstances, even as we strive in a positive way to help Israel continue to improve its relations with its Arab populations, but we must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel.
As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an “Al Het” for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so. Hag Semach [sic].”
This letter did very little to change the mindset of concerned Jews toward this president. An apology for – or at a time of – political convenience not only appears feeble, but often only serves to add insult to injury. Such transparently transactional apologies are not just seen as plainly opportunistic, they also lack the one prerequisite for penance: sincerity.
However, there is an example of another president who brought about similar apprehensions and anxieties among Jewish voters, yet who nevertheless was largely forgiven or excused.
I refer to Ulysses S. Grant.
Unlike that of Jimmy Carter, Grant’s apology to the Jewish community in America was effective. As is well known, during the Civil War, General Grant ordered that all Jews leave his department – which extended from Illinois down to the very bottom tip of New Orleans.
Lincoln offered Grant a swift rebuke and ordered an immediate stoppage to this order. But the die was already cast. Grant’s sin was profound, with even the secular press pillorying him for it.
How, then, was Grant able to to win the presidency so soon after the Civil War?! More, many historians posit that the election of 1868 was the very first in American history where the Jewish vote was critical, making his victory all the more curious.
Writing in The Boston Globe (in December 2012), Jeff Jacoby shared similar amazement:
“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.”
To better understand this “Grant phenomenon,” let us give a bit more context.
First, we must first keep in mind that Grant was a Civil War hero in the eyes of many Americans, even Jews, allowing some to overlook or forget some of the tools Grant had used to achieve this victory.
While some Democratic party-run newspapers used Grant’s “Order 11” to attack him as a candidate – in the eyes of the Jews and all good people – the Jewish community itself was unsure if they too should join this angry chorus. Some Jews did remain disgusted with Grant. In New York, a book was published at the time titled, Grant and the Jews, in which the author takes the side of “revenge,” writing: “We are numerous, we are influential, we are wealthy, we are diffused over the whole continent, we are one family; wherever our influence reaches, every Jew – no matter of what political party – every Jew…will endeavor to defeat, and with Gd’s blessing, will defeat you!”
The stain of his “Order 11” among Jews gave Democrats realistic hope that they could sink his campaign, with The Cleveland Plain Dealer writing: “The Israelites in the States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and Indiana have it in their power to…defeat Grant.”
This population claim was an exaggeration. While some contemporaneous reports put the Jewish population then at close to a half a million, in truth, at that time, the Jewish population did not reach even a quarter of that figure.
However, there was another segment of the population that did equal a half a million –African-Americans. Naturally, they came out strongly in favor of the Republican candidate who had helped free them.
As for how Grant would later find favor among Jews, consider that it was only after Grant won the election that he released a private letter he had sent to a group of prominent Jews during the campaign. In this letter, he took full responsibility for “Order 11,” explained he should have read it more carefully (claiming it was brought to him to simply sign off on), and ended with his wish that every citizen judge him on his own merits.
What is most impressive about this letter is that in contrast to Jimmy Carter, Grant did not wish to release it before or during the election, explaining that he didn’t wish to taint such a serious matter with politics.
Grant, as president, perhaps out of a sense of guilt, would elect more Jews to public service than any president before him. In particular, Grant took up the cause of the many suffering Romanian and Russian Jews then being massacred. Grant even elected a Jew as the new consul to Romania.
One of the men who helped Grant see the importance of helping these helpless Jews was Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Shneerson, great-grandson of the Baal HaTanya. R’ Chaim Tzvi was a 35-year-old emissary from Kolel Chabad in Eretz Yisroel when he arrived in the United States in 1869. In addition to speaking throughout the country, he wished to alarm Grant about the needs of the Jews in Eretz Yisroel and to request a new American consul to that land. He visited Grant many times and is reported to have made the beracha for kings upon first seeing the president. He even gave a couple of derashos in the White House about the needs of the Jews in Yerushalayim and “the Orient,” with Grant rising in honor of this young rav. Even the Reform community, who did not fully trust R’ Chaim Tzvi, wrote to Grant urging that he indeed elect a Jew to Yerushalayim.
Some 13 years ago, historian Jonathan D. Sarna published an article on this odd bit of history titled, “President Grant and the Chabadnik.” (I will note that his usage of the term “Chabadnik” was not disparaging, nor is it anachronistic. Several years ago, I discovered a letter written during the halachic debate regarding the esrogim being used in the early 1860s in America, and if they were to be deemed merkavim (grafted). Students of the Sho’el U’meishiv and the Chasam Sofer – who had arrived by that time in America – debated their kashrus in the pages of The Occident. In response to this discussion, one Reform rabbi wrote a letter where he expressed his frustration at the whole affair, and used that very term to describe people careful regarding halacha: “Readers wish to fill its pages with discussion of esrogim murkavim (grafted esrogim)… Are we Chabadniks?”!!)
R’ Chaim Tzvi was appalled at the American representation in Eretz Yisrael. To quote Sarna: “He requested [from Grant] the appointment of a Jew to the staff of the American consulate in Jerusalem. He sought permission for Jewish residents, during times of violence, ‘to seek refuge under the Stars and Stripes.’ Most importantly, he called upon Grant to dismiss the American consul in Jerusalem, Victor Beauboucher… A Frenchman, Beauboucher was the first and only American consul at Jerusalem who was not a United States citizen… He particularly infuriated Jews when he utilized the power of his office to assist Protestant missionaries in a heavy-handed but ultimately unsuccessful effort to convert a young Jewish orphan named Sarah Steinberg to Christianity.”
This concern was not a new one. In 1848, the first American consul to Jerusalem, Warder Cresson, was dismayed when he witnessed how the Christians there were treating the Jews. He strongly criticized the church’s overt desire to convert Jews, writing a parody titled “The Society Formed in England and America for Promoting Sawdust, Instead of Good Old Cheese, Amongst the Jews in Jerusalem.” In it, he compared cheese to Judaism and sawdust to his and the missionaries’ faith that may look like shredded cheese and be sold as such but was a ruse and not the real thing.
A few years later, at almost 50 years of age, Warder Cresson became a ger, and renamed himself Boaz. He is buried, and his matzeiva still stands, on Har Hamenuchos.
Not only was R’ Chaim Tzvi successful in getting rid of that consul, but also in replacing the initial consul to Romania with a Jewish one – Benjamin Franklin Peixotto.
R’ Chaim Tzvi was not without controversy, having even lectured for Brigham Young (of Mormon infamy). He would publish a book titled Palestine and Roumania: A Description of the Holy Land and the Past and Present State of Roumania, and the Roumanian Jews. It is a fascinating read that discusses in detail the state of Jews in Israel, as well as many holy sites as they stood at that time. He may have also been from the first to openly call for a Jewish state, as is the contention of a 1973 Hebrew biography of his life published by Mosad Harav Kook. During his sojourn in the United States, he became an American citizen. From his writings found in his book, this should not come as a surprise:
During the few months of my sojourn in this free country, my eyes have been opened to its greatness and welfare. I see that all, both laity and clergy, Jews and Gentiles, follow the path of justice, and truth and wisdom are the lights which guide them…
I feel a still greater sorrow when I compare the misfortunes of the Holy Land with the fortunate state of other countries. When I see how the cities everywhere else are growing and flourishing, while the cities of G-d lie low and sink deeper and deeper, I cannot refrain from complaining and mourning; and I shall not feel satisfied until the day when the state of the Holy Land is as good as that of America.
I can never forget the Holy City. I see her always before my eyes, and the lamentations of Jeremiah and those of R. Jehudah Halevy are resounding in my ears; and I wish and hope to be able so to move the hearts of other pious and benevolent men that they may help us to bring the dove of Israel to its nest again.
In his later years, Grant would visit Jerusalem, the first president to so. One humorous incident from that trip (recounted in Sarna’s book When General Grant Expelled the Jews), with which we will conclude:
When Grant visited the Kotel, an older Jew greeted the visiting president by kissing his hand. His affection was later explained: Years earlier, this man had written a letter in Yiddish asking Grant if the “king” of the United States would like the “zechus” to donate to the dowry of his daughter. Grant sent $25 (a huge sum at the time). Now, this same man was able to thank the former president in person!
